A Little Bit of This and a Little Bit of That....

 

A little back tracking here...Our family started out the summer by taking a group of kids from church, to camp for the week.  We stayed as well and had a great week!  Always a favorite week for our family.

One of the days, up at our cabin, Joslyn and I drew out an oversized mural on a white sheet for the kids(and neighbor kiddos) to paint.  It was a fun afternoon for us mom's to just sit and chat while the kids were enjoying the craft project!

This year I planted 32 broccoli plants!!  It is a staple in our home-bet you can't tell:).  We have had an excellent year of broccoli so far!

I have had fun making a few batches of journal/notebooks for the teens this summer.  Both camp and for the missions team this year.  These were some of them.

The kiddos are of course living in the pool.  Even little Israel is enjoying it!  He is going to be 1 in a few days!  Can you believe it, where does the time go?

Our church has been in another building project this year and it has been amazing to watch the progress!  God has blessed us so much!  We are at 5 services on Sundays, so a new sanctuary is in great need, and is well underway to being finished-Praise the Lord!

And we just celebrated the church's 50th anniversary this month.  We had our church service and summer picnic out under the big top:) this past month to celebrate and thank the Lord for all He has done and is doing-it is always so amazing to be all in one service(all 1300 of us).

Was a bit sad not to have matt there to celebrate with that Sunday, but he, Cole and a team of students and leaders had just left on their missions trip to work with Filipino immigrants in California.  More about that amazing work of God to come!

I have been pluggin along with my new creations in the shop.  I have been making necklaces from wood and it has been a wonderful distraction from my normal creations with fabric. 

While Matt and Cole were away, I was able to dig into some bigger projects around the house.  Israel will be moving into his room with Noah very shortly, so it needed some work to make it baby friendly.  

 And the much larger project was moving Madison into her own space!  She turns 14 today!!  Our three girls have shared a room since the beginning of time:), and I never thought I would split them up.  But the Lord has given me a great peace and confidence that giving Madi her own room will be a positive change for all of them.  I have been seeing Madi's need to have quiet time, a place to express her growth and maturing, and I have also seen the younger two's need for play and imagination that just wasn't happening with the little room they were all in.  I think a few months back, a shared about how we were putting a carpet remnant in a small little corner nook in our basement and were trying to give it a good purpose since we were in such need of space as we grow.  It has cycled through as a playroom, school space, teen hang out, etc-but was still just not being used to it's potential.  So Madi and I have been working to transform it into her own room.  It has been so fun!  We have gone with an industrial look since it is unfinished still.  She picked grey, black and white to go with her "pop" of orange bedding.  We are still slowly working through ideas, but how fun it has been for her and I!  And just in time for her birthday-yea!

She has been enjoying that Israel is in there right now with her.  W moved him out of our room a few months ago to get him ready for going upstairs with Noah.  Once we have him sleeping through the night, he will make that move.  But for now, Madi and Iz are roommates.  And she has actually been helping with him in the middle of the night.  And for this tired mom, that has been a real gift!  Somehow, this change has just made our home feel even fuller and I am loving it!