joys of summer

This summer is going by way too fast.  Regardless, each day of sun has been a precious gift and I've enjoyed the time spent with the kids in the pool and working side by side with my honey to make our house the home we want.

Since it's been cooler, overcast and in general just dreary, I've been spending the last couple of days studying and organizing Esther's curriculum for the fall. Wow, what an overwhelming task this has been but I feel utterly accomplished now that it is completed. I have deep fears and great excitement in stepping forward in faith and obedience on this journey. I look forward to sharing more as September approaches.

We've been really busy here (we are trying to decide what to call home, every home so far has had a name....now to find just the right one for a home that we'll have for many years.)   We've taken down over 30 trees so far and it doesn't feel like we've put a dent in what we want to accomplish. I pray we'll have more of a backyard by next summer!

We got the 4 pines down that were out front and now the birch tree can breath. However, the flag pole didn't make it. I wish I had a video of that, it was pretty funny watching the tree grab that on it's way down.  The birch now it gets a visitor that we chase away to protect the tree...

And one of the trees that were cut down in June has decided that it's not giving in without a fight, yes this was just a bare stump! 

We now have 12 chickens and need to start planning a more permanent home for the chicken nuggets for winter.

 Esther with the "nuggets" trying to catch one. She's so proud of herself when she captures one of them. Chickens don't like to be handled much but these are pretty friendly.

 The one on the left is my buddy Red. She comes right to me and eats out of my hands.
The two on the right are Olivia and Prada. They are hysterical, especially Prada (the one with more head feathers) because she doesn't see as well and is always running into things. If she doesn't turn her head you can walk right up to her and she jumps out of her skin when she sees that you are suddenly standing there.
The chickens have been a surprising respite from the stress of moving and unpacking. They're a great educational tool for Esther also.

The biggest news so far this summer is that Esther is now swimming on her own!! She just began this past weekend to swim without her floaties. I can already see she's going to be a swimmer like her daddy and older sister. I can't keep her out of the water and she's an utter fish when it comes to swimming underwater.  She stays under significantly longer than I am comfortable with but at least I have the reassurance that it will help her to be a stronger swimmer than I am! 

Speaking of swimming...my hubby loves to swim and hasn't been to the pool at the school in months. We figured after we moved he could get back into it but the school pool here is closed in the summer.  The pool we have is round and doesn't work for swimming laps. SO my husband creative juices got flowing and he created a swimming contraption from a tree and rope so he can swim in place in the pool and get his mile in every day. I sort of snickered at the whole thing till my 14 year old told me they sell tethered swimming systems...who knew?? So after Randy created his I had to give it a try. It works really well. I throughly enjoyed swimming in our pool with it. 

I've got the upstairs almost all unpacked except for the classroom but the downstairs still looks like a storage unit. That will be what I work on during the rainy days over the next month.  I'm getting ready to paint the cupboards in the kitchen to hopefully lighten up the room a bit till we can do some major work on it.

Esther is going to dance camp for a week, during the day only. I can't wait to see how she handles that much time away from home, or maybe it's me that will have the issue with that much time away from her! Either way, she'll have a great time and I'll be able to weed out her room :)

The other day we finally met a neighbor. They are a very nice couple and they have a little boy about Esther's age. He offered to catch her a frog and she was thrilled...a friendship was forged on the spot.

I love the slow relaxed feel that summer has, where it seems that fun and innocence will last forever. I try to cling to that precious feeling during each day of the summer because reality is just a month away now.

Thank you Lord for all the beautiful blessings of our home that You've provided for us.