Yea,  Softball pictures!!  Our camera is still having issues, but luckily one of the other mom's took pictures.  I scanned them and then was able to play around with them a bit and add some fun captions. (unfortunately you can't read what they say b/c I couldn't make the pictures bigger )

Purity Seekers is having a fun contest for their 2nd anniversary.  Can't wait to see who wins some wonderful crafts made by Bridget.

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/purityseekers/563578/?#c1124852

I'm a firm believer in doing your very best.  Now, I'm not talking about perfection, rather, putting forth your best effort.  Knowing you gave it 100%; not a half effort.  I'm constantly telling my kids this very thing.  Whether it be in schoolwork, handwriting, cleaning their rooms; we are to do our very best. 

I've often related to my girls that our lives (every area) is a reflection of God.  After all, aren't we supposed to be showing the world in everything we do who God is?  I truly believe that applies to all areas of our lives. 

Do we show the world 50% in some areas and 90% in others?  Do we de-value certain things as applying to the Lord (such as handwriting, schoolwork) while elevating others (quiet time, church attendance)?  Aren't we called to show forth our very best in this life God has given us regardless of it's eternal value?  I believe so.  While we'll never attain perfection, I believe God expects our very best effort in every area of our lives. 

I believe this is an extremely important value to teach our children.  After all, we have no idea what God's plan is for their lives.  If we fail to teach and model this value to them, we quite possibly could be setting them up for struggle and maybe even failure in their lives as adults.  Truly, it doesn't matter what God's path is for our kids~ diligence is key for any path in life.  Regardless of what our lot in life is, we all need a good work ethic. 

A very key area, I believe, is schoolwork.  If I fail to teach my kids that neatness does indeed count, then when and where will they learn it?  Likewise, there must be a progression in their efforts.  My 11 year old should, by now, have progressed in her ability to communicate; whether that be verbally or in written form.  Her handwriting should not mirror that of my 8 year old.  While she will have her own unique style of writing both in content and in form, it should not resemble her writing in earlier years. 

"Did you know that learning to print is a great tool for the development of fine motor skills for younger children? Or did you know that it helps develop attention to detail skills? — both of which play a big role later on in school, and in life."   How interesting!

This is just another area in our lives and that of our children where we can learn to use all those wonderful skills we've been given to glorify God.  It's not only our worship and devotion to our faith that glorifies our Savior, but even the small seemingly unimportant details in our everyday lives.

I was thinking today, for whatever reason, that in every home there are things that are constants.  Things that are consistently there on a more or less daily basis.  I think if we list those, we can tell alot about what is in our hearts.  Here are some of ours:

1.  Music:  There is almost always music playing in our house during the day.  Whether it be someone personally listening to music or it's on the cd player or computer. 

2.  Laughter:  Thankfuly laughter is a part of every day life for us. 

3.  Togetherness (is that a word?):  Rarely is everyone off doing their own thing.  There is usually a pair here or there doing something together.  If I'm in the kitchen baking or cooking, almost 100% of those times is spent with at least one child (namely Emma) right next to me helping.  Her favorite is cracking the eggs. 

4.  Humor:  Now this is separate from the laughter.  I am so fortunate to have so much humor surrounding me.  Matt and Sarah are the comics in the house, though the remaining three of us do have our moments. 

5.  Singing:  On a daily basis (mostly at shower time), there is singing.  I have two children who LOVE to sing in the shower...they shall remain nameless as to avoid any embarrassment.    And believe it or not, mom does an occasional opera impression, mostly in reference to the dog.  It makes her crazy! 

6.  Learning:  We are always learning.  Whether it be about our conduct toward others, our relationships with the Lord, or simply a question pondered about life, we are forever learning and growing.  I think this is partially accredited to my father.  He is a natural teacher and my whole life he's been taking little opportunities to teach.  I certainly hope some of his tendencies in that area have rubbed off on me.

7.  Sin:  In our fleshly, human nature there are always opportunities each day to remember through our sin God's grace.  I wish we could say we make it through most days without sinning, but then I'd be lying.  However, I do hope a part of that fallen nature reminds us the road still ahead.  There are always things to repent of and grow in.

I'm sure there are plenty more constants in our daily lives.  However, I'm so very blessed that most of our constants involve loving each other and having fun together. 

What are the constants in your family?

It suddenly hit me this morning.  That itch to get back into school.  I've been so busy planning this summer that I haven't had the opportunity to feel it yet.  Now that I'm so far ahead in planning, I can literally just start up when it's time.  That is so refreshing.  I was able to check so many things off my list where school is concerned this summer.  One of the remaining things, transcripts for Kayla for last year (9th grade),  I was finally able to get a grip on it this week.  I was so confused and nervous about it and thankfully God led me to a wonderful lady who really spelled it out for me and truly put my mind at ease.  Thank you Sherry!!  I was making it way more difficult than it needed to be. 

Now I'm thinking, do I want to bump up my date to begin school or enjoy what's left of the summer?  Hmmm, that is the question.    I'm sure the girls would love to answer that one for me. 

With my oldest two gone for church camp, yesterday and today it's just Matt, Emma, and I.  Matt took the day off yesterday so we could just spend time with Emma.  We played the Wii with her yesterday, she and I played catch, took her for a strawberry limeade at Sonic, watched 2 movies with her, and started it all over again today.  Even though to my adult mind I'm thinking, wow we've done alot with just her and I bet she's content; well she's not.    She is still asking to do more things today.  There isn't enough; she still desires more time with us. 

I started thinking about us as God's children.  Do we feel that way?  Are we content or continually desiring more time with our Father?  Instead of getting irritated with Emma that what we've done isn't enough, I was challenged by her.  Her heart is completely in the right place.  She isn't content because she loves us and desires nothing more than to have our time.  I'm truly challenged in my walk with the Lord.  I need to be driven by spending time with my Father; never getting enough.  I should never be content with an hour or two in His presence.  My thoughts should be to spend more and more time; never getting enough.

There's nothing like gentle lessons from our children. 

Sarah's leaving for church camp tomorrow.  She'll be gone until Sunday evening.  I have been so apprehensive about her going.  Not because I don't trust the leaders or because I feel God saying she shouldn't go.  Mostly it's because she's never been gone for a weekend with anyone other than family.  There are tons of kids who I do not know.  I don't know their families or their character.  It's really difficult to just say ok bye, see you on Sunday.  She is so excited to go and I know she will have a great time.  It's just difficult to let go.  However, I've been hearing the Lord's voice saying, do you trust Me?  And really that's what it boils down to.  Do I trust the Lord to be with her and guide her when I cannot?  My heart says of course!  But, my head starts thinking about all the what if's.  I had to decide to say, yes Lord; I trust You.  So off she goes tomorrow.  Now I have to remind myself to, "be anxious for nothing!"

How summer became so busy I'll never know.  It seems we are running here and there all the time.  Maybe it's because my children have gotten older; I don't know.  However, I do love summer.  Regardless of how busy we are, I'm truly enjoying this summer.  We definately have more freedom to be busy  this summer.   I was babysitting all last summer and we were quite limited. 

Between Matt and Emma, we have softball four nights a week in completely different directions.  We are loving it though.  Cheering Matt and Emma on has been wonderful.  Even though Emma is small, she can sure hit the ball.  She has already decided she will be playing next summer too.

July has become our camp month.  This week is day camp at our church; Logotron.  Kayla and Sarah are volunteering their time to earn $$ for camp.  Emma is attending and having a blast.  Both Kayla and Sarah have youth group camp at the end of the month.  Kayla will be heading to Wyoming for a week.  Boy that seems far away; though it really isn't.  Sarah's camp is for a weekend in Golden.  Unfortunately, her good friend fractured a growth plate in her ankle/foot this week and won't be going.  So Sarah has decided she'd rather stay in town and spend the weekend with her friend if possible.  What a sweetie--she says, if Bailey can't go, I don't want to go without her.    It's times like that that make me feel like I've done something right.  Update:  Now that she's had time to think about it, she wants to do both.  Go to camp and spend time with her friend.  So we'll try to work that out. 

The good thing about day camp this week is that I have the mornings all to myself.  Quiet.  Peace.  With the exception of the never ending game of fetch my dog insists on playing, I have around 4 hours every morning to myself.  It has been wonderful.  I've gotten lots of school planning done, read my Bible without interruption (between tossing toys for Georgia), and plenty of worship time. 

Thank you Lord for summer.  Time to regroup, relax, and have fun. 

Welcome to the world Nicholas Robert Allen Nelson!!  Our good friends Chris & Tiffany welcomed their 2nd son into the world on the 4th of July.  See the article below for their inspiring story.

I've been wanting to take the girls to the Celestial Seasonings factory in Boulder.  However, with gas prices so high, I didn't want to drive that far for that alone.  Luckily, today we were already pretty far west for a doctor's appointment, so I could justify going just a bit farther to the factory.  The girls LOVED it.  The tea shop was so amazing and we sampled tons of different types of tea.  It was a really great tour as well; unfortunately they weren't making tea today so we didn't get to see the machines in action.  We all loved the Peppermint Room and could've hung out there all day.  It smelled divine.  Unfortunately, my camera is still on the fritz so I was only able to take pic's with my phone.  Oh well. 

Much to my surprise, Emma (8) is leading the vocabulary challenge.  She is completing her 5th word today and will be the 1st to gain a prize.  I was sure this might be too much of a challenge for her in comparison to the other two girls, but she is such a determined girl.  Once she sets her mind to something, watch out; she will accomplish it.  She has even remembered the other 4 words, their definitions, and sentences; word for word.  We were in Target today and she was reciting them to me.  Hopefully watching her enjoy her 3 Musketeers bar will encourage and challenge her sisters to GET WITH IT!   

Emma's words:  crystallize, crustacean, current, custard, cue

As you can tell, she got stuck in the C section of the dictionary!

Kayla finally decided to make a project for herself.  She is so often working on something for someone else.  She found a pattern she loved and has been diligently working on it for a couple months now.  Part of the reason it took her so long was that when she would run out of yarn, she waited to buy more until the yarn which was regularly $6 a roll, went on sale.  She was a very good steward of her money and faithfully every other week she'd watch the sales and would get her yarn for .99 cents.  She finally finished it a week or so ago.  It turned out so well.  We were in awe of her talent!  Also, she has been little by little decorating her room with a Hawaiian theme.  She and her sisters worked for hours making a "grass" bed skirt.  It looks great! 

Sunday I was watering my flowers outside.  I stood on a chair to reach the hanging pots I have on our front porch.  As I was dumping water over the flowers, I saw something move in the pot and tilted it to see what was up.  Much to my surprise, there were five baby birds who were now covered in water!  I felt awful!  While we knew there were a couple birds frequenting that particular pot, we had no idea they were using it for a makeshift nest.  We were all so excited though that they chose a spot so close; now we can really monitor them up close.  The nests in our back yard are virtually impossible to monitor.  It's really fascinating to watch; they are completely quiet until mom or dad show up and then they start hollering; then when feeding time is over, they are silent again.  The parents are very diligent. 

Update:  The girls and I decided these little cuties needed names.  So here they are:  Barbara Manatee, Chuck, Daisy, Tuna, and Cooper. 

I've been taking my own digital pictures of the girls every year.  We grew tired of paying so much for someone else to do it and often they wouldn't come out very well.  So here they are--my beautiful daughters.

Emma~ 8

Sarah~ 10 1/2

Kayla~ 15