Bump

They were both looking out the back window so nicely when I left the room... I came back to find the youngest one being slowly squashed into the clothes bin. 

These two. They keep me on my toes. 

Tax dollars

Some days I use my city tax dollars to hire a road crew to cut a hole in my road and then immediately fill it with dirt and repave it. It is a good way to entertain a two-year old. 

It reminds me of how the city sends the street sweeper the same morning, but BEFORE the trash truck comes. It makes no sense!!! 

Busy week

It was a busy week last week. We have another one this week. Thankfully, things slow down after that. All this rushing around is exhausting. 

(Thanks to Caitlin for the hilarious picture of the baby falling asleep during eating) 

Lab meeting at school

Of course we stopped to look at the construction (and eat goldfish) after the boys sat through an hour meeting without too much disruption. They are pretty sweet most of the time. 

Bible Memory and a great article!

First, I want to thank my parents for making me go to Awana classes for so many years. There were many nights (when I was older) that I didn't want to go because the other children were not friendly (it was at another church). But I am so thankful that I have so many verses memorized. And I need to pick up my old books from your house so I can start with Martin. 

Thank you also for making me memorize the first chapter of Philippians. It made me realize I could do longer passages. In the future I want to memorize the rest of the book with my children. 

It is wonderful to have verses pop into my head when I need them. I highly recommend scripture memorization. I should do more of it, especially of longer passages. 

Second, I have been having trouble falling a asleep at night the past couple of weeks. It is not every day, but usually a few days before lab starts (even though love it) or a day here and there when I am busy with ESL events (which I also love).  Anyhow, I have this little trick I thought I would share that I use to fall asleep. I go through the alphabet and think up a verse (or several) that start with each letter of the alphabet. I fell asleep somewhere around R or S last night. 

Last, you should read this blog post:

http://loriharris.me/2015/09/22/what-if-i-get-contact-burns/

If you need convincing, here is a quote:

"make no mistake about it, if you choose to stand in the lowly places, with the people the world has deemed unlovely, you will get burned. 
do it anyway."

"Behave like a citizen of heaven and spend your life on behalf of the marginalize."

I struggle with balancing that with time with my children. I am still sorting all that out. It could be a blog post someday... If you want more inspiration read:

Radical by David Platt

When Helping Hurts by Corbett and Fikkert

Honestly, I just want to stay home and build cardboard airplanes all the time with my children, but I don't think that is all God has called me to do. As I said, I am still trying to figure all of that out. 

Sherlock Holmes

There are two things that I sort of follow or collect: ampersands and Sherlock Holmes. With both I am not a fanatic and don't gather as much themed stuff as they sell.  I have collected a few ampersands that I think are attractive and have a place for in my house. As for Sherlock, I have the books, a few trivia books, the old PBS series on DVD, and a Baker Steeet sign in my kitchen (from my sister from our trip to London). My littlest sister just added these to my collection:

Thanks, Hope. These make me smile. I wish I could have worn them under my dress pants when I worked as an engineer. Actually, they would probably be welcomed into the chemistry department where I teach part time. Ha ha. 

Speaking of my chemistry lab, which I have now taught for 7 years (how am I that old?), I just love it! I have had the blessing of two years in a row of good students.  I love being on campus. I love teaching students. I have grown to love my lab material. I am so thankful that God had blessed me with the opportunity to teach once a week. 

Style

When you are a baby you can get away with an outfit like this. Ha ha. 

Busy week

I can't believe it is Thursday. This week has flown by. My sister had her baby (we probably won't meet him until November, but much of Monday and Tuesday was spent waiting for info and pictures about him - so exciting!!!), we spent almost 3 hours at the zoo/park, We went grocery shopping, we babysat 3 of my friend's kids for a few hours, I taught my first lab, Jared traveled for work for two days, we went to SAMs club, we printed off lots of things for ESL, we visited the cranes and excavators, I worked on some things for my other sister's baby shower, we cleaned the house...

The baby chewed on corn cobs and happily carried them around the house. I haven't even stopped to take any photos this week. This was from last weekend. Hopefully, next week will be a bit slower. And I am so thankful the weather is starting, just a bit, to cool down. Fall is my favorite season. 

What is your favorite season? 

Sewing

While the boys watched the Georgia game I worked on some sewing. I made a chemo cap and a head scarf (forgot to take a picture, but it was just a hemmed piece of fabric) for one of our friends who is battling cancer. I went over to the college to specifically print off these two patterns that I wanted to make, but when I got home neither pattern was in my printed papers. So, I will be trying to make some more hat/bonnet/scarf things next week. The flower on the side is made from vintage sheets. I love it. It clips on. It can be removed. I also sewed a tie on a onsie for the baby. 

The tie should have been a bit bigger. 

Zoo

Spur-of-the-moment we stopped at the zoo and park with Aunt Anna. 

I think the baby has had a growth spurt. He has seemed especially heavy and long the last two days. 

He is showing off two of his three teeth. 

Look how big he is! Who does he look like?!?

Thanks to Aunt Anna for the pictures!! 

Desk and Shelves

Before

Our filing cabinet and chair just collected dust and junk. Jared suggested a desk so that I could work on ESL emails more comfortably. I saw shelves above a desk on Apartment Therapy (and as anyone who reads my blog knows, I have a deep love of shelves). 

After

I am still working on arranging the items on shelves and the paint wasn't quite dry on the desk. I quickly threw some things on shelves so I could capture an after picture. 

Thanks to my handy husband for finishing another project for me. Next on the list is shelves (surprise surprise) in the   kitchen (after the molasses and baking powder mess, I finally came around to Jared's idea of shelves in the kitchen) and a tree house. :) Both projects are long term goals. Maybe you will see them next year. 

Thanks also to my husband for cleaning out my car during his day off and helping me put on an ESL lunch at church**. He is the best. I love him. 

**Thanks also to our good friend Wendy for her help. I couldn't have done it without either of you. They cleaned up the whole kitchen while I was putting away books and material. What a blessing. 

Funny story: I told people to bring a side or dessert. I ended up with four bags of rolls and seven desserts. So Wendy ran out and quickly bought some sides. :) 

Georgia

My favorite people! 

Happy Holiday weekend. 

Sneak peak

Chalkboard paint!!! 

More pictures next week once it cures. 

And now this is where I also talk about how these two goobers played with the "cooking flour" (aka baking powder) while I was standing in the kitchen shredding 20 pounds of BBQ chicken about five feet away from them. They are sure quiet when they are sneaky.  

I am beginning to think the little one is egging on the big one. Alhought, the big one opened the bottles of molasses and left them close to the baby so he would knock them over today... So it goes both ways. Those boys! I love them. 

We sat on the porch swing at the church office for a while this morning after I finished some ESL stuff. 

Old fashion

I find that people don't read their emails thoroughly. If I have important information for my ESL staff it is best to send it through the mail. That way I know they received it. :) 

30 letters all stuffed and ready to go. I dropped them off at the post office because my mailman walks and I didn't think he'd appreciate carrying them all. :) 

Molasses

All over my kitchen...

All over the baby...

Ice cream

This is his mom-promised-me-ice-cream-and-the-ice-cream-employee-is-15-minutes-late-to-work face. 

The other one was sleeping. 

They look nothing like me. 

Eggs

I don't like eggs, but my boys do. Martin loves to help stir eggs. He has gotten so good at scrambling them that I don't even have to stir after him. I'm not ready to teach him how to crack them yet. :)

Take time to watch construction

We had a great weekend helping with and attending a wedding of a dear childhood friend!! It was gorgeous. She was lovely.  The weather was amazing! Praise God! 

On to this week now...I have two or three things on my calendar each day this week. Bleh. And I have a few other things  such as grocery shopping and filling out my employee information at school that need to be squeezed in. Oh, this year to work at the college I have to be fingerprinted. Ha. That should be fun. I have never done that before. 

In the midst of errands and craziness this morning we stopped to visit our favorite construction site. I never want to be too busy to enjoy the little things in life. God has given me such an amazing life and I want to live it to the fullest. 

I have been thinking a lot about a challenge that was given by one of our missionaries. He said, "God gives great energy to those who work for his kingdom." So far, I have to agree with that. My kids have been sick off and on for the last month or so (aka not sleeping well at night) and yet I have not felt exhausted in the midst of all these ESL preparations. I should be. I am not sure where I am going with that and I don't have time to hash it out right now. I guess what I would say would be, don't be afraid to take risks for God's kingdom. If you feel called to do something he will provide. He is more than enough. 

1000 almonds...

I just finished making 200 cookies for a sweet friend's wedding this weekend. That would have been super quick, but they each required 5 almonds placed in a circle. 1000 almonds later... One thousand almonds... I am exhausted, but so happy to have been able to contribute to the wedding. :) 

Sorry, the pictures aren't great. It is a gray day. They are supposed to look like sand dollars. 

Here they are, all 100 packages. Martin helped me put two cookies in each bag and handed me twist ties. Yes, it took longer that way, but at least he wasn't sitting on the baby or breaking bowls. Breaking bowls? 

While I was rolling out cookie dough he started saying, "mommy, bowl saaaaad. Bowl saaaaad." 

I said, "why is the bowl sad?" And then looked and he had somehow managed to crack my giant green plastic bowl which I use to make granola and caramel corn. I guess I'll be looking for something new to mix large portions. I could use my 10 quart pot. It has been a good run plastic bowls. There are 2 of 5 left. I gave away two of the smaller ones because I never used them. I kept the largest two and the smallest one. They are good baby toys most of the time...

More sewing

My umbrella stroller ripped all the way down one side seam. Warren almost fell out. 

There were 6 screws on the back and 4 on the bottom that were holding the fabric on. I had to remove them all to be able to sew up the hole. 

Good as new! 

While I was putting the stroller back together the boys dumped out all the tinkertoys and threw them around. I would blame the older one, but the younger one had a lot to do with it this time.