This Moment

 

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. 

 

playing along with Soule Mama.

Hey guess what?

Excitement.

Anticipation.  Is it him?

Disappointment.  Not him.

Boredom.

More boredom.

Is he EVER going to get here?

Yes he is!

James came home last night!  We are very excited to have him here with us.  We don't know any details about leaving again but we'll tell you as soon as we find out.  Right now we are just enjoying the morning and our weekend custom of homemade biscuits and gravy.

Love to you all!

JKFP


p.s.  with school starting and James coming home I'm behind on showing you our summer fun.  I didn't forget.  It's coming up soon!

Life Less Ordinary

We were in NC for about a month and it was pretty much one good time after another.  You'll remember we left to get away from the smoke and heat.  Piper did really well once we got out of town and her daily meds kicked in.  I can't pretend it wasn't hot though BUT... air conditioning makes a big difference.  Anyway, we enjoyed our time tremendously and I'm so grateful to my parents for letting us crash for so long.  I even got to sneak away for a week to visit James.  (I'll cover that part of the trip in a later post.)

A few highlights... Oh!  I'll cover the 4th and Tweetsie Railroad in separate posts too.

The "man cave" is pretty much a wonderland for these kids.  I think every afternoon when Paw-Paw came home from work they ran running and screaming to greet him and then immediately started with the "Paw-Paw can we go downstairs???"

Bella's side of the basement is pretty fun too.  Beads and rocks and string....oh my!

We watered the grass...

Then the boys cut the grass.

 

They patiently waited for a furry friend to finish his dinner...



Our friend Emily's dog Huckleberry.

Or maybe not so patiently.

And we got to visit with Emily too!

There were girls days...


at the nursing home with Maw-Maw painting our fingernails.



And boys days...

they are cleaning out the radiator for our car.

There was even a little fender bender.  (I was running an errand in my mom's car and got rear ended.)

But mostly we did this...

And even more of this...

We had so much fun.  Thank you for letting us come to play!  But wait there's more....

JKFP



** note ** most of the really great pictures were taken by my dad...unless he's in them.

Sunday Morning

This morning I was having my coffee by the big window like always and the kids were outside picking apart "blinky" veggies for the chickens.  I don't know, the way the sun was shining, how nicely they were working together, it just called out for a picture.  These are my favorite moments.  The ones where they are completing a task together.  No bickering...just calm.  It's going to be a good day. 

JKFP

p.s.  Enjoy that 2/3 finished fence while you can...I think I found someone to finish it!  I'll let you know how that works out.

Problem Solver

This child is a problem solver.

What to do when your dress (which is the proper attire for making "yard soup") buttons in the back and you have short arms...

Oh how I wish you could sit here at the window with me, drinking our coffee together, watching these children play.  It's such a joyful thing to watch.

Happy Sunday

JKFP

Cool Down

We have returned from our NC/Italy escape and are slowly unpacking.  I have a lot to show and tell about our trip but I need to get my head on straight first.  I thought I'd show you some pictures I came across recently in hopes they would help you think cool thought on these late July days.

Angel #1

Angel #2

Our overgrown bushes made an excellent snow fort.

They played in it for hours.

The girls were all warm and snug inside.

My backyard actually looks kinda pretty with all that snow.

Snow days will be here before we know it so enjoy the warmth.

Love,
JKFP

Under A Rock

Just in case you live under a rock and haven't seen the news...

This image is from facebook and has been shared over 5,000
times.  It looks like Dana Smith took it.

Colorado Springs had a rough week.  Still is.  Now, this is not my area of town.  The fire is on the NW side of town and I live in the SE part so my house isn't in the direct line.  My sister and her family were evacuated and spent Tuesday night with us.  They were able to return to their home today and it is fine.  My mother-in-law was evacuated the same day my sister was and she is still under evacuation.  The bottom line is this: my whole town could use your good thoughts or prayers right now.  There is not one member of our community that isn't somehow affected by this fire.

The secondary issue for my family personally is the air quality. It's very smoky. It's not a great place to be if you're a tiny asthmatic unicorn.

We spent Monday at the Dr's office being put back on the daily medication she had stopped for the summer.  I just couldn't get control of it. 

We had originally planned to go to NC in August anyway and since being trapped inside a hot (no a/c) house with two crazy kids is not fun we opted to move our vacation up.  We were hoping that getting away from the smoke would help a sister out. 

Packed and ready to go.

We left yesterday and covered about 500 miles.  Remember our road trip from hell?  That was NOT pleasant but I figured my kids are older and more technologically advanced now....they can't be terrible at road trippin' forever right? 

Halfway through day one .

So far they've been awesome.  Last time Piper had broken the DVD player two days before we left and as we were stopped at a campground she shoved a ton of money into the cd player and broke that too.  Well come to find out, music and movies make a huge difference.  So does this...

Kansas.  A whole lotta not so much.

I love a wind farm.  It's my favorite thing about Kansas.  (besides leaving it.)

You may also remember that last time we had a little car trouble in KS.  True to form it happened again.  We noticed it as we pulled in to Salina yesterday and just in case we booked our room for 2 days. 

Kickin' it like pickles.

We slept in this morning, figured out some car stuff, and decided to stay that extra day anyway.  Piper's breathing has improved and I think we just needed a day to hang out in the air conditioning and relax.

And swim. 

We're heading out again in the morning.  We have a "we'll get there when we get there" kind of mentality about it and that seems to be working out.  The goal was to make sure sissy could breathe and she can.  We do look forward to getting to Bella and Papa's house and playing with them, cousins and friends. 

See you soon -ish.

JKFP & Bob

p.s.  being on fire, stuck inside, not able to breathe, and in a car all day is kind of a bummer.  No Bummer Summer returns as soon as we get to NC!