Summer 2019

Because I'm on Covid-19 Quarantine with the rest of the world, I decided to catch up on this blog as it's my best attempt at keeping a family record.  Plus, Summer 2020 is upon us, so I need to get a move on.

I started the summer of 2019 acutely aware of how fleeting time is.  All of our kids are growing up so fast.  We finished up summer birthdays with Angel turning 7!

Plus, our oldest, Rahel would be entering her senior year.  I had all of these great plans to document a little every day of her senior year, but alas, here we are with just 4 weeks left and we will have to settle for quarterly updates.   Such is life.

We had bowls full of blueberries for about a month.  I am always so delighted when they start to ripen.

We spent some of our summer days working on life skill.  All the kids learned to shop on a budget, plan and cook meals and work on the car replacing door handles and changing tires. 

Rahel and I learned how to add extensions and box braid.

The finished product and one happy girl.

We took a fun trip to the Biltmore House. I've always wanted to go and kids were free over the summer so we jumped at the chance. 

The gardens were lovely.

Some risk taking with dad.

And my most prolific plant of the season, my super squash. I didn't have much luck otherwise, except for my jalapenos.

Nick had to travel for work for three weeks ( I am not a fan of being apart for so long), so we headed to Florida to visit family and friends.

We got to spend a couple of days at one of my favorite places with two of my favorite people.  We dreamed about Haddis Ministries and had a Board Meeting in the sand.

Look at all of these kids! Just our three families.

We brought one friend home with us for the week. The kids loved having Kay stay with us.

Dinner out with the big girls.

We also had a fun overnight visit with more of our favorites as they were headed up to camp.

And like all good things, summer vacation came to an end and the kids were off to school.

I love all of these people so much.  

Our life is super crazy and it's not easy raising 8 kids, but I am so thankful for the opportunity to be their mom.

We had one more round of summer visitors for Labor Day weekend.  Our most frequent flyers, the Schusters!

Squeezing out the last bits of summer fun and sunshine

 before the cool breezes of fall set in.