Weekly Wind Down {Hot Summer Days, Water Play, Beautician in the Making?} July 23-29

Our Sunday started out at church and then Sunday school.  We were supposed to have family day at the pool but Mike had to go to work before Sunday school, so after naps I took the kids to the pool for the last couple of hours that they were open.  I didn't swim this time, just sat on the edge and watched the kids, but they had a good time.

Evalynn got brave enough to go down the little slide without being caught at the end of our time there.  She's getting more comfortable in the water!

Home for supper, showers, and beds...Mike got home a bit after everyone was tucked in.

Monday morning Zayden was up early with me and "kept me company" during my Bible study...

...and my prayer time.  

He wrapped up a gift for his buddy, Dean, and counted down the hours until it was time to play!

While Zayden went with Dean, Mia had Miss Cora over for a couple of hours.  Girls giggling and doing life together bring me a lot of joy.  

First up - nails.

I did dolly's and then put her down for a nap so the big girls could have some time together.

While Mia and Cora played, Natalee and I worked hard on learning friendship bracelets.  This was all the rage at camp during Natalee's week and she was feeling a bit discouraged and frustrated but we got it going and she figured it out.  So proud of her!

Mia and Cora played downstairs, upstairs, and outside.  

Water gun fights...with the sprinkler under the trampoline.

Xavier played for a few minutes, too.

Sweetest friends.

Meanwhile Zayden had a great time with buddies.  They played baseball, cooled off in the pond, and played hard, I think!

Evalynn has been so interested in "beautification" lately....many days she's my hair stylist and my make artist, also.

She loves accessories.  

She's struggling with a bit of hand weakness that's especially noticeable during sit down activities (coloring, cutting, play doh, water guns - she often says "my hands hurt") so any activity that works those little muscles is a go in my book.

The bracelet I made for Natalee.

The bracelet Natalee worked on for me.

Devotions outside to wind down a full Monday.

Tuesday was another hot day.  I got the kids outside early before the heat of the day.  Water guns helped us get a bit more time in before coming in to cool down.

Papa stopped by on his way home from Aunt Annette's and brought frosty treats for everyone.

Grammy Sara and Papa Phil came up to watch Mike play church softball.  Xavier ended up subbing in on the team opposing Mike and it was a fun match up.  I served PB&J, fruits, and veggies from my bag during the games as a hail mary at a "real" supper.

As it turned out, Mike treated us all to Mexican (the PB&Js long gone!) for a late supper before his folks headed back to MO.

Wednesday...a fun breakfast for Ev.  She often eats peanut butter on bananas.  She does not get whipped cream and chocolate chip eyes on the norm.

For the record....I'd gladly make a cute breakfast plate like this for any of my children if any of the rest of them would eat it.

Wednesday brought more heat and more water play.

and mud play 😏

Ameliya has the brain of an artist.

We got a couple of hours of shady outside time in before the heat took over.  We *are* thankful our AC is working well!

Natalee has been reading to Evalynn regularly - picking a large book and treating her to a story a day - my heart is overjoyed when I see my kids intentionally pouring into one another.  Zayden benefited this day, too.

While the kids played downstairs, I cranked up some music, vacuumed, and mopped all the floors.  That shine brings me joy every time, it just never seems to last long.

Mia finished our Wednesday with some no bake cookies as a treat for everyone.  She made them while the big kids and Mike were at youth group and the younger two played.

The only photos from Thursday were one of my big kids enjoying a laid back morning of summer...

and another of the patty melts I made for supper.  I sent the picture to Mike to try to lure him home from work....the days were long for him this week.

We did get a couple of hours outdoors Thursday but it was another hot one.  Hippotherapy was canceled because of the heat.

Friday the temps were a bit more tolerable.  Still high 90s but the younger children had especially had all the indoors they could handle and went out in the morning.

Heat flushed sunny cheeks are my favorite.

Mike sent me this picture from his walk to work.

Friday afternoon Natalee had a zoom appointment and Xavier had discipleship group so Mike helped me balance those two things overlapping and did drop off for Xabe and Jace at the church.  Otherwise the day was pretty average.  I think throughout the week we watched an episode of Little House or Dennis the Menace here or there just to avoid the heat a bit and keep everyone from crabbing at each other.  

We used the sun going down in the evenings as a great time to get outside.  I was so impressed by little Evalynn's balance bike skills!  Look at her go!

Our neighbor's grandkids are staying with them for a couple of weeks while they wait to close on the house they are purchasing so the older four kids have been spending a lot of time playing kickball or tossing the football with them.  So many fun summer memories to be thankful for.  Ameliya got quite a mean sting on her hand Friday evening while sitting in the yard so she went to bed with some ice for the pain.

Friday night the heat finally broke with a rain storm.  Praise!

Saturday we spent the bulk of the day making jam with Grandma!

And now July is by us....

Jam Making Day

Grandma "Num" came up for a jam making day and make jam we did!

We were completely out of strawberry jam at our house and have been for a few weeks.  Nannie floated us some homemade raspberry and that helped but we've been living off boughten grape for our jam needs for awhile.  These spoiled babies (okay, it's me) can't hardly enjoy boughten strawberry jam after growing up on homemade.

My grandparents just over the hill from us had quite a large strawberry field and I spent many a summer morning with Grandma out there picking (and eating) until my fingers (and mouth) were stained red from sun kissed berries.  Then we'd sit in front of the box fan and pop the tops off the berries for preserving.  Grandma's sugar dish was always handy in case a berry needed a dip, and my childhood summer days were sweetened with fresh juicy berries.  Homemade strawberry jam has been a "way of life" for me as far back as I can remember.  So you see how running out is detrimental to both the children and me (wink).  

Anyways....back to jam day.  

To my best rough tally we used 30 pounds of fruit, 40ish pounds of sugar (eesh), 2 store runs for Mike (one of jars, one for sugar "just in case" [we didn't run out!]) and yielded, by count of the children, 94 jars of jam (mostly pints).  This is freezer jam - we've always made freezer jam - and should last our four families (plus those jars we give away to beloved friends and family) for a good while!

Grandma Cindy was generous with her patience on jam day and our helpers were good solid workers.  The oldest three stuck it out pretty well the whole time.  Zayden didn't want to get messy but did stir a little, and I learned that he doesn't actually like strawberry jelly and prefers grape.  Evalynn worked hard until she decided she was done working and then didn't work an ounce more!

Once we found our groove the system was pretty smooth.  Natalee and Xavier worked up most of the sure jell on the stove one batch at a time, we had timers on phones and watches and the biggest difficulty was remembering what each one was for.

I got a batch of bread going before mom got to the house (what is fresh jam without fresh bread?).  Oh that I someday might have my mother's bread making skills.  This was "ok" - our hungry worker bees didn't complain anyways!

Mia wiped each rim and jar and lidded them all.

What a successful day!  Our tiny kitchen was hopping and every surface was sticky when we were done!

I had kept thinking that I should just tackle this project on my own but I sure am glad mom wanted to tackle it with me.  Her visit was exactly what this little house needed.  These are exactly the type of days that I hope my kids store up in their memory banks.  Stirring until their arms were stiff.  Laughing and joking and working together.  Thanks, Grandma!