I hope it only takes 3 days!

This time in our lives reminds me of something (doesn't everything remind ME of something else, of course you already knew that!). When we decided to start our family, each day was agonizing, I was always wondering, "were we expecting yet?" It only took like 3 days (give or take a few days), but those were the longest 3 days of my life up to that point. Today seemed like such a long day! Ryon hasn't found a career/job/income that will work, yet. I am very busy taking care of things around here. Today I folded the 10 loads of laundry I washed yesterday, finished spring cleaning the pool and adding all the necessary chemicals to make it sparkly clean, ran some errands, made dinner (homemade onion rings, BBQ hamburgers, homemade buns, homemade fries and all), read books to little boys, helped 3 kids get out the door to baseball games, cleaned out & organized 3 closets, took care of the chickens, ... and wondered all the while, "What am I supposed to be doing right now that would really be helpful to our situation?" I don't know the answer to that question, but I think I'm getting closer...I hope it only takes 3 days! But I have the haunting feeling it's going to take longer this time around. (Along the way take time to smell the flowers (kids).)

Ms. Baseball!

Savanah missed a pop fly during Monday practice, well kind of. It bopped her right between the eyes on her glasses (it had to have been in her blind spot, right?) Blood splattered all down her shirt, baseball pants, glove, and face. Luckily, a mom was there to clean her up and the boys on her team (the whole team besides her) were happy to cheer her up by telling jokes and teasing her nicely. Her nose was swelling last night and she was hoping to have a shiner to show her friends this morning, but when she left for school it was just swollen and red (not picutred here)! I'm so grateful she didn't really get hurt!

Little Women...

Together Savanah and I have been reading "Little Women" for years! Every time we get a little time together we pick it up and jump back into life with the March family. We just finished the part about each girl having her own little part of the garden where she could grow what ever she wanted. And one of the girls planted sunflowers with the hope that at the end of the season she would have food for her chicken and her chickadees. The funny part about that is just minutes before we were saying the same thing ourselves! We planted SO many sunflowers this year and were wondering if they'd make good chicken food. Well, "Little Women" wouldn't lie, right? If you haven't read it it's a great parenting book! A great book about moral character and what makes a person genuinely good on the inside. It is a bit difficult to understand. I probably don't understand about 4 words on most pages, but we can figure them out by taking into consideration the context. Anyway, such a hard yet simple way of life...no blogs, no baseball games every night, not even school for most of the kids, no Internet, or video games, but there were lots and lots of chores! And who would work for a $1 a day? Would we starve first? Hope all is well with everyone! Ryon is looking for a new job, the one he just started a few weeks ago ended abruptly on Thursday... So, if you pray, keep us in your prayers, and those of you who have been praying for us, I really feel the strength you send us!

She's A Winner!

Savanah's smile beamed after she was awarded second place in the State Science and Engineering fair! All her long hours of gathering and processing information on almost 200 eggs paid off!

If only I could take pictures in low light without a flash...but you get the idea, right? Happy girl with medal around her neck, being awarded the second place medal in Animal Science.

She also received a sponsored award from the AZ biomedical something or other...all for feeding her chickens!

The boys were SO bored! But for being bored to tears he sure looks smiley in this photo! (5-8pm is a long awards ceremony and we had to be present to receive the awards!)

Coronado - Spring Break 2009

That's an "I'm freezing cold standing here in my underwear," face. I know I don't live in Europe (where shorts are optional) but we didn't have our swim wear with us, and "little" (I'm trying to understand not all of my boys are little any more) boys are fine in their underwear at the beach...in California, aren't they? I think my ideas of modesty have been blurred as I have children around me all the time, and then as we have traveled a little bit, not everyone wears a swim suit to the beach (O.K. to every mother in last summer's little tots swim class that wore only a skin tone single thinkness bra on your top at the public swimming pool...that is NOT O.K.!) But anyway...even though it was cold and windy the kids had so much fun digging holes, and making sand drop castles!

Balboa Park - Spring Break 2009

Balboa Park

We ate our picnic in the Pepper Tree Grove...thanks to Nana buying us all the tastiest groceries! Locusts couldn't have eaten more!

Savanah grabbed the camera and shot a bunch of pictures of me. She is so thoughtful...she said, "you never get any pictures taken of you". Everyone needs such a thoughtful daughter!

Yes, my hand is in his mouth...I think it was because he had his tongue sticking out in all the pictures...I think!

Even Ry did a lot of barefoot tree climbing! It was such a beautiful day!

Proctor Valley Road

For the first time we brough our bikes along for the ride...

We rode our bikes around the rim of this valley Zach is looking out over. We went on a few great bike rides while we were in San Diego this time!