S1 turns 13

That's right.

You read that correctly.

S1

is

a

teenager.

Because it's his day I didn't throw a fit over a mountain dew for breakfast.

For lunch he chose a mushroom swiss burger from McDonald's.

And I may have encouraged him to take a close up picture to rub it in to his Daddy.

And if you haven't figured out there is food theme here....

The boys always get to choose their food on their birthday.

And when you turn 13, we followed the tradition from my family and he was able to choose the restaurant for his birthday meal. 

He chose Red Lobster.

While we waited for our dinner in a room that was empty except for us....

He opened his gift.

 A Wheel Horse tshirt a certain Mama snuck off to buy during a recent tractor show under the guise of fresh squeezed lemonaide.  Of course, to pull of that guise, I had to buy and drink a fresh squeezed lemonaide.

A watch - a really cool Cabela's watch - and.....

 A cell phone for emergencies.

Today he texted me to tell me thanks for the phone.  A text to his mama is ALWAYS going to be considered a NEED TO MAKE call/text.

 Because he actually hasn't ever had seafood, he chose to get the platter meal.  Because then he could find out what he likes the best.

 Daddy was there to coach him on what to eat and what not to eat.  And Daddy would NOT let him eat the french fries on his plate when there was fish to be eaten.  And crab legs.  And lobster tail.

Over all, I think he had a grand birthday.

It was a fun way to celebrate a big birthday.

I could keep typing.  I could tell you how he is such an "old soul".  How at 13 he is more mature and old acting and I have come to depend on him to be a big help to me.  That he is basically done being a boy who plays and instead is the go to guy for fixing and helping and solving brotherly spats.

That the boy can fix anything.

That every day he takes time out to read his Bible, determined to read it all the way through this year.

I could tell you all that and much more.

But I am already getting teary eyed about it all.

So I will just end this.

I love you, my dear first son!

Summer Issue of Praise And Coffee Magazine

It's here! It's arrived!

I think you will enjoy the photography this issue, we have our own photographer now!

You will be introduced to Neely - amazing song, even better story.

Chicken Salad...a summer must.

And for all you "getting away", get away tips!

My dear friend, Korene, makes her magazine debut!!!!!! (thrilled!)

One of my most popular stories is added - with photos.

Sue shared her heart, and it is a straight to the heart share.

Read it, please share it, and let us know what you think!

Enjoy this simple, relaxed summer version. 

Look for our next edition this fall. 

http://praiseandcoffee.com/current-magazine/

Hanging Clothes is a Trip

We hang clothes on the line.

Oftentimes, I get busy doing this that and the other thing (imagine that) and don't get the clothes on the line in a timely fashion - like as soon as they get out of the washing machine.  By the second load getting done, I am lugging the heavy wet clothes outside.

But, if my husband is outside, he always helps me.

I would like to romantically think he helps me just because he enjoys spending time with me.

But I know better.

He helps me hang clothes on the line because it saves money since we are not using the dryer.

Sunday night he was helping me hang clothes on the line and S4 comes strolling up.  "Ahhhhh, ain't that so cute? You and Mama, hanging clothes on the line. So sweet. So adorable," he crooned in his best romantic sing songy mocking voice.

Jake laughed.  "Careful.  That there will end up in a blog."

All the boys were migrating toward the clothes line and they began hanging things up.  I have long learned to just accept the way they hang things and not worry what it looks like or how it is hung.

out our kitchen door, looking toward our rental house

"Hey, Mama?" S4 asked.  S4 begins many conversations this way.  "Why do we use these clothes pins?"

"To keep the clothes on the line, silly!" responded his Daddy.

"Why can't we just use duct tape?" he asked.

"Yah! Duct tape would work!" S3 agreed.

Before I could even laugh, S1, calm and steady, patiently explained that duct tape would leave a sticky residue to the clothes and that was why we didn't use duct tape to hang them up.

It's as if he has thought about this before.

Daddy laughed. "Now it's for sure going to be a blog."

So he snapped the photos for me with his droid.

I've Turned Into Ma Kettle

Today, after I had drug the garden hose all over the yard giving all my looking like death dried up plants some more water, I hung clothes on the line.

I was standing there, clothes pin in hand, wearing the hanky skirt I had found for a dollar and the cami top with no support in it whatsoever (I had slept in it), my hair in a bun with it all falling over my face and the rooster crowing from the chicken coop when it dawned on me...

I had turned into Ma Kettle.

We grew up watching all the Ma and Pa Kettle movies. I had laughed at that silly Ma Kettle.

And had suddenly become her.

So, I hurried with the laundry, took a shower, downed another cup of coffee to look awake, wore my most supportive bra and while my hair is in a bun, it is at least sorta stylish.  I am in shorts and tank top.  I still look a bit unkempt...but not that unkempt.

How long have I been Ma Kettle and not known it???

And here is a video clip to make you laugh. Not of her feeding the kids or of laundry but funny just the same.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bfq5kju627c

I'm Farming and I Grow It

Last night, as I was checking facebook while the boys where clearing the table of dishes, I read a lot of posts from my small town friends to watch this video.

Facebook was being wonky on me so I looked it up on youtube.

And I think we have watched it a zillion times since then.

Here it is.....

I am so proud of these boys I have never met! Their creativity and sense of humor is something I can totally get behind.  I followed Greg on twitter (@gregpeterson33) and hope that this video gets even bigger than it already is.

Our boys are working with the Community Garden in our little town for the library group and when I get out of work.  They love it.  To take something they know how to do - grow things - and get to help their friends out with their knowledge is something that makes them happier than I imagined it would.

S2 in front of the sweet corn row he donated and is growing.

Farming.  It's a great thing. 

Summer Insanity

Last night my honey took all four boys to go get some firewood for us.  He asked me if I wanted to go along.  And then he laughed.  I think he spotted the twitch in my eye and sensed the excitement that soundly coursed through me.  "Home? Alone? You would take all the boys and let me stay home? Alone?"

He loaded up all the boys and headed out.  I grinned like a wild woman.  I flitted from one room to the other not knowing where to spend my precious alone time.  Do I clean the kitchen?  Do I take a nap...oh how tired I am?  Do I read one of the books I have stacked by the bed and the computer desk? Do I watch the movie waiting for me to watch for two weeks now?

But I knew what I had to do...blog.  I have missed it more than I have missed about anything else this summer.  

Well, blogging and walking the track at school every morning when I dropped the boys off at school all those weeks ago.

So this is what we have been up to...

Cooking.

I have cooked so much lately to keep my boys fed - how much they can eat is insane - that my cupboard has given out on me, crashing down on itself.  This requires me to do some rearranging.  Because I can not - at all - give up one of those cookbooks or printed recipes.

Cooking so much means I have spent a lot of time at the grocery store.  Taking all four boys to the store is a trip.  Good grief, they want EVERY bit of food.  They ask me a million times, "Mama, can we get this?'  Recently, in the ice cream isle, S4 asked, 'Hey, Mama..." for the 1,000th time in a five minute span.

I felt myself slipping into that insane place mother's go.  They get there by their name being called too many times in a row.  It flips a switch in their brain that makes them cower in a corner crying for someone else to come take over.

"What? What? What? What do you want now??????" I  quietly wailed.  It was hardly a peep, more an escaped thought.  There in the ice cream isle I caught a glimpse of my reflection.  My hands were tangled in my hair, massaging the headache that doesn't go away.  My eyes were wild with craziness.

S4 looked at me oddly for a moment.  But only a moment.  "Can we get ice cream?" he asked.

To save myself from having a melt down in the ice cream isle, I said yes.

They are getting to me, these boys.

We have been spending a lot of time at the library as well.

Getting to work the same days the kids programs are is really grand because the boys never miss a single library event.  And all should know by now just how much I love the library.  If you look very very very closely, you can see S1 is holding something. 

A ground squirrel.

Now, when the boys go out to play at the library, Alicia and I find ourselves saying - oftentimes now in unison - "Stay together. Do not try to catch anything. Do not get bit. Do no catch anything.  Did you hear me?  Do not bring any animals into the library.  And stay together."

I don't think they hear us.

When we are home, the boys are catching "things".

This is One Eye Toad.  He is called this because he has one eye.  He lives on our front porch and I don't know how old frogs get but he is pretty old.  We look for him every year for a few years now, always relieved when we find him.  One Eye is never allowed to live anywhere but the porch.  The boys know, this is Mama's toad, it never can live in the sandbox or with the other things.

Other things?

Oh, you know, like five snakes.....

Originally, we purchased the large water tank for baby chicks.  The baby chicks grew up grandly in that water tank lined with sawdust.  And when we moved the tank out back for future chicks, the boys got to thinking how grand a place it would be to house some "critters".  

Like reptiles.

So it is currently the home to five snakes (there were six, but they made their favorite snake (how does one even get to have a FAVORITE snake?) a "home" in the sand box, where it slithered away.  Probably to live somewhere far far far away from boys.), a snapping turtle (a little one) and too many frogs to count.

Due to the drought we are experiencing here in this part of the state, the swamp where all these frogs were caught has dried up.  The boys now feel it is their duty to keep these frogs alive for future generations of frogs.

At least they don't live on the porch anymore.

And when the boys are playing in the sandbox making those beaver habitat's, they are in the woods building forts they would like to move into.

It is quite obviously a safe place to sleep the night in.  Mama just keeps saying no for some reason.  

Silly Mama.

So that, dear friends, is what we have been up to.  On our slow days.  

I forewent a nap to share this with you.  That's how much I have missed you all.  Hope your summer is going grandly too, and you are not insane yet.  Tell me what you have been up to! Link your favorite posts! I am so behind in reading up on posts right now as well. 

Special thanks to my hubby who gave me some free time and didn't complain when all i did was type away at a computer screen.  I love you!

Sunday Afternoon's

Sunday Afternoon's.

You look forward to them all week. That lazy part of the week where you can just rest.

Jake, the boys and I have had some insanely busy weeks.  As in, like every week since Memorial Day.  This weekend was no different.

And after an insanely busy week, I realized I had made dinner plans with a friend weeks ago before school was even out for the summer.

These friends have never been to our house before.

Our husbands have never met.

My house was a weeks worth of neglect.

And we still had them over.

We grilled my husband's big cheese stuffed burgers we always are raving about.

I made fried potatoes.

They brought this for dessert.

Tonight I shall have sweet dreams of this molten chocolate cake dessert.

I DID fold all the laundry, but other than that I spent my morning sipping coffee and chatting with my husband, not cleaning like a crazy woman.

We went to Sunday School for one of the best Sunday School classes, one we will always remember, I think.

We arrived home and while Jake and I worked on dinner, we leisurely chatted and joked and had fun.  I did not stress at all.

When the guests arrived, my floors were not swept.

The kitchen was a mess.

The boys laid around in the messy living room.

And we sat at our dining room table with these friends of ours who had never met our boys, who had never visited our home, and had the best time.

We laughed, we talked, we ate the amazing food, we drank pitcher after pitcher of lemon water.

It was the best Sunday afternoon in a long time.

I am so thankful that we didn't say we were too busy.  So thankful we have friends like this.  

So thankful for an afternoon of just being real.

And for that molten lava chocolate wonder cake.