Thought I'd share a smattering of recent happenings around here. Despite the COVID craziness, life is good and we feel very blessed. I have times of great stress, frustration, and fear for the future, and then I need to remind myself of a question that I asked myself in my personal scripture study as I studied about how to increase my trust in God. The question was, "When has God ever let me down?" As I pondered this question, I realized I could answer, "Never!" Always has He been there, helping me through difficult times and blessing me despite my lack of faith and being undeserving. So I am trying to press forward in faith as we enter virtual schooling starting this week for Robbie at home, virtual schooling for Clara at the high school wearing a mask, in-person preschool for Henry with a mask, and a busy Benjy thrown in for fun.
We have had so many cucumbers this year, which has been super fun but also a bit overwhelming. I made refrigerator pickles for the first time, which actually tasted really yummy. Next year I want to grow Kirby cucumbers, which are technically the correct ones for pickles.
We also made so many things out of zucchini. Zucchini bread, zucchini muffins, pizza crust, pizza topping, sauteed, zucchini cake, brownies, and zucchini boats. I finally pulled them out because I just didn't want another.
Michael is just the best dad. The.best. This was taken on our anniversary. 18 years, can you believe it??!
We were so happy to have a visit from Grandma and Grandpa for Melody and Matt's marriage ceremony. Robbie showed Grandma his Pokemon cards, which was a real gift of time.
Selfie with Grandpa.
The boys had a blast with Michael and some friends, the Petersons and the Robertsons, at Smith Mountain Lake.
Michael and the kids played "king of the raft."
Henry and his friend, Gracie Peterson.
Michael and Clark Robertson, who is such a great young man and reminds Michael of himself at that age.
We went on a hike before Melody left to celebrate our anniversary in advance. It was a magical hike up to Bear Fence Gap.
The mist just blew in over us in a big cloud, moving quickly and swirling all around us as it covered up the sun.
I wanted to take a picture of the study wall with creations the kids made this summer. We started out strong with our schedule and then petered out as the summer went on.
Oh Benjy. This kid is something else. Here he is helping himself to bandaids. This last week or two alone, he got into my makeup and broke my bronzer, blush, powder, and eyeshadow, I found him with frozen mixed berries on the living room floor, he emptied the staples box all over the study floor and dumped push pins onto the kitchen floor, wrote on the study desk with a permanent marker, pulled the plants out that I had just planted in our front pots . . . I could go on. I had to call poison control a few weeks ago for his ingestion of apparently 13 (!!) of my Synthroid tablets--mercifully no side effects were ever noted, which the poison control lady said was common. Benjy likes to slide the kitchen stools over to the pantry and get into the nuts or the pretzels and chocolate chips (the other day he opened a new bag in the pantry). He also gets into the refrigerator, messes with the water dispenser, eats cheese and leaves it around the house, et cetera et cetera. He is so much fun but man, we can't leave him alone for a minute.
The other day Robbie wanted to brush Clara's hair. It was a very sweet moment.
I had to record our home church chart for memory's sake. Home church has its pros and cons. It's going all right, all things considered. My last couple of home Primarys have gone pretty well, which gives me hope. Last week Robbie and Henry each gave a talk on prophets. And this week at actual church, Robbie bore his testimony for the first time in front of the congregation (of less than 25 people allowed, all wearing masks). It was awesome and I felt the Spirit. We were super proud of him. He also willingly fasted breakfast and snack (which almost killed him, he felt), and he paid a little fast offering in addition to his tithing. I have felt that Satan is working on him pretty hard these days, so I was proud of him for making good choices.
Last week, Michael took Henry to a boxing gym here in town to try out some equipment.
We enjoyed a summer rainy day a couple of weeks ago and the kids had fun playing outside in the water.
We did most of our summer outings this year and a good handful of the creations.
We went to the Luray Zoo yesterday, which is a small rescue zoo near us. Benjy insisted on wearing a mask, which was pretty cute. He is demonstrating the improper way to wear a mask, which drives me nuts to see when I am out. Why would you wear it if you aren't even wearing it right? Don't get me wrong, I hate wearing one, but goodness, at least wear it properly.
The Capuchin monkeys in the cage to our right were really fun to watch.
I had no idea I'd be back 9 years later with three boys in tow. Wow.
