Something to think about.

Last night I was reading a book to Ashlynn that Aunt Betty gave to her several years ago titled "God's Wisdom for Little Girls". It is a sweet book that breaks down Proverbs 31 and applies it to her life.

Can I say, it really hit home for me too.

Page 5 read:

Being good to others is so hard to do!
But this is exactly what God asks of you.
So do what you can to be kind to others,
And that includes your sisters and brothers!

"Her husband trusts her completely.
With her, he has everything he needs.
She does him good and not harm
for as long as she lives.

Proverbs 31:11,12 (The International Children's Bible, New Century Version)

(Here's the NIV Version also:

"Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value,
She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life."

Proverbs 31:11,12)

How often, I wonder, am I good to others? Is it for my personal gain or from my heart with the love of Christ and His commands? Also, am I truly a wife that is bringing only good and not harm into our family life?

Thankfully, I know Randy trusts me completely, but I want to strive to do more. To give up what I want and think of others first (especially Randy). To bring joy, peace and love to my household (not the goofy "la la land type" of stuff), but true goodness from following God's Word.

To lack nothing of value in Christ, yes, that's what I want.

The bug kit.

Grandma Linda gave the kids an insect kit with all kinds of molded critters that are a larger and very authentic looking version of the real thing.

The kit is supposed to teach and inspire kids about the lives of various insects. Here is what my kids were inspired to do with it:




Makes you want to whip a salad, doesn't it?

Look who's three months old today:

Evidently her age is getting to her already.

Attempting.

To get things back to "normal" that is.

I keep staying up until the wee hours of the night cleaning and organizing, only to have it seemingly all undone the next day. Why do I even bother??

The basement was the major project, seeingashow that's where Ashlynn does her schoolwork. What's a few cobwebs across the desk or some dead spiders in the corner? Surely we could use them as some sort of science experiment as evidence of radon gas in the basement.

Ashlynn and Ryder are keeping careful count of their toys. In my clean-up craze I announced that we would be eliminating 80% of their stuff. They have absolutely no concept of what that means except mom was "real serious" when she said it and she really likes to throw *cough* give things away.

Thankfully Addie is still averaging ten hours a night, so if I don't get a full night's sleep, it's really my own fault. No wait, I blaming that on the Olympics. The good stuff doesn't even start until ten and it's not as if you can just walk away from 'no commercial interruption live gold medal match beach volleyball'. Maybe next week........

Photo, photo

Here are some pictures of our trip!


The kids in the car, gotta love road food paraphernalia:




Havin' some fun in the lake:



My little fisherman:



Walking with Uncle Reuben to check out the awesome ships:






The kids with Grandma Larson (Gigi):



My little monkey boy:



The fam:



Gage hamming it up:




Sunroofs, gotta love 'em (and the country roads you can actually do this on!):




Addie's first campfire at the lake:




No, Ryde is not on fire, just the crazy way the picture came out (I'm sure James could explain why):



Gage and Daddy by the fire:



A favorite hang out:




Jeff's gi-normous fish:



The kids and I playing in the lake:



Baby wearing at its finest (and pretty much how Addie spent her vaca)





Gage having a seat in the lake:


What we woke up to early one morning:

And we're home......

• Arrived at 1:30 last night, errr, this morning.
• Three loads of laundry in the can.
• Three of fifteen bags unpacked.
• Toys the kids "missed" while we were gone: spread all over the house.
• Number of pictures to go through on the camera: 127.

Happy days, we're home!!!!!!

Last update for a while.

Ok, so maybe I wasn't exactly in the public library updating, but borrowing their wifi in the cutest coffee/fabric/gift shop ever right next door.

We're still having a great time. Last week we cruised over to Duluth and watched these gorgeous 200+ year old ships with huge sails come into the harbor of Lake Superior. The kids LOVED it, especially Gage. He was making the cutest expressions and vocalizing his wonderment of the entire show. It was a a huge crowd but very much worth it, as was the wait in line for ice cream :-)!

We put the new raft in the lake last week also. It's basically a huge trampoline on water and the kids are crazy over it. I like it too but to be honest, its bright colors distract from the beauty of the surrounding environment when you really look at it, but I'm definitely not going to blow any fun mentioning that one :-).

Randy has golfed twice with his brothers and fished countless times. Jeff caught a HUGE bass the other night and is going to have it professionally mounted for the memory. He and Randy usually throw the fish back (even though us girls beg them to keep some for our appetite's sake), but he just had to bring it back to show us-WOW. Thankfully they have kept enough fish to have enjoyed it twice, we will continue to hope for more.....

I've pretty much been doing what I do at home: laundry, cooking, cleaning, minding the kids.....but it's just better when your looking at the lake all day. The constant calls of projects and school work, bills and balancing checkbooks is on hold and it's very nice. Not to mention its a hundred degrees back home and we are enjoying the seventies here.

Not bad, not bad at all.