Update - Finally!

It's been so long since I've written I'm sure any who had been checking this site have long since given up that I will ever post again. I certainly can't blame you. It seems every time I go to post, something interrupts be it life, technical issues or lack of energy.

It has been a fast and furious summer. We started with lots of ball games - basketball and baseball, and summer camp for Drew. Everyone but Micah participated in Mark's tennis clinic and Mark and Drew painted a few houses. Micah loved having his brothers around and their friends. I will say that all the boys' friends are SO good to Micah and don't act like he's a pain or a bother. Micah helps in that he doesn't constantly want to be with them and just checks in occassionally. I can't believe I didn't get a single picture of Micah of the trampoline with various crowds of teenagers and ten year olds. What was I thinking?

Micah has grown up so much this summer. He has lost his little pudgy legs and has turned into a little boy. He now wants to "play with my friends". He is not going to be content just hanging around with mom this fall after having such a busy social life this summer. Thankfully I have several friends with children his age who are in the same mode. So a play date is always an option. I did not enroll him in preschool because his age group is Tuesday and Thursday afternoons and I didn't want to wear him out when we have such a busy ball game schedule during the school year. But I think we may have to get him enrolled in story hour or something to satisfy his social needs!

His imagination has also taken off. A favorite game is David and Goliath and he is happy to play both rolls. (It's just as fun to fall over dead as it is to sling the stone.) At first when he played he would tell Goliath (as David) that he was stronger so we had to talk about the story in a bit more detail until he understood that God is the one who made David strong to kill Goliath. Now we say:

Goliath: I'm going to kill you with my sword!

David: Your sword is not as strong as the Lord!

Grant has also turned into a social bug, especially since we got back from vacation. He spent a lot of time with cousin Daniel in June during the weeks we called "Camp Hesston." They did Mark's tennis clinic, a basketball camp and took swimming lessons together. Some of his good friends has plans in July so when we returned from vacation it was like he had gone through withdrawl. They have been pretty inseparable this past few weeks. His best friend, Robby, and he are in the same home room at school so they were pretty exicted!

Dean, of course, did not need to turn into a social bug as that has already been firmly established as part of his personality. He and Keegan (best friend) had opposite vacations all summer so their time together was not as much as either would have liked but it meant we saw more of Dean and also that he spent more time with other friends. Dean has been a huge help with Micah this summer! He and four friends have recently started a band. I have yet to hear them (they meet at the drummer's home) but I've heard that they are progressing nicely. They're planning a fall concert so I'll let you know.

Drew has also been a huge help this summer. He always has such a great attitude when I ask him to babysit. He's pretty content to be home. He really goes in spurts. He might spend all day and evening with friends and then spend a couple days at home just hangin, playing music and playing with Micah. Then he'll plan a campout or movie night with friends again. He certainly is not one who has to be on the go all the time and seems to innately understand how to balance activity and rest. I am actually a bit worried about him this year because I'm not sure he's going to be able to maintain this balance if he stays as involved as he is planning. This is his list of responsibilities for the year:

Student (of course)

Stuco Rep

SADD Co-chair

YAR (Youth as Resources) member

Youth group worship team member

Youth group member

Hesston Singers member (with numerous performances and two major shows that require weeks of evening rehearsals associated with that)

Three sports - XC, BB and Tennis

I keep telling him to evaluate whether he's in over his head and we can figure out a way for him to back off of something. Of course the year is just starting and he says he's okay. He had three meetings the first week and has 7:30am Singers Practice every morning but sports practice doesn't start until Monday so we'll see. Part of me knows how much this helps with scholarships but I also don't want him to overdo. Pray that we can find a balance.

Mark has seemed more stressed for a first week of school, more tired, especially considering tennis practice hasn't started yet. So I'm not sure what that is about. I guess I need to ask him, huh!

Our vacation to Michigan (and six other states) was amazing. I'm hoping to blog on that later. (I actually had planned today until I fiured out half my travel journal somehow got deleted - ARGHH!) We had such a blast! I was not ready to come home. It was so refreshing to have no internet access. A perfect excuse to not check my e-mail and as a result I had no idea what was happening back at work. I knew they would be fine in my absence but now they know too! It really allowed me to reboot my brain and let it rest from constantly thinking about a hundred different things and just really be present in the moment. It was incredibly refreshing but hard to return to the constant bombardment of schedules, house maintainance, cooking, work demands, yard maintenance, etc, etc, etc. I loved the slower pace. It's so hard to figure out how to build that in to normal life. God knew what He was talking about when He said we needed a day of rest. I have really come to realize that this summer and have made a concerted effort to set Sundays aside for that purpose.

Anyway, that's the update. Sorry no pictures. Hopefully next time.