Hookie...

I have a mom friend (of 7) who pulls a creative "Rewind" technique with her kiddos. Such as, they come down down for breakfast with a sour attitude, "Uh, Rewind," she will say. They will have to go back upstairs and come back down for breakfast with a changed attitude.

I LOATHE just surviving. I like to enjoy my days and children!
But this week, I was having noneya of it. I needed a total Rewind Week!
Nothing went right... Picture this...
Children= horrible, cranky, disobedience, testy, forgetful, on and on.
Days= overwhelmed, messy, disorganized, thing in boxes, on and on.
Me= irritable, impatient, horrid, stressed, period (sorry guys), on and on.

By Thursday afternoon I could take no more. I totally broke. Called Adam at work, cried for 15 minutes, then he came home and took Miss Beautiful to her learning center because I could not complete one more thing. Thank you Jesus for my strong and servant-hearted man! I then put Nehemiah to bed and Avi Joy on a task and just breathed and prayed.

I like things to be "just-so" you see and to feel like I am accomplishing a task makes me feel great. I love To Do list's and being on a schedule. With this move, everything has been crazy! I cannot get anything done. Homeschooling completely busted this week and we accomplished nothing. We added 7 hours a week for Miss Beautiful be/c she is a year behind in school and is now in tutoring and that has added unexpected stress on my part. And Nehemiah, well. (I just sighed really loud typing his name.) I do NOT know what to do with him. I need some discipline tips- SERIOUSLY. COMMENT. (Not like, oh sorry sweetie, it will get better, no, like- this worked for my 2 year old boy, try this...)
I have tried nice correction, i.e= talking sweetly, positive reinforcement
I have tried medium discipline= time outs, pinch on hand, going to room
I have tried harsh consequences= spakin' on thigh/bottom, separation in crib
NOTHING WORKS. He is impulsive and irritates others with his rash behaviors and constant whining. And sadly, I loose it right after he does.
He is my cherry in top in so many good ways, but when the house is going down hill, he is the cherry on top that turns it into complete chaos. Help.

I am still not over this week, but today made it better.
We played Hookie- yea us! No work, no school, just time together.
We have been wanting to go back to our college, Northeastern State University, to see the trees and to show the kids where we met. We had a wonderful relaxing drive, I read some from a book and we listened to music and talked.

We arrived at NSU and walked around for a bit. The first building we saw, the NET, brought back a lot of memories.
1.) The NET building was the computer center of our school. It was built my first year of college and we HAD to get an email address to get the syllabus for our classes. I was so completely put off by this and was actually mad about it. And email? What is email for heavens sake?
2.) I was in this building attending a teaching lecture for my student internship on September 11th. We all watched on the large TV screen in our classroom as the planes crashed into the twin towers.
Next we showed the kids where we used to live. Adam and I met in this building. Fall 1998. I will have to share how we met sometime- super funny stuff. I lived on First South and he lived on Second Southeast, we were friends for two years while living in these dorms.
We ate lunch at Sam and Ella's Chicken Palace. Divine salad and pizza!
Then we took some family pictures. This whole not-showing-her-face-thing is getting old already. My plan was to take lots of pictures in the colorful leaves and some individual pictures of the kids, but we got 8 pictures and the battery died. smile.
We stopped at the Tahlequah Drug and Soda Shoppe on the way out of town and ordered hand-spun shakes. They were delicious! Who doesn't love to end their day with a large pina colada shake, yes please!

OK- back to spewing. See, the To Do list is So long and nothing gets accomplished. How does that happen? So much to do that nothing gets done?? What?!
I have seen 2 organized mama's move and it seemed like they snapped and their house was done, unpacked, organized and children were all off playing, happily. I daily throw down comparing to others because I am just slow at this whole getting things done thing. I know some of you are laughing be/c you think I get everything done, and quickly, but there is SO MUCH, it is overwhelming. How does 19 kids and counting mom do it with such grace? Please don't knock the Duggers, I really love them.

They say you can hit a 3 month honeymoon wall and I think we hit it with LIFE. Miss Beautiful has been with us since July- that is an adjustment- hello. I took on a new job (homeschooling) in August and we just moved in Sept and I have two kids under four- I had to throw that in. Ok, do you hear the violin's playing? "Get over it," some would say, or "So and So, has it worse." Yes, those two things are true, but this is my life and as I stated above, I am not comparing, I am trying to enjoy my life, my Lord, my husband and my kids. But this week has been a struggle.

Something good in this string of blaaah... I love my new bible I got for my birthday last week. I asked for the Amplified bible. I am crazy over it. I feel like the one I have been reading for 12 years (NIV) is now my elementary school bible and this is my PhD bible. I beyond love the descriptions and added details and am really growing in my love for Him.

My second good thing was starting MOPS this week. My sweet girlfriend has been going to Mothers of Preschoolers for years and this week, I needed some connecting time- so I went and loved it. Now that we are doing school on MWF, I had to let go of some past activities that I enjoyed be/c they do not allow kiddos over 5. I used love bible school: studying the word, discussing questions, eating brunch and socializing (oh and getting dressed in something other than p.j.'s or painting clothes). I thought I would be ok without this, but again, after many months, nope. I need that time and it was renewing for my soul.

My favorite passage this week was 2 Corinthians 12:9, "But He said to me, My grace (My favor and loving-kindness and mercy) is enough for you [sufficient against any danger and enables you to bear the trouble manfully]; for My strength and power are made perfect (fulfilled and completed) and show themselves most effective in [your] weakness. Therefore, I will all the more gladly glory in my weaknesses and infirmities, that the strength and power of Christ (the Messiah) may rest (yes, may pitch a tent over and dwell) upon me!

Yes, pitch a tent over and dwell upon us! Oh how this description lingered in my heart for days.
The Perrymans

New Home

Well, I feel somewhat settled enough to actually catch up on our blog this afternoon, but I still have a twinge of guilt that I am not cleaning house or unpacking boxes. I know the latter is never ending, so I decided to stop and share a post today. Thank you to you all who have called, stopped by, babysat and prayed for us during this time of great transition. And I know two friends have asked to see pictures of our home, so here they are along with some highlights of the last month.
We finished packing our old house and we had just a few items left. Here Adam and the kids are "resting" from all their hard work.
While I was packing I found a tee-shirt I had bought while Nehemiah was a little baby. It is fun to find treasures like this and it fit him perfectly!
We sat outside on the last day and had a picnic lunch.
Then we woke up, packed our final belongings and headed out to have a special p.j. breakfast.
While we moved our kids stayed with the Lydens family and enjoyed having a sleepover at their house. A couple days later grandma Berna watched the kids while we unpacked and they played with precious Jaxson.
Sarah and Avi Joy, along with Nehemiah and Miss Beautiful all started gymnastics together. It is fun for the girls to be in the same class and we are all enjoying this season of life. (And we happen to only live one mile apart now.)
Here are their little toesies... Avi Joy's foot is on the left and Sarah is on the right. Wonder how long they will be the same size?
Here all 3 kiddos are practicing for doing handstands on their own. Nehemiah's is more like a headstand. AND I am so thrilled that Avi Joy is bearing weight on her arms, this will help in her physical delay when she falls, to be able to catch herself with her arms instead of her nose.
One of our very favorite treats of the year is heading out to the State Fair. We enjoyed the yummy food and rides. Miss Beautiful told me later, "Mom, I am so glad you told me before we came to the fair that there were going to be lots of odd people here... there are."
Every time the sisters or dad went on a ride, Nehemiah sat and cried. It was so funny. I mean, I really should not have laughed, but as soon as they were up there, he was scared for them and wanted his family with him!
Moving in and having our first dress-up day!
We all caught some type of sickness the first week we moved in. Sore throats, coughs, major mosquito bites, and more... but one of the funniest was Nehemiah's ear exploded. I am guessing it was some kind of bite, although I could not see any bite anywhere. He just had one huge Dumbo ear all day long, then the hard swollen ear went back to normal by the next day.
Little ham doing an art project in our new backyard.
I also love her morning hair. What is it about kids and precious morning hair? I wish adults could pull off this look and look cute!
Sooooo, here it is! Our new home. It was built in 1965. Four bedrooms, all upstairs, 2 & 1/2 baths and lots of storage and room to grow! It is a barn style, obviously, and I never saw myself living in a home like this, but I just love it. We adore all the huge mature trees in the neighborhood. Simply beautiful. We truly praise God for our new home.
The front yard has rose bushes that are 50 years old. Some have over 200 blooms on them when they are in season. They were transplanted from the previous home owners grandmothers home. He is a funny old guy who popped by this week to tell me to prune them. This could be annoying to some, but I was actually very grateful that he would teach me how to care for them. He actually said, "I realize that am a tough guy who likes to raise hell, but I love roses too." : ) We have a row of small plantation shutters in our living room and every morning a hot pink rose bloomed in the window. OH the little things!
Now to the other little things... Raccoons. We had to have the skunk whisperer come to remove our raccoons in our attic. He said there have been three generations of raccoons living up there! AND they have done extensive damage, like A LOT. And lucky for us it will be covered by our insurance, well 3 weeks of it will. Which is nothing compared to this damage. We learned that inspectors by law cannot put wildlife damage on inspections, so until they came no one knew that it would take about $14,000 to clean, restore, reinsulate and drywall the entire attic. We are not worried about it, but over time, this will be something to tend too.

I often wash dishes with the windows open and love the fresh air and beautiful trees.
We have taken out a row of cabinets that hung very low and was blocking the view to the dining room. We plan on putting some small hanging lights there someday.
And my original 1965 Frigidaire appliances work perfect!
The other big project that we did right when we moved in was take down a wall between two living areas. We really wanted one large living room, instead of a formal and a den.
The results are stunning and so open! We are now doing the hard part and deciding what color to paint the room. Carpet will be in the future and I cannot wait to hang some artwork in this home. I don't like clutter, but I dislike bare walls even more. I know this will make it feel more homey too.
With all this going on I have had my moments of being overwhelmed of course. Still having to cook, clean, do laundry and homeschool, seemed hard when everything needed to be unpacked and put in it's place. I am feeling more balance now and working on praying about it more. In Proverbs 31 there is a verse that talks about the woman laughing at the days to come. I do not want to be so stressed at the To Do List that I forget to have a great time in my home and add laughter to my days to come.
Blessings
The Perryman Family

Makin' mud pies...

All NEW PICS (May, June, July, August and Sum Hop)

We have been counting down the days till we move and are now in the home stretch... 4 nights left. This week I have said things like: this is my last Friday or my last time to drive home from Vietnamese lessons from this direction. Basically, sappy stuff. I am not super sentimental, but have definitely been reminiscing about the last 9 years and all the things that have happened in this home.
Here are just a few...
First home we bought together- moved in our first six months of marriage, bought "real" furniture, had two dogs, hosted multiple wedding showers, multiple baby showers, washed thousands of dishes, brought home three children, painted every room (some a few times, note to all- don't paint a ceiling orange, it will make your carpet look pink). We have had times of sadness, major anxiety and marital fights, but praise the Lord we have had more joy, peace, blessings, cherished moments with family and friends, great meals and laughter that far out weigh the tough times.

It took a lot of courage for me to decide to move, and many tears. I mean A LOT for me to set myself aside and surrender to moving. I felt like a child who lost their security blanket. On paper, there was no reason at all to move. I loved everything about my city, location, house, neighbors, no negatives. It was God who called us to move to a new home. We both had a stirring to move that came out of left field, it was actually odd. (And left me crying every night for a couple weeks. Yes, literally tears, ask my hubby.)
And so we obeyed His direction. But then I set my parameters. I literally handed the Lord a 3 square mile range in which I was willing to move. And it was in the same location as my current home, where I was totally comfortable and knew where everything was.
After about 4 months on the market all we had heard were negatives about our house. "We hate the driveway, ugly garden, outdated faux finish, blue bathroom, too this or that." (BTW, the best one we heard was it was "too country." Umm, what? My house is not country, not ober modern, but not corn husk wreaths and roosters either.)
All the while we were also looking at houses and I hated them all too!! Hated. I felt like it was a lose-lose situation, lose our house and lose by not finding one I liked.
Then one weekend I fully submitted my heart and decided that I really did want God's best. I did not want to pass-up on a great plan just because of my fears. And if you deal with fears, this is easier said than done. Your brain, body, spirit and will, are all at war.
But alas, we began to venture out and found one house that I actually loved. Like, loved like crazy. I dreamt about this house. Loved the price, the size, the age (1965), the area of town, I knew it was something special. But it didn't matter because no one wanted our house.
That same week we cleaned our house really well and dropped our price. That Saturday morning we had 3 showing. Those 3 families made back to back offers within 3 hours on our house. The timing was perfect in every way. And our realtor was just as shocked as we were. She gave credit to the Lord for our house selling and our offer being accepted at our asking price for our new home.
Oh how those details fall into place when we surrender. I learned that sometimes things just don't move until we open those secret passageways of our lives to Him. The Lord desires to reign in all places of our lives. (And trust me, I have many more places to give to Him. Don't we all?)
I memorized a scripture with a friend this summer, one of the lines was Acts 17:32, "For in Him we live and move and have our being." This helped me in a few areas in which I was struggling, but one day I received revelation about this scripture. You see the word? MOVE. Hello, Natasha! IN HIM WE MOVE. It was an ah-ha moment for me, not the, "oh, in You, O Lord, I abide and do life kind of here and there move." NO, it was so literal. In Him, I pack up my house and MOVE. Move because He moved, live where He wants me to live, be where He wants me to be.

Right now the house is about 90% packed into a POD (which by the way, I am a huge fan of the POD system! Pack when I want too). And the rest we are putting in a U-Haul on Wed night. It has truly been an amazing process for our family and we give Glory To God for such a gift as this new home. We pray for a smooth transition this week!

Since we have most of the house packed, I have had to be a bit creative to find things to do around the house with 3 kiddos. One afternoon we decided that we would all go make mud-pies in the backyard. There was a whole kitchen actually. Miss Beautiful was the chef, Nehemiah gathered ingredients and Avi Joy delivered them. And boy were we messy. It was a grand time! (Although the new home owners might not like the patches of mud.)

Crazy over this pic below.

"Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen." Ephesians 3:20-21
The P's

Happy Sum Hop Day

Four years ago today, September 7, 2006, we were standing in court in Ninh Thuan, Vietnam, becoming a forever family.
We are filled with deep gratitude thinking upon our great love for Avi Joy. We are beyond blessed to have her as our daughter. And as I told her so today, she responded, "Yeah, and I am not anybody elses."
She is our girl through and through and we are so thankful to the Lord and to her birthmother for allowing her to be our child. She is pure joy, wise, patient, loving beyond compare, gentle, smart, talented, seriously- simply amazing.

Here we are hanging out at our hotel in Vietnam. Age 5 months.
Sum Hop Day 2007. Age 1 1/2.
Sum Hop Day 2008. Age 2 1/2.
Sum Hop Day 2009. Age 3 1/2.
Sum Hop Day 2010. Age 4 1/2.
Sum Hop in Vietnamese means, "to come together, to unite." We celebrate our Sum Hop day by going somewhere fun as a family (this year will be Incredible Pizza) and by taking pictures in traditional Ao Doi, the native Vietnamese dress. We also made a delicious cake to eat after dinner.
This year we were able to wear one of the dresses that Miss Anna, her Vietnamese teacher, gave to us. I love that I can see the stitching of each bead on the inside. I revel in the thought that someone in HCMC was sitting (probably on an itty-bitty plastic stool) hand stitching this beautiful ao doi for my baby!

I am head-over-heels for all these pictures of Avi Joy in ao doi, she is so beautiful. (And I will be posting all soon.)

The verse that popped into my mind about Avi Joy has a preceding story.
One morning we stopped at a donut shop that we had never been too before. We went in and sat down and Avi Joy said, "Mom, I am going to sit on this side, facing away from the t.v., because Sponge Bob is on and that is not an appropriate show for me to watch."
Wow the praise she received for desiring to keep her eyes pure and also willingly obey her parents rules. She excels in character and the following verse reminds me of her:
"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things." Philippians 4:8

The Perryman's

Freeze

Because of our upcoming move we are going on a spending freeze for the month of September!
Like most all families, there have been hard months for us of course. I remember the first month I stayed home when we went from 2 incomes to 1, (and we had added a child), Adam called and said, "We have $80, do not spend another dime!"
Well we all are forced to spend-no-more-or-else at some time, but this is an on purpose financial freeze. We want to wisely save as much as we can in the next 4 weeks, so we can use the money we save in other areas.
While moving this month, we know things are going to pop up that need fixing or replacing. Could be a little, could be a lot, and we want to be prepared.
And we don't want something to arise in which we have to say, "Oh, no, we just spent all our extra money.. cannot buy light bulbs this month."
We also want to have the house cleaned professionally. This is not for everyone, but our new house was built in 1965 and has been setting empty for 15 months. I do not have the energy to pack our house, then clean our new house and unpack our new house. I know my limits and I am willing to save in some areas to spend in this area.
AND *nerd alert* the first week of Oct is one of our family traditions- eating dinner at the Tulsa State Fair. For us, it is about the food, not the rides, but this dinner is worth saving for!

We plan to do this in many ways. One is by only eating at home for the month. No lunches out for Adam at work, no lunch out after church for the family, no purchasing little odds/ends that we need, a total and complete freeze. We obviously will have to buy gas, and if I can get away with not buying more milk, fruit or veggies, I will be able to stay away from shopping all-together. We are also cancelling cable and made the switch to using minute cell phones instead of a plan. (Wow that savings was a shocker.) I am so curious about how much we will save not buying one single thing this month?? Have you ever done this?

Here is our menu for the month. I have never done a monthly menu before, I usually do every 2 weeks worth of groceries/menu, but it seemed necessary to take inventory of what we had and go with it.
Our menu does not include two daily snacks, veggies with meals or the usual morning fruit shake. Nor does this include our sweets. We plan on a few of these things: Puppy chow, homemade ice cream, nutella on anything, baked cinnamon apples and baklava.

Most items are homemade (like pizza pockets, sandwich bread or waffles from scratch), a few things are packaged, like the cheese ravioli. But in general, we shoot for scratch. (Maybe that is the title for my future food blog- Shoot for Scratch. Hmmm. We mainly to this to be healthy and for better taste.)

Menu:

1. Oatmeal- Cheese Nachos w/beans- Eggplant Parm
2. Quiche- Grilled cheese- Crock Pot Green chicken wraps
3. Biscuits and gravy- grilled chicken salad- pizza pockets (freeze 1/2)
4. Donuts*- pulled pork (freeze 1/2)- pasta w/cauliflower
5. Oatmeal- Eggrolls and rice- Baked potato w/ chili (freeze 1/2)
6. Pancakes- Pressed Sandwiches- Coconut chicken
7. Cereal- beanie weenies- Sum Hop Day @ Incredible Pizza*
8. Banana bread- Sandwiches-Lasagna (freeze 1/2)
9. P.B. Granola bars- Ravioli- Leftover Thursday Dinner
10. Eggs and sausage- Cucumber sandwiches- sloppy joes
11. Waffles- Chicken Salad- Ham and Egg breakfast for dinner
12. Greek yogurt w/fruit- Mac & Cheese w/fish-sticks- Jambalaya
13. Quiche- Leftover Lunch- Sundried Tomato Pasta
14. Cereal- Grilled Cheese- Chicken and Dumplings
15. Oatmeal- Ramen- Tacos
16. Breakfast pizza- Veggie lunch- Leftover Thursday
17. Waffles- Grilled chicken- Chili
18. Yogurt parfait- Pigs in a blanket- Chicken Tikki
19. P.B. Toast w/honey- Egg and Sausage biscuits- Nacho Bar
20. Banana muffins- leftover lunch- Turkey Burgers
21. Pancakes- Bean burritos- Cornbread w/ ham and beans
22. Breakfast pizza- Tuna sandwich- Spaghetti w/ turkeyballs
23. French Toast- Chicken Casadillas- Leftover Thursday
24. Cereal- Pulled pork- Chicken pot pie
25. Fruit salad- bacon wrapped chicken- Baked potato soup
26. P.B. Granola Bars- Can soup lunch- Ranch chicken and carrots
27. Egg and Bacon- Leftover lunch- Naan Pizzas
28. Cereal- Ramen- Lasagna
29. Waffles- pizza pockets- Pot stickers
30. Oatmeal- Beanie weenies- Leftover Thursday

*There are two things on this menu that we are going out for... it is the donuts and Incredible Pizza. My father is coming into town from Atlanta to meet Miss Beautiful and see our new house. We have a (once a month) family tradition of Saturday morning donuts. We may go ahead and do this with him, not sure. We want too celebrate, yet want to do the whole month too. But her Sum Hop Day (Avi Joy's fourth Forever family day) must be celebrated. She has chosen I.P. the last 3 years.

In making this menu I realized many things about us. We eat a lot of chicken for one and there is not too much variety in ways of fish/seafood and I can see we love breakfast foods!
I also do not cook with red meat. I use varieties of turkey instead. Turkey hot dogs, turkey sausage, Italian turkey, turkey pepperoni for the pizza pockets... all very good!

Beautiful made a fun calendar for us to X off each day. I already look forward to that!
A countdown to moving and a daily reward for saving.
And since we are on a new kick, here is a picture of something new. Think this is in another country?? No, sadly, this idol has been newly built, 3 miles from my current house. It is built between the Hindu temple and Buddhist temple right next to where we take Vietnamese lessons. I could see it a mile away. Made my heart so sad.
"But their idols are silver and gold, made by the hands of men.
They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but they cannot see; they have ears, but cannot hear, noses, but they cannot smell; they have hands, but cannot feel, feet, but they cannot walk; nor can they utter a sound with their throats. Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them." Psalm 115: 4-8

The Perryman's

A New Chapter

Well before we get on with the pics, which I know is the main reason you are here, I must share some good news... we sold our house! After 4+ months of hearing the crickets (more like hearing the words, "we hate your steep driveway"), we had several showings on Saturday morning and not 1, nor 2, but 3 couples made offers on our house! Wow. I have learned so much. I plan to blog about this process of surrendering soon. It was a long tearful journey, but the Lord is faithful to care for His children. Now onto searching for our new home.
In other news: We thrived in our first week of homeschooling. Our Beautiful attends a school on T/Th and we do all other subjects on MWF. She is taking fun things at school (such as stage craft and hands on science) and we are doing the core curriculum at home plus things like typing and art lessons.
Our bonding is going great. We are all gelling nicely and we have the privilege to watch this precious flower bloom right before our eyes. His faithfulness again... seeing Beautiful have new friends, love church, make great grades and return love to her family.
WE ARE SENDING OUT ANNOUNCEMENTS WITH PICTURES THIS WEEK. FACEBOOK ME YOUR ADDRESS OR EMAIL ME OR LEAVE IT AS A COMMENT (if you dare : ) AND WE WILL SEND ONE TO YOU!

Avi Joy's self-portrait titled, "Avi Joy dressed in Ao Doi."
We started a weekly devo/craft family night. It has been beyond my expectations. I have learned two new things from teaching them. 1. That after Hannah gave Samuel to the Lord, she went on to have 5 more children for her faithfulness. Who knew!!! 2. That Adam and Eve made clothes for themselves out of leaves, but then God killed the animals (the first sacrifice for sin) and made clothing to cover them with the animal's skin.
We are going through the book, "Bible Explorations, 52 Activities for Christian Learning," by Janice VanCleave and here is one of our activities. Cut Adam and Eve paper dolls. (One side was clothes they made and the other was clothing made by God.)
OH this little joyjoy is one of the most amazing people I have ever known.
Her cooking show, "Cooking with Joy."
This picture cracks me up. Check out Nehemiah's face. They were playing spa day and giving Avi Joy a massage. They were karate chopping up and down her back and he was realllly into it. HA! Only when a NanNa owns a spa would kids play spa day. (my mom)
Unexpected blessing... Over the summer I was able to give some private art lessons to my friend Tuyet. We met at Vietnamese language school as she was Avi Joy's teacher. Co Tuyet has 4 kiddos and they all came over for lessons throughout the summer. Her two girls have grown out of a handful of traditional Ao Doi's and they gave them to us as a gift. Can you believe that?! GAVE them to us. I love these Ao Doi's sooo much. They are all from HCMC and handmade.
OK. Totally honest here. This boy is a through and through classic Vietnamese man. Always havin shirts open, messy hair, skinny legs, squattin, rice eating type of man. He fits this to a tee.
Adam and I celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary. We got into the attic and pulled out our old VHS wedding video and let the kids watch it. There was much awww's at the dancing (the good) and the uwooo gross (the kiss). I really enjoyed watching it with them.
Our last day at the pool for the summer. We loved having a local pool where we could spend the day, have a picnic and soak in the last days of summer before starting school.
Beautiful letting the kids play with a frog. Nehemiah was mega scared of the frog and would not touch it, but after a while he would at least set in her lap and watch it jump around.
Need anything fixed around your house? I highly recommend Naked Nehemiah's Home Improvements.
I was able to do a few back to school projects for some local teachers. Here is a school bench that says, "All good things are wild and free," Henry David Thoreau. She wanted it red with leopard print, stripes and heavily distressed.
My sweet girlfriend (in the middle) who lives in Kenya, Africa, was able to make a quick trip to the states as a grandparent on both her side and her hubby's side passed away this month. I lived with these two girls for 4 years during college. We were able to have an hour with my mom at the spa and have dinner with all our families (8 kids between us).
Here is a more accurate picture. I love to see them laughing. They are amazing. The sisters of my heart. The other friend on the right will be leaving soon to serve in India for 4 years.
We made a little purse out of an old tee-shirt. I turned it inside out and sewed the three sides together... I used the collar as the opening. Super cute and sew easy!
A passage that helped me during the transition of letting go of our home...
"Whatever the Lord our God has given us, we will possess." Judges 11:24
Really the whole chapter brought me great encouragement. It is odd reading, but that is just how reading God's Word works, it may not seem like it will apply, then zap, encouragement.

The Perryman Family