When You Just Can't Blog...

.....but you sit down and try anyway because there are so many thoughts swirling through your brain that maybe if you let just a few out, the rest can keep still awhile longer.

It's quiet in the house right now, the children are enjoying an hour of reading time, the raspberries are picked, the fresh bread is sliced and in the freezer, the kitchen is tidy, and I am at the computer with a head full of jumbling thoughts.

The last month has been an adventure. Leon and I spent almost 2 weeks on a mission trip to Costa Rica and Nicaragua with our youth group while our 4 children were having the time of their lives with their "South Carolina cousins". The day after we arrived home, the boys went to camp for 5 days. Next week the girls and I go on a 4 day jaunt with my Mom and sisters to Oklahoma, my Mom's old stomping grounds, as a birthday gift for my Mom. We'll be home 4 days and then we all head to TN for a Stutzman family gathering. In between traveling, we have a garden to tend, a yard to mow, and a house to maintain. I'm trying to keep our at-home schedule calm and stress-free.

God did so many amazing things for us on our mission trip. Wow! Just wow! Somehow we thought it would be life-changing for the youth kids, but it surprised us in a lot of ways the impact it had on Leon and I. Random people spoke into our current situation and the Holy Spirit revealed Himself to us over and over again. Right now, most of this stuff is buried inside of me and I'm slowly mulling over it bit by bit.

We are at an incredibly fun stage with our family. We just love, love all the fun things we can do together, and all the crazy laughter, and the deep, serious talks we can have too. Sometimes we say to each other, "Was that too much to share with our kids?"  but they love to be able to sit down with us and hear what God is doing in our hearts and to hear the direction He's leading our family in. Sometimes I think adults take for granted how children think, and brush them off as not old enough to "get it" when in fact, they "got it" a long time ago.






a fun bike ride back in May-

Umbrellas and little girls-

A week before mission trip, I flew to Colorado with my Mom for the wedding of my niece, Naomi. Here I am with my sisters and my Mom.

 And with the beautiful bride.

We celebrated Father's Day early in June because we knew we'd be traveling when Father's Day rolled around. These next several pictures are so true to life for the kind of Dad my children have. Here we are- home from church, so, so hungry for Sunday lunch, and Leon sees a bird's nest way up in the tree. So he gets the ladder and hoists the girls up, one by one, in their Sunday finery, to see the little birds. This is a very normal scene at our house. Our children are incredibly blessed to have such an amazing Dad!

Good-bye, for now.