Without Words

Conveniences

Last Friday a there was a car crash up the hill from us. The crash caused a power surge that fried our fridge and the surge protector on our computer. Thankfully the computer was fine, but we have now been without a fridge for a week. (I guess we are not completely without a fridge because a kind neighbor has let us put our food in her fridge all week. We've also been using a cooler in our kitchen.)

This week has really reminded me of some of the blessings that I take for granted. It really is a wonderful thing to be able to put food in the fridge and have it stay fresh and cold. It is a wonderful thing to be able to take a hot shower whenever I want instead of having to haul water and heat it. Air conditioning is really nice too! Could you imagine if we didn't have any of these things?

Though it has been inconvenient for me, I count it as a blessing that I had something to remind me of how richly blessed I am. I also have a very clean fridge!

The Destruction

 

Here it is!  I actually remembered to take a picture before dark.  Isn't it lovely?

A day at the lake

Today Cary took us to a lake about 45 min. from our house.  We had a wonderful time!  We have wanted to do more activities like this this summer, but Cary's work has made it difficult.  We rented a 16' pontoon boat for an hour, and had lunch on the water.

 

Maddie and Gwyn found their seats right away.

Cary gave each child a chance to drive. 

Everett did pretty well with a little coaching.

 

The girls enjoyed watching the wake.

After our boat ride, Cary took Everett, Gwyn, and Maddie to the playground while I fed Lana.  Then we headed to the beach.  Everett had a blast.  Afterwards he said, "I want to live here."

As usual, Lana was intrepid and waded in to mouth level.  Gwyn was also pretty brave, but wanted to hold our hands when we got deeper.  Maddie at least went in the water this time!  They all enjoyed it immensely.

Lana's favorite activity was chasing the seagulls.

It was a little tricky keeping track of four children who all wanted to go in different directions, but it went well.  We definitely needed two sets of eyes!

Today I ripped apart my house

Surprise, Cary!

We had decided to replace the siding on the porch, so while he was at school (during the girls' nap) I ripped off about 42' sq. of it.  I have already spent hours scraping paint off of the posts and rail, so right now the front of our house looks really bad.  Hopefully we'll be able to complete the job soon!

Here is a "before" picture.  It was taken before we moved in, so it doesn't show my flowerbed and hanging baskets.  It also doesn't show how the paint was peeling before I started this project.

I will post pictures of the destruction soon.  I've been working until nightfall and always forget to take a picture until it's too late!

How we manage

Now that the crazy first months of the girls' lives are long past, I wish I would have photographically recorded more of how we actually got through it!  There were over 700 bottles per month in the beginning.  We used about 1000 diapers the first month.  I don't even want to think about all the spit-ups.  At times it wasn't pretty.  But it was beautiful--four precious little children, all taken care of somehow.

In many ways, things have gotten a lot easier.  Mostly, it's just different.  I thought I'd take some time to document some things were doing now.  Today it will be "the church bag".  Each Sunday, we attend three hours of church meetings.  The first hour we are all together as a congregation.  This means that we have to find ways to keep the children quiet in our row of seats for an hour. (Eventually they will actually be paying attention, but we're not even close to that right now.)  So we try to bring activities that won't be disruptive.  They need to be interesting, but not so interesting that our kids break out into fights over who gets to play with what!  Here's what we had in our bag this week:

Books

These are my preferred activity, especially when they are religious.  Books with flaps, activities, or magnets keep them quietly occupied for a while--at least a few minutes.

Puppets

Audio Adapters

Yes, this is definitely not normal, but it keeps them busy!

Small plastic farm animals

Little purse filled with old cards

Magna-doodles

 

We also have to give Lana one feeding at church, so that calls for a laptop with a movie and her feeding supplies.  After the first hour, we go to separate classes.  I wish I had more pictures of the children all dressed for church, but Sundays tend to be a bit crazy!  One of my current goals is to be more prepared on Saturday so that Sundays will be a little more relaxed.

Hats

Lana fell in love with this pink Easter hat. This is what it used to look like:

The picture above is of Gwyn at the girls' second birthday party. (Looking back at those photos almost made me panic. They are growing up so fast!!! Sometimes I almost wish I could hit a pause button. I'm so busy trying to be a good mother and take care of everyone that I don't notice them changing day to day.)

Well, the brim on the hat kept getting smaller and smaller. Now it is gone completely. I figured I'd better take one last picture before the hat goes in the trash--maybe. Lana has gone a few days without wearing the hat.

And Gwyn has decided she really likes this one:

I love how her little curls stick out in front. They're usually curlier than that, but her hair is starting to get long enough to lose a little of its curl. (Once again, can we hit that pause button? I'm glad I take lots of pictures.)