Introducing....

Deklan Ray Sparks ~ Born June 27, 2011 ~ 9 lbs. 15 oz. and 22 in

Here is the newest cousin to join the fun.  Only a baby could make me wish I lived in Linton! :)

So Much for the Lazy Days of Summer

So far our summer has been nothing like I thought it would be.  Plans keep changing or getting cancelled all together.  Both mine and Cameron's mother have had trips to the emergency room.  Thankfully, they are both fine now.   Out of the last 17 days, I have been home four.  It most certainly has not been boring around here!

First we went to my parents for me to help a friend get some painting done.  My mom and sister watched the girls while I went to paint.  We came home for three days and then left to go to a week of church camp.  It was a great week, with great weather and lots of fun with cousins, friends and grandparents.  I worked in the kitchen as a cook all week with my sister Valerie and two other ladies.  We had a great time and were totally exhausted by Wednesday!  I don't remember which day it was, but one morning three of us cooks, and Kate too, went back to our cabins after breakfast and took naps! 

Callie and her friend Katie (in the pink jacket) during the memory work "contest"

We got home from camp Saturday morning, we were gone pretty much the whole day on Sunday and then Monday my sister Alyson's baby Finally decided to come into this world.   He's been a bit of a stinker.  First he wanted to come too early, then he decided to come after the due date!  My sister is quite the trooper.  Deklan Ray Sparks arrived around 2:30 PM.  He weighed........9 lbs and 15 oz!!  AND he was 22 inches long.  One of my friends said she gave birth to a toddler!! LOL 

In the midst of all this excitement, a very special purchase and subsequent delivery was made.  The girls have been saving for quite some time for Julie and Ivy.  Now to those of you who do not have little girls, those are American Girl dolls.  Julie and Ivy are dolls that represent the 70's.  Julie has long blonde hair and Ivy is her Chinese friend.  Very appropriate, yes?  I have been very proud of how hard they have both worked to earn these dolls and how patient they have been.  Here they are before taking all of their cash to the bank. 

Do you think they were excited?

We have doll pictures and baby pictures to share, but it will have to wait. :)  I'm going to bed!

Happy Father's Day

The girls and I will be leaving for church camp tomorrow and leaving poor Cameron on Father's Day.  He will probably be thankful for the peace and quiet for a while.  We want tell some of the reasons why we are thankful to God for giving us such a wonderful Daddy, Babba and husband. 

When behind closed doors,Cameron is incredibly funny.  He does great impersonations that keep us laughing. 

He is much more patient and easy going than I am.  If it was up to him, the girls would stay up all night and he wouldn't even be grouchy the next day.

Callie's exact words were, "He's funny and patient and kind"

He is generous.  Kate is thankful for the little things he brings home, like Prancer (stuffed animal)

"He let us get Lilly"--guess who said that one.

"I'm thankful to make cards for him"

Callie can guarantee that anytime she wants to watch a movie, Daddy will say "yes".

We all love to go to the interesting places to eat that Mommy would have never had the courage to try otherwise.

We are all thankful that he's willing to wash dishes.  Okay, the girls could probably care less, but I am thankful!!

I can count on one hand the times he has shown that he is angry with me, even though I am sure there have been more.   I'm sorry to say, he couldn't say the same thing.

He has always worked really hard to provide for us.

He loves my cooking.

He encourages my creative projects and doesn't mind when they include temporary messes.  Sometimes those "temporary" messes can drag on for a while. :)

He takes his role as spiritual leader very seriously, even when it makes him a little unpopular.

He loves us.  I can honestly say that he would rather spend time with us than anyone and loves for us all to be together no matter what the activity is.  Except for Date Nights of course!

I have heard it said that girls often marry men like their father.  In some ways that has been true for me.  I always thought my dad was the greatest and I think Cameron is the greatest husband and father that we could ever have!

{This Moment}

pictures courtesy of Callie

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.
Visit Soulemama for more.

{This Moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

                                    Visit Soulemama if you're inspired to do the same.

True Gratitude

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing.  In everything give thanks, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.  I Thessalonians 5:18

This verse is often easier said than done.  It's easy to rejoice and give thanks when we are having fun, being creative, going on interesting field trips or trying new foods.  It's not so easy when sickness comes, there is whining, plans have to change and more serious sickness comes to others we love.  "Rejoice always."  I think that may be harder than some of the more controversial parts of the Bible.  I can have faith and believe in things I can't see or understand way better than I can have a good attitude when things are hard at home.  But this is God's will for me.  I will be blessed if I even try to do it and my children will see my example.  Hopefully they see the trying more than they see the failing and my own version of whining.

301.  Solitude-haven't really had any lately, but boy when I do I am going to be very thankful! :)

302.  Things that work-I'm pretty bummed about some things that aren't working around here.   The van and camera (mine) to be specific.  But do you know what IS working.  AIR CONDITIONING.  Praise God!! 

303.  A flexible husband with a somewhat flexible job.  Made our change of plans this week a little less stressful and makes the van not working right a lot less stressful.

304.  Peony's in bloom.

305.  Plans still to look forward to.  Hopefully we will be getting together with one of Kate's friends from China (and her mother, our friend too) this week.  I'm praying for sore throats to be healed and fevers and whining to be gone!

306.  Grandparents.....who better be doing what the doctors ordered!!!!!

307.  New haircuts

308.  Kate's list--Kate wanted to know what I was doing and wanted to join in too.  These are her exact words.

Nie Nie (what we call my mom, Chinese for Grandmother.  I actually can't remember if I'm spelling it right.)
Jesus
our dog
tree house
this beautiful day
Callie's ballet
our house
Dr. Pepper, just kidding
us making our peacocks
the Orr's making our house
our flowers

I really have nothing to complain about!  And yes, I know it's not Monday. :)

{These Moments}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.   Visit Soulemama for more.

One of Those Days

Yesterday was one of those days.  Not one where you wish you had never gotten out of bed in the first place, but one that was so good, you wish every day could be that way.  Even bedtime went well and no one lost their cool.  It seems like someone, big or small is always losing it at bedtime. 

Anyway, it started out with a walk with a dear friend, then home to make breakfast for everyone.  Even before we ate though, the girls and I planted some sunflower seeds and did some watering before it got hot.  I figured there was no point in going inside and cooling off just to have to go back out and get all sweaty again.  We picked a large bowl of lettuce to make a salad with for lunch.  I picked it all since it's getting so warm. 

photo by Callie

I mentioned in a previous post that I had plans to dye some yarn with the girls.  I was able to do that with each girl individually which was really great.  It's not that it is that hard, but it was something that we had never done before and we had a couple of challenges along the way.  Cameron was able to take Kate with him for a couple of hours so Callie and I did her yarn first.  Right away, I realized we were not going to be able to follow the directions.  We were suppose to put the yarn in a large Pyrex dish and microwave after coloring the yarn.  Well here is what my microwave looks like.

 Yes, it's almost vintage!  And tiny!  I've always liked it that way.  I don't cook in it, just heat up left overs.  So....we baked our yarn in the oven.  I was terrified we were going to burn it and ruin this beautiful, hand spun yarn.   We didn't though.  It turned out great.

Callie's yarn

Kate came home and we worked on hers.  She did great!  I wasn't sure how long she would last since it's not a really fast process, but she stuck around for the whole thing.  She calls the yarn her rainbow.

After cleaning all this mess up it was time to start supper.  I made baked chicken and potatoes and spinach, Indian style.  The potato dish has a name, but I can't remember what it is.  Kate actually ate about 6 bites of the potatoes and spinach!!  After that she said it was "too spicy".  I was just thrilled that she ate any of it.

Callie made cookies for dessert.  She made up her own recipe and she wouldn't let me in the kitchen.  It was suppose to be a surprise.  These were the ingredients:  flour, honey, unsweetened chocolate chunks, peanut butter.  For the frosting she melted more unsweetened chocolate and added sugar.  They weren't too bad.  The needed some leavening but with the dark chocolate icing, they were quite edible.
This evening we go to visit the sheep that our yarn came from.  I think the girls are really going to enjoy that too.

Now, before anyone thinks it all sounds too good, let me assure you....I have three loads of unfolded laundry on the love seat and at 11:15pm I still had dirty dishes in the sink.  There's more I could tell you but I won't. Ha!

Yarn Along

I was excited to be able to participate in Jenny's Yarn Along last week and had my post all ready except for the pictures.  Then Blogger went crazy and I couldn't get to my blog on the computer with the pictures.  I am thankful that it was Blogger's problem though, and not my computer, which has been known to have a few issues of it's own!

I have been working on two items that I am really excited about.  Both are gifts.  The light brown is a blanket in seed stitch.  I found the pattern at  http://www.purlbee.com/.  I didn't get the yarn there and I can't say I'm crazy about this yarn, but it meets the criteria of being chunky and washable.

The red item is a hat with ear flaps from the book "Knitting for Baby" which I got at the library.  I'm really excited that I've been able to figure out how to do it, so far, without help.  Unless you count http://www.knittinghelp.com/. :)

I've mostly been just reading with Callie and Kate this week.  We are starting India in our geography studies so I have a big stack of those right now from the Library.  Even for my 5th grader, good picture books and a couple of biographies are such a better way to learn about a country than boring texts books!  The learning is so much more interesting and personal.  Kate sometimes sits with us and listens too.  They have been pretending to be Indian all week.  They are making sure the look is complete with dots on their foreheads and Kate has been going around pretending like she doesn't speak English after we watched our favorite travel videos on India.