We have had a busy summer so far!

This is me and my boys riding on Thomas at the Mt. Hood Railroad last week. They loved it!

We didn't have any big plans for the 4th of July, which was ok with us. We went to the "General Canby Days" at Wait Park and enjoyed a parade, lots of booths, and saw many friends there. I particularly enjoyed the book sale at the library--a whole boat load of books for only $5! I love books. Here are the boys on the 4th:

Here is a photo of us with some of our friends from our Home Community Group. Our friends Joe and Karen are moving to Montana, where Joe is going to teach in a 2 room school house and have only 13 students in his class. Talk about a teacher's dream job! Cool. Karen has blonde hair and is wearing black, and Joe has dark hair and facial hair. My hubby, Karry, is in between them. The others are Geoff, Celina & Katryn. We were playing "Catch Phrase."

We got a kitty for the boys, as you can see, in Karen's hair in the photo below. Her name is Persia and she's a sweetheart. We'd considered a kitty and a puppy, but loved our cat so much that we decided on more cats. So 1 week after getting Persia, we went to the shelter to get her momma, who we named Esther (you know, Queen of Persia) and also got a little boy kitty and named him Mordecai. We don't have any photos of Esther or Mordecai yet, they hang out under our bed most of the time. Amazingly, our boys, who used to be afraid of all animals, are really enjoying these cats.

Here is my hubby, Karry, at the zoo today, with the boys. We were in the little elephant museum thing, which we thought might be a door to an indoor viewing area for the actual elephants. We've been wrong before. :) 

     Let's see, what else has happened lately? I did a "book club" with 3 other ladies who I appreciate and enjoy. We read through Rick McKinley's Jesus in the Margins. This last Sunday they all came to my home and we had sweet dialogue and iced tea. FUN times! I appreciated the adult, intelligent conversation. "Mommy, can you fill my sippy cup?" and "Mommy I went poopy!" just doesn't challenge me intellectually. Not to say my boys don't challenge me. Oh my. Like my friend Jenne said, she feels like she's on the biggest roller coaster of learning she's ever been on since having kids. Likewise, I am always learning and I'm loving it.

     Lately, God's been teaching me more about GRACE. More and more, I am realizing, that there are so many external things in this world that we get caught up in, and I think Satan likes that. God wants His believers to be united in Him, and we segregate ourselves like we are different classes of animals at the zoo.

     Another book I recently read and enjoyed was: Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith by Rob Bell. I really liked that book and recommend it. I just picked up Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller and am so far enjoying that. If you get any of these books, please use my Amazon affiliate on the left (unless you can find them at your local library!). I usually make affiliate links everywhere I need to, I just don't have the energy right now. :)

     My oldest two are in swimming lessons right now, which is fun. We're going camping soon, that will be fun. Karry and our friend Joe (the one who is moving at the end of this week) are using a push-tractor thing in our back yard to create a nice area for our play structure. The boys are going to LOVE that.

     I am considering a new diet, but this is hard for me...I love sugar...and beef. I sometimes feel weak if I don't have beef often enough. (I'm also type O, if you buy into the blood type theories). I need to try something to help me feel better though. You might have noticed in the top picture that my face was red--and that wasn't a sunburn. It's been like that just about every day for about 7 months now. Why? I don't know for sure. l wake up every morning as stiff and achy as an old hunchback woman! Seriously...I can barely walk when I first wake up, and also in the evenings. I get sick from foods I eat--icky awful stomach aches from pizza, and Mexican food, and many Italian foods...My temp is often high, and I'm getting sore throats and colds at least once per month. There's more, I just have a hard time remembering it all at once. Many days I feel fatigued and weak and have a hard time with the daily stuff. I go on adrenaline highs where I have a burst of energy and try to do a bunch--like yesterday. I even brought 3 kids 4 and under to the grocery store by myself! Big day! Then I crashed last night and have felt awful all day today. Karry said he was worried about me at the zoo because I was walking "1 mile per hour"....I just get slow and tired, especially out in the sun...At times like that, I feel like I can't see beyond what is right in front of me, and it takes too much muscle work and energy to talk or smile, and I feel like a big slice of Jell-O and just want to lay down. Is this too much information? I guess, well, you could all pray for me. I want to be able to have energy to bring my son to the giraffes like he was begging, instead of having to leave because mommy doesn't feel good. And I'd love to be able to go to the zoo with my kids without needing my husband there to help (like the other moms who were there with other moms and their kids...).

     So like I said, I think this diet seems like a good idea. Getting healthy just seems SMART right now. I'm not overweight, but I could lose 10 lbs and it wouldn't hurt me (I'd prefer to actually). My doctor has said that my symptoms (along with a positive ANA test with a titer of 640) looks like it could be early Lupus. But he doesn't know for sure, and I'm not officially diagnosed with Lupus...just feeling icky with no real answers....But I was reading in the book Prescription for Nutritional Healing and saw a good list of things to eat and things to avoid, and supplements to take for Lupus. I think I will try it. It can't hurt.

Well, I must say, I've babbled enough for tonight. Now it's time to grab the salmon out of the freezer and figure out some magical thing to do with it for dinner, pop some potatoes in the oven, figure out what to do with the corn on the cob I got yesterday (grill it?) and then get the boys to swimming lessons....yet another BIG day! Yikes...tomorrow I will rest. :)