My Husband...

...spoiled me...

surprised me...

...gifted me...

with the best possible things! A new Viking hand mixer (I mix everything by hand now!) and a belgian waffle maker! It's like Christmas... in September. I love them, and I love him. It's wonderful!

Love in Him,

Taiya

Summer

 I don't want to bore you (or myself when I read back over this), so I do have some photos, but I am going to be having a lot of text, I think.

It's been an... illuminating summer, I guess. I've stayed away from blogging itself because I just have had a lot to pray about and work on. A *lot. Obviously, as a simple human and not Christ himself, that will be a lifelong endeavor. I'm fine with that, though. :) 

I can't believe it's almost time for school! I've tried to be really intentional about enjoying our summer, though, and I really have. :) We've not gone a lot of places, but we've had such a full summer. The last month has gone by in a blur of childcare, canning, and gardening, but in a good way. We seem to have plenty of time for everything we want to do, and no time for cleaning. ha! That hasn't even stressed me out, though. I get so caught up in the little irritations that I lose that time to relax when I am doing other things with the family. So I've been very intentionally praying about it, letting it go, and moving on. It's caused such deeper relaxation, this realization that it doesn't matter. Not just *knowing it doesn't matter, because, hello, I know that in my head, but actually *understanding it. Obviously it doesn't happen all the time, it's a process, but we've just had a great summer around here. :)

I've been piling stuff up, getting ready for School for Little Missy. We're going to have so much fun! 

I love the way school supplies look all fresh and clean. Oh, wait... scratch the 'clean' part. :)

My sweet Little Missy.

Sweet Eeq. Love them both so much! 

 What I've been canning! It's been a lot of slicing, dicing and chunking!

Pretty much the one crafty thing I did all summer. ha! I saw one of these chunky bracelets somewhere so I bought a couple of charms and a bracelet, then just put on a bunch of random stuff that I had in my craft supplies. The feather looking teal beads came off of a pair of earrings that my grandma sent me. They weren't my style to wear, but I love how they look!

I have peaches, tomatoes, and green peppers to process today, so I am off to get working!

Love in Him,

Taiya

Yum!

A friend showed me this link. You're welcome.

Love in Him,

Taiya

I Got An App For That

who knew they had an app for blogger? I just found out! Awesome!

Well now...

  I can't seem to keep up here. :) It's summer so we're busy. Also, we just had a fun round of ear infections and strep throat the last 2 weeks. Just for giggles. 

  I've been working in the garden, working in the house, picking fruit, processing fruit and all-out enjoying this beautiful weather! The girls and I have been doing a lot of playing outside, lately. We are absolutely having the best weather this summer! It's been warm, but not too hot most days and just nice out. I bought a slip n slide, which they like sitting on and getting wet. :) I got it for some friend's kids who were coming over for a couple of days, but my kids like to walk on it and sit on their butts and get water on themselves. Cheap entertainment. 

We have two kittens right at the moment. Jack and Spike. Spike will be going to my mom's house, but Jack is sweet and a keeper! He loves the kids and is really just a lovey sweet baby. I will post some photos soon of stuff, since it's way more interesting than my rambling!

We are going to be in a yard sale tomorrow so I am working, working, working on packing stuff up for that. More later, I think. ha

 Love in Him,

Taiya

 

Intervention

Much to the detriment of... well.. anyone who has a cell phone that accepts photos, and, well...  all of my facebook friends... someone gave me a smart phone with a camera on it. I am sure all smart phones have cameras, but, um.. well.. it needs to be said. I can.not. stop. taking. pictures. And possibly sending them to everyone I know, and facebook. Maybe. Just a little. 

Here are 5 of the photos I took... yesterday. Yep. Yesterday. 

 I am 

fairly certain

that my friends and family

will start calling for an intervention

very soon. 

Love in Him,

Taiya

Catch Up

I'm going to attempt to play catch up here. I've been really busy lately with this and that, so I really haven't time for blogging. I've barely had time for sleeping. Which seems odd, since I don't *do a lot, but somehow, I do actually do a lot. 

I'll just post some photos for now, and try to come back for a wordier (but not novel-like) post.

This is sweet Eeq in the Birthday Dress that Grandma. 

This is my 1-year-old, (Yes, ONE year old) Eeq. How did she grow so fast? How I love her! How could I not?

I made 2 cakes for Eeq's bday. One worked. One didn't. 

Birthday BBQ

 My awesome drink thingy!

A smile for Grandma. :) 

She had this "Why are you watching me eat!" look on her face the whole time she was eating her cake.