My Heart

 

This beautiful babe of mine just makes my heart smile.  

This one too!

Not So Golden

This golden girl hasn't been so golden the last couple of days.  That's right...she's sick.  I guess she didn't read my previous post about how we are going to be healthy this year!:)  Since Joe, Eli, and I were all sick last week I guess it was inevitable.  Except that she seems to be quite a bit worse off.  I also happen to know that there's lots of crud going on around here...at soccer this morning I heard talk of colds and stomach flu and a mom friend of mine (and now her family) has pneumonia.  Good gracious.  So, I guess you could say that with some of those options I am just HOPING that she's just got the cold we all had last week and not something worse.  We would sure appreciate prayers to that end!

Summer Staff

One of the best parts of every summer for me is getting the opportunity to spend time with the wonderful staff on our projects!  I love being a part of exposing them to the Lifelines ministry and philosophy, seeing the growth in their lives (and mine), and just having the privilege of getting to live life with them.  And this summer was no exception.  In fact, the team that Joe and I specifically coached (in the picture right above) was one of my favorites ever.  As always, some of our staff on the project are already on staff with Lifelines and some of the others aren't (we love them anyway)!:)  It was exciting though to see a few of these previously non-Lifelines staff members from this summer make decisions to join staff with Lifelines full time after their experiences on the project!  That was a highlight for me this summer.  Now it's just a bummer that I can't place them all with us!

The Cousins Stay Healthy Action Plan

Last winter and spring was brutal.  Absolutly brutal.  Not the weather (that was pretty mild), but our health.  I've never experienced anything like it...one illness after another spreading through our little family.  Let's see...there were colds (plural), the flu, the stomach flu, strep throat, pink eye, etc....And right now 3 out of 4 of us are sick (Lily is our only one holding strong).  And in my hazy brain I find myself thinking that we just can't (physically, emotionally, financially) have another season of illness like we did last year...we just can't.  And so I asked around for advice and I have hence forth come up with what I am calling The Cousins Stay Healthy Action Plan.  And because I'm sure you are all dying to know...here is it:

1.  Drink more water.  You heard me right.  I'm not a big water fan...just not.  Thankfully Joe and the children are.  But we all need to be because clearly my body doesn't ward off illness well in it's perpetual state of dehydration.

2.  Start exercising more (or at all in my case).  Joe has been great about this the last couple of weeks.  Me? Well, let's just say that I REALLY value sleep (as in I have a really hard time getting up in the morning).  I've been waiting for my toe to heal up and now that it is I promised myself I would start working out this week (that was, ironically, before I got sick).

3.  Start taking our vitamins again.  There is no explanation for it, but I've never been good at taking vitamins.  Pretty much the only times I've done in regularly was when I was pregnant with my babies.  To prove it I still have a nearly full bottle of prenatal vitamins that I will be taking (to use up...not because I'm pregnant).  And the kids have been out of vitamins for months now...time to make a trip to the store.

4.  Flu shots.  I hate shots (who doesn't?)...but this year we are getting them.  Last year none of us got them and 3 of us got the flu I believe (it's hard to remember since we were sick for months at a time).  I know the flu shot doesn't always help, but it's still worth a try this year.

5.  Hand washing.  Eli is pretty much the only one who is good at this (he LOVES to wash his hands).  My mom makes the most delicious, natural hand soaps so I have absolutly no excuse for this one.  So, I'm cracking down on the hand washing.

6.  Purell. Don't think I haven't considered rigging up a device to spray us down with Purell when we walk in the door.  That might be a bit extreme, but I'm going to put a bottle in the car and squirt us all down every time we get back in from visiting just about anywhere (especially school...we might need a few squirts for that).

7.  Taking vitamin D3 (2000 IU) daily.  I've heard really good things about this from a few sources and I'm excited to see if it will help us stay healthy.

8.  Taking 20mg of Zinc daily.

9.  Eating less processed foods.  This is something I've already been working on...eating more whole foods and more foods made by us...and trying to eat mostly foods with ingredients that I can pronounce!:)  More and more smoothies with berries we picked and homemade yogurt coming up!

10.  And if we do get sick?  I'm going to get some Cold-Eeze to keep on hand at first sign of illness.

11.  And there are a number of other things that people suggested...eating more garlic, taking elderberry, Airborne, Advocare, and using essential oils.  I haven't had the time to really look into these yet, but I'm sure I will.  For now I'll start with the top 10 and go from there.  And I'm still open to suggestions.

Here's to a healthier year!

Eli's First Day of School!

Eli went to his first day of nursery school today.  My baby.  My baby went to school.  He wasn't in such a great mood when we were getting ready to leave (and thus was not interested in having his picture taken).  Truth be told I think the poor little guy was still feeling a bit under the weather.  But, I was pretty sure he was past the contagious stage and I really didn't want him to miss his first day of school.  So, off he went.

 

And maybe he was a little nervous in the car.  

But then he got to school and everything got better. It really helped that he's going to school where Lily went to school last year...and since he went there almost every day to drop her off and pick her up he is very familiar with the school. In fact, quite often last year I think that he wanted to stay there with her! So now's his chance! And it helped too that Merrill, the preschool hamster (and one of Eli's favorite critters) was still there. And right away Eli ran to see Merrill.  

And it sure seemed like he was going to have a hard time when I left. At first he wouldn't let go of me and the two times I mentioned having to leave soon he was not too pleased. But then he got playing in the sandbox with some trucks and when I told him I had to leave he really didn't even look up. There were other children crying, so I decided not to push it and just slipped out quietly. No tears for him, but I sure did fight them off once I got into the car. My baby.

And what did we do while Eli was in school? Well, Lily and I did school!:) It was nice to have a little alone time with my girl. I am still feeling a little crummy health-wise (which does make teaching a little more difficult), but Lily had a great time learning about moss and nonvascular plants today in our science class (here she is investigating some moss with her magnifying class)!

And we were almost finished with her school when it was time to pick Eli up. When we got there he was happily playing outside with one of the teachers and a few other kids. And Lily ran right up to him, hugged him, and told him how proud she was of him (and my heart melted). He has such a big smile on his face. And then we got in the car and the grumpiness from the morning returned (I think he was plenty worn out at that point). I did manage to learn that he played and had group time and painted. He told me that playing was his favorite part. And when Joe asked him if he wanted to go back to school in a couple of days he said,"No." Despite that response I'm pretty sure he had a good time and I'm nearly certain that this is going to be really good for him. And still...I'm glad it's just one or two days a week (we can choose) because he is, after all, my baby and I'm not ready for him to grow up too quickly! I am so very proud of my little man today!  

And now tomorrow we'll go back to homeschooling together! And here's a couple of pictures from homeschool last week (as the kids were "painting" the sidewalk). So far we are enjoying all the various kinds and aspects of school this year!

BFF

Before we left Colorado Lily's friend Libby (from the photographs a few posts ago) gave her this card. Oh, those two were so sweet together and this just makes me smile.

Lily's 2nd 5th Birthday Party!

So, I'm a little behind with sharing some of our adventures (and the pictures that go along with them)!  In fact I still have many, many to share from this spring and summer.  So, I'm going to attempt to catch up (while hopefully still mixing in some more current adventures).  Since this is essentially our family scrapbook I just can't not share them.   And with that in mind I give you Lily's 2nd 5th birthday party!  We celebrated her birthday with my family while we were there visiting in May!

Mom and Lily made these beautiful brownie pops to look like flowers. And Great Grandma made these beautiful cakes.  

Opening presents (doesn't G-Pa look thrilled in the background?)!:)  

The party was capped off with this great fairy forest home (a gift from my parents)! Being able to celebrate twice is pretty nice!