Life Lately

Every now and again I like to share random thoughts from life lately.  Here's the latest:

Lately, I've been listening to this fabulous podcast about actually liking your kids.  I am very late to the listening-to-podcasts game... for no particular reason at all.  As the Blossoms get older, I do find myself with some measure of quiet as I work on some tasks and that's where this podcast comes in.  I truly believe that children are a blessing and I felt like every minute of this episode was totally worth listening to.  It left me feeling inspired, with practical tips for liking your kids... and keeping a Godly perspective on the blessings I've been given.  As for the rest of her episodes, I'm not really interested in listening to birth stories, but I am always game for more nuggets of truth that solidly point me in a Godly direction.  

I've been reading Home Work: A Memoir of my Hollywood Years by Julie Andrews.  It's a biography about her Hollywood years, which were HECTIC, to say the least.  This was a $0.99 snag at my favorite thrift store.  It's been a while since I was on a biography kick.  Though I truly enjoyed reading about her part in the making of the Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music movies, the rest of the book left me feeling stressed and not covetous of the Hollywood life AT ALL.  My takeaway: Interesting read, but I won't be rereading it.  And, because of her descriptions of her parts in some other seedy movies, I didn't feel that I wanted the girls reading this either.

Additionally, Blossom2 mentioned wanting to read Doctor Thorne by Anthony Trollope.  We adore the movie so I took her suggestion.  It was positively delightful, and, as usual, better than the movie.  It ranks up there with Pride and Prejudice and North and South, in my opinion.  Mary Thorne finds a way to be kind, when she's being persecuted for her birth. Her public humiliation is known by the entire town, and yet, she is kind.  Maybe I'll enjoy some of Trollope's other writings; we shall see.

I've been sipping Bubly Key Lime Pie Sparkling Water.  YUMMMM!  My sister recommended it and it was a very fun change of pace from my other summer favorites, Waterloo Summer Berry and Bubly Grapefruit!

I've been savoring post vacation days... which means, a few days to catch up on normal, non Fair-driven project before we fully dive in to the all-out school routine.  I'm not in a hurry.  We've completed so many heavy duty 4-H and community service driven projects over the past few months, that there's been an awful lot of school this summer.  That being said, a couple of the Blossoms overhauled their desks already and they sure do look nice and tidy!  Or maybe the whole schoolroom just looks better because the endless Fair to-do lists are off the board!

I've been focusing on trying to follow through with my Blossoms.  We're just a busy family and it's really easy to let things slide.  There's something to be said for finishing a task and finishing that task thoroughly.  That means that I'm trying my best to find said Blossom and call her back to the job site to finish what she was told to do.  Interestingly, I don't feel like any kind of yelling leads to peace in our home, so I've been working on going and finding said Blossom, instead of yelling for her.  That's a chore.  Our property isn't small, per se.  Yelling a full name off the back porch, followed by a hearty, "Git in here!" is certainly tempting... and yet, I've been going and finding and instructing instead.  May God's grace help me to persever so we can see the fruit of it.

There you have it ~ a few "latelys" of our little life here in the Hollow.

Snapshots from our recent cabin vacation.  More on that soon hopefully.