My Busy Worker (Boy) Bees

Hugh and Enoch have really gotten into quite the groove of working together well on Saturdays.  It is so cute to see my little guy learning alongside his Daddy, and they both really enjoy the time together!  Enoch has also just begun staying up during nap time on most days, which gives them even more time to conquer big projects (which I personally love!!).  For example, a few weeks ago, they tackled three things on Saturday:

the toilet...  it may not look like they did much, but they removed the whole thing, replaced some stuff under it because it was rocking; replaced the handle, which had broken and no longer flushed; and replaced the seat & lid because it had seen a few too many years of use.  From my perspective, it's like I have a totally new toilet for a fraction of the price!  (Hugh even cleaned it when he was done working on it.  ;)   

 They also mowed, weed-eated, and blew off the hard surfaces.  This was their first week allowing Enoch to help with the blower while Hugh operated the weed-eater.  He loved the extra responsibility and did a good job helping.

And then they tried out their newest gadget - a small chainsaw attachment that works with our weed-eater (kind of like a power pole saw).  It hooked up easily, and Hugh cut quite a few branches with it.  

testing it out on an old dead branch 

 Can you see him up there?  He cut back all of the branches that were touching our roof.  Enoch then helped him haul them off to the street.  :)

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FFF: An Interview with Enoch

I've been trying to take more videos lately so that I can remember some of the sweet things the kids say and do as well as to be able to listen to their little voices years from now.  This video was taken at dinner a few months ago, and it is a great example of how Enoch talks when he is in an amiable mood.  (Some of you are probably thinking that Enoch seems to always be in a good mood and is always smiling; however, this is certainly not true of any child, let alone our firstborn.  These days he generally has a few different modes: amiable, rebellious, complaining, and big-boy-helper.)

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Our Garden: Summer 2016

This was our garden back in April... 

 freshly planted tomato plants

front row of baby pepper plants, then a column of cabbage, swiss chard, kale, and radicchio

And this is our current garden... lots of growth since April!  

 these are our tomato plants (also pictured is my #1 tomato thief)

caught...  red-mouthed??

 these are my pole beans (left) and baby cucumbers (right), both are growing up a trellis on the back side of the tomatoes.

This is my other bed.  The front row of peppers and a back row of okra. 

 In the middle you can see my eggplant and swiss chard. 

Overall this year, we have had a lot of success with our tomatoes (Sweet 100 and Juliet and Husky Cherry Red) as well as with our swiss chard.  I'm hoping we'll begin harvesting some cukes in a week or two.  A few of my plants have suffered from not having enough fertilizer or organic matter in the soil.  I tried to remedy that mid-season by adding some of our compost, but I need to do a better job of adding it in before planting next year.  (I also had some zucchini planted earlier in the season, but a vine borer got them before I realized it.)

tomato thief caught again...  

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FFF: Playing at the Splash Pads

Our town has two "splash pads" per say.  One is on campus and is a bit smaller.  The other is in town and is simple but has much larger sprays of water.  I thought I would take the kids to the smaller one on campus first this year, to help the girls warm up to the idea of water spraying out of the ground.  Typically, the water at the smaller one sprays water up at least a foot or two out of 8 jets, but this time it was only coming up a few inches out of the ground.  I think they still enjoyed it, but it wasn't necessarily a true introduction to the idea of water erupting from beneath their feet...  When we went to the larger splash pad a week later, the girls were hesitant (to say the least) about the spraying water, but Enoch enjoyed it immensely.  

 investigating the water

 using his funnel to make a pool/fountain of water

 happy just to explore 

hitting the water 

 The definite highlight of the small splash pad was Daddy coming to say hey!  

 This is the larger splash pad.  We arrived early (9ish) in order to maximize on the shade.  Alaythia got a bit wet, but was not all too interested in the water.

Enoch made a friend (Noah), and they played ball together quite well for the whole hour!

Karis pretty much stayed in my lap, avoiding the water at all costs

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July Adoption Update

Back in April, I mentioned that we were adopting a child (see this post, if you missed it), and answered a few questions that I regularly get asked when people find out we are adopting.  To be honest, May was a slow month in the adoption world because it was busy with Hugh traveling twice and some family coming to visit in between (which was oh-so-fun!).  But, when June hit, we got busy and completed all of our home study visits, finished up most of our remaining background checks, and began seeing some real progress toward bringing home our baby.  :)  :)  :)

Now, as we wait for our home study to be written up and finalized (maybe by the end of July), we are working on just a few more things around here.  First, we are almost done making a profile book for our adoption agency to show to prospective birth parents who are considering adoption.  Sometimes called a "look book," ours has twenty pages of photos and text and tries to summarize who we are as a family.  I really enjoyed putting it together, especially since it gave me a chance to relive old memories.  After one or two more edits by Hugh and our case worker, we will print our profile book, and our adoption agency will include it in their stack with the other waiting families' books.

The other main thing we are working on is raising the rest of the money that our agency requires to place a baby into our family.  We have already set aside a little more than 1/3 of the total adoption costs from our savings, and we will continue adding to that through our monthly budget.  We also have a list of grants that we plan to apply for after our home study is finished (a required prerequisite before we can be considered for grants).  One other way that we are funding our adoption is by providing a simple way for our family and friends to contribute as well.  We've set up a GoFundMe page where anyone can easily give toward helping us bring home baby Medal. If you're interested in helping us in this way, check out our page by clicking on this link: (https://www.gofundme.com/bringbabymedalhome)  It also has more information there about our adoption story, some typical adoption expenses, and our timeline.

Thanks so much for keeping up with our progress and joining in on our adoption journey.  I will be sure to keep the blog and the GoFundMe page updated as we make more progress.   Please consider praying for us, our adoption agency, the birth parents, and baby Medal.  We are truly so grateful for your support, generosity, and prayers!!

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Fun at the Refuge

Just a few weeks back, the kids and I took a little day trip to our local wildlife refuge.  We had fun looking for gators, listening for birds, and playing on the boardwalk.  

my crew coming in through the cypress trees 

giving loves

we saw one gator during this trip... can you spot it?  

photo taken by Enoch

playing around

chasing Enoch

taking a look upside down

trying it together 

 smiles

such a pretty place

heading back off the boardwalk to have our picnic dinner and watch the sunset

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