My goodness – it has been almost a month… Some blogger I am! Things just get so hectic in the summer I guess. School starts 4 weeks from yesterday! Wow!

Okay, I guess I will try to give a July recap.

- The first week of July Matt went to the Free Lutheran Youth Convention in Estes Park, Colorado. He drove by himself – it was about 16 hours, and he only stopped for a couple hours at a rest area. That was crazy, but he had a great time, as did the youth that went. This of course was also 4th of July week. The boys and I went to some friend’s house for their yearly 4th of July party. (The same place we went last year). We had a great time.

- Matt’s Parents, John & Clara, came the day after Matt got home – so the 8th, and stayed until the 16th. We had a nice visit with them. Ryan & Christian also started swim lessons this week.

- The 16 – now we have just been home enjoying ourselves. The boys finished up swim lessons and both passed to the next level. Ryan got invited to be on the swim team next year as well. We haven’t decided on that one yet. I think he would really enjoy it, but it is a big committment with practice every day in the summer. So we’ll have to see if that works out or not after we take a look at our summer calendar next year. Wew went to the county fair on the 19th and did the demo derby. That was fun. Dane was a bit scared that all the cars were crashing into each other, but by the end he was clapping. Ryan and Christian of course loved it.

- Matt, Ryan and I have taken up Knifty Knitting – with the Knifty Knitter Looms (found at Wal-Mart Etc.) That has been fun. I started with a baby hat (to donate to church) and am now in the middle of a scarf and a mesh bag. I have the pattern for a sweater sitting here – we’ll see if I get that ambitious.

- We hosted a church picnic on Sunday. That was enjoyable – although everyone ended up eating inside in the church basement instead of outside, but that’s okay – it was still lots of fun.

- Ryan has been hanging out with the neighbor boy a lot this summer. He is 10 or 11, so a bit older, but they seem to do okay together. They go to our church (sometimes) and go to Ryan’s school.

- I picked out short little plays to do with the Sunday School kids this summer. They’re called Poppin’ Proverbs, so I have been helping with that. They performed one last week for the parents. They decided they didn’t want to do it in front of the whole church. Maybe the next one…

- Speaking of plays – Clara and I took Ryan and Christian to see Enchanted Sleeping Beauty – a Children’s Musical Production. It was really quite good. Ryan hopes to try out to be in the program next year – you have to be 7 before you can audition. That is also a pretty big committment, but it falls in the spring – I’m wondering how that will co-incide with baseball. I guess we’ll have to see.

- The garden is growing well. The vining stuff is huge – we have two giant pumpkins and a few others that are thinking about growing. We have 2 watermelon – with many more thinking about it, a ton of cantaloupe, the sunflowers are big, the squash is thinking about it, tons of peppers, and we even made pickles the other day! (with many more to come) We went and picked sweet corn from a farmer from church and ended up with 37 cups of sweet corn in the freezer. (Okay, less than that now because we ate a fair share). The boys shucked, Matt cut the kernals off, and I washed, cooked, and bagged. It turned out really good. I think we’ll probably do it again tomorrow – the corn is only good for about a week we’re told. And right now… boy is it good! See we’re turning into true country folk. I’m already getting excited for next year’s garden. We did have several things not grow this year, but we’re learning.

Sunday we’re leaving to go to Santa Claus, IN camping for a few days. We’re going to Holiday World – which is a fun amusement park and water park. We tried to go there at the end of June, but it just didn’t work out with the weather and how tired we were. So we’re giving it another go. Then Aug. 6th we take off for TX. I’m going to a training seminar for my business, but the whole family is coming along as a vacation. I think Matt said we will go through 9 states on our trip – one way down, the other way back, so that should be fun.

Today the boys spent the day doing chores. Every morning they fight, fight, fight, so today I finally told them they were going to work together all day to do chores, so they could learn to get along. They did pretty good, and were informed that tomorrow if they fight they will be doing the same thing. They can be slow learners sometimes, so I guess I better get my list ready! Hopefully I won’t need it.

We are already starting to get some of the back to school shopping organized. I can’t believe it is already that time. Poor Christian isn’t too impressed that he gets stuck with all Ryan’s hand me down’s and Ryan gets new clothes… but that’s the way the ball bounces. Middle Child Syndrome – terrible. He did get a new bike the other day though (Mommy ran over his… OOPS! – well sort of… he didn’t exactly leave it in a good spot.)

Well, I think that pretty much gets you up to date on what is going on here. I hope everyone is having a great summer.

Blessings,
Christine