Tonight I am…
tired from camping for 2 nights and a day.
thankful to call that cute baby up there my own.
amazed at the grandeur of the Colorado mountains and how being surrounded by them never gets old.
excited to let you know that I have a post over at the Rhythm of the Home blog.
looking forward to a restful Sabbath.
thinking about the miracle this country we live in is, and so thankful for it.
How is your weekend going?
One thing I love about our church is the program of Family Home Evening. Every Monday evening we are encouraged to gather our families together to sing, pray, have a lesson, do something fun together, and eat yummy treats. In our family we rotate who is in charge of each thing, so the kids get to teach lessons, choose songs, plan activities, and make treats.
Last night Jonah was in charge of the activity, and with it being the summer solstice he decided we needed to swim until sunset.
So we did.
We built sandcastles.
Hunter learned a new word.
Goose, goooooooose…
After a hot day the air had cooled off, but the water was pretty warm. It couldn’t have been more perfect.
I am so thankful for this tradition we so faithfully keep in our family. Gathering 5 little ones around the piano after dinner clean-up (and all the prodding and nagging that often entails) does not always feel like the fun, or sane, thing to do after a busy Monday. Often the treat is a hurried Tupperware full of “shaker pudding” (instant Jello pudding dumped with milk into a Tupperware and shook, shook, shook by the child in charge of treat) or graham crackers dipped in milk, but by the time we have sung together, by the time a little person has taught their lesson and shared a heart felt testimony about their love for the Savior, by the time we’ve finished honoring a child’s wish to jump on the trampoline all together or play a game of Bananagrams we go to bed happier than we could have imagined in those harried minutes of wrangling.
It’s a miracle in the making…
one week at a time.
Thursday evening I told Barry I wish we had planned a camping trip for the long weekend.
Friday morning I was packing the cooler and Barry was loading bikes onto and into the back of the van. The whirlwind of packing, helping Brenna figure out how she could go from a state of no clean underwear to a state of clean underwear, last minute grocery shopping, and all that must be done to get a family of 7 reading for a camp out made us question our sanity, but once we got there it was all worth it.
Our lungs and spirits and entire bodies were filled with a breath of fresh air.
Our feet were refreshed (or nearly frozen, depending on how you look at it).
Our mountain bikes are dusty.
I even went on a real mountain bike ride– my first since we lived in Albuquerque nearly 7 years ago. It felt so good. I’ve come to the point in my life that there is no shame in walking the steep climbs with too many roots and rocks. I’ve decided that is the perfect place to be. I ride my bike to feel my body move and watch the birds– not to prove I’m a cool, tough girl.
Our tummies were filled. Our toes were warmed.
Our collection of random pieces of wood has grown.
Discoveries were made. (Like Logan’s friend the Pleasing Fungus Beetle.)
It was just what we needed.
Ever since we put up our bird feeder, there has been more birds around the neighborhood (Team Sparrow who live in our big pine tree, some house finches, grackles, a few dark-eyed juncos, and one or two chickadees). I guess two house finches saw this as the perfect spot. 
Anyway, my next-door-neighbor-best-friend Holly was over to play and we decided to play out front. As we were walking out the door, Holly spotted something fly away when the door opened. Then we saw it. The Nest.
Now, I mean today, mom went out to see if she could get a picture. This is what she found.
We looked at a bird book and it says that one pair of house finches will breed up to 2-5 times a summer, and egg clutches are 2-6 eggs, and that our front-door eggs will hatch in 13-14 days.
Looks like we have new neighbors in the neighborhood!!