happily random

Apron Smiles

This has to be the cutest apron I have ever seen. I never even thought of wearing an apron before I saw this and I have wanted this one for 8 months now. Certainly not an impulse buy. It's from Heavenly Hostess if you too have fallen in love. They have the most darling aprons I have ever laid my eyes on. Joel looked at me while I was looking at them on the computer and said, "What are you smiling at?" I showed him the website and he said, "Would you wear an apron?" I said, "That apron... YES!" I explained that I'm always getting smutz on my shirts when I make dinner and how it would make me so happy to put on something that adorable to cook, that it would make it less of a chore to cook for everyone. Honestly, just looking at the picture makes me smile. Silly how one can get so much joy over a silly apron? And honestly, I'm hoping one of my dear friends or family will see this post and consider it for a birthday or Christmas present?? *hint hint*

Hanging in there

In case anyone was wondering. Scott and Mason have settled in with the family and we have gotten into a schedule of sorts. It's amazing how full my days are! I hit the ground running at 6:30 a.m. to the squeals of children playing and running up and down the hall. Definitely a wake up call that's hard to miss. Most mornings we head to the park or the movies (free kids' movies at Regal Cinemas, gotta love that!) or to a playdate and the rest of the day just flies by. Before I know it I'm putting the kids to bed for the night and I look around I can't tell what I did all day because the house looks pretty much the same as when I got up. I guess that's the life of a mother of six. I think I might have the laundry figured out (she says with confidence?). At least I'm caught up at the moment without piles and piles of clean laundry all over the laundry room and piles and piles of dirty laundry overflowing the hampers. I just have to put away a load a day. Doable, right? You would think, but it's harder than it seems. Anyway, all the laundry that's clean is put away... right now (did I just hear the dryer ding?).

Letterboxing?

Saturday we decided to attempt our first family outing with six kids. We love to go hiking as a family, but decided to add a twist to this trip. We went letterboxing! What is thatyou ask? Well, it's kind of a treasure hunt for a logbook and stamp. Quite fun and gave us a goal for our hike. On the national website there are clues and directions to letterboxes and all you have to do is have a stamp and a logbook of your own to play. They kids got a kick out of it, as did Joel and I. While I've known about letterboxing for about a year now, this was our first time actually doing it.

Mason and Scott are new to the hiking thing and haven't learned quite yet that when you hike through a forest, you have to watch your feet. They fell down more times than I could count but had a great attitude about it, jumping back to their feet and continuing on. I'm glad I had the foresight to put them in pants even in the 95 degree heat.

Speaking of heat, summer has truly arrived with temperatures in the upper 90s the last few days. With no air conditioning in the house, it gets pretty miserable when it gets that hot. Luckily we usually only get 3-4 weeks of that type of weather during the summer but that doesn't make it any less miserable when it is! After a long day in the heat I retreated to my room for a little solitude from the children when my wonderful mother-in-law called. She heard my tale of woe and a couple hours later arrived at my doorstep with a new portable air conditioning unit from CostCo. An answer to prayer it certainly was. I am very blessed. So when the heat is on (both physically and emotionally), I can retreat to my bedroom to cool off!