overwhelmed

Sometimes I just get so distracted by the whirlwind of activity around me that I find myself overwhelmed. Yes, it is usually because I have stretched myself a little too far, haven't taken time for myself, my house is a total wreck, the kids are all yelling and bickering, or any combination of the above! Last Thursday I found myself there. On top of the aforementioned stressors, I was fighting a critical spirit for a couple days and was quite irritated at Chad for relatively nothing. I also had not had a decent quiet time or any exercise in several days.

That afternoon, I found myself lying on the floor upstairs just sobbing. "How can I do all of this, Lord? I just can't do everything!!"

And His voice was so clear. So distinct. "Put me first." I kept crying and tried to ignore it, but doggone it, He said it again. "Put me first." To be honest, I didn't even acknowledge to him that I had heard him. Okay, I might have cried, "How?" But otherwise I pretended not to hear.

The next morning, though, I did it. I got up and put Him first. And the day was better. The house wasn't any cleaner, the kids weren't much better, and I took nothing off my to-do list, but the day was still better.

Maybe I should listen. Maybe, just maybe, He knows how to take me from overwhelmed to overjoyed.

Hold your breath!

On our recent trip as a family, we had to pass through two interstate tunnels in each direction, and Chad's favorite thing to do is to try to hold his breath the entire way through the tunnel. Yes, he was driving both times (I know that sounds unsafe, but I trust that he will not actually let himself pass out)!! So, now he likes to include our kids, and he always says, "Okay, here we go, hold your breath!" Needless to say, they don't really understand what this means. One time, Katie was talking the entire way through, saying, "Daddy, are you holding your breath? Daddy! Why aren't you answering me? Daddy!"

To them, "hold your breath" essentially means "puff out your cheeks and breathe through your nose and then let out a gasping breath at the end!!" So funny!

Vacation

We just got back from one of the best vacations! We were total moochers and spent nearly the entire time eating someone else's food and sleeping in someone else's bed!! We visited 2 children's museums, saw 3 sets of friends, got soaked on a waterslide, played at 3 parks, swam in 1 pool, and had a great intro to Rock Band! We also slept all 6 of us in one room everywhere we went - after 5 nights, I think we were all happy to be back in our own separate beds! Wow, we really had a good time! Here are some pictures:

Sarah and Annie trying on circus hats

The Sawhooks and the Cobbs

Aaron climbs to the top!

Aaron and Katie playing Rock Band with Kenny

Katie reading to Ben and Natalie

Chad, Aaron, and Ben on a giant waterslide

Ben making friends with a wallaby

What if we all lived under the same shell . . . ?

The Anderson kids in Charlotte

Ben and Annie Together

Ben and Annie are starting to really enjoy each other! She smiles so big when he comes around and tries to copy what he does. I have found that they both like to play with blocks. He loves to build with them, and she loves to eat them. What a great combination! It does keep them both occupied, though!




Here she is pounding on the ottoman and bouncing up and down like him. What fun to have a big brother!

School's out for the summer!

We (that is, I) had big plans to celebrate the last day of school on June 5th. We were going to roast hot dogs and marshmallows over our fire pit and camp out in the back yard together! Well, the ground was soaked from several days of downpours with another planned for that evening, so we decided not to set up the tent. As we are not very good at starting fires AND all the sticks we gathered were damp, the hot dogs ended up boiled on the stove and the marshmallows stayed in the bag. I think we had ice cream instead while we watched a movie! (I have no idea why this paragraph is underlined)

On top of that, I was trying so hard to stay focused on my kids that day instead of on all the chores that needed done, but that proved more difficult than usual. First, Aaron and Ben tramped around in the muddy brush to find sticks and then Aaron proceeded to walk through the house in his shoes which, I'm not kidding, had a 1 inch thick base of mud on the bottom! Then I stripped Ben and changed him at the door before letting him go inside. Within 5 minutes, wearing "big boy underwear" he peed in the kitchen floor. Chad and I admittedly are sometimes poor at the final details of household projects, so the steps on our back porch had been off since we had finished the patio and we had been using a garage step stool in their place. Well, after all 3 of the older kids fell coming off the porch that evening while we were getting dinner ready (oh, and Ben gashed his lip in his fall), we decided to fix the steps. That took all of about 40 minutes to do - but required much crying to finally complete.

Anyhow, it wasn't quite the celebration I had planned. We did try to camp out in the family room, but Chad decided his bed was too close, and I ended up alone toughing it out on the floor with Aaron and Katie. Nonetheless, school is out for the summer and we are excited!

Katie's class during field day (Katie is second on the rope)

Aaron's class during field day (Aaron is fourth from the front)

Eating hot dogs on the patio

Movie time!

School's out! Yeah!