Our Summer in Pictures

I had high hopes for this summer (warning sign!). It would be the first summer in 3 years where I wouldn't have a fresh infant to nurse every hour. I could stop hiding from the sun and maybe get a tan. I would take my kids to the pool and make my own popsicles.

I was just asking for something to go wrong when I was having a rough week at the end of June. I called Mike on a Wednesday night and started begging him, "Please, you have to come home and help me. I need a break, like two hours away from this house to clear my head or I am going to freak the freak out."

Then the next day, this happened:

Bless!

At first it was scary because my husband has the worst phone etiquette in every way, so he calls me in the middle of the day (we are not middle of the day phone talkers-- we both manage our people and our crises separately) so I answer the phone and this is the statement he leads with: "Hey babe, I'm at the hospital. I'm about to go into surgery."

Oh yes, hello my dear husband who works on bridges and rides daily in a thing called a "MAN BASKET" thank you for informing me of what is going on. What the hay! I almost passed out. He quickly told me he just broke his foot and got off the phone leaving me to deal with the bigger problem of the afternoon-- my impending heart attack.

Seriously. So he was fine. Drove himself home without taking pain killers, yada yada. Got surgery a few days later to correct the displaced bone so it would heal properly and we're all moving on with our lives.

There were several hilarious moments during the two weeks he was home. Have you ever seen a man on crutches move very quickly while carrying a tupperwear full of bean dip in one hand a bag of chips in the other? Have you walked into the kitchen multiple times a day to see your husband's foot propped up on the counter to elevate it while he ate ice cream out of the container?

All the live long day, this:

My husband is precious and does not ask for help. The day after he broke his foot I heard quite a clatter and ran from upstairs to see what was the matter, and there he is going down to the basement to find a sock. We had many a hard conversations while he was home about him learning to be needy and then more hard conversations about me actually remembering to meet his needs once he voiced them (I get distracted).

He is back at work now but not being able to walk renders him useless to me when he is home, as he lives "the dream" resting on the couch and drinking beer while I attend to our beloved minions. Yes, I'm a tad jealous.

Mack is still teething. I bought him an amber anklet per recommendation of the Homeopathics but it doesn't really seem to help. Blah.

Lou still talks all day long about all of the things. We had some work done on our yard (because we are maimed and lazy) and she told the landscaper: "You are handsome... I'm going to watch you from my window." I tried to clarify that she was just interested in all their bulldozers and such (we had A LOT of weeds) but couldn't stop laughing as I steered her away from the confused fella.

I took her to get her first hair cut. It was adorable.
Before:

During:

After

Nana came to save us from ourselves right after Mike's surgery.

It only took 15 minutes of her being gone for me to lose my mind and ask her to come back but she was too tired from taking care of me for a week and said no.

We have had lots of storms in the Midwest. One day I got desperate and googled "indoor activities for toddlers" and this was the easiest thing on the list. Toilet paper rolls and pom poms. Whatever.

Fourth of July cuteness

The best part of this summer thus far has been the sweet friendships I have been forming.

My friend Katie and I started a simple Bible Study, mostly as an excuse to dispose of our littles in the church nursery and chat and drink coffee. But it has evolved into this beautiful thing where women show up and talk. Like really talk. We are watching Jen Hatmaker's Pulling the Thread DVD series and it is legit. Other friendships have deepened with friends who are honest about their marriage struggles and about their desire to know God more. We have cried together over how to love our children well. It has been the dearest thing to me. I was so fearful about moving back to Des Moines but it has been so very good.

I did not blog last month because I cursed myself saying I would blog once a week. And since I not a Type A person and love to rebel against everyone's standards most especially my own, that did not happen. I will maybe blog more. How is that for an expectation?

The Spending Fast has made a sweet turn into something I enjoy. I have not cheated-- except one time when I cheated-- but it worked out okay and is a good story all the same. The whole fast is turning out to be not really a big deal. It is such a blessing that I was on the spending fast when Mike broke his foot and the kids were having a fussy week because I would have spent all of our life savings at the mall to escape the madness.

Overall, it is so funny watching myself cope with how I handle adversity. Every. Single. Time. Something hard comes up, I run to the same old things but they never make my life better. And I am starting to love that. I love that the things I rely on never fix me. I am so thankful to say that now instead of when I'm 89 and dying and feeling like I wasted my life on things that don't matter.

Jesus teach me to love the things that matter. All the day long. 

Amen?