sick, sopping and sweet deals

somewhat dragging, this week has been. not entirely certain why. not that i long for days to sift by any faster than they do, but this week has felt close to wading in wet sand.

we began the week not feeling so well...me, that is. seems a Summer flu came for a visit. though a brief 48 hour stay, it had no mercy. thankfully, it claimed only 1 other victim. at this point, it's fair to say that the rest of the family seems to be in the clear.

once the flu left the house, the rainstorms rolled in. we've had the thrilling roll of thunder for 3 nights straight. the clouds have broken just long enough to squeeze in a couple baseball games, and watching our Little Man play with his team has been such fun. my favorite part is when he throws a great strike and looks over to us on the bleachers, dimples deep, smile large. he doesn't care about the numbers on the scoreboard, he just loves to play baseball.

a not so favorite part of this baseball gig is concession stand duty. i pulled my shift last evening, during the clouds break part of the evening. then, in the 5th inning of the games, the clouds gathered and formed a hurried deluge, sending players and fans alike mad-sprinting to their cars. alas, all of the hot dogs were not sold. but, we did get to close up shop a little early. then we workers made our sprint to our vehicles... to no avail. we were ringing wet when we landed in our seats.

rating at 1 of the most hideous pictures of me ever...
count yourselves as family in that i even shared

we also had the random for-no-apparent-reason power outage. a lot of people have lost power during the recent storms, but not us. we lose power at 5:30 in the morning, right during that really solid last couple of hours of sleep. we sleep with white noise (think fans at small tornado strength), so the sudden silence wakes all 6 of us like a firework at bedside. after a couple of hours of tossing about and children visiting to say they couldn't sleep, we finally relented to the day beginning around 8.

with no electricity and the house warming by the minute, the boys and i headed out and ran some needed errands. i was thrilled to find the rest of their school curriculum at our local discount bookstore, and the boys racked up quite a Summer library, scoring some books for .50. my oldest had The Lord of the Rings on his wish list. he'd priced them on several websites and pondered purchasing them, but decided on patience. it paid off. he was so excited to find the complete box set for only $12! he said they were placed so randomly on the shelf, all by themselves, as if God had displayed them only for him to see. we love kisses from our Savior like these, and i love that my boys are recognizing Him.

after our bookstore success, we headed to the dreaded W*l-m*rt for some needed school supplies and some not so needed sharp crayons. but who doesn't love a new box of crayons?? the boys were ecstatic to get new backpacks! this was a brand new experience for them, being homeschooled. no, these backpacks are not for school, but for our missions trip to Nicaragua!! they each now have a carry-on for the plane and a way to carry their own water around while we're there. the price of these bags was unbeatable with back-to-school sales in full swing.

overall, looking back, it's been a productive and fun week, albeit slow. 

how was yours?

*joining the fun at ...the crazy and silly and plain ole' mundane of our week shared only in cell phone pictures. grab your phone and join us.

Up the Creek

summertime heat has hit head-on, and we're on a mission to stay cool. we do not own a pool and public ones are not my favorite adventure...watching my children inside a crowded pool makes me nauseous, let alone the scantilly clad women who could care less about my pubescent young sons...yeh, that could be the entire cause of my nausea...plus, they cost money.

luckily, my hubby overheard a couple guys talking about their recent kayaking adventures. we've lived in this area of Maryland for almost 6 years now, and hubby grew up here. however, we had never taken an adventure on the Antietam Creek! with a little asking around and some research on the good 'ole internet, we found that tubing is also done on the creek. nothing against kayaking, but floating on an oversized lifesaver is more our style. our boys are at a perfect age for this fun, summertime, beat-the-heat, kind of fun. and with the creek so close to us, we're able to take a few hours on Daddy's day off, strap the tubes to the van and off we go...floatin' up down the creek without a paddle. (okay, so we got a small 2-person inflatable raft..it has paddles. but we don't take it every time :-) )

 an added bonus is that obviously Antietam Creek floats through Antietam Civil War area. we even float beneath Burnside Bridge. our boy's curiosity was perked, and they've been checking out books on the Civil War from our library. there's nothing better than seeing your children interested in something simply because they got to experience part of it somehow. can i get an "amen" mommas??

*linking up with Missional Mama's blog hop on outdoor family fun!