Hi again, all two of you who still read my blog!!

This is Lucie, my booger woman, at three months old. The top pic was created by Emily, and I want all of you to go over to her blog and tell her how much you love her work and how talented she is, because you can't help but realize that already if you have eyes in your head! I'm so privileged to call Emily my friend, and I'm exceedingly, abundantly blessed to have children that people want to photograph. I have so much to be thankful for, and believe me, I am, in the most intense, deepest way possible. Thank You, my Father, for the loan of this family!

It's a beautiful day here in Washington! The sky is robin's egg blue, the grass is vibrantly green, and the sun is warmly shining on our faces as we play outside. The sunshine is such a welcome friend after being so fickle for so long this spring. My kids are really enjoying themselves outside today while I do some stuff inside. The front door is open, so I can see outside and the sparkling air really feels like a cool, sweet drink of water to my parched soul.

One of my biggest struggles is consistency, in anything, but most of all, in schooling the kids every day. I know this is my struggle, and I have set out to remedy it. I've asked God to help me, and I've put my mind and my strength to "doing school" every day. Today I got online on Dave's computer and googled worksheets that I can print out for each of the girls' grade levels. Boy, did my search yield a veritable gold mine of goodies! So I printed each of the four older girls out a packet. One of my favorite sites I found was SchoolFamily.com. I couldn't make copies fast enough! Of course, that was just one of several sites I found, and I had to limit myself so that the trusty copy machine didn't run out of ink!!! But I'm so proud of myself for "doing school" today, with worksheets and the whole bit! We've even had recess, and my kids are so much happier when we stick to a good, tight schedule. That makes me happy too, and Dave will be so proud of me when he gets home and sees what we have accomplished today!

I also made banana butterscotch muffins this morning. I've been using the same recipe for years, and it never fails. Maybe some day I'll give it to you two readers!!

I've been feeling impressed with helping my girls to excel in the arts of homemaking, including sewing, knitting, crocheting, baking, and pie making. So, the other day I went online to Youtube and looked up Paula Deen (one of our faves), and I found her helping a gal, step by step, to make an apple pie. I watched it first, then had my Hannah (almost 12) watch it next and, without any help at all from me, she proceeded to make her very-most-firstest apple pie ever!! I didn't tell Dave I was going to do that, and we just made it a part of her school day, and he was so excited when he got home and saw it, complete with lattice top and all! The family had it for dessert that night, and even the ones who don't usually like pie ate it up and declared it scrumptious. Of course, we had to share it with Hannah's Grandma, who is a pie expert, and she said she couldn't have done it better. Hannah was super proud and the lesson went really far to boost her confidence level!

As for Lucie, well, she's having a fussy day today. Her schedule is all wonky, and you know how tiny babies get when their schedule wonks out! She will celebrate three months on Sunday, and she's already sitting herself up and she sleeps from 10:30 pm to 4 am almost every single night!! Can I hear a big cheer for Lucie??!!

I'll finish out this post by asking you guys to go over to Dave's facebook and look at all the absolutely gorgeous pics that Emily took of our kids. Gorgeous isn't even the right or adequate word for her work with my kids. In fact, I don't think there's a word in the English language to describe her work. Go on over and look, then go on over to her site and leave her an encouraging comment, would ya??

Have a great day!!