Mother of Emails

 236/366

I've spent all day, no all weekend, clearing out my emails. Apparently, I went a little bonkers ignoring Googles warnings that my account was filling up.  I went 116% over.  And I have SO MANY EMAILS.  Like 32,000 emails to sift through.  So much clutter.  

This cup is perfectly appropriate. 

The kids have been alternating between being amazing and being awful.  

This moment, they are asleep and it's awesome.  But when I took this earlier, I could hear Eric yelling at someone to do their Kumon, while I stayed huddled in my craft room which is where the computer lives now.  It's been a long weekend.  August is hard on kids who are not used to going to school. I could not be more thankful for this cup.   Currently, it is full of water with a dropof an oily oral blend I created which is half orange vitality oil, mostly half wintergreen, and a couple drops Thieves. 1 drop of this makes my mouth and brain feel fresh, and I can keep working.  I've gotten rid of almost 5000 emails today alone.  I hope that soon, I'll get access to my email again! 

I enjoy... pretty things.

7/366

The kids went back to School.  

It's weirdly quiet around here. But I had quite an extensive To-Do List to work on. 

The first thing I did was get the mail, apparently it had been a while. 

Freebies! 

This year for Christmas, I cashed in some of my Essential Rewards points for Free Goodies for me. 

First Thieves Cough Drops, which couldn't come at a better time, and also true for the Thieves spray. 

But the real treat, the expensive goodie was Jasmine oil. 

I didn't have that one, but I had saved up enough points to spoil myself. 

One drop of this is pure luxury. It reminds me of the beach in Maui when we passed by the flowers growing there, known as Pikake.  I'm guessing they were a Jasmine cousin, because they smell just as sweet and flowery.  I'm looking forward to making some perfumes! 

I get so surrounded by the boys that I enjoy taking some time for girly things. 

I took a soaky bath, and did some coloring. 

The theme for the day is "I enjoy..."  And I enjoy art projects; pretty things, like perfume in pretty bottles and a fresh box of colored pencils. 

Another treat just for me, a box of colored pencils.  I received this colored pencil box for Christmas. 

I don't have to share them either.  

All for me.  I've enjoyed coloring after the kids go to bed, in my Psalms book. We're doing a Bible Study of Psalms and Proverbs in my Christcare group.  I enjoy doing some coloring with the same passages that we're reading.  I haven't had enough time to make art. 

This is my newest favorite pretty art project. 

Starry Night. 

I got into Diamond Dotz as a gift for my friend Kathy, and then I got one for my niece for Christmas. I must've wished outloud just one too many times because Eric got me this one, and I Love it! 

I can't wait to see the finished project. 

Liquid Resolutions

1/365

It's a New Year, another year for great New Year's Resolutions.   I always get a little overwhelmed when thinking about what I want to do in the new year.   It never fails I fizzle out come spring.  This year I decided to participate in my Young Living Leadership Support Team Challenges for January.  I can commit to a month.

One diamond leader is doing a Water Challenge.  I've done this before... but always in summer.  I'd not thought of upping my water intake in winter.  Rather brilliant really.  I know the effects.  I guess I'm so dehydrated, I'm just not thinking that something as simple as water is what I need.  But I do.  So I am all in.  In fact, I just pulled my decorated jug out of the cabinet, didn't add anything fancy.  I've done this before, set the numeric goal, drink half of my body weight in ounces of water per day. Gotta tell you, after hopping on the scale this morning, that number was HIGH.   But I've been eating Holiday style for days, and my body is done, I just need to stay home. And that is the Plan. Luckily, we have little going on, so staying home and drinking  and peeing all the time sounds Great. 

Step 1 - Water with a drop of Slique Essence Essential Oil blend.  

This blend contains Grapefruit, Tangerine, Lemon, Spearmint, Ocotea, and a tad of Stevia extract.

It's refreshing, and balancing to the blood sugar, while supporting the whole body during weight loss. 

So, I thought I'd start my day with this. 

130 ounces is a Lot of Water. 

Plus, I've been sick. 

Even my tissues are talking to me. 

I'm tired of being sick and tired. I'm weaning off the prednisone and I feel terrible. 

I lost my voice right after Christmas. Drinking and peeing all this toxic crud out of my body sounds Fantastic.

The other YL leader Challenge is a Ningxia Red challenge.  That one won't be hard for me to hit, as I've been drinking it daily since I started feeling crummy anyway.  I don't have stash enough to get all 5 of us going on it. I should've started drinking it in November to keep my immune system supported through the season, maybe I wouldn't have gotten sick at all.  Who knows? 

I want to jump start my YL business again, I want to get off my duff, I want to take more photos, (thus starting the count again), and I want to do these drinking challenges.  

Hopefully,  the combination of these liquids, drinking good things will lead to getting healthier, and moving my butt will help me lose weight too.  These are all my New Years goals.  Wish me luck!   

Wonky Pneumonia

So, let's start off by saying I had no idea I was sick.  I had an annoying cough.   I'd been cutting back on milk for the last couple days, because I had some drainage, and milk was aggrevating it.  But towards the late half of this week, my slightly annoying cough, was growing to more than mildly annoying.  I was coughing so hard in the mornings that I peed!  I thought only old people did that.  I've heard once you have a bunch of kids that happens.  But I had 3 c-sections, my bladder should be fine.  Except apparently, when I cough that hard.  Then Thursday afternoon, I was coughing telling Eric a story and laughing had set me off.  I told him it was beginning to hurt my head when I coughed.  A lot.  Like I might "Blust a burd vessel." I mean of course, if I had aneurysm, that blood vessel would burst.  But that's not how it came out.  OK, ok, maybe I am feeling little more run down than I thought.  I went for a nap.  Then I got up, coughed some more, peed some more, so I called and made an appointment with my doctor.
I didn't think I'd need to keep it for myself. Honestly, Jacob coughed once so hard at breakfast, I thought he'd need it.   But nah, he was fine after one good go.   And he wanted to go to school.

Meanwhile, my appointment was set for 12:30.  I sent Jacob off to school with his brothers.  And then I met my Dad for a cup of coffee.   This was particularly interesting as he was coughing a little, kind of like me.  He apologized (just like I have been) for his "mildly annoying cough".  He'd been diagnosed with bronchitis two days prior.  But he said, he was on antibiotics and fine.
Huh.
Come to think of it...
Uh oh.
I sound a little like that too.  I wondered if I might have bronchitis.  Maybe I should keep that appointment.   Maybe I should get Jacob checked....  I felt fine.  I thought to myself.  No biggie.  My Dad ordered a drink, a Chai Latte.  Funny, I never knew he drank those.  I got a Medicine Ball from Starbucks.  Since I realized I'm feeling funny, I've been disinclined to have super milk and sugary coffee.  I didn't want any of that.   The Medicine Ball was what I needed.   And it was good to talk to my dad.  So I thought as I left, I'll keep that appointment, but maybe first pop by the school and check on Jacob.  Maybe he'll need to come with me.   You know, actually, maybe we both should kidnap Jacob for lunch.  I haven't spent enough quality time with him lately.  I take the big boys to therapy and out for lunch dates all the time.  But I don't take Jacob.  Poor kid, I thought.  He gets the fuzzy end, being the littlest.  I got to feeling quite bad for him.
Eric was on board with kidnapping Jacob with me, just to take him out and give him a little Quality Time.  He was working from home.  He's been working a gig lately, where he works from home.    It's just we can't predict when that will be. We never know when it's going to happen, so we can't plan anything. Anyway, he got all set up and we went to the school.
Eric dropped me off by the entrance, and waited.  We didn't think it would take long to grab Jacob.  It did though, we caught him just as he was entering the cafeteria.  When they brought him to the office, I said "Guess what?!  We're kidnapping you for lunch!  It's a rainy day, you'll have recess with us.  Don't you want to go out for macaroni and cheese or pancakes?"  I  must've overwhelmed him with my joy, because he was mellow, and quiet.  By the time we got to the car, he started to cry.
"I'm gonna miss Choice Time." What?!  He didn't want to miss Choice Time. I don't know what that is, is it instead of outdoor recess, is it part of class. We told him we'd bring him back after lunch and recess.  Instead, he burst into tears.  Not just tears, giant growing snowballs of tears slowly rolling down his face.  There were little words. (Note he hasn't been talking about his feelings much either, but we're working on it.)  It was pitiful.  He told me he wanted to stay and do Choice Time.  He wanted to have lunch with his friends.  I thought, Oh, OK, you tell me a problem, this is one we can fix.  OK, we can do that.  Eric said, I'll go park the car.  I turn back around and take Jacob sobbing back into school.  I explain to the gals, that he didn't want to leave.  So the second he's back, I look around, and he has left me, and run for the cafeteria.  He didn't even want us to stay.  Shocked I turned and left.  I kind of felt like crying.  I couldn't believe he didn't want to have lunch with us, that he'd rather eat at school.   That's the first time I've ever had a kid do that.  He really wanted to be at school.

So I left.

I left my baby at school, and went to have a lunch date with my hubby.   It made me kind of sad.  He preferred school to me.  We'd gotten such a good motivation for pancakes thinking about what Jacob would want, we decided to take ourselves to IHOP.

I opted to go for the dairy.  After all, I'm not very sick, just got a little drainage.  

Plus, green grinch cocoa!  

Well, they were out of green whip cream, probably better for my colon after all, so I got white whip with red heart candies and peppermint cocoa.  It was So Good! 

My handsome date.  

Each of us got omelettes with a side of pancakes. 

I was STUFFED!  

My Cinnamon stack of pancakes was Awesome.  

We drowned our left out sorrows in pancakes and omelettes, and it was actually very nice.

So then I went to the doctor.  Turns out she didn't like what she saw.  

She wasn't as vocal about grossness, Dr. Cooper would've said Eww, Gross.  He and I have that repoire.  Dr. Wright not so much.  But when I asked if it was gross and disgusting in my throat, she bobbed her head yes.   And then she diagnosed me. 

With Walking Pneumonia. 

Walking Pneumonia. 

Have you heard of it?  I have.  I had one friend who got it a few years back.  She was "lucky", she never got hospitalized, but she was miserable for weeks.   And she had littles. 

But for me, it's Birthday season, and Christmas!  

I can't be Sick!  

With Walking Pneumonia.  

OK, fine.  Give me Drugs.  I openly admitted I was "drug seeking".  I know there's a negative connotation with that, but I didn't care.  I am not going to be sick at Christmas. I have 3 Sweetboys to Spoil! I'm not cancelling birthday parties for my own sickness.  

She put my on a Z pack, azithromycin.  I came home for drugs and nap, after I had some difficulty at the drug store,  Turns out after much brouhaha, I was in the insurance company as a male.  And at the drug store as a female.  Eric got it worked out for me, and picked me up my drugs.   I took a booster double dose of the Z pack with dinner.   We took the kids out, to the Kumon Center for Reading Night. You'd think Eric and I would have gone on a date.  Nope. My energy was gone, and now I knew why.  But once I got back in the car to go get said yahoos, I got an idea. 

As my friend Marta says, "Make Every Trip Count."  

So while we were out and about, we took the scenic route home, and stopped in town to see some Christmas Lights.  We drove through a friend's neighborhood.  

We stopped at the Town Hall Light Show. 

I was glad to see a proper show with the boys. 

We found the lights at Arbuckle.  

Lucky for us, it's kind of pain to get to, so there wasn't a crowd.  

So we got the kids out real quick for a photo op.  

That was fun.  

And when I got home, I was pooped.  I read up on Walking Pneumonia.  It's not like the pneumonia that people die of.  It's obnoxious and rude, and interferes with people's holiday social schedules, but I'm not going to the hospital.  Drugs should help.  It's a milder form.  Still obnoxious though. And I'm already tired of springing leaks every time I cough. I'm just gonna feel kind of gross for a while. 

If you hear my coughing up a lung or running to the bathroom while coughing, don't worry.  

I'm OK. 

I just have Wonky Pneumonia. 

These two oils: Peppermint and RC have brought me 8 tons of Supportive Relief tonight. 

And on that note, I have babbled enough and need to take my pneumotic self to bed. 

Secret Recipe

30/365

A Secret

The Photo of the Day is A Secret.  

While doing my research for my Oil Party next month, I found the Secret Recipe for making the Lavender Lemonade they serve on the Young Living Farm in Mona, Utah. 

I got hit with a whammy of Motivation today. 

I'm wishing of warmer days, planning goals, and plotting schemey schemes for my Oily Career! 

That's my Secret today.

My Morning View

25/365

Everyday my morning view consists of my nightstand.  I have my: Alarm clock (Yes, that is the same alarm clock I got in the 1980s, my first!) my phone (No, I don't sleep with my cell phone, I have a land line, you wanna reach me in the middle of the night, or naptime in the afternoon, call that), my Diffuser (I keep that thing Loaded, but currently it has Thieves in it, since Jacob keeps crawling in bed with me), my Peace and Calming balm, and my Genesis Lotion.   For Christmas Eric got me a Kindle, with a pretty blue flowery case, and so I'm currently reading Little Women.  Lotions and a Book. Priorities Yo. 

Light

7/365

The Theme of the Photo of the Day is Light.  

This is my Desert Mist Diffuser. 

It was just released this past summer at Convention.  

And I bought it.  In June.

But I didn't bring it home until the end of October.  

I had sent my Convention articles to Mom, because there was some reason that the Insect Repellant couldn't be sent to Indiana.  So I had it sent to her in Florida, only it missed her leaving, because there were shipping delays.  Very Disappointing.  At least, it was safe with Aunt Teri, until we got back down there.  In October.  

I was so upset by this box, because it represented a summer's worth of failures to me, that I couldn't get it together to open it.  Until Christmas Break.  Sam wasn't feeling well, so I did some rearranging of Diffusers, and decided it was time to unpack this bad boy.  

It is Beautiful. 

The light can be bright and beautiful, or calming with an incandescent flicker, or any color in between.  In this case the light was Bright.  

And it was Good.  

I'd forgotten how nice it was.  This was the only light in the living room, not enough winter daylight to light the room.  So I am planning to use this pretty more often! 

On the floor

 3/365

Jacob should have gone back to school with his brothers.  

But he didn't.  He wasn't able to go because the heat broke down in their classrooms. 

So it was going to be just Jake and I.  

Jake was being extra sweet looking on the floor for a toy ball that rolled underneath the couch. 

My theme of the day was On the Floor.  

Meanwhile, this sweetboy broke a spring on his braces, and I had to run him in.  

Unfortunately, I always have to put him on the bus before making the appointment.  So I have to snag him later.  This morning after his appoitment, it was so cold, we all needed drinkies.  

Chris has grown, he now drinks an adult size Tall, but still at Kid's Temperature. 

All Jacob needed was a Child's Hot Cocoa.  It hit the spot.  He finished it before I even got home.

On the Floor for GrandmaMusik. 

After sending Chris back to school, we popped down to Mom's for GrandmaMusik class.  Now that she's retired, she teaches Jacob a smidge about music, like dancing, songs, how to play sticks.  This week, we were waving scarves.  A big hit.  

It's a bit of a workout, chasing sweetboys all over the floor. 

So I chose this photo to be our snap of the day.  Seemed good.  Mom's leaving for FL for the rest of winter next week, so it's good for Jake and Grandma to get their fixes in while they can. 

Mom made she and I Ningxia Cocktails after lunch.  

She puts Ningxia Red, Sparkling berry water, Tart Cherry juice, and a splash of Green juice. 

Then we added whatever Oils we wanted before adding ice. I chose Lemon and Frank, but I think it would be great with Orange or Tangerine too.  Can't go wrong with citrus oils! 

Dumbo the Great

 It is our last day of Winter Break, and it was a Pajama day.  

The kids opted for jammie day, and I put a fresh round of jammies on, because my friend Kathy was coming over to work on our Challenge.  We're working our way through the entire list of Disney full length feature film cartoons.  We started with Snow White last fall, knocked out Pinocchio and Fantasia a while back, and on Thursday, we knocked out Dumbo.   

Dumbo isn't a very long movie.  

But that Baby Mine thing gets me every time. 

Did I mention that it's Freaking Freezing?  Still.   

So I broke out the yarn and snuggled up with my Jedi Snuggie.  

I've started a present for one of Eric's coworkers, she's having a baby girl.  I don't get to work girly baby blankets very often anymore. 

It was so cold, even Christopher broke out his yarn.  He's almost finished with his scarf.  I suspect he'll be wearing it sometime this winter. 

 I also warmed up today with my Challenge photo 

2/365

My photo was zoomed in, and focused more on what's in my hand.  It's a squirt of Relaxation Massage Oil, that is Yellow because of the orange and tangerine oils that are in it, and I squirted into a mitful of Epsom Salts.  It makes for a perfectly moisturizing bath.  Nice! 

A Tale of Ice and Cold

1/365

Happy New Year!  

We started the New Year off right with shots of Ningxia Red! 

It had been the first White Christmas in a while. But on New Year's we got Slammed with a Arctic Wall of Cold.  Suddenly, it was so cold the kids didn't even want to go outside and play.   It was -15 when we got up, but it got up to a balmy -5 during the 'heat' of the day.

But it motivated me to do some Experimenting.  

I showed the kids what can happen if you throw boiling water out the door when it's -10 (in the -20s with wind chill) degrees outside!  It turns to snow instantly.  So Cool! 

Sam was ready to play! 

Meanwhile, the boys were Perfectly ok playing indoors!  Chris was so crazy to finally be not grounded, he played in the basement most of the morning.  

But he did venture up to play in other ways.  

The Family Band!! 

Yes, it's Loud.  Yes, they are Crazy.  

But for once, they are doing something, the same thing.  Together. 

And I love it. 

We resumed the semi-regular performance of 

Star Wars: The Crazy Wars. 

But even Chris got bored with being indoors. 

So I recruited him to come outside and blow bubbles with me, for Science. 

He blew bubbles, and let me try to photograph. 

As the sunset.  

It was Beautiful. 

For about one minute.  Apparently, that's all he could handle. 

However, in that one minute time, though I didn't get any photos of the bubbles freezing, I did get this one, (with my cell phone of all things!) of a bubble deflated and crystalline after popping and blowing into the snow.  Very Cool.  It ended up being my favorite shot of the evening.  I put this one up for my themed photo of the day.  

I Am Here. 

I am crazy enough to go outside when it's -10 and take pictures of bubbles.  

And then Chris had to go inside.  

But it was ok, I had another volunteer helper. 

Eric volunteered (sort of) to help me go outside and photograph bubbles.  

And he did a great job.  The first ones didn't even come off the wand! 

See the frosty edge of the bubble, it was freezing before they even left the wand.  

The kept popping so fast.  

If you look closely, you can see the lines of crystallization.  

See how the bubbles get foggy or cloudy.  That's the bubble freezing! 

These bubbles couldn't even retain their shape they were freezing so fast. 

This was the neatest shot, you can see the crystals swirling on the bubble.  So Cool. 

This bubble hit the ground and didn't pop immediately.  

The frozen crust of bubble, just kind of changed shape with the air, like 

I loved the way the bubble rolled, I was actually able to chase this one a bit. 

Can you see the concrete print in the bubble?  

So neat. 

The Bubble cracked down the middle.  And still didn't disintegrate.  

But these last four photos, I took though I didn't know if I got the shots, because I couldn't feel my fingers at all.  It was time to go inside.   

Talk about suffering for my art. 

I curled up on the couch, and got serenaded by the cast of 

Star Wars: The Crazy Wars.  

It looks like it's going to be an Amazing Year!  

Trees

Something I learned about Trish when she was visiting, she loves trees, and every night she feels Called to go out and watch the sunset.  

Now that Thanksgiving is over, it's time for us to gear up for Christmas. 

But God has sent us some beautiful weather this week, and beautiful sunsets. 

I like watching the sun set from my front porch. 

Meanwhile, inside, Eric got the big family tree up and lit this past weekend. 

But it's a little hard to get the kids all together, and behaving enough to put on the ornaments. 

So Mommy gets to play with her phone, with bokeh, background lights.  

I'm happy to break out the big guns this holiday. 

I love my Christmas Spirit, it's a wonderful combination of Orange, Cinnamon, and Black Spruce. 

Yum!

This is my new favorite picture from this week. 

My phone wasn't focusing on the Christmas tree, so I got a screen full of bokeh lights, and I hit Snap, and got this beautiful shot!  I have no idea how it happened.  But I like it!

I did get the upstairs snowflake tree decorated today. 

I was rather proud of myself, since I had a bunch of other kid drama (one kid to orthodontist, and the other requires daily visits to the school to give him eye drops.) I haven't been able to get much done this week.  Still, I love this blue and silver tree. 

And I unpacked our Disney tree decorations after Eric set it up. 

It seems to me, there could be more room on this tree for Disney ornaments. 

On this day, in 2009, we took the kids on their first trip to Walt Disney World, to celebrate all Christopher's tube and ostomy triumphs. It doesn't seem like it's been 8 years, but it has. 

It must be time to go back.  

Epic Vacation, Day 6 - Club Med Thursday

The first time I went to Club Med, I spent most of the trip sick.  It was morning sickness for Jacob, except that it hit me Morning and Evening.  And it's really hard to enjoy when you can't Drink. 

It was particularly hard for me to get over the fact, that this was Not Disney World.  

We hadn't even been there 24 hours, and suddenly it was Already a better trip! 

This was the view out of our back door in the morning on Thursday. 

Seriously, the rains had gone, and we received a sign of God's Promise.  

What a great Sign of the good things to come?!  

The Kids couldn't wait to go to Kids Club.  

They were excited to be able to pick out whatever clothes they wanted.  We don't have to match when we're not on the Move.   They couldn't wait to go Play! 

Jacob got to be in Kids Club with his cousin Cole.  

They hit it off immediately, and played before the day had officially begun. 

It was Brilliant having the cousins play together in Kids club.  

Jacob and Cole were in with the littler kids, and Sam and Chris were in the same group.  

Giant Spider Lily 

Giant indeed.  This thing was taller than me. 

I took a few minutes just to snap a flower or two after breakfast and the kids hit their Club.  

Then it was off to the Quiet Pool (AKA the Calm Pool) for Eric and I.  

We found Mom and Aunt Teri, and we sat in the shade for a moment or two chatting.  

We closed the cabana curtain, so the sun wouldn't fry us.  

Mom and Eric take to the Quiet Pool.  

I joined them, but didn't take my phone with me.  

I prefer to be camera free while I do my best imitation of a beached whale.  

If I put my head just so, this pool is almost like an infinity pool.  

Oh yes, and in case I didn't mention it.  That's the mini - bar.  

They made mango mix, which I had unleaded since we'd just had breakfast. 

It weirded me out to drink booze before 11 a.m. 

Um, This. 

Crepe Day. 

Not every day, but some days, there was a Crepe Lady making desserts.  Almost every other day.

On our first lunch day, when Eric and I were blissfully eating in the Adults Only dining room, (kids at Kids Camp, WOOHOO!) I got a Bananas Foster Crepe for dessert from lunch. 

Oy Vey. 

Crepe day became my favorite day!

The Regatta 

Apparently, once a week they have a race for the sailboats, for the new students, and any youth that want to try.   

They all took off right after we took our naps. We watched half the race from our lanai.   

Meanwhile, the Kids Club set up their own Kids Olympics on the beach. 

They were having a Sandcastle building contest.  

Down the beach Uncle Ryan, Aunt Amy and Jeremiah played.  They didn't do Kids Club. 

OK, my kids are the ones in hats.  

Cole is the shirtless one on the left, playing with Christopher (in the shark shirt). 

Sam and Jacob are on the right in green. 

Super Cute, and having a Great Time! 

Evening Swim! 

Dinner begins at 6:30.  We're old fuddy duddies, and would have liked to eat dinner earlier.  But a significant portion of their clientele is European and eats later.  

The kids get out of Kids Club at 4.  So we decided that between Kids Club ending, if no one was desperate for a nap, (not me, I'd had one!) then we could go for our Evening Swim. 

Last time we came, we were allowed to swim in the evenings.  That was not the case anymore.  

They close up the pool at like 7 or 8, dusk, while we are inside having dinner.  

So a sunset, evening swim was the best time to try having a Family Swim.  

Oh yeah.  

4 boys having a great time in the pool, while Mommy rests poolside.  

I was drying, that's it. 

And resting my hip.  

While having a Family Swim, Jacob took off.  Turns out he can dunk his head under, and hold his breath.  I didn't realize that, and the first time he did so, he was just out of reach, so I dove for him.  

I thought I'd saved him, but he was fine. He knew what he was doing.  Whew.  

On the downside, I had a heart attack and hurt myself, as my hip dodged out of joint while I was trying to 'rescue' Jacob. 

The rest of the evening, I rested. 

At least my toes were cute. 

Those would be my children.  Out of reach. 

And doing just fine. 

My favorite sound in the world is listening to my boys all laugh and play happily together. 

That's a great way to end the day. <3

My Rock Star

Sweetboy at Sunset. 

Chris and I were bringing up the rear on our way to dinner. 

He had to finish up his flush.  

We weren't that late. 

Everyone is enchanted by Baby Bryce. 

The oldest and the youngest. <3

Big boy needs a drink. 

I got to sit across from Jeremiah. 

He'd spent most of his day at the pool with his parents and sisters.  

So I didn't get to see much of them, or him. 

He was quieter than Jacob.  

But he definitely has a goofy streak. 

Fits right in. 

When we came out of dinner, it was dark, and the path was lit by the fire candles. 

It took a minute to get the kids to leave them alone. 

But they sure were pretty. 

My new goodie. 

Not as pretty as my new goodie.  

I'd ordered this Desert Mist Diffuser back in June, but with an Insect Repellent that Indiana won't let ship in.  So I had it sent to Mom in Florida.  But she'd not been home to receive it.  It went to Aunt Teri, while Mom missed the window.  So I wasn't able to pick up this package until we were at Mom's condo.  So this was the first time I got to unpack this light.  

It has a Candlelight setting, like incandescent with a hint of a flicker.  

So Beautiful! And the light was so calming.  It makes me sleepy just to write about it. 

I guess that's my sign to call this blog entry complete.  

It was a wonderfully exhausting day.