one.

i was reminded last night in church
about something mother theresa said,

if you can't feed a hundred people,
then feed just one.

i get that.
i really do.

but there is so much of me
that screams...
one is not enough.

and it isn't.

not for me.

there is always one more,
and it is those that haunt me...

a couple weeks ago..

the hni picnic was a couple weeks ago,
and i just realized i didn't put any pictures of it up yet.
in the morning it rained, so there weren't that many people there,
the kids had a blast,
and won some cool stuff that i now have to get rid of. :)

no words. none.

just watch.
and understand.
the solution is water.

today, again.

so, this is kind of gross,
but it happened, and does often, and will again...

micah left a cup of chocolate milk outside last night.
and there was about a fourth of a cup left.
i saw it,
and left it. (not claiming to be mom of the year)

so today it rained.
a lot.
you can see just how much on the cup.
the chocolate milk line is still visible...
and the rest, is all rain water.



in other news,
we bought a pig, well, half of a pig.
my mom bought the other half.
never purchased a pig before,
so i wasn't really sure how much meat we would end up with.

but, oh pig, let me sing your praises...

it filled up almost an entire freezer,
and my mom took a whole grocery bag home with her,
and i made a package of ribs for dinner.

we will have pig for a year.

well... at least a couple of months. :)

isaiah's

he had to make an "all about me" poster
love the things he chose...

the other day...

back when it was still sunny,
brody and i spent some time at the park
going on a little walk around the flowers
we had a good time,
he is fun when he is all by himself

4500.

that is how many children will die today,
because they don't have access to clean water.

that is a hard number to comprehend,
as all numbers are, really.

if you live here,
in muscatine, iowa...
you know that we have (i think) 9 elementary schools
and 2 middle schools.

if you take every student from all 11 of those schools,
you come up with close to 4000.

what would happen to our community,
if every single child
in elementary and middle school died?

today.

and tomorrow the same thing will happen in another community.

and the next day.

and the next.

every child, here in muscatine, enrolled in school,
between the ages of five and fourteen.

dead.

today.

this is eating away at me... and we can change it.

so many..

there are so many things going on,

so many directions i am being pulled.

i need to stop and refocus.
reevaluate what i need to be doing.
where my focus needs to be.

big things coming..
for water.

we can do this.
we can change a nation.

one well at a time.
one dollar at a time.
one heart at a time...

runaway

today is garbage pick up...
while steve was bringing the cans out of the garage
he noticed something moving behind one of the cans.

it was the snapping turtle.

it escaped it's watery paradise,
with tadpoles, and baby fish,
crickets, and pond water,

and walked from the middle of our front yard,
across the driveway,
and into our garage.

nice.

it NEEDS to go back to the pond NOW.

yet another pond friend...

today, isaiah and hannah brought home a baby snapping turtle



never seen the belly of a snapping turtle...
pretty interesting



going for a swim...



contemplating the turtle...

northern water snake

kids brought home another beauty from the pond last night.
this one was big.
huge, in fact.

how i love these guys...

more firsts

hannah's team had their first win ever today...
this is the third season they have been playing.
and it was a good one.
7-4 was the final.



they played again, this afternoon,
and lost.
and that is okay too.

oh water

this is something.
this is water.
and this is why we love it.
this, this is remarkable.
be thinking big.
be thinking water...
water4christmas.com

The Story of charity: water - The 2009 September Campaign Trailer from charity: water on Vimeo.

firsts.

he lost his first tooth
on the first day of school
in first grade

before school...



after school...

first day of school 2009

my early morning, middle school crew



they are nothing like their parents.
nothing at all.



my grade school crew
i haven't had two kids in grade school since isaiah was in second grade
it seemed off somehow...
like, wait, there should be three of you





this was one of those smooth mornings
where everyone was ready on time,
friendly with each other,
happily took a picture for me...

tomorrow i am certain will be different.

so proud to be a mom today,
and not just any mom,
THEIR mom.

our goal

in the words of one of the most remarkable women i know:

"continue toward the goal…the goal of demonstrating the gospel of Jesus..the goal of seeing that all people have access to clean, safe water…the goal of changing our hearts and the world at the same time"
- Jody Landers

this... this is remarkable

we have all known it for quite some time,
but our friend jody,
she is quite remarkable.

and we aren't the only one's who think so.

check out what the Lifetime channel
has to say about clean water,
and our remarkable friend jody.

you can watch the video,
which is showing ALL week on Lifetime.

so, so proud.

this week.

this is a crazy busy week.

football started yesterday
and 6th grade orientation.. which means navigating a big middle school, figuring out the short cuts to your classes, and locker combinations

today is some golf challenge thing
football
soccer
and 8th grade back to school night.. see the above note about middle school.

tomorrow is football
and 4th and 1st grade back to school night, meeting teachers, seeing friends, and bringing in all of those school supplies.

thursday school starts for four kids.

and i am going to miss them.
a lot.
and brody is going to miss them even more.

new routines beginning,
transitions,
growing up.

sometimes i just wish i could stop the clock for a bit.

music and water

last night we had set up our first water for christmas table of the season.
so exciting
so glad to be back into the flow of water

jody's husband, andy
was releasing a new cd,
which, by the way, is incredible.

we raised close to six hundred dollars last night.
because people gave.
so simple really.

good, good night.
remarkable, in fact.

how do you suppose...

the owner of these shorts explained coming home without them?

take me to the river...

my heart

it isn't often that my big kids allow me to take a few photos of them..
and almost always they decline taking pictures together.
but tonight,
tonight they showed love for their mother,
and allowed me a few.







and i did take one of all five of them,
but as you can see..
micah wasn't happy, and brody was too happy.

if frozen pizza counts for dinner...

then i accomplished 10 of the tasks
on my list of things to do today.

but that means
there were a whole lot of things
i didn't do.

like
sweep
laundry
paperwork

good news is,
the pool was warm. :)

haircut.. ugh.

well, i did it.
i cut his hair.

he instructed me on EXACTLY how he wanted it done.

found out after it was because
he wants to look like dennis the menace.
funny.

before



after

today

today i have to:

wash clothes
do dishes
sweep the kitchen.. because apparently no one knows how to pour cereal
go to the post office
go to the school board office for a friend
take hannah to get measured for her soccer uniform
water my mom's plants
cut brody's hair.. boo.. but he is insisting
check in on isaiah and friend at the golf course
take the kids to the pool.. but first shave my legs
do more paperwork
take hannah to soccer practice
figure out what to do with seventy million zucchini
also figure out what to do with fifty million beans
and figure out how to order a pig cut up... don't ask
make dinner

it is already noon..
and it's not looking very good so far.

leaping.

this is the post i have been waiting to write
for the past eight years...

and now that it is here,
now that i can,
it terrifies me.

we are adopting.

there. i said it.
really, i want to scream it from the rooftops.
every person i see,
every friend, i want to say..
guess what?
we are adopting.

but i don't.
it is my story, and not theirs,
and i get that.

but i am excited.
we are excited.

and i have been blogging about it for a while
over at Not Forgotten

i am going to try to focus that blog
on just adoption stuff,
and keep this one for everything else,
as i know that not everyone is as into hearing the boring details of home studies and waiting, and paper work and fingerprints.

but i couldn't wait any more.

we are adopting.

hooray us. :)

little boys

my little boys are different.
my case in point:

micah:
mom, what do you think would happen
if the earth's core was water instead of fire?

brody:
mom, do fish fart?

baseball... a season in reveiw

we had a baseball party on friday night,
where we discussed the year,
the good and the bad,
and how the boys, as a team, and as individuals, can improve for next year.

i love that.

i love that we have a coach who cares.
who makes attitude his number one priority,
for his team,
and for himself.

and now i get to brag...
so if you don't want to hear how amazing my son is, now would be the time to move on down the blogroll.

for the season.. isaiah:
number of at bats: 80
batting average: 463
on base average: 564

pitching:
innings pitched: 40.33
number of batters faced: 207
number of walks given up: 6
total pitches: 554
strike outs: 23

fielding:
innings played: 181
put outs: 14
assists: 20
errors: 2
fielding %: 944

so proud..
now on to football.

hannah.

hannah came home from a week at camp on friday morning
freshly showered, in clean clothes,
and in a good mood.

so hannah.

i love watching her grow up... because she handles it so well.
with grace.
just like her middle name.

micah.

micah finished up his week at soccer camp with flag day..
he was supposed to have the biggest, the smallest, or the most flags of england

we went for small

he had a good time,
even though soccer really isn't his thing.

critters from last week...

it is still summer, for a few more weeks anyway
thus,
turtles and frogs.
we have quite a few baby toads in the front yard as well,
but i never seem to have the camera around when we spend time with them.

i am getting behind.

like way behind on blogging.
i will have to catch up next week.
monday sounds good.

okay.
see you monday then.