First Half of Summer

June is the only "school-free" month in our year these days so it felt kind of special. 

We had one Saturday where just about everyone made it to Andrew's soccer game! Yay! With four children playing there is usually a one-parent allowance per location.

A friend from church and I took our youth group to an Indiana Fever game right after school ended. I think it was my first professional basketball game to attend.

The pool is open! We try to get there several times a week. The month of June has been unusually hot -- I think we've had four weeks of 90's. This weekend we have a break and it's nice to have the windows open again.

The younger kids still had a fair bit of soccer to play in June and one week it was bucketing rain!

Laura was not deterred in the least! She loves soccer and runs around crazy, helping her team to get goals! She also had one of her yearly checkups this week and we continue to praise God for her good health and amazing energy.

There were some celebrations with friends! Yum yum!

I've tried to make time to work on painting with my mom. I had a great rhythm going and then things got a little chaotic.

One day Rachel offered to treat Laura and me and to Starbucks. Couldn't turn that down!

It was our turn to host the Middle School youth group for an event in June. We started with a picnic at the IMA's 100 Acre Woods but when we ran out of water and the trails were closed we had to make an early dash for home. Our Middle School group is heavy on boys!

We are two-thirds of the way through our summer DIY project -- switching bedrooms around and painting them while we are at it.

The two younger boys are moving out of the large bedroom into Rachel's room and Rachel is joining Laura in the large room. Furniture was painted and the blue room turned into gray and blue.

Then came the Gospel Coalition's Women's Conference with 7200 other women from around the world. It really was fantastic and I can't wait to go the TGC conference next April here in Indy!

Rachel got glasses as a backup to her contacts. They are pretty cute on her!

The garden has been lovely this month. June really is perhaps the best month for the flowers I have.

What a shocking picture following such a beautiful one. Yes, this is the mess created by emptying two bedrooms. I think we lived like this for about 10 days with only a narrow path to my bedroom. Wow it was depressing!

Mom came over and picked the red currants with Laura.

Mom also took us to the Indianapolis Museum of Art to play the new mini golf they have available. Lots of fun!

 Soccer finished and here is Laura with her team. She was particularly excited to win the White Star Player Award.

James is aging out of Upwards Soccer so this was his last year in the program.

With just the right view I can pretend I have an English country garden. :) I love to look at this view while I eat!

Rachel had the marvelous opportunity of returning to North Carolina to spend a week with my Aunt Georgie and then another week with Michael's sister Nicole. Sounds like it was a lot of fun!!!

And now to breathe a sigh of relief, I did get the loft cleaned up and things returned to normal! We may move some bookshelves around in here in preparation for a better table situation for computers. But, it's good to have a clean space again!

And the girls' room is looking fairly good (much better than this photo as things are tidied). I think I will put fabric on the back of the room divider to hide the supports. Laura has the first part of the bedroom and Rachel the far end.

And the boys have a bright new green room with loft beds to fit their desks underneath. Michael and I already feel better from the decrease in clutter!

This summer is also so very special because of the number of friends we have seen/will be seeing. In the last 6 weeks I've been able to visit with three dear friends from my teenage years and meet all their children!!!!!!

Andria and I have known each other since we were 15. She has three boys now and one on the way! Can't believe the last time we saw each other was over 9 years ago.

 An unexpected bonus of the DIY stuff was suddenly having room in our bedroom for an extra chair and book stand and footstool. Wow, this is such a lovely place to retreat and read when there is a little window of free time. :)

I agreed to teach the Middle School Youth Group over the summer -- six sessions on the life of C. S. Lewis (biography of my choice). So far it's been a lot of fun! I'll have to document how I've organized the class when I'm finished. We do map work and timelines and read alouds and the best part is snack which is tied into the story. This past week we learned about C. S. Lewis' time in World War I so we had a World War I care package for snack! (I'll include the details when I summarize this class.)

Just this week we had my dear friend Jennie visit with her daughter since they are on furlough from Uganda. We have known each other since we were 13 or so and the only teenage American girls living full-time in Uganda. Naturally we had to be friends! It has been a privilege to be able to continue our friendship over these many years and now to meet her beautiful daughter Elizabeth and watch our kids playing together!

We had gorgeous weather and took a picnic to Eagle Creek where the kids could play in the water.

And so June was a full month. In just under four weeks this guy below will be starting high school! How time flies.

Right now I am looking forward to July 4th! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!!!