Lately.

What have I been up to lately?

Walks with babies in which I saw this truck that had a garden growing out of the bed. Amazing!

A word of advice: never walk a mile with three infants all by yourself when it's 95 degrees out. Or ever.

Solo drives, blasting Mumford and Sons and/or The Civil Wars. Once driving behind this dream car of my youth (and perhaps my current older age).

Field trips / end of Summer / beginning of the school year party with one of the coolest kids / superheroes the world has ever seen. Farmers' market, City Park (with the best view of the city ever), fountains of incredible joy and surprise and delight (and free!). I love my job (especially on these days!)

Notes on my new chalkboard door - from children and moms, to each other and me. I love it, and I love them.


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I'm so thankful for the groups of girl friends I have. Pizza and sangria, pedicures... I love my Bloom girls and I love my college friends. Which, let's be honest, saying "college friends" makes me sound really old. Or maybe just feel old. They're my for-life friends, not just college. I decided.

We've had (and will continue to have) so much family time lately. It's been so good. I'm so thankful for these times with my grandma (and aunt, uncle, and cousins) this summer. And soon it's my Momma's turn!

I also love the Les Miserables soundtrack I'm listening to right now... It brings back such great memories. Being a tiny child, sitting in the front seat of my dad's truck (Truckie), listening to the cassette with him. Senior year of high school, my parents, Jenny, and her mom seeing it live in San Francisco. So good.

Peaceful.

So, the next few weeks may be a bit quieter than I expected. One less infant to fill up my days - which keeps me at three instead of four. The interns are gone, which means I may have alone time with the babies, which is fine with me.

More carpet time, more drooly baby on my chest time.

More time laying on our backs, staring at the ceiling.

More tickling and weird songs that we learn at story time.

More grass time... Or maybe not, because walking three babies to the park by myself a half mile away is just a bit more exhausting than I expected it to be.

More creative craft time and informative video watching time.

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August is already so busy. Time with family (BMECM, Mormor, Mom), helping more family move, girls' nights... It's a good way to end the summer.

Three day weekends and inspiration.

I haven't taken a day off just to take a day off in a while. Today has been wonderful. We slept in, lazed around, went for a bike ride... and I got inspired! It's so nice to have the time to experiment. Pinterest is so addicting and so inspiring. I've made at least ten of the things I found there - and I'm not a huge fan of cooking and I'm not super crafty.

Today I made these two things:

I finally found a use for this beautiful fabric I found in Uganda three years ago!

Homemade granola - delicious! I got the recipe from here, but I tweaked it just a bit. I didn't use hazelnuts or cherries, and used regular raisins instead.

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I'm trying to update more often, but it's been hard. The things I've had on my mind have mostly been  difficult things, and I don't often want to write about them. But this weekend has already been so good for me and I'm excited to see how the end of the summer and the fall go. We're looking forward to a New England road trip in October, time with visiting family, and hopefully lots more time with friends.

Thunderstorms.

I've never seen so much rain in my life. Downtown Denver flooded within 20 minutes and it was nearly impossible for me to make the 2 mile trek back to my apartment. Luckily, we seem to live in an area slightly more elevated than downtown, so there isn't as much flooding here.

I decided that flash floods, tornado sirens, and crazy thunderstorms call for about-to-go-bad homemade guacamole and tortilla chips. A new tradition is born!

Gardening.

This summer is not going quite as planned. I was planning a summer full of fun activities, field trips, and life lessons for a group of kids. Instead, I get to sit around with adorable babies and take a solitary child on field trips once every few weeks.

Last week was hard. One of the families that I had bonded with the most (and brought their children out of their shells and taught them to handle their emotions better) left the program suddenly. I miss my babies so much...

But... I'm making the best of it. We're growing a garden (it's actually growing!), and it's amazing. We ate green peppers today, a bowl full of lettuce yesterday, and it's been so amazing to see how well everything is doing. So worth it! Even when the kids pick green tomatoes off the vine, thinking they were green peppers. Oh, well.

Summer outside of work is wonderful. Hot, but wonderful. Yogurtland, poker nights (which means I sit outside and talk to people while David plays poker), walks in the rain, bike rides, pool parties... So good.

Father's Day

Happy father's day to the best dad in the whole world. Your love, laughter, and support mean the world to me!

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This week.

This week.

Answered prayers that will hopefully change a family's lives.

A two year old wiping her brother's tears from his cheeks while I remind him that he is not, in fact, a "stupid boy".

Babies in giant sunglasses.

Water games!

The laughter and screams of little boys.

A family of ducklings crossing a busy road with the help of people enjoying their lazy summer.

Homemade popsicles.

House church discussions.

Bicycle.

Rain.

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I have a dilemma. I have so many cute pictures taken this week of the kids, and of me with the kids. I would love to share them on here... But I'm not sure what is appropriate. So, forgive me for the lack of pictures. They all consist of funny faces, sleeping children, water, city backdrops, and pillow case races. Such a good week.