What a busy day! I mowed, raked, pulled weeds, sprayed weeds, packed clothes for the road trip, dug into Timothy & Kristy's shed and pulled the amount of boxes I thought I could squeeze into our van, washed and dried a load of laundry, folded wash clothes and towels from yesterday, cut Landis' hair, made breakfast for Saturday and Sunday, made lunch and dinner, made granola and cornbread, packed Sunday bags, turned my mattress, changed my bedding, sorted through Faith's clothes, bathed the kids, read to them and put them to bed! So, why am I still up? Well, I'm waiting for nail polish to dry, of course. I don't know what the deal is...my nails aren't breaking off. I'm sure they'll do so just any day now. It's so unusual that I have to take advantage of the situation and paint them, even if it means staying up later.

I forgot to mention that I took time to feed this little sweetie pie a few times today. She's been soooo spoiled with being in Arkansas in early June and then Hollie was here for 2 weeks. Not that Hollie spoiled her but she was picked up sooner than if it had just been me here. For the past 2 1/2 days she has really done some crying. By the middle of the day today she was doing better...as you can see.

I got so inspired that I decided to make another entry - so quickly.

Bobby has been home so little. He's just completed another album with Heritage Road and it sounds great. They did a remake of one of their tunes from several years ago called, "Across The Miles," this time featuring Sonya Isaacs. He's been so busy with music that his regular job with Three Rivers Contracting has taken a back seat. He left for Western Canada Thursday morning, June 29 and today is in British Columbia on Pacific Time. He is tired from singing daily and traveling 300-500 miles between dates but he's doing well.

We're looking forward to our trip to MI. We leave on Monday morning and travel with Kris & Mary and their boys. We will stay with my cousin Roxie, her husband, Jeff and their 7 children. She's about to give birth to baby number 8. She called a few minutes ago and I told her it sounded like a cafeteria in the background. Today was mopping day and she was supervising the task at hand.

The photo above is my mother-in-law, Tena Bowen. She is pictured here with her older brother, Harold and the resemblance between her and her granddaughter, Hope is remarkable. Tena is 3 years old in this picture, the same age as Hope is right now. What a shame if I had missed this opportunity to snap a quick picture. I had thought of doing this several weeks ago but realized if I don't take the time to do it, it won't just happen on it's own. For me, it's one of those projects that, when you do it, you feel like you're wasting precious time. Nonsense. It does take time to do it and it's worth it - for generations to come.

So, I took a sabatical over the month of June and didn't write in my blog that I'm so committed to. Tonight I decided I needed to pay closer attention. I called my sister Mary to see if there was some slight possibility that she knew how to get in touch with our youngest sister, Kristy who is in North Dakota for the week with her mother-in-law's family. I really doubted Mary would know anything but yes, she had called Kristy this morning. I wanted to know how she knew how to get in touch with her. Very matter of factly she told me that Kristy had posted her hotel phone number on her blog. Oh. Of course. If I read blogs I'd know that. It's not that I've had nothing else to do.

There's so many things to write about - just not enough time. Shame on me for not keeping up, hence feeling the need to catch up. Don't worry, I won't try. I'll post a few pics from our trip to Arkansas, June 8-13, for my mother and father-in-law's 50th wedding anniversary.

God is good and faithful. I don't need to say any more than that after a week with the kids all home, no van, very costly repairs and a leaking sink.