blessed

although today certainly had it's "if you whine one more time, my head is going to explode!" moments, overall, it was a very blessed day.

my fabulous nephew/partner in crime and decoration who helped me turn ben blue last summer (the link didn't work for some reason) came over this morning and made my day a happy, productive, more quiet than usual day.

seizing the coolness of the morning, we went outside after our late breakfast and i got to work on cleaning out the garage ALONE!!! while nephew extraordinaire entertained the boys. normally the boys are right with me, doing and undoing whatever i am trying to do. so, although i had tried many times, cleaning out a very messy shed with their help just wasn't working. to have the luxury of working on the project alone was beyond words wonderful. the task itself was really gross and overwhelming, but i made really good progress and am quite satisfied with my accomplishment. major, major, major! accomplishment!

while i was cleaning out, nephew asked if they could play with the (unused)tomato cages that were laying next to the garage. i made a lame joke about pretending to be tomatoes, he humored me and laughed, and then i said sure. i thought maybe he was going to make an obstacle course with them, but instead he put them on the boys and they thought it was really funny. ahh the simple pleasures.



i may not have gotten a garden planted this year, but these little creatures have been growing like weeds and might earn me a purple ribbon at the fair.

then nephew laid them end-to-end and challenged ben to crawl through.



we can't resist a challenge in our family. ben was quite pleased with himself and i have to admit, i was pretty proud to. it was quite reminiscent of the ridiculous things we did to entertain ourselves growing up and it made me happy that ben was game for such quirky goofyness.

they also played jail and alien with the cages, all without anyone being impaled by the pokey ends.



while the boys played and i cleaned, tim was able to focus on returning calls for a car we are selling and was actually able to hear the people without the boys being crazy yahoos in the background. we received a great response on our craigslist post for the car and if all goes well tonight, we will have the car sold in just a little over 24 hours since posting. God is good.

although we are both sad to get rid of "daddy's fast car", it was not practical and at this stage in our lives, we couldn't justify the expense of it. but gosh was it fun to go on dates in that noisy car! hopping into a four-door cavalier just isn't quite the same. just thinking about it makes me want to call tim and cancel the sale. alas.



tim saying goodbye.


while i was taking a few pictures of the car to remember it (sniffle, sniffle), i noticed a katydid on the window. although i didn't notice the reflection of our house until after i took the pic, i really like all the layers in the shot.



after tim left for work, i got out the boys' little wading pool and they had fun cleaning/filling it. give my boys water and scrub brushes and they'll be happy for a long time. as long as i don't mind dealing with the mess and accept that they'll be totally soaked when they're done "cleaning", it is a great activity when i need a break.

one my way to walmart after returning my nephew my mom called and invited us to dinner-could my day get any better?! my parents have been immeasurably helpful with tim's crazy schedule and we go over there a lot. in exchange for fabulous food, i beg to clean her kitchen in an attempt to earn our keep. we truly are blessed.

to top off the day, before i sat down to dinner, tim called with exciting news about his job. although nothing is official, he may get promoted several months sooner than we had thought he would. i was so excited and relieved and proud of him, i nearly cried while on the phone.


thank You, Father, for all these blessings. when i am weak, these days where i can almost literally see Your hands at work renew my spirit.

now off to collapse into bed.