Life on the Range...

This post contains pictures from the last few weeks.  I cannot believe how quickly time is passing these days. It is nearly June, and I feel like I totally missed May!  Where did it go?  Life really has been a blur lately.  I am a bit sleep deprived ~ though Miss Em only wakes up one time at night.  Somehow the night after night of broken sleep does seem to wear on you especially when you are 36 years old! :-)  

Everyday I wake up, stumble to the kitchen reach for coffee, and in the distance I hear the familiar sound of hammering.  Jack even naps right through it most days.  We are becoming accustomed to living in a construction zone.  My prayer is that the renovation will be done before we begin school in the fall, but each day I am a little less hopeful!  I just keep telling myself that it will be done when it is done and not a second sooner!  So, I ought not think about it too much!

School is out and summer is in full swing.  We are loving a more relaxed schedule.  The boys practically fall out of bed and into the dirt each day.  And, my floors are proof of this!  This is a picture of my floors after I swept one morning around 10.  Now keep in mind that I had swept the evening before....

Boys are amazing creatures!  I love them dearly, but they are dirt magnets!  Now, let me tell you why... Remember that I said we live in a construction zone.  Well, we do.  We live in the middle of a construction zone.  We have builders on both sides of our home!  Behind the gym there is a large area of dirt where the boys enjoy playing.  To me it is simply a bunch of dirt.  To them it is the wild, wild west, and they are cowboys. They dress up everyday and head out to what they refer to as Ranger Rock.  They hide behind the dirt pile, or trees, or bushes and shoot at the workers, the electric company men, you name it.  No one is safe on our property!  You can learn a lot about these men by the way they respond to my boys. They are all quite pleased, but some of them play along.  One of the builders hides behind things and pretends to shoot at them with his electric screwdriver!  One of them, the other day, threw his hat off and yelled at them, "Hey!  Watch it! You shot my hat off!!"  The boys love it!

So, here is Joshua standing on Ranger Rock...

This particular day they had a visitor on Ranger Rock...

Now, right down from Ranger Rock is their camp site.  They spend hours here just sitting around the campfire shooting the breeze...

I really love having boys.  They play so hard, and when they come in they bring me lots of dirt, sweat, sometimes flowers, and always a heart full of joy!  I love those stinky little cowboys with all my heart!  Cowboys are rough and tough, but if you dig deep down inside of them, they have BIG hearts...

In honor of my sweet sister in love, I made my boys lunch this way one day a week or so ago!  I put a glob of peanut butter on each plate and put this in the middle of the table.  They loved it!

They dug right in and suggested we eat this way everyday!!!

I try to think of every little thing that might make my life easier.  If anyone has any ideas, I am always open to suggestions!  I got tired of having fifty cups on my counter each day and no one could remember whose cup was whose, so they would just go to the cabinet and get out another cup!!!  So, I bought these at Wal-Mart...

They had all my boys colors except Jack!  (Joshua is  green, JCT is blue, Elijah is orange, and Eriky is red. Jack's color is yellow, but he doesn't need cups yet!)  The extra blue set of cups is for little visitors.  The cups were 6 for a dollar!  And, so far they have worked great!

Em is growing!!  I told my Jen the other day that my first favorite thing to do in the morning is to sip Bifferdoodle and my second favorite thing to do in the morning is dress Emery!  She has so many cute dresses thanks to all my very, super, sweet friends!!!!

We've been making popsicles like crazy this summer.  If it is a liquid and tastes remotely good, the boys are wanting to make a popsicle with it!!  Here is a picture of sweet tea pops!

The boys have been begging to go camping!  Erik didn't want them on the ground even though our tent is fully enclosed!  So, he put the tent on our trampoline!  This was a hit!  And, guess who slept outside with them... Pop!!

The boys got haircuts!!  No more long hair for sweet James Christofer Truett!  He got his strawberry blond hair cut short!  Now he looks a lot like Joshua!  We had no idea until he cut his hair!  Now I have to do a double take when one of them walks by! I love these guys...

And, I love this last picture because I just do. It was taken on one of our last days of school.  Eriky was doing puzzles while I taught his big brothers.

I'll be honest. I kind of miss school.  Nothing brings me more joy than teaching my favorite little people.  I love watching light bulbs go off!  I love high fives and big smiles when they get their work right!  I love lesson plans and read alouds and history and learning Latin alongside them.  I love sipping coffee and patting little red heads while they work on handwriting and I slowly warm up to the idea of starting our day. I love the sunshine streaming in through the windows onto open books and into open hearts.  I love listening to sweet soft music while we putter away through our day.  I love watching the boys teach and encourage and read to each other.  I love going over scripture recitations and times tables. I love the sweet simplicity of our days.  I love the bonds that are growing between these brother friends.  I love sitting down with a cup of coffee and an empty weekly planner and putting together lesson plans.  I love it all!  It is the hardest thing that I have ever done, but it is also one of my very favorite things I've ever done. God is so sweet to give me this great opportunity to pour into them. But, as much as I miss it and love it, I am thankful that we can slow down and play and take it easy for a few months!