...catching up...

Finally, after nearly two months I am back.

Where have I been?

Home. Mommy-ing. Wife-ing. Sister-ing. Daughter-ing. Living.

So many times I wanted to sit down and write a blog post and it’s not that I’ve been too busy, it’s just that my thoughts have been too scattered to put together a readable post.

In early July we went on a trip to Niagara Fall’s and I really planned on coming home and writing a post about that adventure but due to my phone not working I didn’t have pictures to use; now I have them but it seems like too distant of an event to post about now.

My birthday came and went and I considered posting about that but, I hate my birthday’s, the expectations I have, the knowledge that the day will never live up to them, and the further sensation that my expectations are ridiculous anyways making me a selfish horrible person leaving us at: not worth celebrating or writing a post about.

Many, many times in the last two months I have read blog posts, news articles, and opinions on various political, scriptural, and social issues, and I thought about writing rebuttal posts to share what I see to be the truth on any such issue but instead I spend a few days ranting to my husband or sister about it then move on. It’s not that I’m unwilling to stand for what I believe; it’s just that I haven’t decided if this is to be a blog giving a glimpse of my mind or a blog giving a glimpse of only my life. Also, some of those rants would pertain to only a small group of my followers, many of them are on concepts foreign to most of the world; ideas of courtship, purity, modesty, and such.

So today I decided I was going to write about something simple. Just a small step in bettering myself and the home I care for. I have made a goal to work on projects I have either started or ones I have on my to-do list and finish them.

On Tuesday I went to the library and got a few random audio books on CD  to get me started on my list of projects

the tshirt rug I started to pass the 9 months of pregnancy...

 the scarf I started knitting Wesley while we were engaged...

 painting the last two walls of the kitchen (this project may have to wait as I have run out of the $7 can of miss tint and haven't got a budget for full price paint with our vacation right around the corner ;))

 And un pictured is to make our "adventure board". 

[I didn't bother taking a picture since so far it just consists of an over sized cork board. I plan on painting the border, getting a map, pinning the map in the center, coloring in the trips we've made, making an "Our Adventures" title to hang above the board, AND print a few pictures that we've taken along the way to pin around the map :) ]

So there you have it, my plans for the upcoming future. As I check items off that list I'll post a picture of the finished projects. (I know, I know, more promises of posts.. go ahead and roll your eyes readers, I certainly wont be offended)

And today my back decided to go out. I guess that means the sit down projects come first.

Also, who would have thought a 4 and a ½ month old baby would be too much for a person to lift? My 19+ pound baby girl is. Thankfully she’s making it easy on me today by napping often or occupying herself with toys, its only the times I have to lift her off the floor to feed her that we’re struggling with.

Now I’ll go ahead and post a few pictures of family happenings since my last post and maybe elaborate on a few of them   

technically this happened before my last post I believe but.. I never posted about it so here you go. My whole side of the family got together for family pictures :) and one of our own

                                                                                                    little family :)

we went to St. Louis for a Cardinals game on a super spontaneous little trip with my side of the family

and here are a small selection of the many pictures we took on our Niagara Falls camping trip. Seriously, it was amazing. We had a perfect stay at the closest KOA and enjoyed spending a Friday evening and Saturday morning touring the falls. We went on the Cave of the Winds tour and the Maid of the mist boat tour. Both were very cool but the Cave of the Winds was my favorite. You could literally hang onto a railing and walk into the water fall. SO. COOL. The Maid of the Mist was pretty awesome, too because it gave me a much better perspective on how big and powerful this section of God's creation is. And made me stand in awe at how little a part this seemingly huge, powerful part is.

This is one of the several pictures I took the Monday evening on which Wesley rallied a few of our siblings and his dad into going to an Indian's game :)

super random, I know, but I snapped this one afternoon as 

I was front porch sitting watching our baby girl grow :') <3

And this is from just this last Sunday when Wesley, Jerusha, and I met up with a few siblings of his, Shelbs, and a brother-in-law and niece at McCormick's Creek Falls and Wolf Cave :)

Well that's it for now. I hope you have enjoyed this catch up post. ~Haley