A quick update on household happenings

Life's been running way too fast lately. I'm not sure where the time is going. I guess we have been fairly productive, I see the things we've done, but it still doesn't feel like time is going by at the right speed! Feeding Duncan every three hours on the threes has been a great time indicator for me, and some days those three hour sections move along at the right intervals, and then on other days it seems like as soon as I finish feeding him that it is time to feed him again...what's up with that?! Either way, that might explain the lack of posts lately.. so here is a quick fly by of some of the things that we've been doing to keep busy:

Duncan at pack meeting just lounging around. Tig took these pictures with her camera

Garrett had his first pack meeting as weblos. He earned a lot of badges and other things this month because it's been a while since his leaders have been able to get them.

 He got two silver arrow heads to finish up his time as a Bear, a Utah  County Trails hiking badge, Scouts fighting Drug Abuse badge and certficate, Utah State Fair badge, John Hutchings Museum badge, BSA Emergency Preparedness pin, and the Outdoorsman badge for his weblos. With all of these new things, he now officially needs a new, larger display board for everything he has earned as a cub scout. He is really thrilled at that!

 The weather had been so beautiful that we were spending a lot of time outside. Emmy loves bugs - all kinds. He will frequently bring me a wasp or an earwig that he caught. So we try to focus on which are good bugs and which are ouchie bugs! Here is one of our favorite 'good guy bugs'. (His other favorite good guy bug was a leaf bug  that liked to hang around our back yard. He wasn't a fast enough bug to avoid being repetitively caught.) It's like one of thos Eye Spy pictures!

It has also been canning season around our house. So far I have put up about a dozen jars of peach jam, half a dozen of strawberry jam, 8-10 jars of pickles, and 6 jars of jalepenos. We've frozen about 6 lbs of strawberries and 10-12 lbs of peaches and we still have another 8 lbs of strawberries and 10 lbs of peaches that still need to be processed. I also have a batch of tomatillos that needs to processed and some elderberry juice I made that is waiting to be made into jelly. I am also hoping to make a few patches of mint jelly this season too becuase it is so yummy on meat!

So that is us. We're doing school, preserving foods for the winter, thinning out the junk in our house and packing up boxes so we don't have to move too much. We've learned about Charlamagne, Michaelangelo, the vikings, and Jackson Polluck in school this week. Teagan finished up her Pre-Algebra book and will start on her Algebra book as soon as it gets here in the mail. Owen flew through another 2 weeks of math lessons in one week, and Garrett found that he likes multiplying fractions. 

 Life is full, but good. As long as I don't focus on the cold hard facts of our upcoming move, life is alright! I think it is the fulness of my time that is actually keeping me mostly sane. We have good  things going on and as long as I am focused on those things, then there is no room in my mind or time in the day for me to dwell on the sadder side of reality! At the end of each day, after I have put the bigger kids to bed already and I am cuddling with the little two and putting them to bed, I realize how great of a life I have.

(Emmy put Duncan to sleep last night and in turn Duncan put Emmy to sleep, too!)

 I have 5 beautiful children who bring the greatest joy to me.

A hubby who works hard to provide for our large family, supports me in all my major decisions, and loves me despite all my flaws.

We have a sure job with a great company after he graduates and are in the perfect spot housing wise (renting month-to-month now and looking to buy in a buyers market).

 Our kids are healthy and happy.

Food is always on the table and we have clothes for every season and shoes for every weather.

How could we possibly look for anything more in our lives?