the back door

i have a ton of blogs i'm wanting to put up, but i feel compelled to share about our after dinner hours tonight. while finishing up dinner i made the comment that i really wanted a baked item - you know, like a pie or cake or something. hubby threw out "or cookies" to which princess replied, "let's make cookies i can take to the tea party!" okay - cookies it is. i remember that i don't have any kind of chocolate chips and since i don't like to make sugar cookies i suggested oatmeal raisin to the crew. every one seemed fairly excited at the prospect. so then i text my friend kelly and beg her to come pick our green beans. now i realize i should get those cookies made - i mean wouldn't it be fun to offer her and the boys a warm cookie after taking my green bean bounty?!?!!? then i remembered i also needed to make a veggie type breakfast casserole for saturday. so i pull out the computer and search for zucchini breakfast recipes. i settled...

so whizboy turned the big "10" a few weeks ago! i can't believe he has now lived a decade. what a tiny squirt he was, then he was fat - VERY FAT, but such an enjoyable toddler. now, he is lean again and enjoyable mixed with a bit of frustration. i'm told that goes with the gender and age. anyways, we had promised the kids with the move to the farm they could have friend parties because there would be a ton of space to run and play. of course, i didn't anticipate 90 degree weather:) but we had a football event that could rival any superbowl in history. 5 friends from chuch showed up in their jersey's ready to run! we did a punt, pass, kick, and sprint contest. although it was hot, it was fun. then we came inside to "cool" off with some cake and homemade ice cream. we opened some gifts too! note to others - green frosting does funny things to ones digestion! since they decided this old house without AC wasn't cooling them down, this...

as most of you know we planted a garden here at sycamore hill. now, we always gardened in town, too. we could get a couple helping of green beans, some peppers, one year 4 ears of corn and some zuchinni and squash. well, this years garden has turned into a crazy jungle! we have vines running wild and zuchinni that could be used for batting practice! it is insane...... one of our abundant crops is cucumbers. i hate cucumbers but hubby and whizboy love them. he thought he planted just a few. well, today alone they had to have picked over 25 of those cukes. we've given a bunch away already and have more on the way. feeling a bit overwhelmed with these, and feeling the need to use them to our benefit i broke down and made a batch of these... yep friends....I MADE PICKLES!!! i despise pickles....everything about them, the smell, the look, the taste...i even make hubby brush his teeth before he can kiss me. and i get all weird when a pickle jar is placed on a buffet table ...

so this morning i woke with the birds and thunder in the background. seems rather fitting - sweet little birds and roaring thunder. a bit of my life these days. anyways, i decided that my legs needed to rest this morning, (they were still burning from yesterdays run) so i grabbed my cup of coffee and bible and headed outside. i was reading from hebrews and over and over i kept reading "today, please listen; don't turn a deaf ear..." hmm...i guess God wanted me to listen huh? so i just sat and asked God what He wanted me to hear. i got silence for awhile. so i kept reading beyond the turn a deaf ear part. it seemed God was referring back to the wilderness wandering. that even though God continually provided they didn't "hear" Him. which leads me to this today i am struggling to hear God because of the above picture. i knew i was a bit touchy yesterday. i wanted to blame it on the heat and i'm sure that was part of it, but if i want to be hone...

this has been such a crazy month of storms - both weather and life. it seems like every other day we were getting the lantern out and hunkering down to weather another tornado warning. the wind has been insane but sycamore hill remains strong. whizboy captured a brewing storm on camera a few weeks ago. as far as life storms...well, i feel a bit waist high in stuff. and realizing how much of it is just that - stuff. but seriously, i feel like i have way more on my plate than i should. hubby and i dreamed up a new approach to VBS and i'm having a blast pulling it off, but it is basically pulling it all out of my head - with the help of a great team:) add to that, i'm writing some curriculum for july and august, and totally changing up the children's ministry beginning in september. what i find frustrating isn't the changes or even the work - it is the fact that i feel so stretched right now that nothing on the homefront is getting done well. i will say though...