Textile Management

Just yesterday I was lamenting the fact that I cannot keep up with the never ending laundry. So, the Lord, in His kindness, let me read this from The Flourishing Mother this morning:

Even so seemingly non transcendent an act as putting clothing away can be a gesture of memory or of hope. We put laundry away in drawers and closets in the expectation that another day or season will come when we will need those things again. We pack away baby clothes in boxes in the hope that another child or grandchild will be added to the family or that an opportunity will come to pass things along to others who will use them. We save articles of clothing that belonged to a loved one who died, remembering the body that used to be clothed in these things and hoping for the day when our bodies and theirs will finally be truly, gloriously clothed.~Margaret Kim Peterson, Keeping House: The Litany of Everyday Life

Doing laundry is symbolic of hope in our family. Hope that a body will be here tomorrow to wear the folded garments. After reading this quote, I see laundry for my family is a privilege, not a burden. I may still not enjoy it, but I will see the good in it.

Home Again!

After two long trips about a week apart, we are finally home and getting settled in for summer! (Not that you would ever know I was gone from my blog!) We just got home this week from a family vacation, and really had a good time. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful family, the kids were great, and we all really enjoyed our time together.

The kids were totally excited about our trip to the beach, and on the way there, we stopped at Lake Village to eat lunch. Now, if you're from AR, you may know that Lake Village is not the vacation hub that it's name portrays. It's a pretty barren street, lined with gas stations and fast food restaurants. So this was our first stop, on our venture to the beach. We found a McDonald's with a "playplace" in it, and thought that would be a good spot for the kids to stretch their legs and eat lunch. As we were getting out of the van, Aaron Job exclaimed with much joy, "WOW!!! This really will be a vacation to remember!" If we'd only known that's all it took- we could have gone back home right then!! But we went on, now they'll never go back to just McD's playplace; they've tasted real vacation.

Oh, I just happen to have a few pics! I feel like Judy here saying "Hey! Wanna see my vacation slides? Let me get out my projector..."

We were actually staying in Fairhope, AL, visiting and house sitting for my aunt during our trip. So...here we go!

We had a great pool with a slide and waterfall close by to go to.

Here's a few shots of the marina in town, with great sunsets!

Some cool pics Aaron took

"A day at the beach" It's not all it's cracked up to be. Whoever came up with that phrase didn't go with four little kids.......just sayin'. I think I counted to four a million times that day making sure everyone was accounted fourfor.

Such a cutie!

She's going to hate me for this pic one day...but it was too cute to resist!

Oh, the sand....you could have built a sand castle with what was in her swim diaper at the end of the day!

She found the chips, and was a happy girl. Who cares if they're a little gritty.

He loved the waves coming in!

She sat like this most of the day and just let the water come up over her legs...that's my girl!

...and that's the first half of the trip! More to come later!

Grandma, this is for you!

Everyone else can ignore this, unless you really like watching beginner piano recital videos! It is terribly cute though, maybe just because it's my kid!