We began the month on July 1st purchasing a $100.00 rock! Just the day before I had been cleaning the house and in EVERY room I found little rocks in one place or another whether it was the window sill, the dryer or the back of the toilet there were little rocks. I scooped these up and made several trips out to the backyard to deposit them. (I like rocks and so my children must have inherited this from me). In spite of the couch having been vacuumed out one was missed and somehow, sadly, ended up in Nathan’s nose!!! Way up in Nathan’s nose. I discovered this fact when he came to me and told me there was a rock in his nose.
Sure enough. After trying to get him to blow and having him sniff instead and trying to think of any possibilities to get this thing out we headed to the hospital. As his nose was turning purple during the wait it started to hurt. Finally reaching his limit, Nathan began to cry because of the pain. This loosened the rock and sadly I am the one who ended up fishing it out of his nose!!! But we were registered and the money was out the window!!! The rock was out and that was the most important thing. 
One week later Nathan took a flying leap down the wooden staircase and ended up with his tooth going straight through his lip. Thankfully I got it to stop bleeding and I did not have to go to the hospital with him again… a near miss! And no loose teeth, either.
One day a pirate showed up after a birthday party and after her “men” got through scavenging the dress up box I ended up with a house full of adventuring pirates all searching with their maps for secret treasures.
Independence Day was celebrated in the morning on the fourth with a backyard cookout. Corn on the cob, cheeseburgers and White Hots were grilled. Rick had to go in to work that evening.
We cut up watermelon wedges, had a light red, white and blue jello dessert and enjoyed our picnic.
I made home made strawberry ice cream for dessert later. Mmmmm! So creamy and delicious. I took the kids out to see the fireworks and Rick met up with us.
On hot days the children played inside or went out for short adventures. Indoor artwork was big on hot days too. Kaitlyn learned to draw all kinds of things using the shape of her hand and promptly put her pieces up for display. Once taped up on the wall Spooky was sure that this bat was REAL!
One day in early July the temperature was well over 100 degrees outdoors. This was not the greatest day for black velvet… or black fur for that matter!
One night was so unbearable that we declared it our annual “ice cream” night where we ate nothing else but this for dinner. It was too hot to eat anything else. We looked around to see what we might have for toppings this year. We had slimmer pickings but still plenty. And the frozen strawberries that we picked ourselves were fantastic on this night.
Only once a year can you fill your bowl with this many types of ice cream and toppings.
Yum! It was great eating such a cold “dinner” in the hot outdoors. And our homegrown blackberries were excellent on this night too. Despite this meal I still managed to lose 3 lbs. that week. I’m sure I just sweat it out. Lindsay granted me “Mom of the Year” status; she was in great pain from her visit to the orthodontist and for three days I let her eat ice cream, yogurt and milkshakes.
A surprise package arrived bearing birthday gifts and more. Kaitlyn lined up an entire closet of new shoes all for herself. Pretty cool!
New treasures to enjoy for Kaitlyn and really cool Cars shoes for Nathan that light up when he steps. Wow! And a Cookie Monster notebook for doodling which he put in his church backpack.
Love the sandals! Nathan knew just what to do with presents. And somehow, I was surprised, when he knew exactly who Spiderman was!
Both boys started racing Spiderman immediately.
There were so many surprises in that box. Kaitlyn wears her froggy socks (2 pairs) every time they emerge from the laundry.
It was like having a birthday all over again for Nathan!
Nathan loves his two new books and his batman socks which he promptly put on. He also looks very handsome in his new church shirt which looks great with his blue church shorts.
Lindsay got some new clothes for her birthday in the box too.
One morning after a string of 100+ degree days the temperature was in the upper 70’s and I found Kaitlyn, wearing her favorite sweatshirt, outside working on her new Kindergarten workbook from her Grammy. She sat for over an hour working on all of her ABC’s. 70 degrees felt great to Oscar who loved sitting in the open window again.
Lindsay went out shopping with her birthday money and some babysitting money for some bigger cowgirl boots. She had not told me that any of her shoes were getting tight for fear that her cowgirl boots would have to go. By the time I discovered that her shoes were tight I took her out for sneakers and found that she had gone up 5 shoe sizes since her last pair of shoes!!! “Mom of the Year” status went straight out the window!!! She was EXTREMELY grateful to be able to get a new pair of cowgirl boots after that. They are beautiful whether she sports them on the farm or makes a fashion statement with them. They are totally Lindsay.
My garden began producing zucchini, my husband brought me flowers to celebrate the end of World Choir Games (and all the hours of his summer he was giving up) and Darth Vader came to swing in my backyard!
Some days were too hot for anything other than napping or reading. It was similar to a reverse blizzard and you just couldn’t be outside due to extreme heat & humidity with poor air quality.
When I turned the sprinkler on to give everyone relief including the dusty grass I ended up with muddy kids swimming in mud puddles who needed a prewash in the shower before a bath. Their clothes even received a prewash before being washed with anything else. They were THAT muddy!!! And my garden finished producing its decent crop of blackberries for the year which we enjoyed by the handfuls. We ate as much fresh fruit as we could hold during the month of July.
Oscar loves lounging in bed under the ceiling fan. He certainly feels at home with us now and is such a big love.
We said goodbye to Haley and Lindsay for a week when they headed to Girl’s Camp which they earned the money for completely by themselves. While Rick worked on demolishing the girl’s bedroom one day I took the other three children to the Children’s Museum. The kids had a great time building and exploring.
Mornings… cats fed themselves if we weren’t quick enough for them and the boys entertained themselves in the early hours that they like to keep. Early mornings for me are coming soon enough.
The boys used their time to build cool things together. (Note the curious Lego sniffing kitty nose). All this was too early for Oscar.
Lindsay went to horse day-camp for a week and Nathan informed us one day that he was ready for horse riding camp too.
Just as we discovered that we had more than just zucchinis in our zucchinis this green globe fell off of its vine but after several weeks sitting up on the dry sunny deck it did turn orange for us.
And finally, even with all that trouble Nathan had at the beginning of the month (remember $100 rock and tooth through the lip) he ended the month as a bigger boy sleeping in his big boy bed now as well as potty training! Hooray! In the middle of the week that we were redecorating the girl’s bedroom he came to me and told me to take his diaper off because he had to use the potty. That was it. This book (right) was instrumental in this milestone, I am sure, because Nathan has been asking to read this book all the time for the past several months. Whenever I asked him if he wanted to use the potty he would decline, though, so I guess he was finally ready and that is the best way to do it. Hooray! What a big boy Nathan has gotten to be.
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