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A glimpse into what it is like to live in our home just this minute. Intentional Hours Outside : 297 hours (of 1000) 29 hours this week...only one hour short of my goal, boo -- but also yay!! because that's pretty darn good after weeks of being well below 20 hours.  We were pool hopping every day from Sunday-Thursday, so that accounted for quite a bit of outdoor time.  We also grabbed more hours at Greyson's all-star baseball tournament last week and his practice this week, where we load the whole crew up in the car and spend the evening outside with snacks and babydolls while his team practices.  Reading The Silent Sister by Diane Chamberlain and finished The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho , which is my second most favorite book ever and to re-read it was one of my 100 small things tasks for the year.  There are so many great bits and pieces throughout the book, but one of my personal favorites is this bit, "Well, maybe I just want to know the future so I can prepare ...

Summer contains a lot of fun in vacations and graduation parties, and bedtimes that delay until the sun finally decides to go down - but as for our holidays, she's really only got Independence Day. The fourth of July has been my favorite holiday for most of my life. I can't sing the National Anthem without getting choked up during the line, ' and the rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air, gave proof through the night, that our flag was still there.'   As hard as it feels right now to watch America, as a people, I still am very thankful for America, the land.  (I think America, as a people, could use a heaping scoop of humility and lovingkindness...but that's not a tangent for this post). We had an awesome two-day long celebration for America's birthday!  We started by stopping by Gigi and Pappy's house after church on Sunday and hoping to get to see our Gilmore cousins while they were in town for a little bit. And that little visit quickly morphed int...

A peek into what it is like to live in our home just this minute. Intentional Hours Outdoors : 268 hours (of 1000) Up 19 hours this week - thank goodness for the fourth of July celebrations which had us outside almost the full day on Sunday and for a quite a few hours despite the rain on the actual holiday.  Grey had all-star baseball practice this week and we followed that up with an outside shower for the kids which they thought was hilarious. I was grateful to get a quick trip to the Que dam in when our cousin Taush told me to bring the kids out while Brandon worked an overnight reset - it was the last little bit of energy release all five of us needed that day (thanks Taush!) I really could have used some more time outside this week (for my own sanity) but long days with Rusty trying to get him calm has kept me frustrated and inside.  bleh.  Doing some calculations - to get to 1000 hours before the end of the year, I'm going to need to strive for about 30 hours each w...