Hello Summer

So it really felt like summer this weekend. It is so very toasty outside (and unfortunately inside as well) and I am loving it! Goodbye winter - I need this time apart if I am ever to survive our relationship.

We had a fun weekend hanging out with daddy and the rest of the family. Saturday we went for a garage sale walk (this is where we look online for which neighborhood has the most garage sales, load Norah and her stroller into the car, drive to that neighborhood and then walk to each garage sale). We found a cute stool for when Norah is able to wash her own hands and "help" in the kitchen, an extension chord for Jared's new-to-him electric weed whacker, and some new file folders. After garage sales, Norah was ready for a nap, so she slept while we did some yard work. I climbed a tree to cut down some of its branches (well, I kinda climbed so that I could reach the branches, but mostly just because I wanted to climb a tree). Jared weed whacked. I let him clean up all the branches while I went inside to make us a picnic dinner.

We finished off the day with a trip to a local park that has a little wadding pool / playground for Norah and plenty of big shady trees for the rest of us. The family joined us and we ate and chatted and laughed at Norah as she gluttonously devoured fresh strawberries.

This may be one of my favorite photos of her...

I would like to sail this ship that way Nana!

Norah was doing her downward dog position so Aunt Janessa joined her.

Jared and Grampa played catch

Sunday we went to church and I taught my Junior High class. It had been awhile since I had seen them and I really like our time together. It is usually all girls and we study the Bible, talk about friends and play games together. Today's lesson was on gentleness. So important for girls to know that being gentle is what makes us attractive to God and others. We learned this does not mean we are powerless! Jesus was not powerless, quite the opposite, but he often used gentle words and actions to fulfill the will of His Father. We can do the same!