We have been busy little bees lately with hosting my brother and his finance for a visit, and then my friends from back home  (also my former youth pastor and his wife and two sons).  Shelby and Keilah were out here to sing in a wedding, and Floyd's were out here for our church's youth camp.  Floyd was the camp speaker, Christopher was a counselor, Lucas was a camper, and it sounded like such a great week.  I wish we could've been there too, but at this stage in our life, helping out at a week-long camp with 3 little ones isn't exactly feasible.  My hat is completely off to those who do manage to help with little ones, I must just be of the wimpier variety.  So we were happy to play host to them when they weren't at camp, and we had such a great time getting to reconnect with them.  The house is so quiet since they've left!




 The summer of course is flying by, much like I knew it would, and we find ourselves 3 weeks away from baby's due date which somehow seems awfully close and awfully far away all at the same time.   I'll admit, I'm so tired of being pregnant and ready to be done and tired of not being able to hardly pick up things off of the floor and bend over and blah blah blah, all the typical pregnancy complaints. But at the same time I'm not quite ready to face the realities of life with four little ones either, and so I'm left in this strange state of limbo of being SO READY and yet, not ready at all.  So I guess it's a good thing that it really doesn't depend on how we feel at all, and baby just comes when baby is ready to come.

   In other news, I have been loving Dolly Parton's Imagination Library.  Have you heard of it?!  Look it up online, and you can sign up your kid's to receive one free book a month, EACH, until 5 years old.  It's this free program that she started as an effort to get kid's interested in reading, regardless of their access to libraries and I JUMPED on it, as even something as simple as going to the library seems like too much at times.  And with William following in the girls' non-walking footsteps, it looks like I will have TWO non-walkers in a  couple months, and so I'm thinking leaving the house for any reason, at all, EVER, is going to be for the absolute essentials.  And the poor library is not making the cut.  SO.  This program is awesome!  We've received the cutest, sweetest books for a while now, and the kids are so excited when they arrive in the mail.  And I don't have to leave the house, and there are no library fines.  Truly a win/win if I've ever seen one.



Here's a few other things I've been loving these days:

• Check out this interview on this pastor's perspective on family planning for the Christian.  I loved the points he made, it was such a refreshing point of view on this topic for me and I was so encouraged by it.  
• Everyone needs to drop what they're doing right now, and listen to this podcast.  Seriously.  Just do it.  It's called "Considering Comparison" and it is a game changer.  I mean....I cannot emphasize this enough.  Comparison is by far, hands down, my biggest struggle these days, and almost nothing can get me down quicker.  So give this a listen.  TODAY.
• We bought this Bible for Charlotte for her birthday and I kind of just want to tell everyone about it now.  It makes a great gift and let's be honest...I kind of just wanted an excuse to have one for myself! The illustrations are so great and it really helps me get a grasp of the timeline of the events in my mind.  The other Bible storybook we have and LOVE is this one. 
• I blogged recently about finding some killer deals at Goodwill, but while I LOVE thrifting, it is just not fitting into my life well at this point.  And so for when you really are wanting to do some second-hand shopping but you don't want to leave the house?  Try ThredUP!  I found two great maternity tops on there, and am looking forward to shopping there more.  Use this link for a discount for $10 off your order, and I get $10 off too, if you do!  Everybody wins.