The summer days are long and humid as July draws to a close and we wait with eager expectation for our baby girl to be born in August.
We were blessed to escape the heat around the 4th of July and spend a few weeks at our cottage in Michigan.
We spent a lot of time on the beach and more or less lived outside with temperatures in the mid 70s.
S’mores on the beach
Simple baths in the kitchen sink
Catching minnows first thing in the morning
Swimming at sunset
Watching the freighter come in off Lake Michigan
Play hard, sleep long.
Now home in North Carolina, our sweet ducklings are full grown ducks. It’s hard to believe they went from fuzzy little ducklings in the palm of my hand to these full-grown 9 lb birds in just 8 short weeks.
We have a few acres so they are free to roam during the day, although they are scared of their own shadows and rarely venture far. Wynn’s favorite chore is rounding them up for bedtime.
Just life . . .
We play in the sprinkler almost every day because it is so darn hot and I can sit on the front porch and supervise without exerting much effort! Wynn has imaginary crops like corn and wheat growing all over the front yard so he claims he is irrigating. I took the picture below on a hot morning with such beautiful light, the water from the sprinkler was so vivid in detail.
A beautiful Brushy Mountain sunset.
Swinging never gets old.
We are getting ready to start homeschool in September and I am in the middle of writing a post answering why we are choosing to homeschool and how we are going about it. If you have any specific questions, please feel free to ask in the comments and I will either answer below or incorporate the answer into the upcoming homeschool post. Wynn would be starting public school kindergarten this year. I am nervous about starting school with him and having a newborn at the same time, but I know it is what God is calling us to and that He will meet me there. I am also trying to finish a nursery for baby girl and set up a homeschool room. These are busy days, intense with training for the little ones- I am working with them on attitudes, whining, sharing, and respect. Most of the time I feel so tired and out of breath from the pregnancy I struggle to keep speaking and directing! It is full-on, all day long. It is beautiful and exhausting and overwhelming and the only thing I could imagine doing with my life. Pockets of each day feel like the fairytale I try to capture in my artwork (above) and pockets of each day are a battleground. I am positive this is every mother’s story.
In closing I wanted to share our latest addition, Miss Clover. She is a blue mini rex. I’ve never owned a bunny before and am teaching myself as we go along, just like I have with the ducks. She is the sweetest most cuddly little love you could imagine. It is extra magical to sit and read a bedtime story with a bunny hopping around the room.
Such a gorgeous story told in the photos in this post. I’m so glad to hear that you got to return to Lake Michigan for at least a few weeks! Our family will be headed to Lake Huron in August and we are so looking forward to it. I hope the last few weeks of your pregnancy are as tolerable as they can be and I wish you all the best!
I’m due in August as well with our #3, a baby girl, and I understand every word you just wrote about struggling to breath while just disciplining and explaining and mothering. And bending over to pick up toys or to talk to my 4 year old is an acrobatic move in itself. He’s been so sweet and knows baby sister is getting big and making it hard for me to move around. And the heat here in Texas, wow! We are around 2 weeks until we hope to meet our little girl and every day I have to ask God for strength to get up, mother my 2 children, and not collapse from exhaustion by about noon. But it’s going fast and I want to treasure it!
Oh Molly, I could have written every word of that. I am sure the heat in TX is even more intense than here in NC so you have my sympathy with that!! Everyday I feel like I give everything I’ve got and somehow by the grace of God, have energy enough the next morning to feel renewed and do it all over again. Blessings to you and your baby girl!!
We started homeschooling with a newborn and a toddler too! We spent kindergarten focusing on learning to read with “Teach your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons” and that was it, we didn’t try to accomplish anything else. And before I knew it, I had a reader!
Now we are starting 4th grade, 2nd grade and preschool with no signs of stopping. Enjoy the freedom homeschooling brings, it will be easy, for you have been schooling your boys since the day they were born.
Absolutely beautiful art, Erin. Hang in there-that last month is a test of wills, patience, and pushes us to the max mentally, emotionally and physically. I can’t wait to hear about your choice to home school-I think it’s awesome and admirable. I love what Tracey wrote-we used that book too (and I don’t home school, but it helped to reinforce and really worked well.) And last but not least-I had bunnies growing up-loved them all.
Erin,
Thank you so much for sharing your”summer days”, and I will remember to pray for you and Molly especially. As always,
your photography of your boys and thoughts on motherhood always bless me, and all of us so much.
May the Lord continue to give you grace and joy and strength as you await your new little one.
Blessings on you and yours.