family fun and some clarification.

so we had a little family cookout here on sunday afternoon to celebrate Father's Day. it was a beautiful afternoon and evening...we ate here at the house, and then proceeded down to the pond, that my family, never knew existed, until i mentioned we were "working" on it. so...though it is far from done, we had our first smores roasting down there...the night also included some 4 wheeler riding and kyacking...and playing in the creek. some good 'ol fashioned fun you don't always hear about these days...but a definate bonus for raising your kids on a farm, for sure.

(matt's dad, aldie, with his granddaughters...

calli, 2 1/2, kaycee, 6 1/2, and campbell, 4)

calli talking to rae ann.

my brother and his wife and family have been fostering rae 

since september. 

we hope to be able to call her our neice very soon...

but that has not been finalized yet...

we love you rae... 

matt, giving a ride to kaycee and campbell

and cousin, zion, from n.c.





and just a quick pic from around the campfire.

(my sister in laws, heather, and naomi, silas, matt's mom, judy,

and you can catch half a glimpse of my dad, richard...

that darn camera...)

and just for some clarification...

in one of my latest posts, i had been venting a bit about my husband, and the fact that we disagree a bit about cleaning standards and maybe about some priorities too.

i think some of you may have been offended by the post, and that

certainly wasn't my intention. i also did not intend to throw my husband

under the bus.

some of you were wondering if my husband reads my blog.

absolutely. he does.

he is a source of accountability at all times.

there is also never anything that makes it to this blog that we

haven't already discussed or addressed.

a lot of you comment on liking my blog because of the honesty

in which i write. i was simply being honest with all of you.

maybe that is the wrong thing to do?

maybe a blog is the wrong place for that?

i don't know.

i can tell you that i feel like the church in general, the world in general, for that matter, does kind of a crappy job at being honest with each other. i feel like we "hide" a lot because we want to measure up, or we fear what people will think of us, or in my case, my marriage...some of you felt sad or sorry for me after that post. that was not my intention either.

my intention is always to share about my struggles as a mom or a wife,

and give you some encouragement...

so that when you are having a hard day, or a hard time in your marriage,

to know that you are not alone.

we all have times of struggle and hardship.

we were never promised an easy life or easy relationships.

just because my husband dreams of a cleaner house than i can present all the time, doesn't make him a bad person, or a bad husband.

just because i feel like i cannot keep up with his expectations, doesn't mean

that i am necessarily "falling short" on my duties as a wife to him,

or make me a bad wife for him.

you may not have our same struggles.

but i assure you that you have them.

every marriage does.

marriage is hard. hard work.

it is also one of the most awesome relationships that God has ever created

and endorsed.

so...you may have been offended at my post on having clean windows.

i am sorry i offended you.

you may have thought i threw matt under the bus,

and i am sorry if that is how it came across.

i apologized to him as well.

i was simply putting a voice to my frustration that day.

so you may not struggle with finding a happy medium on cleanliness.

but maybe you get irritated because your husband plays on a softball team. and while he's having fun playing with the guys, you are home tending to his children, or else maybe expected to pack all those children up, and go "watch" his game.

maybe your husband has a lot more free time than you seem to have,

and you wonder, wow. wouldn't that be nice.

what would i do with that free time?

maybe you get jealous that he can come home and prop his feet up

and read the paper, after a long hard day working, and you feel like you had a long hard day too...but when did you get to prop your feet up?

i don't think having any of those thoughts are bad or wrong.

i think it's real life.

it's just how we deal with those thoughts and frustrations

that makes all the difference.

all that being said.

i didn't get all my windows washed. :)

i am very happily married and would marry this man over a

million times in a second.

and i think he would do the same.

regardless of the windows. ;)

maybe i need to do a better job of voicing our fun times as well...

not just my frustrations.

okay. off to swimming lessons.

in the rain.

ugh.

happy day.