after a long morning "working" the kids went tubing. if you can believe it, this is our first time out this summer on the tubes. needless to say they had a blast!
tonight i was reminded of how precious my sweet family is..... considering earlier today i was beginning to question if i still wanted to be a mom. it sit here writing this amazed at how fast it all goes by and what an honor it is to be their mother.
dave won! 
yes, i know october is still a ways off. but this is the date a group of us gathered to talk about this evening. as renovate continues to grow one of our visions is to work with and in our community, partnering with existing organizations. on oct. 19th we have the opportunity to work with every womens place, an organization who both shelters and cares for women and children who are coming out of domestic violence. as a church community we will be going to their facility and offering a day of pampering to the women which will include hair cuts/styling, mani's/pedi's, massages and facials. we will also be offering child-care, food and gift baskets which we are hoping to fill with items that may or may not be covered by government assisted aids (ie: diapers, disposable cameras, gas cards, etc.). we are all really excited about the opportunity to serve hopefully 50 women in this manner. although we have quite a feat in front of us in terms of raising funds and donations i believe it will all come together. already we have a number of people within the renovate community who are volunteering their skill sets to help with the day of pampering and care taking. so, if you are reading this and would like to either donate or help participate in any manor please let me know. blessings to you all!
today we got to go blueberry picking. YUMMY! friends of ours have a blueberry patch in their backyard that they open up to friends and family. this year was our first year taking advantage of the opportunity. we picked for a little over an hour and filled up an entire bushel basket. it was so much fun watching the kids eat more than they picked. lilly ended up being the only one who actually contributed to the stash we brought home. it was a beautiful day. for dinner i made blueberry waffles - they were delicious! i can't wait to go back and pick more - i want to make sure we have plenty to freeze :)
most of the day yesterday passing a kidney stone. seriously, i never need to experience that kind of pain and agony again in my life. i have heard it said that passing a stone and child birth were on the same pain spectrum and i will admit that the two are both extremely painful however there is one blazing difference......when it's all said and done you have a stone vs. a baby.
we drove into grand rapids today to meet mackenzie grace. the newest addition to the pohlad family. she was born on her big sisters birthday, july 27. it is james and annies fourth child - amazing! we had a blast hanging out with them, my other brothers and rita and of course all of the kiddos. mackenzie is beautiful and looks a lot like her daddy :)
after cleaning up the mess in the downstairs bathroom i took a deep breath and went and apologized to the boys. i hate it when i lose it on them. they did end up cleaning the right bathroom and they did an excellent job!
on another note - we are in the middle of our series at church called summer cineplex. this morning james bean spoke to the movie the matrix. i haven't listened to the podcast yet - but i hear it was awesome! so, i thought i would put a link in case anybody else might be interested, click here to listen.
can you say "cheese"
