Sunshine, Friends, and Laughter

After a busy end of the schoolyear, not just school but another season has whizzed by!


It wasn't too long ago when we went, "Boing! Spring has sprung!"...



Now we're looking forward to more sunshiny days!

Took the children to a "School is Out!" party around our place. Seeing them happy, enjoying themselves, with their friends, and all the laughter, put smiles on my own face, too!


Joy brightens up our days, and is what this mommy grabs onto for the longer ones! 


It's a wilder time, and I'm trying to get organized. Hoping for more of the crazy in a good way moments!

Here's to more sunshine, friends, and laughter in your life, too! 

There's joy also from spreading it to a friend or someone in need, in whatever ways we can to be a friend.

"Friends are the sunshine of life."

- John Hay

A river runs through it

The Spokane River runs through downtown Spokane, next to Riverfront Park.

At a lookout point, last month, taking Nana out while she's on her visit here...


Look who and who are tossing pinecones over the wall?!


Running back with another pinecone... then, THROW!!!


Kait has a nice overhand throw, from playing ball. She also likes to play "ring around the rosie" with Jon, and "follow the leader" with Ben -- on her own imitating his actions!

But it can also be a "monkey see, monkey do"!

Go with the flow...
It's OK to toss pinecones, or a ball, and the boys will even grunt while playing two-square together! The grunting they picked up from watching the French Open with Nana, who's a fan!

However, it's not so funny when the younger two snarl and throw things during their tantrums, or when the eldest throws a fit also. Nor is it when this mom melts down, too, hence, the term "mom-ster" (grrrowl!) coined by Ben! Self-control is not easy to teach, and even harder when I can't get a hold of my own emotions.

To agree to disagree -- and move on, is something I'm learning to do (e.g. with the husband, or my MIL, when we're on different wavelengths). The same I'm trying to help the older two children see is a solution over fighting. The battle scars from friendly and unfriendly scuffles among the three siblings are not pretty at all.

I'm here for my midweek "stop and gaze" moment. My neck and back feel less strained than over the weekend. Guess I overdid it squeezing in a grocery stop here and there on top of more driving, taking Nana for more sightseeing and shopping. For the places I'm less familiar with, I follow the husband's good directional sense more than the GPS. It's silly of me though to always heave the laundry and Kait at the same time. Heeding Vern's advice to go for my first physio session before he's currently out-of-town for work, helped me function more normally.

Meanwhile, there are also our summer plans to sort out, that to trust the husband's judgment, and the rest to go with the flow, and pray all will work out.

I hope your week is going smoothly!


May pictures, weekend after Ben's birthday.

When her brothers also said...

"I am a girl, I am a girl!"!!!

They actually sang it out loud...

... as they swayed their hips and watched their shadows on the ground, imagining the afternoon sun had turned their pants and shorts into skirts!

Now that's THE girl >>>

She was pretending to take pictures with the pouch that had slipped out of my hand, when I reached for the camera to capture these goofy moments, one fine day in April...

snap, snap, snap... Gotcha!

Think the boys will skin me over this post next time?!

I'll blog about the serious (brain-racking) stuff another day. Keeping this short -- no pun intended, but yes, Ben did roll up his pants to his knees for this 'gig'!

Have a good rest of the week!