July 2nd {Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real}

Doesn't it always seem that summer flies by until the 4th of July?  School ends, summer begins with a burst of relief and excitement for the months ahead.  You just about dip your toes into the swimming pool, eat a popsicle and it's the 4th of July?

{Pretty}

Arwen and her friend have been going to the local pond to catch frogs (love 13-year-old girls!).  I asked them to pick me some wildflowers while they were there and this is what they came home with! 

not-Arwen's bike...I do envy that basket!

looked like a flower store on our front driveway--loved how they sorted them all

(You should have seen the mud they were covered in from the frogging--I'll save that for my "Real").  

{Happy}

At Bilbo's "machine-pitch" baseball game.  These games can be...tedious.  Just a step up from T-ball, which I am morally opposed to.  Morally.  Yes. That is not overstating it.  But "happy" is being together as a family, cheering on a freckle faced boy who looks incredibly cute in his baseball uniform.

Enjoying the cool evenings.

Climbing trees.

do you see Galadriel in the tree? (photo credit: Arwen)

"Up? Up!"

{Funny} 

When your big sister is a gymnast... 

I told you these games were tedious...we get creative (stand on our heads) to pass the time

She stayed in this position, looking up at us and laughing, until she finally rolled onto her side.

{Real}

I think a lot of us are trying to digest the Supreme Court decision, its implications for our future, and finding myself reeling a bit, trying to figure out how to proceed.  

I was thankful for this post from Wildflowers and Marbles blog, encouraging us to simply "do the next thing":

The current culture has targeted the family – therefore, it makes sense that rebuilding it begins and ends with the family.  And that means kind of simple and seemingly quiet sort of stuff for us to do.  The sort of stuff that families have been doing for centuries. 

I printed out my newest Summer with the Psalms and made a little shrine to the Sacred and Immaculate hearts of Jesus and Mary.  

"He is God" is my Real.