Catching up

Turning over a new leaf... going to try to keep up better on here. And maybe even catch up a bit. I had thought I'd really keep up well while Bryan was deployed, so that he wouldn't be left out.  But as it turns out, one of those creepy things with technology, he was able to view all the pictures I took on my phone through google plus. Which was awesome because I didn't have to do anything and he could see each day what we had been up to-and even saw videos.  The negative was nothing got on the blog.  And while I thought I'd have extra time to do things like blog with him gone,  I was sorely mistaken. A single mother of 5 does not have the time to do necessities much less extras like blog. And Bryan does a lot more than I ever gave him credit for. My stress level has dropped 90% since he got home, both from the help and from not having to worry about his safety.

I'm not really sure where I left off, but Bryan did make it home safely May 31. In June, my parents came up for a few days and he and I took Elijah up North to a cabin for a couple days. Then we came home and took all the kids back up for a few more days.  It was very nice and quiet- though quite buggy! The remainder of June was spent catching up on projects around the house. .. as was July and August! We've done a ton of yard work. Planted almost 100 trees.  Shoveled yards upon yards of dirt and mulch. Stayed up until midnight working in the dark more nights than we can count. But it's done for this year!
That led us literally into birthday season.  Elijah turned one on August 15. Noah turned 8 on August 18. Selah turned 5 on September 2. Whew. 3 down,  two to go!

Now we are finally off on our "post- deployment" vacation to Hilton Head Island. While I'm not a fan of the beach or sand,  we rented a house with a pool and I do love the quiet beauty of the island. So we are praying for a low stress, relaxing week mostly hanging out in the pool! And maybe some time catching up on this year! (If I haven't already mentioned it,  the kids and I drove to California and back this winter and had some fun while Bryan was gone. Lots of pictures from that.)

And I'll leave you with a picture of Elijah, our big one year old, peacefully sleeping.

~Sarah