Fearless Heart!

It's time for a new theme song for my life. These words are challenging to me. I don't have that fearless heart now...but I want it. I know HE can do this in me.

Fearless Heart! point of grace You can play the song here.

For even the most trusting soul
This world can be a scary place
So much that we can't control
In every moment that we face

When a thousand what ifs
Whisper in our ears
We remember who's we are
And watch them disappear

I wanna live with a fearless heart
Courage that's coming from trust in God
It's constantly guiding me though the road may seem dark
I wanna live, wanna live with a fearless heart

There are worries chasing everyone
It's evident in times like these
But I have found the confidence that comes
From time I spend on my knees

There's a truth I'm holding onto
As these days unfold
Greater is He, that is in you
Than he that's in the world

I wanna live with a fearless heart
Courage that's coming from trust in God
It's constantly guiding me though the road may seem dark
I wanna live, wanna live with a fearless heart

He's my strength, He's my shelter
He is with me all the way
He's my light and my salvation
Of whom shall I be afraid, of whom shall I be afraid?

I wanna live with a fearless heart
Courage that's coming from trust in God
It's constantly guiding me though the road may seem dark, yeah

I wanna live with a fearless heart
Courage that's coming from trust in God
It's constantly guiding me though the road is dark
I wanna live, wanna live with a fearless heart

With a fearless heart, with a fearless heart
With a fearless heart

We HEART hot air balloons!

One of our favorite things about Napa is the Hot Air Balloons! My Gramp lives close to one of the landing locations. Take off and landing depend on the fog that might have rolled in and where the wind blows. About 6:45am...you can run out into the street and this is what you'll see. Of course my kids are all early risers.

Here's a shot of one going down behind the neighbor's house. I'm standing in my Gramp's driveway to take this shot. And somehow it seemed to be going down not where it was supposed to.

So we got in the car and followed it. Here it is. It was landing on private property, so they let the people out and then had to get the balloon to fly again and drag it with ropes back over the fence into the park where the land was flat enough for the balloon to deflate.

But, while it was in someone's vineyard...it sure made for some good shots. You can click to see this bigger.

Home from vacation

Wish I was still enjoying the Napa Valley. But, it is good to be home. Last night when we arrived, I thought about unpacking the car, and getting the wee one ready for bed. I didn't think about not having milk for my morning coffee. Now that my princess is awake...we're off to starbucks so I can wake up too. Then grocery shopping so we're ready for the week to start. Happy Monday.

Counting Squares.

Boys don't need TP every time they pee, so it's amazing we can go through a roll a day in the 'girls bathroom'. On vacation, my mom was helping 4 in the bathroom and we caught her. I had explained that she was 4 and so she could use 4 squares (I'm not mean we buy one with extra plys). Well, she spun the roll....1 spin, 2 spins, and it was already to the floor. No wonder! Nana ripped apart the TP into squares...and 4 had a lightbulb moment. I'll have to see if this works. I just want there to be TP when I go into the bathroom.

Stickers anyone?

On Tuesday, we visited Mrs Grossman's Sticker Factory for the tour. We're the kind of family that loves to watch How It's Made, so the kids are in awe of the process. It's a $3 tour, so if you're ever in the area, it's totally worth it. You see how they take sheets of sticker and dye cut then ink and then package into retail products. During the inking process, the room smells like ammonia. Not overwhelming, but very stinky.

After the sticker factory, we were at a relatives house. That's when 7 began asking questions. He was still wondering about the ammonia. He wanted to know how it was made. Nana explained that it was a chemical. We've previously talked about water and how it's h2o. We've also had discussions about c2o, co, and o when explaining what was necessary to sustain life and how we breathe. So then, 7 decided he needed to know the chemical equation for ammonia. When we came home from the day out, he had me looking up the periodic table and showing him ammonia. He loved the look of the periodic table. I told him there's a poster of it I saw recently at Michael's...he wants one for his room.

7's mind is never still. I told him that in high school chemistry I had to memorize the periodic table. He's decided he'd like to try to do that now. I just have to write these things down so I remember these crazy things he comes up with.

BarBersQ

This totally isn't going to turn into a restaurant review blog. But, this place was so good I just had to mention it. Some of you are planning trips to CA. Some of you live close enough to make a visit to Napa. If you're ever in the area, you have to stop at BarBersQ.

On our vacation, my mom watched the kids so M & I could enjoy a dinner out. This place has been called the Best BBQ in the West by Sunset Magazine. It's just blocks from my Gramp's house, so we had to give it a try. The slick stainless steel style was clean and fresh.

The food was amazing! I had a BBQ chicken sandwich with potato salad on the side.

M had the Pulled Pork sandwich with a butter lettuce salad & citrus vinaigrette.

It was so good we went back later in the week with M's parents. If you're ever in the area, it's worth a stop. And if you're not in the area...plan a trip.

Knitterly

I got to visit a cute LYS in Petaluma, CA today. Check out Knitterly. It was so cute. I didn't have all the time to just sit in the store and take it in because I had a hubby and 1 kid waiting at the Smoothie Shop next door, and my mom had the other 2 at a relatives house. It was fun though. And the owner of the shop is super sweet. I bought some yarn to knit this. I bought GGH Aspen in a great Emerald Green. It's sooo soft, and a good bulky yarn. I got 2 bags of the yarn at really great price because the color is discontinued. 20 balls...I should have enough for the sweater and maybe something for my little one to match mom. I'm super excited to knit this for myself. I should have brought more needles with on vacation. Oh well, at least I can get something else into the FO category before starting this. I've knit 2 simple dishcloths so far while in the car. I've gifted both of them as soon as they were off the needles. The second one I didn't even weave in the ends, but the recipient has a large needle and LOVED the cloth anyways.

7 & Surfboard!

This surfboard is really special to the family we visited...and they were thrilled that our little one wanted his photo with it. He's almost 5 here.

And now he's almost 8!

I just realized that these first photos were taken just before I started this blog....thus a Day In The Life of 5..3..1.. Time sure has flown.

6 in a tree!

It doesn't matter where we are...if there's a tree to climb...this kid is in it. He's almost 3 1/2.

And here he is at almost 6 1/2!

4 & a bee!

It's so great to get photos of the kids in the same place or with the same object to see how they've grown. Like my mom took our first day of school photos on the front porch in front of the door every year. We visited Petaluma in 2006...and again this year. I hope we don't wait 3 years before making that visit again. Here's my baby girl....

And...wow...she's grown.

Ghirardelli

We so enjoy our chocolate. Ghirardelli was the perfect way to end a day in San Francisco. There had been a lot of walking for our little ones, and ice cream was a great treat.

Now how did this kid end up with strawberry?

After the ice cream...time to head back to Napa.

The Muni

We'd taken the cable cars away from Ghirardelli, and we took the Muni back. Fun day of trying new things for the kids. Definitely stretching for us parents who don't regularly use public transportation to get all the kids on the right car. This wasn't our car, but if I'd been taking photos when ours showed up, then we would have missed getting on.

My Gramp was late to the birth of my mom. He'd had to take the Muni to the hospital from work, and didn't make it there before the birth. San Francisco is such a different city now. Although we saw some 'regulars' on the public transportation...it was mainly tourists. Our car was originally from Philadelphia. Click if you want to read what it says.

If we thought that the Cable Car was full, than I don't know how to describe this. I had one tiny seat and 4 sitting on my lap. M and the boys had to stand. It was hard for the boys because there were so many people there wasn't any real spot for them to hold on. But, oh what an experience. By the time we passed Pier 39, most of the people had gotten off. Our plan was to ride to the end of the line, then we'd have only a few blocks walk back to ice cream and our car.

Many thanks to the kind couple that took our photo...and also didn't mind when the kids couldn't help but crash into their legs as the car lurched when we were playing sardines.

The kids so enjoyed this. They've always wanted to ride a bus.

Cable Cars!

We started out day in San Francisco wish lunch down by the bay. Then we headed over to the cable cars to start our 'tour' of the city.

We got on at Ghirardelli Square and rode all the way to the end. The car was packed! Definitely when the kids are bigger, we'll just have our tickets and hop on at any stop...that's the way to do it.

It was a great way to see some of the city without the kids walking too much.

I love when my kids get creative!

Can you guess what this is?

How about now?

Some of my kids favorite 'kids meal' toys are those games where you chase a ball through a maze. Well...using the lid to a empty spice jar that was in our kid kitchen and their collection of BBs, 6 made his own game. You have to get all 5 balls into their homes. It's not as easy as it looks. I love when my kids find their own games. It's so hard not to let the TV be on and earn my sanity that way, but the reward when they use their imaginations....it's priceless.

Actual Knitting!

I gave my 2 week notice at work. I can't even begin to imagine another year of homeschooling with going to work several evenings a week. If that was necessary to put food on the table, then I could continue. But, it's not....and I'm so exhausted from burning the candle at both ends. I had to go in early to talk to the manager, so I grabbed some knitting since I'd have 30 minutes before my shift. That followed by not being able to sleep so well...I almost finished this before going to bed on Tuesday. Dishcloth book from Grace. =0) Cotton in a Sunshine color. =0) Blue skies in my world again.

And the knitting project that I've been working on for awhile. CeCe from ChicKnits. I'm knitting this for my mom. But, she's 5'3" so if it's longer than she likes I'll keep this one and knit it again with mods for her height. It is a short cardi, so I think I'm ok knitting it as written. I'm not really sure how to modify this until I see the actual pieces. I'm using Cotton Ease, so that made my gauge off. I'm just knitting the 34 size and hopefully getting something between 36 and 38 as a finished product. Thank God my mom and I have the same chest size...so this should fit one of us.

I've finished 3 full repeats, but I haven't worked on this in at least a week. I was knitting this while I had a UTI and couldn't get around much. Then I had to make up for lost time and I've been cleaning and decluttering every available moment.

I am excited to be taking a few knitting projects on our vacation. I packed up my LexiBarnes bag...there will finally be a review...just maybe not until we get back. I CO for a Moss Grid Hand Towel from the first MDK book and threw that in the bag. I packed my Sanity Socks (50% through #2)and my Spring Forward Socks (working on #1-almost to the toe). I packed CeCe. And I packed a giant ball of cotton for dishcloths.

New to us...

In the week leading up to our vacation, I was busy around the house and the kids had extra energy to burn. What a blessing. A friend no longer needed this mini bouncer and gave it to us. There's a one kid jumping at a time rule...but that's good at our house or we'd have more bumps and bruises. We left it up for a week, then took it down for our trip. I think I might need to put this back up for the first week of school. It sure was quiet in the house while each kid took a turn jumping.

Son of Dish Rag Tag!

I signed up! This is my first year, and I'm super excited. Are you in?

What God is saying to me today...

Priorities...

Mine are completely out of wack!

My knitter friends, I'm sure have read this post from the Yarn Harlot. I read this on Sunday as I was home from church sitting with a heating pad on my back.

This morning, my back still aching, I'm in a chair with a cup of coffee and my Bible...and Surviving Motherhood. Check out this video.

I hear God calling me to take August to re-situate my life. Slow down. Where is your life? Do you need to slow down too?

and ps...I've got beans in the slow cooker today. Does that contribute to the slow life?