Summer arrived…… time for blogging sortof diminished.  We’re all doing great though.  I completely got myself in over my head with summer term at school and ended up having to drop my science class.  Pictures?  Ugh. I pretty much put myself in a hard spot to where I actually had ZERO… and I mean ZERO time to edit pictures.  I have a lot of personal pictures I need to go through and edit and photo books to create.  I think that the 3 weeks of school I get off I’m going to dive into some MAJOR picture editing and hopefully complete 1 photo book.  Good goal.

I’ve gone through a lot struggling this past month with feelings of overwhelmingness {yes, I do know that it’s not a word}. I realized that I needed to seriously declutter my life, structurize my life, make my home a haven for not only my family but myself.  And I’m not there…. Lord knows I’m absolutely not there, but I’m kicking some major butt up in here.  My garage has always been this place of hoarding.  So, not necessarily new stuff, but stuff I’ve tracked from one house to the next and just didn’t know what to do with it all.  Okay, okay, so I have this ridiculous amount of beautiful new picture frames that I’m hoarding in there as well… you got me!  Back to the stupid crap that follows me everywhere I go…. it’s in the garbage.  Yup.  I tossed it!  The kids room?  Basically almost everything in there was put at the bottom of the driveway with a free sign on it and it was all picked up within 5 minutes.  My niece Sydni came to spend 2 1/2 weeks with me to help me get it all done and we’re still going strong!!

I already feel like 110% better.  I’m on this throwing away kick that makes me think twice now about buying useless crap.

Our homeschool starts back up August 15th; well, Jayden’s does while Ella goes to a week long gymnastics summer camp for 3 hours per day.  Ella’s homeschool preschool starts up the following week.  I feel like with all the decluttering and organizing that’s been going down is going to make it all run so much smoother – or at least my sanity will through it all.

Aliyah is 8 months old.  Those words typing onto the screen make me cringe inside, because my baby is growing up.  But my goodness I love her so much and have soaked in every second out of her chubby little self!  She has 2 teeth, says dada, mama, tries to wave, claps, army crawls, has had her first ER visit {thought it was ear infection, ended up being an enterovirus} has love in her little eyes every time she looks at any of her siblings or parents and is nothing short of pure joy in our lives. I absolutely LOVE this little princess!