It has been a very fun summer for our family here in North Carolina. I originally was just taking time away from my blog to write all my curriculum for this coming fall for my children, but then life got busy and I started neglecting it. Well I am thankful that I at LEAST took pictures so that I could share with you what we have been doing.
My daughter, Lauren and I enjoyed a nice night out for a ladies meeting at our Hendersonville Church of God. We had a powerful service and was very blessed by all that God had revealed to us. We really are enjoying all that He has been doing through our church and excited for the coming future. Lauren plays keyboard on the church’s worship band and is enjoying being part of the youth group. I recently started doing Sunday School for the toddler/preschool class before service. I am blessed by that time with my little ones.
Another thing that has kept us busy every Thursday is the Tuxedo Tailgate Market. It is basically where people pull up in their vehicles and sell items out of their trunk. We load up our wood items and sell them along with homemade bread and cinnamon rolls. Jadyn and Brooklyn have started selling lemonade and sweet tea. Only 50 cents a glass if you are out in the area on Thursdays from 4-7 pm. 
This has been one of our favorite times of the week. We are enjoying getting to know other people in our community. Something about belonging somewhere and making an impact. I enjoy it. 
Collin brings his guitar along and plays and sings music for us each week. That has been enjoyable. My children love “market” day. We load up their bikes along with our supplies and enjoy dinner down at the park.
We make caramel frosting topped cinnamon rolls. Yummy!!
Here Jadyn is helping make the market’s worth of baking.
Yummy….
Here is Sadie. Back in Michigan, Sadie was our country, cat chasing dog. She was usually found with those picky things all in her fur from running through the weeds and chasing some animal. Here she has lost a ton of weight and enjoys regular shaves from the local dog groomer. She comes back with this bandanna on her neck–she is becoming our “yuppy” puppy. She enjoys her days hiking up the mountain and playing with the neighborhood dog. A total change of lifestyle for her as well.
We have been enjoying going places weekly in our area. There is so much to do and so many things to go see. Here the children were petting the baby goats at Carl Sandburg National Home. 
Our business has been progressing well in this area. Here we were attending a ribbon cutting ceremony for The Painted Home in Hendersonville. 
This store sells some of our items. It is a great store with lots of local homemade things.
We have a few other stores that we made this display to showcase our plaques with.
Here was a plaque that we made for The Carl Sandburg National Home. You can buy it in the store at the home. Lots of good business things. Keeps my boys busy and motivated to want to have that entrepreneurial mindset.
Each week, we visit Table Rock State Park in South Carolina. It has been our favorite place to swim at the lake and enjoy the park for a picnic. Well one day we went up in the mini waterfalls to play in and for the most part it was covered in sand, but my son said for me to come and feel this waterfall. It was knee high and felt wonderful, but it was on this smooth boulder. I took one step away from the waterfall and slipped. It was so quick that there was no time to catch myself and I smashed the side of my face on the boulder. My glasses hit and helped make this big gouge by my eye. Needed 3 stitches. Word of wisdom—AVOID SMOOTH FLAT WATERFALLS! I was very thankful that it was not worse. I literally had a swollen eye for about 2 days and then it went down. I had a small bruise on my cheekbone and one on my hip. Within a week all you could see was the scar from the stitches.
The weather has been wonderful, lots of sunshine and heat. We have been enjoying playing out in the kiddie pool pretty much everyday. 
Collin and Lauren have ventured out and work at the local cafe. Lauren waitresses and serves ice cream and Collin plays his guitar on the weekend nights. If you need a good place to eat the best burgers in town—The Good Times Cafe in Zirconia–lots of good friendly service.
We also invested in fishing poles upon moving here. Back during the winter time they were like $7 a pole at Walmart for a set. Now they are up to $28. We take these each weekend and the children love to try and catch a fish. Jadyn was the first one to catch one here in NC. About 3 inches long–smile.
We also invested in inner tubes. They cost $5 a tube and are a staple when going anywhere swimming. We bought 2 hand pumps and fill up 9 tubes every place we go.
Here Lauren is pumping………………..
Oh wait, still pumping……………. Thinking we need a solar powered pump–smile.
This is what they are good for. Whenever we goto a beach, as soon as we have our 9 tubes in the water we take it over. These have been great for the Lake as well as the rivers. 
We then had our friends come and stay with us for a whole week!!
We had an extra 10 people, thats 21 people in one household together!!! It was so much fun. Here we took the ONLY group photo in Table Rock South Carolina.
Our days were spent playing together. It was kind of cute because we had all these little ones crammed in this pool and they were having so much fun-splashing and squirting each other. No one complained that they had only a small area to play in. They were just having a good time. 
Lots of game playing, memory making, and fun time of fellowshipping.
We almost fit around the table all together. The children all smooshed together and we ate as we could. This was our first meal together. 
Eating homemade popsicles—a must when you have lots of children. Check out all the recipes that we make on our frozen treats page.
The older ones, spent much of their time out on the front porch–away from all the little ones. Much quieter–smile.
Here were those tubes put into action at Hookers Falls. They enjoyed swimming and touching the waterfalls and a slow move down the river.
Lots more water play—if you didn’t want to get wet–don’t come on the porch. It was record breaking temperatures when they came. We had 105 degree days almost everyday, it was HOT!
Here is what the clothesline looked like almost every morning. Lots of towels used for swimming and then baths—I love it!!
Here the girls enjoyed a night out at Asiana restaurant. They all tried frog legs—it didn’t go over well. 
Here is my friend Crystal—we grew up together and have enjoyed being friends for all these years. She is expecting baby number 9 in a few months. What a blessing!
Lots more fun. Now they can say that they actually have played in a waterfall.
Boys with their water gun fights.
Making meals and clean up was so fast with all those extra helpers. Lots of girls to help get things done. 
Here were some of the fish that the boys caught when we went to the park. I think they had 4. They each got to have more of a fish nugget–but it was good to scale the fish themselves and cut them up. Good memories.
Another attempt at a group photo—-I think it’s impossible to get everyone to look the same place at one time. 
After a wonderful week of staying, they left. We will be sad that they go but we really enjoyed the visit and will remember all the fun things we did. 
We then had our oldest daughter, Ashlyn come visit us for a week as well. She is finishing up her teaching degree back in Michigan and hasn’t been able to come down for a visit yet. We really had a great time.
We did lots of hiking. Here the boys–Stephen and Jentzen were taking a break from hiking. 
Stephen found himself a walking stick—something you need when you hike.
Here were the views from Caesers Head in South Carolina. Very pretty.
The family photo—I think I will use it for Christmas this year—-BUT wait, we are still missing a child. Lauren had just gotten back from church camp this day and was exhausted beyond exhaustion. She stayed home to sleep and missed out on the photo. I am thinking I will hone in on my photoshop skills and stick her in somewhere. It will work.
This takes us up to the present time. I am thinking life is going to slow down a bit now and I am excited to become a regular blogger again. Keep watching for some more series this week. Be blessed.
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