One Hundred Forty-four

I hiked Medaris for the 5th day in a row today :)  I love hiking!  I keep noticing these huge orange poppy flowers around town.  They are big and papery and beautiful.  I'd love to plant some in our yard.  I'm pretty sure they are perennials.  This afternoon Emma found a kitten in the yard behind our house.  We couldn't find any other kittens or the mother but clearly the kitten was well fed and clean so I knew it's mother was nearby.  About 3 hours later we discovered it lived at a neighbor's house not far from our house.  This house constantly has kittens so I wasn't surprised and I was very glad to GIVE THAT KITTEN BACK!  Ha ha!  The last thing we need is another cat!  Emma and Levi cried when we gave it back but I told them they could visit all the kittens anytime daddy wants to take them over there.   House church was on the smaller side (18 of us) and went really well with Chase leading us through the story of the Prodigal Son.  Whew.  So much in that passage.  What stood out to me was the father's compassion and how he saw the son as alive rather than dead, as found rather than lost, how he took on his son's shame and covered his son in his love.  Beautiful passage of scripture.

~Rose

CUTE!!!  Kittens and youngest children are SO CUTE!!!!

Elk Creek looks more like a river these days...

I'm guessing these are some sort of ornamental poppy?  They are so beautiful.

One Hundred Forty-three

Today was very nice.  So glad after a VERY draining day with one of my kids yesterday.

Hope had Field Day at The Garden School.  I dropped her off in the morning, got groceries and headed home to work on school plans for the end of the year.  Desi called to see if I wanted to go on a quick lunch date with him.  Duh.  Yes!  Thai Chili Bistro!  Yum!

After that we loaded up the kids to take them to The Garden School for the get wet part of field day.  These large pipes were connected to a water supply to make huge spray for the kids to run around in.  So fun :)

Came home to rest, make dinner, send Hope off on a sleepover with a friend and then HIKE again with Desi!  We had a light dinner of salad (had to after that Thai food) and it was great how it didn't weigh us down on the hike.  We went on the Medaris trail and then continued around the back of the mountain to Castle Ridge neighborhood.  We walked through cute senior housing and then onto 7th street where we met New Castle's most friendly (and round) cat.  I dubbed him Captain Friendly Pants.  My photo didn't do his roundness justice.  I look forward to seeing him again.  He was hilarious.  Elk Creek is running higher than ever.  

Love this town.

~Rose

P.S. oh yeah, the van photos...Desi and I came home from our date and saw that Astro van that had driven over that planter so we had to get a couple photos.  We miss the drama that we got regularly in Denver!  In a small town, this is exciting!  Ha ha!

One Hundred Forty-two

We are part of a listening experiment with some other families, one of whom will be writing some sort of curriculum to take other families through.  The goal is to be better listeners with each other and with God.  So the first part of the experiment is to get better at listening to each other using Checking In with emotion words: Sad, Angry, Scared, Happy, Excited, Tender.  We do this at dinner time and it's a great way for each of us to share what our hearts are feeling and why in a safe setting where the rest of the family will just listen and love (no advice giving).  We're also using some improv games which are hilarious.  Tonight after Desi and I got back from a hike we played some of the games.  The kids loved it.

~Rose

Time to wash my shoes!  These minimalist shoes are wonderful :)  I'm stoked to have found them on sale for less than $40.  They are my favorite exercise shoe ever.

One Hundred Forty-one

Today was lovely. We finished school early. I enjoyed lunch in the front yard with sweet Emma and then we cleaned up all the boxes under our porch and we swept it clean. Feels good to do spring cleaning! I went on another Medaris hike and finished in my best time. I love how God has given me a desire to exercise and how good I'm feeling lately because of it! Emma and Levi and I went to the thrift shop and found a child's life jacket for two bucks. We had the Fulk family over for dinner. The are missionaries to Uganda, here on furlough. Their 7 kids get along so well with our 4 kiddos and we've been so blessed to become friends with them. I'll be sad to say goodbye in the fall.
~ Rose

One Hundred Forty

Owen, Emma and I took my mom on the Medaris hike this morning.  She did very well despite the strenuous trail!  It was cool and rained on us a bit but we loved it anyhow.  

This afternoon we headed to The Garden School for Projects and Potluck.  It's where all the students get to show off all their hard work to family and friends.  After that they pack up all their stuff and then we eat potluck dinner and watch end of year performances.  Hope's class performance was awesome!  They did a sort of modern history rap while tapping on tables and plastic cups.  Each student had their own part and Hope did so great!!  Then Hope's choir group sang a song and then they joined the high school choir to sing another song that got me all teary.  It's so awesome to be a part of this amazing community of families.  We're loving it and have enrolled Hope for next year.

News on the Denver house: We're under contract!   BUT.  BUT.  BUT...we need prayer for the insurance company to agree to replace the roof and then do it and we need the house to appraise for our buyer's offer price.  We're told that with the market's recent rise, houses are sometimes not appraising for the higher prices.  Our relator said some appraisers are great, others are not...so we're praying for a great one.  Baby steps for selling this house!  Baby steps.  If all goes well, we may be singing the closing papers on July 1st.  It's in God's hands and we're asking for His will and His timing.

~Rose

All the high schoolers do these "40 hour projects".  One boy did 8 of these paintings representing My Little Pony characters.  Emma guessed them all correctly!  Pretty awesome.

Not our sonic drinks...those are HUGE!  lol

Hope's art piece is on the left.  Beautiful!

The WW2 game that Hope and two of her friends made.  Very fun.