I headed up to campus for a couple of days for a class intensive in my school counseling program. These are my classmates! Our program is online, so these intensives give us an opportunity to meet and interact in person. I met many of these classmates at the intensive last year. It's a great group that I'm glad to be a part of.
On my way home, I caught a little rain then looked out my window and saw this rainbow. Not the greatest shot since I was driving and not looking at my camera, but it was pretty. I think I've seen more rainbows since we moved to Indiana than I have in my whole life combined before here.
Curtis found a teeny mushroom.
Free smoothie day at Tropical Smoothie Cafe for National Flip-Flop Day.
VBS!
Andy always helps out with the skits. He's so good at it.
The Meades joined us that weekend and the cousins got some good hang-out time.
Some Father's Day steak for two of our favorite dads.
Dad Rocks! Bella and the boys put this together for Andy. His big gift this year was a new grill, which he got a couple of months ago. But we couldn't just get him nothing on the actual day. He got some other grill accessories, some new cologne, and a Bocce Ball game. We love him!
Sometimes we find her in interesting positions.
Cousins that play Minecraft together. . .
This made me happy - possibly more than it should. I even texted this photo to Andy right after I took it because I was so excited. I made my own peanut butter. And it took about 40 seconds in my Twister Blend Tec jar. Sometimes things are supposed to be easy and then they turn out not to be. But this actually was. And it is one ingredient: peanuts! I love the consistency - it's always somewhat melty as it looks here, which is just how I like it. And, it's been several days since I made it and I haven't had any oil separation, which is common from the natural peanut butter that I buy at the store. I love it!
I took the kids to their first rally. It was actually my first one too. It all had to do with separating kids from their families at the border. The immigration issue is a difficult one to solve and I don't pretend to have any of the answers. But I didn't think this was it. In my counseling classes, I've learned a lot about child development - especially in those early years - and the effects of ongoing stress and trauma on brain/emotional development. I know this is a hot-button issue, but my heart in all of this is with the kids who seemed to be paying a high price for something that they had no control over. And I know that the same happens with our current foster system, which is also very traumatic for children; but those situations are usually the result of abuse, neglect, addiction, etc. which are also very traumatic for children. Unfortunately, those kids are in a lose-lose situation. My heart is for them too - which is part of why I'm going into the school counseling profession. In the case with immigration, many of these families are trying to create a better life for themselves and their kids. That's the difference for me. I don't think that open borders are a good idea and I do believe that we need to enforce our laws. I just don't think that a first time offense/family seeking asylum should have their children taken away. Thankfully, Trump signed a new policy the next day that ended the separations. Now they just have to figure out how to reunite all the thousands of kids who have already been separated.
After the rally, I treated the kids to smoothies from DQ and then we were off to Curtis's baseball game.
Curtis still loves to dress up. You never know what he'll come up with.
Graydon decided to rest on the hammock. He brought the blanket to protect his face from the sun and ended up falling asleep out there. Thankfully, it was one of the cooler summer days so far.
The berries were ready at a local farm, so we decided to go picking!
We picked a bucket of blackberries and a bucket of black raspberries.
When these kids set their minds to something, they get it done. Bella solved the Rubix cube (with some algorithm help found on You Tube).
Later that day, Graydon did it too.
I spent a good month last summer trying to solve that cube before I was finally successful (even with the help of You Tube, I kept messing up). These kids each solved it in less than an hour! And they're getting faster the more they do it.
Later that evening, Curtis had his championship baseball game. His team went undefeated all season, but came up short in this last game.
They were still league champions for having such an outstanding season. The big trophy is for that. The little trophy is for championship game runners-up.
Graydon was a little disappointed that his team didn't get any trophies. In this league, they don't give them out to everybody, which I think is just fine.
Curtis got a hold of my phone.
I joined him for one. :)
Bella is the absolute best. She has taken it upon herself to do our weeding, both in our garden and this flower bed. We never ask her to do this, she just does it. That is the kind of kid she is. :)
