Ok, it wasn’t as exciting as the roof being taken off the garage (which we all hoped would happen today) but the siding came off. And progress is progress!

This past week was Homecoming week here, so we had some fun themed days. One of those days was wacky hair day!

Chloe made it into Saber Singers at her school! Whoo hoo! It’s a select choir that meets before school and she’s super excited.

🙂

Today is a day we’ve been anxiously waiting for in the Friesen household. This was the day we told the kids (months and months ago!) that we would start on our addition to our house! Whoo hoo!

Every time we would talk about the house addition (adding the two bedrooms over the garage so every kid can have their own room) the kids would ask, “when does it start?” and the answer was always, “October.”

Now, as adults we know that saying that work starts in October could mean it starts on October 1st or October 31st or anywhere in between. But to kids if we said the work starts in October it meant that it starts on the very first day of October. So, the count was on all year to this date.

And we made it!

(Note: As a bit of a let down, technically no work was done today. The electrician was out a week and a half ago to move and add onto the box to the house, so that’s when things started and then stopped. They are coming on Monday to really start. I think that’s when the roof will come off of the garage! Exciting!)

Whoa.

Goodbye, June. Hello, July!

The kids didn’t get out of school until June 10th, so by the time we hit “summer” here it was already mid June, so it makes sense to me that June felt like it really whizzed by. We filled it with all sorts of things (trying to jam as much fun as possible this year!)

So, what did we do in June, you ask?

• Played in our friend’s pool
• Celebrated Maddie’s 6th Birthday!
• Trip to the beach with Auntie Jen
• Abby’s Graduation party
• Dentist cleanings for all kids (which was actually a highlight for M & L)
• Well-child visit for Maddie
• Celebrated Chloe and Josiah getting baptized!
• Watched the Baker kids perform with their marching band (so cool!)
• Kids went to Valleyfair with Tim
• Summer Bible study for me with my friends (the kids to play with their friends though too, so everyone is having fun)
• Women’s Bible study (I’m leading this one at the church)
• More graduation parties for my students
• Went to the nearby farmers market to support our friends who just opened a plant business. I should see if I can post a link…
• And loooooooots of playing outside and in the sprinkler.

All in all, a pretty good start to our summer. Here’s to more fun in July! We’re just a day away from Nana & Bumpa visiting, so we are pumped about that. Eeeks!

Yup–it’s that time of year again! We love our photo thank you cards. It gives us a chance to be silly and showcase all the different faces our kids like to make. Ha!

This is the first year that Chloe isn’t going to do one. Now that she’s in Junior High she just has too many teachers. And we also didn’t do one for Levi either since he didn’t have any BSF teachers (since we were online)… so we just have Maddie and Josiah this year!

Maddie keeps loosing more and more teeth. She now has 3 gone in the front. I love her little toothless smile.

Yesterday was great.

The kids are getting older so the day holds a little more interesting things. Some of our fun included:

• Church bright and early to play on worship team with Tim
• Homemade cake (spice cake with maple frosting) by Chloe
• A new umbrella from Tim for the patio table
• A planting pot with hand painted flowers from Maddie
• Also from Maddie (actually from her teacher, the amazing Mrs. Connell) handmade pink earrings. So. Cute.
• Played chess against Chloe and then Josiah (he beat me, by the way…)
• A lovely card from Josiah
• Many, many hugs from Maddie
• Watching Josiah play flag football–we all went to cheer him on so that was extra fun!
• My favorite pizza for supper
• Watched Evan Almighty (so funny!)

These are my people.

They are my rock. They push me to be better. They stand by me in prayer. They laugh at my quirky love for sugar. They enjoy reading. They have a passion for spreading the love of Jesus.

They are women of God that I am blessed to learn and grow with.

And over the past few years, life has thrown a lot at these ladies to grow through. Heartaches, pain, joy, fear. You name it. Within this group there has been: a messy divorce, the loss of a newborn baby, surviving colon cancer, a premature baby, emotional abuse, and a miscarriage.

But those are not the things that define them.

They are daughters of God.

That is who they are. That is the truth that we stand on daily. We are not perfect, nor do we claim to even have it all together most days. Oh, boy, some days are really bad. But we can rest in the assurance that God is full of patience and grace and mercy. And even though we mess it up daily, He loves us anyway.

Recently I had a falling out with a friend from college. She’s chosen an alternate lifestyle and turned away from God. I reached out to her after over a year of not talking and she said she was not interested in my friendship anymore. She said I made her feel judged and it caused her to change her faith. It cut deep.

But on that same day, God made it clear that even though it was painful to lose a friend, He had brought me a new tribe to fill that space. And not just any friends, a tribe of women with the same values. The same day that I was crying over the loss of my friend was the same day that these 4 women went on a weekend women’s retreat to really seek God through an online women’s conference.

Coincidence?

I don’t think so.

I wanted to go with them, but my teaching schedule wouldn’t allow me, so they trekked on without me. When I finished teaching that first night, they actually video called me to talk about what they had watched. We were able to talk about ways God was moving in our lives and things that really touched us in the first session. It was so refreshing.

As proverbs says, iron sharpens iron. I am happy to be be part of a tribe that pushes each other and holds each other accountable. To encourage me to work to be the best Mom, wife, sister, daughter, teacher and friend that I can be.