Home Happenings

We had a fantastic time visitng family and friends in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Our ride home went well; nevertheless, we were delighted to extract ourselves from the car and enjoy the comforts of home. The children wasted no time in pulling out many of their toys. We could hardly see David's bedroom floor after ten minutes. That evening we enjoyed some Iowa sweet corn, cucumbers from our garden, and a tasty chicken pasta salad Bob put together. Yummmm.

Gardens

Our vegetable garden is spilling over into our yard. We have eaten at least four of our delicious cucumbers and picked several more. Our tomato plants are loaded with green tomatoes and we have watermelon, cantaloupes, and peppers getting bigger by the day. The flowers Dad W. planted took off and look wonderful. Maggie added to our patio landscape using birthday money to purchase a hand pump fountain that has provided hours of fun for the children and a nice focal point on our patio.
Bikes
Not long after we got out of our van, Carie started ridng her bike without the aid of training wheels. She's riding like a pro now! She attirbutes some of her success to riding the tag along bike at Oma and Grandad's house. David now proudly tags along behind Daddy. Bob and the kids rode bikes to church on Sunday. Just this evening we bought a new bike for me so now we hope to take some family bike rides.



Prayers
Lately David has been eagerly volunteering to pray at meals and bedtimes. His prayers are full of thanks. He thanks God for each of his family members and then for things he experienced during the day. One day last week he thanked God for fireflies and the next day he thanked God that we had a fire (in the fire pit). Listening to him pray is a great reminder of the importance of noticing and be thankful for simple every day things.