What a week!

Oh what a week it has been!  It is once again camp week and David left last Monday for a full week of high school camp.  He happens to be about the best cabin leader in the whole world, so even though I HATE being away from him, I'm so blessed to see each year how the Lord uses him.  This year we girls had a new adventure.  Our house of six girls was joined by THREE MORE girls!!!

My beautiful sister-in-law, Laura, and her two adorable daughters, Talia and Eliana, came and stayed with us while her husband also went to camp.  To my utter disgust, I took NO PICTURES!!!!!!!!!!!  I apologize profusely, but alas, there's not much I can do now!

Our time together was priceless.  The girls had completely warmed up to each other the previous weekend on the camping trip, so they played together beautifully.  Talia and Ella (who are two months apart) were so hilarious together.  Talia loves to laugh and Ella loves to entertain, so they were quite the pair!

The more time I spent with Laura, the more I realized that I have never met anyone as much like me as she is.  We have soooooooo much in common.  We thoroughly enjoyed our Mexican food and Dutch Puff.  It was so wonderful to have someone there to have a fabulous time with, and yet someone who could totally relate to how much I wanted time to fly so I could be with my husband again.  Laura is truly like a sister and it is unbelievable to think that she has only been in my life less than four years.

Thursday we were able to go up to camp and visit our men.  It was a WONDERFUL day!  Ooooooh, sooooo good to kiss my man again!  We had a tremendous time together, didn't run out of gas, and didn't get eaten by a cougar when we closed in the chickens for our brother-in-law.  ( Night+ chickens= real love for a brother-in-law!!!)

Laura and the girls left yesterday to go visit her parents and we miss them tons!  Today we've been busy little bees getting the house ready for Daddy to come home TOMORROW!!!  This week has been so much fun, but I can't wait for life to get back to normal!

(Since this post was completely void of pictures, I thought I would throw this one in just to give you a smile.  It gives me a smile!)

King Family Campout!!!

This past weekend was our King family camp out.  For those of you who don't know us, David is the second of nine children.  Nine children who are growing up, getting married, going to college, going to seminary, having babies, working etc..  It is growing increasingly difficult to wrangle us all into one place, but this weekend it was actually achieved!

It was such a blessing to spend that quality time with the family and the Lord blessed our trip so abundantly.  Everything from the camp sites to the weather to my husband coming back alive from a killer bike ride was perfectly planned by the Lord.

Dough Boy lessons from Daddy!

The girls were fabulous campers!  Yes, all seven of us slept in one tent, but they did terrific. 

 

It is such a precious thing to be surrounded by people who not only love each other, but who all love the Lord as well.

This trip was the perfect opportunity for the girls to really get to know their precious cousin Talia too.  Talia quickly warmed up to these crazy cousins and before long the were all having a grand old time together.  It was so precious to watch Talia and Ella (who are only 2 1/2 months apart) cracking up at each other!

While it felt like I could camp forever while we were there, I am reminded how thankful I am for flushing toilets and warm showers!  God is so good!

Olive and Artichoke Bread

The story goes like this~  One day in my abundant free time,  I was watching some Australian Master Chef on YouTube.  ( I love Australian shows!  Not only are there the accents, but the people seem so much sweeter and kinder to each other!).  During one the challenges they had to bake loads and loads of bread.  One of which was called an "olive loaf".  "Hmmm," I thought, "That sounds pretty fabulous.  What sounds even more fabulous though, would be an olive and artichoke heart bread!".  So I set out to make this masterpiece.  I was successful.  At least I think I was considering the first loaf was consumed solely by me in a 24 hour period.

The best part about this life changing bread is that all you need is a bowl, a baking sheet, two hands and six ingredients.

Start with mixing 1 and 1/2 cups warm water, 3/4 Tbl. yeast, 2 tsp. salt and 3 and 1/4 cups flour in a big mixing bowl.  Don't bother with a spoon.  Just get your hands in there and goosh away!  (You may recognize this recipe from my pizza post.  I use it for every thing because it is completely wonderful!)

Now all you need is one jar of marinated artichoke hearts and one can of olives.  Chop up the entire jar of artichokes and most of the can of olives.  You could slice of the whole can, but there are always empty little fingers around here who need a small sampling!

Dump them in the dough and mix all together.

Cover and let rise for two hours.

It will look all gorgeous and bubbly like this.

Carefully dump it (with much flour) onto a greased pan and shape however you like.  Be careful not to squish out all the bubbly goodness!

Bake for about 25 min. at 400 degrees.

Mmmmm!  I really, really love this bread!  Hope you enjoy!

Beware!!!

I've been bit.  Or is it bitten?  It's four o'clock in the morning and to be quite honest, my brain is not functioning enough to care too desperately.  I'm sorry if I've just scarred you forever.

However it has bit, bitten, bited me,  Blogger's Block has attacked with full force.  Characteristics of Blogger's Block at first glance look very similar to just plain old busyness or laziness, or even lack of creativity.  It's much more than that though. 

I think about blogging every day.  Every time I sit at the computer I think about my poor neglected blog with much remorse.  But there is nothing there.  I lay in bed ready to fall asleep each night and try and think of something to write.  But there is nothing there.  I spend my days as usual.  Doing.  Thinking.  Being.  But there is nothing there.  A friend even tells me to my face to blog more which is the greatest incentive of all!  But still there is nothing there!!!

Tonight as I lay (or is it lie?  Oh pity my poor sleeping brain!) in bed after Esther's 3:00 feeding (why does she always wake up at 3:00?  If we go to bed at 9:00 or 12:00, there she is at 3:00 read to eat!) I was left thinking again.  Thinking of something to blog about.  Thinking.  Thinking.  Thinking.  I began to twitch.  Scary but true.  I decided to just do it.  So here I am, probably scaring you much more than if I had just stayed in bed!  BUT, when you wake up in the morning, there will be a fresh new post from me.  So there Blogger's Block!

I'm beginning to feel that I will regret this deranged post in the morning.  I'm hoping you wont hold this against me forever.  As always,  any thought on things to write on are most welcome.  Just knowing you are there is the first step to recovery.  Together we will beat this Blogger's Block and say farewell to this desperate middle of the night ramblings forever!

One Month

I'm in love.  Madly.

I know I sound like a broken record, but really, what is more incredible than a brand new life?  Add in that she is as sweet and adorable as I could ever imagine.  Yep.  In love.

A Good Problem

I ran into a problem yesterday that literally left me in tears.  Happy tears.  My friend Alysun came by to drop off the photos she had taken soon after Esther was born.  (If you are local and want beautiful pictures for an amazing price, check out Alysun at http://www.alysunpetersphoto.com/ )  I figured that since I had new pictures I should update my blog pictures and descriptions since it still said David and I had been married for five years and Ella was a newborn. 

Here was my trouble.  As I tried to think of what to write about my girls, it went something like this~

"Lydia is the most wonderful girl I could ever imagine.  She is the sunshine of our home."  "Bethany is also the most wonderful girl I could ever imagine.  Come to think of it, so is Havilah.  And of course Ella Joy.  Esther?  Yeah, most wonderful baby I could EVER imagine.  And sunshine?  When I think of sunshine I think of Havi.  And Esther.  And Bethany.  And obviously Ella Joy." 

You see my dilemma?  If there was too much of a good thing, I would have it.  There are times that I simply can't believe how abundantly blessed I am.  Times that I feel like I can truly grasp just a glimpse of how good God is.  The tears just come. 

My girls are incredibly individual and unique.  So much that it blows me away.  But they are all so amazing I can't even begin to describe it. 

Sometimes I feel like there is no way to truly convince people that we are NOT disappointed to have all girls.  We say it all the time but people just don't really believe it.  When I look at these faces though, I can't fathom how someone could think I would wish I had someone else instead.  I think God's plans are pretty fantastic.

Life is not as pristine as it looks in these photos.  As I'm writing this Ella came out of bed stripped of       everything.  But she came down in the arms of her big sister who was laughing hysterically at her.  Remember to really see your children today.  Enjoy them.  Not for what they do, but for who the Lord made them to be.  Be blessed!  I know I am!