Silver Lining and a Comfy Dress to Boot

Girls are sunshine mixed with a little hurricane. I wouldn't trade mine for anything. 

Just because we are mostly staying home, doesn't mean that nothing is happening. :) Granted, our days are a LOT slower paced than normal, but I'm trying to count my blessing and find the good. (I actually feel like my entire Instagram feed is dedicated to picking out the good and the beautiful, and the delightful, and the humorous in the midst of the chaos and trapping them on the screen and in my chatbooks so that life's blessings are not over-looked or forgotten.)

-We have harvested and eaten two delicious cantaloupes from our garden. And there are two more doing well on the vine.

-We discovered that Zebra, one of our new chicks from spring, is actually a rooster. But we were able to find him a new home 5 minutes after Aaron posted him on KSL. So our neighbors still like us, I think. ;)

-I canned seven more quarts of apple sauce on Saturday with apples from our tree. I used almost all the rest of the apples. There is probably one more batch worth on the tree waiting to ripen. But I feel like I've done well by our tree this year. It's nice to have the apple sauce and the apple butter on the shelf, and to have that task mostly out of the way.

-Our kids and some of their friends got to watch our monarch chrysalis hatch into a butterfly. Thank you again, to our friends the Campbells for giving us one of their chrysalises. Nature never disappoints.

-My great and wonderful friend Wynter brought me over another bag of summer squash from her garden, so my delicious lunches have resumed and my cravings are being satisfied. :)

-It's been cooler. We've had a couple of cloudy days, and even a spot of rain. My gratitude for the relief from the heat is indescribable. If I were a crier, I would have tears of joy streaming down my cheeks.

-We decided not to do fall soccer this year, because September is going to be crazy enough. I was a little sad about it, but it's for the best. BUT I signed Adelia and Ivan up for basketball in October (Lincoln's age group doesn't play until January). And fall/winter swim clinic sign-ups are only a week away. Fall sports make me sooo happy. And knowing that I'll be watching my kids play their fall sports with a new baby instead of a pregnant belly makes me giddy!

-The peaches on my tree, which are plentiful, have started to turn slightly orange. But they are still small and still hard, which makes me think that they won't come in August. They might even wait until mid-September, until after Cal gets here. Wouldn't that be the biggest blessing ever? It's what I'm hoping for.

-And speaking of Cal, I had a doctor's appointment last Thursday, and I have another one this Thursday. At the upcoming appointment Dr. Anderson will check my cervix and we'll know a little better about how things are coming along.  If this child wants to be my favorite one, he'll come two weeks early and be healthy as can be, just like Ollie was. I would like nothing better than to be in labor over Labor Day weekend. :P But I'm steeling myself, because more than likely it'll be closer to the 12th than the 5th.

-I found THEE most comfortable dress at Costco in my T3 style and colors. It's not a maternity dress, but I can wear it just fine without it looking weird. It will also work perfectly for nursing if I wear a half-tee underneath. I seriously have never owned a dress that I would willingly stay in all Sunday even after church was over, until now. I'm usually the fastest one to change clothes after church, you better believe it. I HATE dresses. But this one is wonderful. And it was only $20 too.