Mega InstaFriday Yo

{Whatever to the title. Its midnight.  I don't know people. Its just.... oh well.}
Last week was epic. My sister. My sister's family. My sister's brand new baby. Being at home in Iowa. Going to the church I grew up in and seeing old friends and youth pastor. Iowa State Fair. Deep Fried Pickle Dog. Cousins playing together. Epic.  The only thing that would have made it any better is if all my siblings were there and a unicorn ran by.

I can see that its been a busy Summer because I am taking time to sit and write about once a month! This whole year has been something else.
As the school year approaches my mind is jam packed with lessons I've learned about God, my faith, grief, my children, friendship,  the skunks that have invaded my street who spray every night, and total utter surrender to The Higher Power and HUGE, MONUMENTAL, LIFE CHANGING decisions.  But those are stories for another day soon.  Hopefully you come back after that cliffhanger.  :)

To get back into the swing of things I'm linking with Jeannett for InstaFriday. Its a very good place to start. I'm Marijmarks if you want to follow along on our crazy adventures.

First I made a lot of jam.... it may be a smidge fermenty.... in which case I have invented Blackberry Wine Jam. Yum!

Then we had a picnic/movie night in the living room.  Clearly Brando knows which child to sit in front of to score a bit of dinner.

 

What else do you do right before you leave town for a few days?  Doesn't everyone drop the laundry and cleaning, put up a fort and play Lord of the Rings Monopoly? No? Just us then?

 

 

Oh Firstborn. Please slow down. I love you and your quiet ways more than you will ever know. You make me immeasurably happy.

This chicken and I, we get each other.

For Papa Dan. :)

Miracle. So in love. Baby Zeb you stole your auntie's heart.

 

I don't think Addison likes him at all though.....

Or Layla. She's all "Meh, I could take him or leave him".... 

Forget it. We adore him. Tried to sneak him home.

See my entire family hanging precariously from a teeny tiny itsy bitsy claw on a wire?

Cousin love

So glad that one cop didn't see me,  in my boredom, taking a picture out the moon roof. But it was 25 hours of driving in 4 days time.

Throw in a 4 year old in a fedora with big blue eyes, who says I'm the prettiest mommy in the city {just the city mind you} and I'm talking epic proportion week y'all.

Plus! There was that day my children held a python...... and it didn't try to bite off aforementioned son's face.  So there's that too.

Put me in your feed readers, subscribe, bookmark whatever.  Because you don't want to miss the upcoming pearls and/or marbles of wisdom!  Happy InstaFriday to you.  Bless you if you made it all the way through that rainbow, pudding pop, glitter, tinkeriffic week.  Life gets real around here.  But we choose Joy.