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Epic is Caleb's favorite word.  And that's how I'm describing the last 3 days of house cleaning.  It was "I'm not cooking, working out or running errands so I can concentrate on cleaning every nook and cranny of this house" time.  I stayed in pajamas and we (me and the boys) got down and dirty with closets and piles.  I feel SO much better.  Although I'm convinced that we have WAY too much stuff…but I'm grateful to have that problem versus the alternative (to have nothing). 

To reward myself I got a mani and pedi tonight – I rarely do a mani, but it sure feels good every once in a while. 

We leave on our beach vay-cay in a week and I'm getting super excited.  In the meantime, we're dog sitting this next week for Rudy (our neighbor's dog) and then they will dog sit for our Maggie while we're gone.

I feel like I've been taking a big deep sigh all week after some heavy-duty spiritual teaching last Sunday.  I taught the SS lesson on the Atonement with the youth, and then did a fireside for the F7 ward youth on the Book of Mormon and my conversion story.  I felt like both went well…especially the fireside.  But after preparing and teaching important subjects like that I feel a "let down" of sorts in the form of physical fatigue…go figure.  I sure enjoy times with the youth though.

And I finished "Follow the River" (see sidebar for details) – what an amazing book!  It is now on my list of top 10 books – very violent and descript and even disturbing at times (that's not the part I liked, btw) but also so raw and honest and wonderfully human.  This woman survived things that I cannot imagine.  Really amazing.  And written by a great storyteller.  You're ready for it to end about 3/4 of the way, but it's based on a true story, so you have to endure it even though you'd rather skip to the end.

We're in the smack-dab-middle-of-summer and I'm loving it.  The boys are getting along and finding things to do around the house.  The pace is slower, the mood is happier, less-stressful and we are enjoying being a family.  Late nights – late mornings.  Swimming together every evening.  Snow cones.  Bike rides.  Movies.  Library books.  Happy days!