5 on Friday – Take No Prisoners Edition
I love 5 on Friday- all the things gathered in my head finally finding a spot to land.
Take No Prisoners
I feel like we are all finally coming out of the depths of grief. And with that I’ve found even more drive and determination. If I can help it, there will not be a single thing we look back on and say, “We lost this or that when our life changed.” The Mama Bear is coming out, and I am one driven and determined Mama.
The years in front of us are going to be the best. The fond memories my crew reminisce about will be of our family like it is now, not like it was. THESE will be the good old days. 
I have just about mastered the grill, if I do say so myself! With summer coming, there is absolutely no reason to be stuck in the kitchen while the kids are outside playing! I’ll be right here watching their fun AND cooking dinner. This grill was actually my very first purchase with a blog paycheck, and I’ll be dang if it’s going to be wasted now!
WAHM Life
I still have to balance Work-At-Home-Mom life, of course. Thankfully I have a job I can do anytime and anywhere. So when they play outside, I sit on the picnic table and work. And when Michael says, “Hey Momma, are you working or do you want to throw the football with me?” I can say, “Sure buddy, I’ll be done with this by the time you get the ball!”
And yes, that usually means working late into the night instead.
They will probably tell stories of the crazy things I did to get that work done…
They are definitely observing. I looked outside one day to see Miriam doing the same thing- but this was BEFORE the photo of me standing on the table! 
Yardwork Success
Just last week I mentioned how we needed to celebrate when we finally cut the grass with no issues. Well it happened this week! Mostly thanks to my Dad who spent two afternoons getting our mowers into shape. This week both mowers worked, neither ran out of gas, and the whole yard got cut in one day!
Miriam and Michael did the cutting while the other children and I picked up sticks, weeded, and tidied up. If you follow our crazy days on Instagram, you already know how I lost the three youngest children on yard work day, only to find them hiding in the tall weeds.
School’s Out for Summer!!
School is nearly done. Today was our last official day! We will take one week break before completing end of year testing. 
The kids are falling into a new and wonderful kind of busy- the creative summer kind. This week it kept them out in that field of tall grasses playing all kinds of games, like ‘olden day’ and ‘orphans’. Miriam even cut paths and rooms into the field with the mower.
Have You Entered?
This was a big week of reviews and giveaways on the blog. Make sure to enter those giveaways!
Win an ESV Family Devotional Bible here. I plan to use this devotional as Emily and Peyton’s Bible curriculum next year- it’s really great!
Win TWO Blue Orange Games, Fast Flip and Dr. Eureka here. These are perfect for family game afternoons to beat the summer heat!
I’ve been following you for years and all I can say is, you are AMAZING! Seeing you and your beautiful family thriving makes me smile. These ARE the good old days.
Thank you for the sweet words Rachael!
Have fun this summer! I’ve committed to spending over Friday with the kids doing something fun. We’re calling it FUN FRIDAYS! We did it last year too and they loved it. Setting aside time just for them is simply priceless! BTW…I would love to master the grill like you did! wish me luck!
Good luck on the grilling! It really isn’t as hard as I thought it would be!
Wow, you guys get out early. My kids go for another month 🙂
As a blogger/photographer, my kids have definitely seen me taking photos of food and everything else! We still have another month of school – the weird Northeast – and then the kids don’t go back again until September. I can’t wait, although the WAHM balance will be hard with them home, but fun too.
It looks like you all have been staying busy and enjoying the gorgeous weather and getting outside! It is just starting to finally get nice where we live and we are trying to enjoy the outdoors but we have been limited on our time due to the insane amount of pollen allergy issues right now. We can’t wait for mid June when it hopefully subsides and we can be outside enjoying lazy summer days!
You hit on some of the things that I love about being a blogger: you can do it anytime, anywhere, and you get to stay at home! I didn’t want to miss my daughter growing up, so I made myself a job that I can do at home. It’s really great, you will love it!
My family gets a kick out of the weird ways I stand to get pictures of food and projects too!
Can’t believe school is almost out. I am ready!
How cute! My kids still have two weeks left of school. I am looking forward to the lazy days and extra time with them. I am still worried on how I will juggle with them being home and me working, like you I will have even more late nights in summer. But it is sooo worth it!
Hope you and your family have a great summer! I’m looking forward to following your adventures!
Have a great time this summer! We’re excited for no school alarms for while 🙂