A Time for Summer:Camping, New Additions and a Pig Roast!!

Summer here in Maine (this part anyway) has been beautiful. We've had such great weather so far. My only complaint is how fast it is going...why is it summer is always the fastest and winter seems to take forever? We just don't have time to fit in everything we want to do. We did take 4 days to go camping with friends up at Glen Ellis Campground and had such a great time. It was a really nice campground, so nice in fact that Ben and I joked about how living where we do is more wilderness than that campground was! But there was a lot for the kids to do and it was right on the river which was great to swim in and very cold. Perfect for a pregnant lady dying in the 90+ degree weather we had while we were there. 
Pretty much our whole summer has been consumed with finishing our addition. Not that we haven't done plenty of entertaining and spending time with our friends but we made a point this winter to set aside as many weekends as possible to be home working. I look at the finished work and am every day amazed. You know how sometimes you do something and you have to sit back and wonder, "how did that even happen?" or "where did the money come from to do it?". I've had a lot of those moments regarding this project. It was really important to us that we not go into debt for this so really our thought was we'll do what we can, little by little, and patiently wait till it's complete. I honestly thought it would be 10 years before we were able to have our new bedroom! God has been so good, and I am so thankful. I'm thankful for God's provision to keep us out of debt, I'm thankful for the helpers Ben had because he never could have done it in this little time without help, and I'm thankful for a wise husband who made very good decisions along the way and worked so hard. He puts in long days as it is, and just our home with 5 kids is a lot, then to work till 10/11 at night on the addition when he is up at 4:30 every day was amazing to me. But we now have a new living room...something we never really had because the space we had was a dining/sitting area and it wasn't very big. This new room is perfect for all the entertaining we do and the kids love it too. And a new bedroom, which we didn't know we would need so badly....but God knew! Now the girls will have a room big enough for them to grow into and I'm really excited to start painting and setting it all up. The only thing left to do is get some closet organizing done, which will be makeshift for now and we'll complete it the way we want it at a later time. Then the bathroom. The plumbing is all there we just need to buy a pump (or something, haha) and a shower but that project will wait  for a later time too. Then this winter Ben can putter around with trimming up the doors and windows. Have I mentioned how thankful I am??? 
So with so much work to do inside our outside has suffered. I
love working in my gardens and being outside but this summer has been different in that I haven't had a lot of time or strength to do it. It's been a harder pregnancy than I usually have so that has been hard to get used to. But like I keep saying, you can't do it all when you are raising a family and this summer the yard is one of those things that I've had to say, "I can't do it this year". 
Next on our agenda is serving a week at Camp Good News. The kids are really excited about it. Ben will be a counselor in the cabin with the older two boys and I am going to be the "Kickapoo" counselor with the younger 3 and any other staff kids that are there that week. We know it will be a hard week but also a blessing. We're thankful for the opportunity to serve in this way and look forward to our first year serving this way as the first of many years to come. We are also excited that others from our church are going this year too! Then when we return we have our 1st Annual Pig Roast on Pork St. to get ready for. It may sound strange but I am SO excited! I've been asking Ben if we can do this for years now and he finally said yes! I grew up having a pig roast at my grandparents camp every summer around the 4th and it was my favorite thing all summer. While my dad was here last month we went and ordered our pig and he'll be ready for us labor day weekend. My dad is bringing down the pig roaster and will cook it up for us. I can't wait!

Then before we know it, the kids are in school again. Gabe just turned 5 last week so he's going to be going off with Noah and Owen this year. We don't know who his teacher is going to be yet but we're really hoping he has the same one Noah and Owen had because she's just fantastic! Then soccer for the 3 older boys and the baby arrives!!! Crazy that Tess' arrival is only 3 months away...