How's your weekend so far?

Joshy has used the potty... TWICE! We are so very excited. He's also getting rewards, which I feel guilty about but they are working. He is starting to see the positive side of this success on this issue, before he just saw that by refusing he was getting his own way. Caleb was also so excited he prayed about it. The prayer went something like this: "Dear Jesus, Joshy went pee in the potty, we are very excited. He did it for you Jesus, help him do it again. Amen." I wanted to encourage Caleb praying and Joshy using the potty so much that I help in the burst of laughter.

I have some very tan little boys (well relatively speaking, that are still my children). They went to the pool again on the 4th with Daddy. Daddy needed to work a bit on the pool chemicals etc so the boys tagged along since I was still not feeling great. They had a wonderful time. Caleb can now swim the length of the indoor pool and is starting to learn side breathing. Joshy is now wearing goggles and diving down around the stairs for pennies! It's amazing. (Joshy uses the words "Amazing" or "Awesome", it is very funny to hear such a little guy use such expressive words.)

As for our 4th. We sat on the curb in our neighborhood and saw the delightful display of the various neighbors as they set their $ to flame. Then we climbed onto Caleb's bed and watched the big display that the fairgrounds puts on. It was a simple affair, but calm, free and just my speed for the moment.

I'm still not feeling good. I am despising the contra-indicating bladder. It goes something like this: use restroom, then feel like you are desperate to use the restroom for 30-45 minutes while your bladder fills again, be ok for up to 2 hours, then really have to go, hold it until it can't be held anymore in fear of the pain/urgency you'll feel after you actually go, actually use restroom and repeat the process. And then there is the spasms of pain otherwise that feels like my back/abdomen are being electrocuted. FUN. And no, I haven't caught another stone yet.

So today is going to be another easy going day for me. My big aspirations: shower, and MAYBE get to the Ben Franklin Sidewalk Sale. (I do have Joshy and his annual b-day scrapbooking project just around the corner.)

In better news, we returned from vacation to roses in bloom and strawberries plentiful. We are getting over a dozen a day with many more ripening. I've had to drill into the boys "RED means READY, Green means let GROW". The raspberries are a dismal sight. I don't know if they got too hot (I suspect because of the suddenly withered brown/yellow leaves) or whether I pruned them back too much this spring. But they are miserable and probably won't produce this year... It makes me sad for the boys, it brings such joy to them... but there are still the strawberries. And IF (big if) I can keep the boys and dogs out of the strawberry patch, we might see up to 2 dozen blueberries.... I also look forward to the blackberries at the club coming into season, and I'm sincerely hoping that they will be ripe before or still be available for picking when I return from California. Our winter won't be the same without frozen berries all year!

Ok, that's all for now. Talk to ya later.