Abounding Abundance: 31 Things to Be Thankful for in July

Better five days late than never?!

1. Living in a free country and getting a 3 ½ day weekend without having to take a single vacation day.
2. Seeing our baby via ultrasound. Always memorable.
3. Celebrating nine years of marriage and all the good and bad that comes with those nine years. We went to Kansas City at the end of June and called that our anniversary celebration.
4. Celebrating the marriage of two special people and seeing a whole bunch of college friends to boot!
5. Having a helpful, handy husband. The Pontiac left me stranded in a very busy intersection over the 4th of July holiday and Lance managed to replace the fuel pump and the EGR valve (don’t ask me what it does, that’s not my forte) by the end of the week. AND he got his old crappy car working in the meantime. Three car family!!
6. Lance also made progress on painting the exterior of our house. See what I mean, helpful and handy!
7. Nothing in our garden has died yet – with the caveat that the lettuce and spinach don’t count because they never really had a fighting chance to begin with.
8. Swimming at my parents’ house and seeing Lucan delight in the act.
9. Local sweet corn! Yum, delish!
10. Having my mother-in-law come to our house and babysit Lucan while we went to my friend’s wedding.
11. Fun date night with just the small group adults at one of our most favorite restaurants, Flying Mango.
12. Sweet, succulent nectarines, juicy as can be.
13. Tractor rides for my boys.
14. Trips to the chiropractor.
15. Mild summer weather. Being pregnant calls for mild weather.
16. Long car trips filled with adult conversation.
17. Lucan’s funny chocolate covered face after I let him lick the bowl to the chocolate cake I made. 18. Attending the craziest parade in DM – Urbandale 4th of July parade. We’ll not be reliving that one again in the immediate future.
19. Fantastic yoga classes at Studio B Yoga.
20. Sleeping. I’ve not had problems to date with pregnancy interrupting my sleep patterns.
21. Clean bill of health from my dentist.
22. Comfy skirts and dresses that stretch. Just say yes to elastic.
23. My new Nikon D3200.
24. Quiet, home-based weekends.
25. Watching my friends live out their trials of life in a faith-based way.
26. Friend conversations.
27. Gender reveal parties at the Cheesecake Factory.
28. Homemade pesto from garden basil
29. Finally figuring out how to utilize Wilbor to borrow e-books from the library. My kindle is grossly underused and I need to change that.
30. Simply Raspberry Lemonade. It always tastes good.
31. Quality friend time with Molly watching trash television (Bachelorette finale). Because nothing says friendship like trash television.

Hospers RAs minus Nicole. We missed her greatly at Rae Rae's wedding! (baby Brock is standing in for Nicole)

Pregnant me, the beautiful bride, Rachael, and lovely bridesmaid Molly

Adorbs picture at the DM Farmer's Market with Cubby Bear. Lucan wanted to give Cubby Bear a high-5!

Gender reveal dinner at Cheesecake Factory/ 1/2 off cheesecake day! Can you see Lucan's binoculars?

Silly boy with short hair.

This kiddo is fearless. "I just love Gramp-er's big pool. We should get a big pool."

Morningside College's production of "Honk." Sadly, it did not go the best and ended up with me bodily hauling Lucan away and tears.

But it was a good time for most everyone else: namely my nephew, Wyatt, and my niece, Andrea.

Lucan, on the other hand, was more concerned with the sewer.

Wyatt and Lucan are six months apart in age. Wyatt very much enjoyed sitting in Lucan's "Cars" chair.

Tractor rides at papa's house are always exciting!

Silly boy in the corn.

Bucket calf named ... er ... Light something. I think Half-light. My in-laws have named all of the calves this spring/summer after some sort of "light" and I've sort of lost track by now.