Playing around...

...with the camera I got for my birthday from Ken and the kids! As a special "gift", the kids let me take some pictures of them, so I could try out my camera. It's a steep learning curve for me as I have always had a "point and shoot" model until now. I'll have fun experimenting!

Pumpkin Patch

I know I have not yet posted pictures from the rest of the summer or of the beginning of the school year, but I had to post these pumpkin patch ones! We had so much fun picking out our pumpkins, even though it was a little cold and windy outside. I LOVE pumpkins, especially the ones that are varying shades of gray and white. We tried a new place this year, and I was really happy with it. Instead of charging different prices for different kinds of pumpkins, they just charged unilaterally by the pound. The same pumpkins would have cost me $6 more at Kroger. I know, because I checked! :)

The pumpkins were such beautiful works of art! Fall is one of the most lovely and colorful seasons in our neck of the woods, so hopefully more autumn pictures to come!

Summer Fun, Part 1: Travels

It's been a long time since I last posted. We had a really fun summer, and I plan on sharing what we did over the next several posts.

One thing we did a ton of was TRAVEL! We traveled over 7,000 miles this summer going on vacation and visiting with family. It was fun to get to spend time with the people we love and don't get to see near enough.

We went to Hilton Head with my family and enjoyed the beach, the bicycle trails, and all the fun activities (like putt-putt). Ken sent me a week ahead of himself and the kids, so I actually got a REAL vacation!!! What a sweet sacrifice from my dear husband. Thanks to Mimi and Pop coming to visit that week to lend a helping hand, I was able to read on the beach, sleep in, and basically do whatever I felt like for a WHOLE WEEK. Words just can't express. All you tired mamas know what I'm talking about. Ken and the kids came for the second week and I was so relaxed--I was actually able to enjoy my children on vacation. Such a blessing. :) Here are some pictures from that week:

Breakfast at our favorite diner in HHI

Grandparents sweetly watched the kids one night, so Ken and I went out on a much needed date:

On the way home, we stopped off in Savannah and showed the kids the B&B that we stayed in on our honeymoon! Fun memories. Also funny to think about what a DIFFERENT stage of life we are in these days! Sigh...

That's all for now. Hopefully some more updates to come soon!

The VERY BEST thing about summer...

...is getting to spend loads of time with this girl! I miss her a lot during the school year, and summer is a fun catch up time for us. We've been shopping, picked out our summer reading books, painted toe-nails, gone on bike rides, played at the pool together, and have just enjoyed each other's company. Days full of memories to treasure.

Here are the pictures from her "Bridging Ceremony" for girl scouts. She is now officially a brownie! Yes, that means we will be selling cookies next year. What this means for me? I will now be able to order as many boxes of thin mints as I like without anyone knowing! he he he

My Little Slugger

Here's my handsome little man (and my other handsome man) in their baseball uniforms! It's been so fun watching Harry play and Ken help as an assistant coach. Fun days.

End of the Year Reports, for a 1st grader and her Mama

A few weeks ago, Hannah went with her class to the zoo. Each child picked an animal that they wanted to observe in their "habitat" and then wrote and presented an animal report at school the following week. Hannah picked the sea turtle as the animal that she wanted to observe. She was so cute at the sea turtle exhibit! She watched very carefully and patiently (as sea turtles are not your most active and exciting animals at the zoo). Her patience was rewarded when she got to see him swim slowly from the bottom of the pool to poke his head up for air and then swim back down.

At home she wrote an awesome report on sea turtles from a library book. We also printed off some pictures of sea turtles online so that she could have some visual interest on her poster board. Aside from helping her understand the diagram her teacher sent home and tracing lines on the paper for her to write on, I did not help her. She wanted to work independently, and the results were amazing! She decorated it with stickers and even put thought bubbles on some of the pictures. I was really proud of her hard work--it took her around 2 hours of concentrated working to pull the poster all together.

Her teacher liked her presentation so much that she asked if she could keep it as an example for her kids next year. I asked Hannah, and she said that she would like for her teacher to keep it. I was a little sad, but made sure that I snapped some photos before we left school.

It has been really fun to watch Hannah grow in her confidence this year. She never would have wanted to work independently at the beginning of the year or present anything in front of the class. She would barely speak in group time in September. Her teacher thought she couldn't read, because she was too shy to talk much to her. So much has changed! Yesterday when I visited her classroom, she was talking during group time, telling a long story to the whole class. Her presentation of her poster was great (so I heard), and the kids all loved her "jokes" of what the turtles were thinking.

I'm very thankful for how far she has come since September, for her sweet and patient teacher, and for the ways we have seen God working in her and for her this year. It's been a growing and stretching season for her as she has had to work through some of her insecurities and fears. My heart has broken on many occasions watching my tenderhearted child work through the pain of dealing with bullies, of feeling rejected, of sensing her own inabilities and short comings. Thankfully, these came in short spurts, otherwise I don't think we would have made it! There were lots of good parts mixed in too. One thought carried me through good and bad alike: It is such a comfort to know that everyday I drop her off and watch her walk through those doors, I am not sending her into the world alone.

My kids love the imagery of Psalm 23, of the Shepherd who walks alongside of them even in the darkness. His rod and staff comforts them, because in the dark, when they can not see, He can. He beats back their fears and holds their hand, so they can confidently walk in this world. What peace this visual picture brings to my own heart, of the Shepherd King holding hands with my children, guiding them with His staff and protecting them with His rod. "Even though I walk through the valley of deep darkness, I will not fear, for you are with me." Trusting God with my children has been a real struggle for me, but I am confident that He is able (seems like a no brainer, but the heart sometimes struggles to keep up with the head) and He is good. All the time. Even in pain.

"Only goodness and steadfast love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever."

Longing for Home

I've been experiencing more and more the desire to be living closer to our families. Our much loved parents/grandparents are both 8 hours away, my sister and her husband (as well as my nieces and nephew) are also 8 hours away, my youngest brother is 6 1/2 hours away, and my other brother has been living abroad for the last 3 years. Ken's only brother is 8 hours away as well. Ken and I only see our grandparents about once a year, which truly breaks my heart.

This is not what I thought our lives would look like. I always thought that my children would grow up alongside of cousins, aunts and uncles, great-grandparents and grandparents.

I was listening to a sermon not long ago about the deepest longings of our hearts. God did not intend for us to be separated from the people we love. He created us for unbroken fellowship, not just with Him, but also with each other. Our deepest longing is "to have love last", to be with the people we love forever. But, in this broken and fallen world, that is not our reality. Death occurs slowly. We are separated by sin, misunderstandings, grudges, distance (both emotionally and physically), and eventually by time and space when our loved ones pass away.

Our culture is one of constant change. People don't grow up and settle in the same towns anymore. Our loved ones live far away. Our siblings take jobs in far away places. Our best friends move to Africa. Children grow up and leave. We watch our parents age. Time moves quickly.

That's why even the best love, that of spouses and family and the dearest of friends, can not truly satisfy the deepest longings of our souls. There is only one Love that will never fail, never be separated from us, never leave us or forsake us, even in death. He calls Himself "our Eternal Dwelling Place". God longs to be our Home, our Family, our Parent, our Spouse, our closest Friend, our forever King. And our deepest longings can only be met in Him. Our hearts are safe in this Eternal Home.

He is a good and kind Father. He sent His son to turn back the clock, to undo death itself. He is recreating, reviving and renewing. It's taking a long time (to us), but one day we will know the joy of being in unbroken, forever fellowship with Him and also with the people we love, the people we have lost.

Until then, we long for, we wait for, we hope for this day. And we drive a lot. We talk on the phone a lot. We go on vacations together. We make the effort to be involved in our loved ones lives, because in the end, life is all about the relationships. Our relationship with God and our relationships with each other. They are what sanctify us. They are the means in which we share Christ with each other. They are what set up apart in a world that hungers for things that can never truly satisfy the soul. People are the treasures that we store up in Heaven.

I for one, echo the longings of John in the end of Revelation. "Come, King Jesus, come quickly!". We're ready.