Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Happy Birthday to My Sister...




She came into this world
With dark hair and a smile. 
Spunky, strong-willed,
Sarcastic and wild.
My baby sister
How I’ve watched her grow
Grow into a woman
More beautiful than she knows.
Twenty-one years ago
She brought joy to our lives
Twenty-one years later
My friend for life.
Happy Birthday Baby SIster
I love you!



Cheese Balls Anyone?


Monday, August 29, 2011

A New Adventure...

Our family has recently embarked upon a new and exciting adventure...are you ready...HOMESCHOOLING! We have been at it for 3 weeks now, Monday Wednesday and Friday, and it is so much fun.

Now let me just say, the first two days, not so much fun. I was not nearly as organized as I needed to be but I also really didn't know what to expect. I also was having some authority issues with my Student number 1. They aren't totally resolved, but are much better now. I changed up the schedule a bit to where Randy and I felt Hailey would be able to focus better and things are much better now.

Hailey hiding baby Moses in the river
I am just loving the creativity that has shown up in my brain since we started. All I can say is it must be answered prayer because I am not very creative and with a 3-year-old you gotta be pretty creative. We went on a nature walk one day and then read the story of baby Moses. We put a boat in a little rubbermaid bin with water and then used the items we found on our walk to hide baby Moses in the river.
Making people out of play-doh
 We also read on Friday about how God created Adam and Eve and we made people out of play-doh. That was a lot of fun. We learned about how God made them and how God made us and how He created us to worship and glorify Him.

Friday's Bible verse and craft


Learning how to write the letter A
We officially started 2 weeks ago because I didn't have all of my books in the first week so it was just a trial run. We decided to use the Sonlight curriculum. I pretty much fell in love with it the day the catalogue came in the mail. It's a little on the pricey side so we ordered a little over half of the books and will order the rest after Christmas. It is different than any of the other options that I looked at. It uses excellent literature as opposed to textbooks and workbooks. There are workbooks as you get older but I love the fact that we get to read a ton of really good books. Yeah I'm a nerd. The 3-year-old curriculum doesn't really work on letters and numbers so I supplement my own thing but it gives me a chance to think outside the box and be challenged.

So why did we choose to homeschool? Simple. We feel like this is what God has called us to do. It isn't necessarily an easy task. I wrestle with insecurities about not being "qualified" for the job. "What if I can't get her to learn her ABC's?" or "What if she just can't stand being around me after a morning of school?" but God keeps reminding me that this is what He wants me doing and He will work it out. It's funny, I saw multiple comments and reviews of the Sonlight curriculum where the parents were saying that their kids begged to do school after starting Sonlight. I was like, "Yeah, I can't imagine Hailey begging to do school" but you know what, she has. It's crazy. It makes me smile =)

The perks of homeschooling:
1. I get to spend all day with my kids. Some days this is awesome. Some days this is a challenge. Thank goodness for naptimes, right?
2. We get to do schoolwork outside.
3. I have seen God work in my heart and change me in a lot of areas. It's funny how parenting can really show you what's in your own heart.
4. I am getting to watch Hailey figure things out.
5. We are scheduled but we can be flexible.
I could really think of a numerous more reasons but the main thing for me is that I am able to build relationships with my children.

I don't know what the future will hold. I hold nothing against parents who send their children to school, whether it be public or private. I know they can do a lot of those same things with their children even being in school. I don't know what God has for us in the years to come but right now we are homeschooling and I plan to cherish the time I get to do it.


Following In His Daddy's Footsteps...


Friday, August 26, 2011

On My Heart...

I need you to soften my heart
to break me apart
I need you to open my eyes
to see that you're shaping my life

All I am
I surrender

Give me faith to trust what you say
that You're good and Your love is great
I'm broken inside, I give you my life


I need you to soften my heart
to break me apart
I need you to pierce through the dark
and cleanse every part of me

I may be weak
but Your spirit's strong in me
My flesh may fail My God you never will 



Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Our Little Swim Babies...



All summer long Hailey has been somewhat terrified of the water. Well, not really terrified, but she DID NOT...under any circumstances...want you to let go of her in the water. I even got her this cool floaty thing to wear and she still freaked out every time we would go to the pool and I would need to let her go. I do have two children mind you.
Caleb likes the water okay. He definitely isn't afraid of it. He is just busy. And when he is in the water he has to either be confined to my arms or confined to his floaty and really all he wants to do is walk around the pool and pick up rocks. Hey, he's a boy.
We had been going every week to our pastor's neighbor's pool with his wife, Holly, and their girls. We had so much fun with them. Holly would kind of work with Hailey on getting used to the water and every time we would go she would freak out the first thirty minutes or so but after that she would be okay.
A few weeks ago, it was on a Monday, we got to the pool and Hailey put her floaty on and got right in the water...by.her.self. She just got in. Without any help. I don't know what came over her. We were all just looking at her and then looking at each other and shrugging our shoulders. I don't know. I wasn't going to ask any questions. And ever since then she just gets right in. She still doesn't want to jump in but  I'm okay with that.  She putters all around the pool all by herself. It's so cool! We officially have a swimmer in our family.



Thank You Nena and Poppa !


So this is a bit late but I forgot I had taken the picture =)

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Growing older...


A couple of weeks ago we celebrated Randy's 26th birthday with family and friends.

A few nights before that Hailey and Randy were talking about what different color hair people had. Some people had blonde. Some people had brown. Some people had black. Some people had white. Randy asked Hailey what color hair Poppa has. She thought for a second and said, "I don't know." He replied, "Poppa doesn't have hair silly." Hailey asked, "Why doesn't he have hair?" He told her that sometimes when people get older they lose their hair.

Fast forward to the day of Randy's party. We are getting ready for it and I asked Hailey if she was excited about Daddy's birthday party. She thought for a second looking a little troubled and replied, "Yes, but I really hope Daddy doesn't lose his hair at his party."

She had been worried all that time that Randy was going to lose his hair. And to make it worse, she and I were having a conversation a while back about how when you get older, like kindergarten and first grade older, that your teeth fall out and you get new ones. This was a concept that I thought she would think was pretty cool. Oh no. She was very distraught about this one. For days, even weeks, when we would say something about her being a big girl or her getting so big she would say, "Yeah, but I really don't want to lose my teeth." I tried to explain to her that you get new ones in really soon but she didn't understand where they came from and I couldn't really explain that one.

So now, not only did we evoke a fear in her of noises in her closet, we also inadvertently gave her a fear of growing older because you lose your teeth and go bald...two enthusiastic thumbs up for our parenting =)

Oh, in case you were wondering, that is a Cheerwine cake and, yes, it was amazing...

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Our Crazy Dancing Machine...


I just figured out how to add video and I am so excited. Hope you like videos!

A Glimpse of Heaven



Randy and I had the awesome opportunity Friday night to go see Hillsong United. And before I even get started on this post let me just say that it was beyond amazing. Beyond what I expected. I love their music and I love going to concerts but this was more than a concert. It, to me, was a glimpse of what Heaven is going to be...

Randy and I were sitting outside the coliseum waiting for our friend Josh to get their and give us our tickets. We had gone to Steak-n-Shake for dinner and we had been discussing what kind of people would be at a Hillsong concert. We've been to a lot of different concerts and you would expect to see different people at a Disciple concert than at let's say a Point of Grace concert. So as we were standing outside waiting we were kind of people watching. Something I love to do. We saw old couples. We saw youth groups. We saw red-neck, middle aged men. We saw a huge group of Asian teenagers. We saw parents with their elementary aged kids. We saw free-spirited college kids. We saw Black people. We saw Hispanic people. We saw people who appeared to be very wealthy and also people who looked not so well off. People from so many different walks of life.

Our friend showed up and we went inside, found our seats, and were gearing up for a concert that Randy has been waiting years to be a part of. It was awesome. They played for two HOURS and 45 minutes. It was insane.

At one point about half way through the concert I stopped singing, opened my eyes and just took in the sight in front of me. Just picture with me over 10,000 people. Old couples. Youth groups. Red-neck, middle aged men. Asian teenagers. Parents with their elementary aged kids. Free-spirited college kids. Black people. Hispanic people.People who appeared to be very wealthy and also people who looked not so well off. People from so many different walks of life. Eyes closed. Hands raised. Voices shouting praises to our God. The same God who holds the universe in His hands and at the same time knows the number of hairs on each individual person's head. It was a glimpse of Heaven.

It reminded me of the study in Philippians we are doing right now with our small group. A few weeks ago we talked about how the start of the Philippian church was pretty much a rich Asian lady named Lydia, a demon-posessed girl and a Roman jailor who was probably more than just a little rough around the edges. And God met each one of them where they were and brought them to Himself. Jesus Christ and His love is what brought unity to three people who probably never would have known each other much less started a church together and called each other brother and sister. It was amazing to see Friday night how God brought together that many people. That many people from so many different walks of life. All because of His love and what He did for us. We can have that unity because of the love of Christ that is inside us.

I don't know what we are going to look like in heaven. I don't know if we are going to have the same skin color as we do now or if we are going to be the same age we are now. I don't know any of these things. But I do know that when we get there, all we are going to do is fall to our knees and sing praises to our God. Our soul purpose...our soul desire...will be to glorify our God.

Friday night I was given a glimpse of Heaven and all I can say is I can't wait for the real thing!

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Sometimes A Song Says It All...

It's time for healing time to move on
It's time to fix what's been broken too long
Time to make right what has been wrong
It's time to find my way to where I belong
There's a wave that's crashing over me
And all I can do is surrender

Whatever You're doing inside of me
It feels like chaos but somehow there's peace
It's hard to surrender to what I can't see
but I'm giving in to something Heavenly

Time for a milestone
Time to begin again
Reevaluate who I really am
Am I doing everything to follow Your will
Or just climbing aimlessly over these hills
So show me what it is You want from me
I give everything I surrender...

To whatever You're doing inside of me
It feels like chaos but somehow there's peace
It's hard to surrender to what I can't see
but I'm giving in to something Heavenly
Something Heavenly

Time to face up
Clean this old house
Time to breathe in and let everything out
That I've wanted to say for so many years
Time to release all my held back tears

Whatever You're doing inside of me
It feels like chaos but I believe
You're up to something bigger than me
Larger than life something Heavenly

It's time to face up
Clean this old house
Time to breathe in and let everything out



Whatever You're Doing by : Sanctus Real

Friday, August 5, 2011

Guess Who's Walking...

Not only is he so stinkin' cute...



And super curious...


Now he is up and walking...



Which probably means a lot more trouble...



But also a lot more cuteness!

These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things...

Jumping....



Twirling...



Watering The Flowers...



Eating Cookies...



Being Beautiful...