friends

I think of all the places that I have lived and the people that I have met. My life is richer because of the friends God has brought into my life. This past weekend we went to the Jersey shore with our good friends, Joanne and Jess Foggy and Emily Voshell. Jess and Emily are in Kate's class at school. We all had such a good time. It was a girls day at the beach! I am so appreciative Joanne's friendship. I love the conversations we have, the love for Christ that we share, and the fun times. God has blessed me with wonderful friends. Joanne and her family have taken us in when we were "homeless" and shared their "basement apartment" with us many times. We look forward to making more memories with these treasured friends.

this and that

This picture was taken after a wedding reception we went to a little over a week ago.
I was going to sit down and blog...finally, but a little boy needs his mom to snuggle with him. I know the time will come when he won't want to do that anymore so I better go make the most of it! :)

summer fun

Here are my kids having fun with the neighbors. It was dusk and so the picture turned out too dark. We have fun neighbor kids who feel very at home at our house. One day David came downstairs and found one of them making himself some lunch! :) We like it that they feel that way. Sometimes we wish they would knock before they came in the house. We have great neighbors and are starting to really enjoy each other this summer.

Here is Jacob, "The Inventor"
Here is "The Engineer"

This is what the boys did this morning. We have a policy for the during the summer that no one can look at any kind of screen thing (TV, movie, computer, games, etc. ) before noon and you have to spend as much time reading as you do in front of the screen. So if you watch a two hour movie at night, you have to have read two hours or read for two hours the next day.
Well this allows for all kinds of creativity, since they can't just sit and stare at a screen. This morning the boys were being "inventors and engineers". Jonathan said that Jacob was the inventor and he was the engineer. Here are some pictures of what they created....boy fun!!!

savoring

Kate sitting on her "throne" at her b-day party!

Jacob on the slip and slide in our back yard.

Here are some pictures....the one above is Kate's friend's singing "Happy Birthday" to her in the street in front of her teacher's house where we had her party.
Summers always go by so fast. I just want to sit and savor every last moment before the busyness of school comes back. Tonight David and I sat on our front porch and enjoyed watching the kids play. They were playing NASCAR but with bikes. They had their pits marked in the street with chalk, each with their own name. It was pretty funny. Jonathan was the pit crew for all of them, "changing tires, cleaning the bugs, sweeping up the pit after the stop".
We had a great weekend. A young couple (Megan Cathey and Behn Trader) from our church got married down in southern MD. So we got to go somewhere we had never been. We cross the Chesapeake Bay at Annapolis and then go straight south to the bottom....beautiful country. It was a beautiful day and a beautiful wedding...one of the best ones. Our pastor did the ceremony and the bride's dad said a prayer for the couple at the end which was very moving. I don't know very many dad's who could do that without getting emotional. You know me, I was my typical emotional self after listening to him pray for his daughter and her husband. David actually got a copy of the prayer.
Yesterday, we heard a great sermon on contentment. "You can be content in your circumstances without being content with your circumstances." He gave several examples... Joseph who was content with where God had Him but still wanted to be free, asking the butler to remember him when he went before the Pharoah.
Today is my mother and father-in law's 47th wedding anniversary. Happy anniversary to one of my favorite couples!! I am so thankful for you!

Birthdays and Anniversary

My computer was doing weird things the past few days. I feel out of touch with the world when I can't get on the computer.
We celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary on Monday. My sister and I share the same anniversary and we both married Davids. I was six years after her. I had lost my engagement ring earlier this year. In the winter, it would get so loose on my finger but during summer it was okay. I was running with the high school kids one cold day after school and I think that it is one I lost it. That was the last place I remembered having it on my finger. I didn't realize it was gone until 10 that night. I was sitting on Mary Ellen's bed helping her with something and saw that it was gone. I was so sad. We looked everywhere...even had the kids at school helping me look.
On Monday David proposed to me all over again and gave me a new engagement ring. It was so sweet and I was feeling like I had just got engaged all over again! I was giddy, excited, and couldn't stop staring at it...just like when you first get engaged! He's a keeper.
Yesterday was Kate's 16th birthday. We had a surprise party for her with her friends from school. As we were getting in the car, she trips off the porch, sprains her ankle, scrapes her knee and is in pain! I was thinking "Oh no, now she won't want to go out to dinner!" She thought that we were going out to dinner and I had to drop something off at one of her teacher's house on the way. The party was at her teacher's house. All the kids had hid at the end of her street and as we got out of the car, they came running down the street singing Happy Birthday. It was so fun! She hobbled into the back yard and we had a wonderful evening....didn't get home until 1 AM. So today we are doing nothing, eating leftovers, trying to keep all the kids outside because it is a beautiful day!

Blog happy

Yeah! I figured out how to put pictures on my blog! I am so excited about my blog...I just love doing this. I have to put in a plug for my friend's new blog. She is a great friend of mine. I met her 8 years ago when we first moved up here and we got to be good friends in the past few years. We used to go to church together, in Bible study together, our kids go to the same school. We have lived life together and she is a dear sister. Her blog is Life with 4 kids. You will love it. She is a great writer and tells great stories. There is never a dull moment at her house! God provides her with lots of material to write about....life has it's moments and her life is full of them!

sweet time in VA

Our dear friends, Herb and Susan Brown with us at Mary Ellen's birthday dinner.
Jacob really thinks he is cool. :)

Birthday dinner for Mary Ellen at the club house at Fawn Lake (Spotsylvania, VA).

summer reading

I spent my morning digging through boxes of books looking for books for the kids to read. We haven't unpacked all of our boxes of books because then we would have bookshelves on every wall! I remember one of my college friend's mom made a rule in the summer that you had to spend an equal amt. of time reading as you did watching TV (or any kind of screen). I like to set up some kind of routine for summer days or we get lazy. Kate and Mary Ellen both have some extra work besides there summer reading to do this summer. It shouldn't take them long to complete it. Kate's favorite teacher, Mrs. McGehee, gave her a list of books to read and she is already done with the first "A Prayer for Owen Meany". She loved it and now is going to read "When Elephants Dance". This teacher has lit a fire in Kate for reading once again. She had lost her desire and love for reading. Mrs. McGehee was a great influence in Kate's life and will be missed. She is getting her PhD at City College of NYC.

more conversation

Bedtime is the best time for conversation. Sometimes they are funny and sometimes they are serious. Two nights ago this was my conversation with Jacob.
Jacob: Mom, have you had a false god?
Mom: Yes, you know a false god is like having an idol. An idol is anything that you love more than God.
Jacob: yeah, so have you had an idol?
Mom: yes.
J: REALLY??
Mom: Yes, lots of them.
J: like what?
Mom: Well, sometimes we can turn good things into an idol. We can take many good things that God has given to us and make them an idol. We love what he has given to us more than we love Him. I began to love Willowdale Chapel. I wanted to be there more than being where He wanted me. I didn't really care about what God wanted but what I wanted. So God took that away and showed me that I loved being at Willowdale more than I loved Him. He wanted me to love Him, so He had to take it away. He is merciful to us to do that. To not love me would be to let me have my idols. So God loves us so much to show us what they are?
Jacob: I wonder if I have ever had a false god?
Mom: Yes, I am sure you have. God will show them to you. God doesn't show us all our sin at one time because we would not be able to bear it. He loves us and will show us more and more and we just keep running back to HIm...He is always forgiving and loving us. He never gets tired of forgiving us and says "That's it. You messed up too many times. I am not going to forgive you anymore. His grace never runs out."
Our identity is not in our sin, but in Jesus. We have been forgiven of it all. It has all been paid for! So when you asked me if I have ever had a false god, I can freely admit that to you because I know I am forgiven and God loves me.
You ask really good questions, Jacob.

Thank you, Jesus for the work that you do in my kids despite my failures and sin!

conversation

The setting:
The deck of our friends' house in VA...evening after dinner. Jacob and I were sitting on the lounge chairs enjoying the breeze and chatting.
Jacob: I love staring at people.
Mom: I like watching people too. Why do you like staring at people?
Jacob: I just like to stare at cool people.
Mom: Who are the cool people?
Jacob: Oh...like biker guys.
Mom: Am I a cool person.
Jacob: no
Mom: I'm not cool?!
Jacob: No, because you are a girl.
Mom: So girls aren't cool?
Jacob: Well, some girls are cool.
Mom: Are there any cool girls in your class at school?
Jacob: Yeah, there is one...no, two girls in my class.
Mom: who are they?
Jacob: Rhia and Piper
Mom: What about Haley and Mariko?
Jacob (laughing): Oh no way! They aren't cool.
Mom (surprised): Why aren't they cool?
Jacob: because they like make up and all that girl stuff!

Note: I am pretty sure Rhia and Piper like make-up.

This was such a funny conversation. I didn't want to forget it.

Summertime!

Yes! School is out for the summer and we are now in Virginia! We are housesitting and pet sitting for some friends who live near Fredricksburg. They have a great place and live in a wonderful community! It's like going to a resort..with a pool and a lake. The boys took the canoe and went fishing today. The people here are so friendly. We just relax and have a good time enjoying each other and all of God's beautiful creation all around us. David and the boys saved a baby deer today that was stuck on the bank of the lake. It couldn't get out because it was too steep. They were so excited about doing that!
There are great places to run here. I was running this morning with the dog and all of a sudden he stopped and wouldn't go any further. We were about a mile away from home. So I just sat and talked to him, rested, petted him. He just needed a rest because then he was fine the rest of the way. Their dog is the sweetest dog...a little clingy, but very sweet. We have to come here to get our dog fix since David doesn't ever want a dog. We like to bike, canoe, kayak, sit by the lake. May is such a crazy, hectic and sometimes stressful month. It takes us a couple days to relax and unwind.
Mary Ellen turns 14 on Fri. and Katelyn turns 16 this month as well! yikes!
I picked 10 gallons of strawberries, froze them and made lots of jam. Jam makes great gifts. The strawberries were PLENTIFUL! We picked with two hands and had so much fun! I love picking strawberries and picked some for other people too.
Before I wrap this up I have to tell you what we had for dinner. Pork tenderloin with a mustard barbecue sauce! It was amazing! I made the sauce and the rub that I put on the meat (br. sugar, cumin, cayenne pepper, chili powder. salt and pepper). The sauce was bacon, onion, mustard, honey, ketchup, cider vinegar, cumin, chili powder....yummy!!! WE had cucumber and tomato salad with it. The meat recipe came out of Cooking Light mag. It was on the front cover and caught my eye! It was definitely a keeper! I love that mag.