the weekend

My Friday was everything I hoped it would be. I cleaned house, did at least 5 loads of laundry, made pumpkin bread, chocolate chip cookies, and dinner. I told my kids "I am just a mommy and wife today!" :) They loved coming home to a nice smelling house. It was a rainy day, but it wasn't very cold. All weekend it was just kind of warm and moist. Sat. we had a 5k first thing in the morning and Kate and I did so much better than the last time. I think we both improved our time by at least a minute and a half. She got second in her age group and I got second in mine too! :) yeah!! Then Sat. afternoon we went to our friend Kyle Martin's spy b-day party! My friend Katie is one of the most creative moms I know. She amazes me! You rock, Katie! You can find her blog at "Life with 4 kids". I so enjoyed chatting with Andrea, Carolyn, and Katie after the party. The party itself was a spy party and it was amazing. (MaryEllen is patiently waiting to get on the computer so I won't go into the details). We got home late that night, but feeling blessed by friends.
I can't wait to get some mums and pumpkins!
I am helping the kids throw a surprise birthday party this weekend for one our high school boys. It was actually Kate's idea. I am so excited for him. His mom told me that it will make his year! He is on my cross country team and is such a hard worker and a GREAT runner! Maybe I will have some fun pictures next week.
quote of the day:
"I am really going to try to be nice now. I am turning over a new tree!"---one of Mary Ellen's classmates said this today.
One more quote of the day:
"When you wake me up in the morning, my body goes into shock!" --our firstborn. She is not a morning person! :)

Rachael

I tried to find a funny picture, but couldn't. Den doesn't look too happy here. Maybe I should find a better one of him. Of course, Andrew is a cutie!
Happy birthday to my sister, Rachael! She is my oldest sister and was moving out of the house by the time I started kindergarten. We didn't really get to know each other until after she was done with college. Then she was my teacher for two years (5th and 6th grade). It really wasn't a good time to start getting to know me! So it had it's tough times those couple of years. However, since then we have enjoyed many fun times together. One summer in high school I went and lived with her while her husband was out to sea for six months...serving his country. By then she had her first child and I taught her all kinds of things that aunties enjoy teaching their nieces. I had so much fun that summer, going to the beach and going to a youth group! My home church didn't have one and didn't want one. Being the social person that I am, I loved hanging out with all my friends and went back to see them even after Rachael moved away from the area.
I went to the same college as Rachael (even had the same room assigned to me that she had one year!), met my husband there, and started teaching after I graduated...so you could kinda say I followed in her footsteps. Dennis (her husband) spiced things up for Rach....what we would ever do without him. Life would be so boring. My sisters and I always joke about how we like our brothers-in-law more than each other. We'll take them if our sisters ever try to leave the marriage!
Some of the things that I appreciate about Rachael:
Her love for God and desire to walk with Him
Her love for Den...and all his craziness!
Her love for her kids and desiring God's best for them
She loves to PARTY!!! She married the right guy for that! :)
Along with the above is that she HATES to miss anything fun!
She will lose sleep to have fun...well maybe not now that she is in her fifties!
I love her energy. We have a video of her chasing one of our little nieces around my brother's farm with a squirt gun, letting her have it!! :)
She loves to read!
She loves life and I love her!
Happy birthday, Rach!

through and through

This was a quote given to us last week at our upper school retreat and I thought it was so good.
"We are sinners through and through. Once we see this truth, we can cast our gaze on the One who forgives perfectly, redeems us constantly, and embraces us in arms of compassion and forgiveness. In the strength of grace, God lifts us to our feet, draws us away from sinful choices, and grants unspeakable hope!"
Thank you, Jesus, for the gift of forgiveness!!

autumn

Yeah for fall!!! It is going to be cold and rainy the next few days! I have the menu all planned out. Tonight it will be chicken corn chowder, tomorrow it is going to be chicken and veggies in the crock pot (kinda like a homemade chicken noodle soup when I am done with it) and not sure about Sat. Tomorrow we have a half day at school and I am hoping to make some pumpkin bread! I am so excited!! I love fall food! :)

retreat

group picture!


Isn't he cute?!! Our fearless leader....





This weekend was our fall retreat with 7-12 graders. We left Thurs. afternoon after school and returned Sat. afternoon. We had it at Cape Henlopen State Park which is on the beach. It's the beach we always go to. They have youth camps their. Our camp had a big building with a meeting area and eating area and then the boys dorm off one side and a girls dorm off the other. We had a separate girls dorm down the road a little ways for the 10-12 graders. I got to stay with them. David and I both went as chaperones. We went for a walk Fri. afternoon up to this lookout place. It was clear sky and you could lookout across the ocean and see Cape May, NJ to the right....beautiful. We were chatting as we were walking and both of us agreed that we absolutely love doing stuff like this together. Maybe Tall Oaks is our new place of ministry...well we know it is because that is where God has us! I was talking to a couple of the high school girls about ministry and missions. They both want to serve God somehow in missions. Sometimes it looks totally different than what you think it will look like. Ministry might be serving your country in the military. It might be with international students at a local college. It might be the role of a pastor's wife, or a teacher....who knows. David thought he would always be a pastor. Then he thought maybe I should be an associate pastor. Then God led him into church planting and now teaching. Who knows where or what it will look like next. For right now we love ministering to these kids at Tall Oaks Classical School.
It was REALLY windy on Friday and the waves were huge! It was kinda scary! We took all the kids down to the beach around 11 and you could not even sit on the beach! The waves and water were all the way up to the sand dunes! I have never seen it like this before. It looked like a hurricane...unbelievable. We played games, ate, didn't sleep much, talked, sat around a campfire, listened to our speaker, Blake Hardcastle. He was fabulous! Blake is a parent at our school. His little boy is one of Jacob's best buddies.
A good time was had by all and I hope lessons were learned and lives touched with the gospel.
Time to get ready for a new week!
Time to get ready for another week!

grumpiness

Why is it that the grumpy ones poison the whole bunch instead of the cheerful ones rubbing off on everyone else???

I love Southern Living

This month's issue of SL has some really great recipes that are calling my name!
So tonight for the birthday dinner we are going to have Rosemary Grilled Chicken thighs with grilled veggies and couscous. Now I am feeling inspired! It was a toss up b/t the chicken and the Grilled Pork Roast with Fruit Compote. I already have chicken in the freezer. Anyone want to join us for a birthday party?!

feeling uninspired

First 5k....here she comes!


I guess I better write something today. I haven't felt like I had anything to say...how unusual for me! :) I have had a lot on my mind, just not anything I want published on the world wide web. So for what can be out in public....
We had a fabulous weekend which started with pouring down rain for running club practice and getting my keys locked in the car, probably ticking off some parents for calling off running club practice, sitting at the school until after 6
We woke up to a new day on Sat. morning! Kate and I went and ran our first 5k of the season. We both had horrible times! It was very warm and muggy. I felt like I could hardly breathe! Humidity zaps me. I felt zapped the rest of the day. Yesterday we went to the beach all afternoon. It was fabulous!! It was a really hot, humid day yesterday...perfect for playing in the water. We were in the water a lot. Mary Ellen hasn't downloaded, uploaded....or whatever....her pictures yet. So I will have to post pictures on a later blog. We had a great time together as a family. Back to work today...David's b-day! I am reminded today of how blessed I am to have a wonderful Christian husband. It's also a bonus that he is incredibly romantic, loves to have fun, puts up with all my craziness! The other night we were having a heart to heart. I am pouring out my heart to him and he says, "I have NO idea what you are talking about! "...poor David. That is probably the story of his life. It wasn't funny at the time, but now it kinda makes me laugh.

Happy birthday...

...to the one I love!

Friday night football!

Kate and Mary Ellen enjoying the game..


This is not that great of a pic....but that is the only one Mary Ellen took of No. 44...
When we moved up here from SC 8 years ago, we really missed Friday night football. In the small town that we lived in, it was the social event of the week. Everyone went to the f-ball game. They always prayed before the beginning of each game (yes, this was public school in the south). The local pastors took turns praying before the game. When it was David's turn to pray, we would all get to go for free! :)....fun times. Well this past Friday night we got to go to a high school football game. Our school doesn't have a team. So one of our senior boys plays for another Christian school. It was so fun and made David a bit home sick...I love football season. Another reason I am excited for fall....

good friends

Today I had a visit from a good friend. We have known each other for almost nine years. She has been such a blessing to me. We met when we came up to candidate at Willowdale almost nine years ago. She and another good friend, Katie Martin, took me to Winterthur while David was being "entertained" by the elder board, staff, pastor and whoever... We hit it off from the beginning. In fact, we were having such good conversation over lunch that we didn't realize how time had gotten away from us. Good thing Katie was nursing or we would have been there way past our time limit! It is interesting to me that both Katie and Sarah have become such dear friends and that they were the first ones I met. Sarah has since moved out to Spokane, WA with her family for her husband to go to Moody's mission aviation school. They have been invited to join an organization that helps missionaries in the very remote places of Alaska. These places are only accessible by plane or boat. There are no roads. Paul is very skilled with his hands and now has his pilot's license. He has already been to some of these places this past summer to help work on a house of a missionary. Both Paul and Sarah have the gift of helps. We have been the recipient of it and have also enjoyed Sarah's wonderful gift of hospitality. It truly is an act of love. I always loved being in her home...so comfy and cozy. He finished our basement in our old house in West Grove, PA. We had a lot of compliments on it when our house was on the market. It is sooo good to look back and see how God has blessed us with dear friends. Sarah brought her kids with her today. My kids had a great time with them and we hope it isn't so long before we see each other again. I think Jonathan and Sam picked up right where they left off a few years ago. So once again, God manifested himself to me today through the gift of friendship...he gives good gifts!

God's grace...

Don't use change for your career, use your career for change.
---Sarah Palin
I liked that quote from her speech last night.
Another thing I read this morning that I didn't want to forget...changing the subject
"So God's grace isn't always comfortable because he isn't primarily working on our comfort; He's working on our character. With violent grace He will crush us because He loves us and is committed to our restoration, deliverance, and refinement. And that is something worth celebrating."
---Paul Tripp taken from "Whiter Than Snow" meditations on sin and mercy
This is referring to Ps 51:8

Palin power

I just finished watching Sarah Palin's speech! She rocks!! What a great speech! I can't go to sleep. I was in the middle of making lunches for tomorrow and ended up sitting down in the LR to watch the speech....might as well do lesson plans.