"Hey Mom, I Need to Show You Something..."

We are getting ready this morning to leave for the day and I hear words that as a mom can make you pause for a moment and say a little prayer. "Hey Mom, I need to show you something." I have to admit that there are times that those words have been followed by a not so pleasant revelation. You know what I mean. Kids will be kids and accidents will happen and dogs will eat the pizza right off of the kitchen counter. Anyways, I went with J3 in to the den to see whatever it was that he needed to show me and was amazed at what I found. He had taken these geometric shapes that I had ordered four years ago as part of a set of math manipulatives and had made the coolest design. In typical J3 fashion, he gave the most amazing explanation of what all the colors meant. I can't remember it all, but I do know that the yellow center represented God and the red represented Jesus. Not to take away from the deep spiritual truth of it all, but there was something mentioned about a wolf too. (I mean what is a good analogy with out some kind of wild animal!) He was excited that I wanted to take a picture of it and put it on the blog...so here it is. A soon came to see the design too and liked it so much that she and J3 worked together on the "We love nature" scene, which was also very creative and amazing!

While the boys are away...

These pics are from the weekend that J2 and J3 went to father/son. J2 had been give tickets to the baseball game and we were able to work it out at the last minute so that some long time, precious friends (who we don't get to see enough) could go with us! Let's all sing it together..."Take me out to the ballgame!"

Hope that my friend and fellow blogger, tresalejandros, can forgive me for posting pictures out of order by date!!!!

Whew!

Last week was a busy one...here are the highlights in a nutshell.

• Monday - Frantically gather books for sale. First swim team practice. Then off to the home school used book sale.
• Tuesday - Exercise. Practice for Summer Spectacular. Swim team. Go home and thaw kids. (the water was "slightly" cold). Off to Furman baseball game at West End Field. Fast food for dinner. Get free bike helmets, army baseball hats and enjoy good game and box seats.
• Wednesday - A gets braces. Chick-fil -a milkshakes for lunch...Isn't that a must after you get braces? A's hip hop dance class. Regular Chick-fil-a for dinner. Final regular rehearsal for church musical. J3's stomach hurts from too much fast food.
• Thursday - BMW Pro -Am golf tournament...LaLa (our nickname for my niece)went with us. Sewing class for A. Costco. Line dancing and body pump class.
• Friday - J2 heads to Ktown for golf with Pop. Strawberry picking. Meeting at church. Swim team. Thaw kids again. A sings at Relay for Life. Fuddruckers for dinner...now my stomach hurts from still too much fast food.
• Saturday - Dress rehearsal for church musical. Run to Target. Exercise. Fun night out downtown with great friends and wonderful husband.
• Sunday - At church for 9 of 12 hours. With a truly grand finale of the kid's musical. What a blessed time. It was precious and God was truly glorified!!

No wonder we are all tired!

Father/Son Weekend

J2 is becoming quite the outdoorsman/camper!! This past weekend he returned to Camp Highland to participate in the Father/Son weekend with J3. And from what I hear, they had a great time. While we experienced rain and thunderstorms throughout the weekend, they stayed dry and warm!! A big difference from Father/Daughter this year!

J3 managed to get the courage up to do the drop zone and according to the smile on his face in the pictures,I think he enjoyed it! His cousin, T, comes from the side of my family know for their risk taking and daredevil nature, did the drop zone strapped in backwards and flew like superman...wonder where he gets that from??

With the exception of a few bugs in the bed on night one which lead to two nights of father/son sharing of a twin bed, I think that the weekend was a hit and will definitely be a repeat occurance!

Thanks to my brother for doing such a great job in putting all those special weekends together. God is certainly using him to accomplish great things for His kingdom and to strength the bonds between fathers and their kids! Way to go, bro!!

A Message from J3

GOD CREATED THE EARTH!!

Pilgrims

About 10 years ago, I enrolled in a Bible study called Pilgrim's Pathway. It is an in depth bible study (similar to BSF). A was an infant and I had just become a stay at home mom. Looking back, I probably enrolled in it because I was looking for a social outlet more so than the life changing truth of God's word. Little did I know that God was going to use that study, those women and most of all his mighty and powerful Word to change me from the inside out. I am forever grateful for the opportunity to have been taught so much and humbly admit that the more I know about God's word, the more I realize I have yet to learn!!

This is our small group from this year's study. What a precious group of women that I had the pleasure of spending Wednesday mornings with. Their insight and honesty was a blessing each week.. we laughed, we cried, we scratched our heads as we tried to figure out the "right" answer...I am so thankful for the opportunity to be a part of such a wonderful ministry and pray that God will continue to use it to lead women into a stronger and more personal relationship with him. He is good!!

Lego Mania

J3 has discovered, as many kids before him, the wonderful world of legos. He received some of the kits as birthday gifts and has had tons of fun putting them together and then playing with them!