a few things i'm lovin'

finally got this girl in her mamma's fail-safe hair-do. i couldn't handle the cuteness. and so you have to endure 3 pictures.

coffee on the deck. i just love outside. God makes good stuff, people. 

some time with the fam. parking at the very tippy top of the parking garage. and getting a few treats. 

keeping the kids occupied and oh-so-happy with a car wash.

and, finally, pumpkin pie in May. 

we have friends with whom we share a usual, not-on-the-date, thanksgiving dinner. and we had one. in may. and i made pumpkin pie. and it was delicious. a bit odd, perhaps, to smell cloves and cinnamon on the doorstep of summer, but delicious still. 

we are off to texas tomorrow. visiting my lovely parents. my sister is joining us. oh what a time we'll have. happy days to you.

nothing much

and it's monday again. i don't have much to say today. our weekend was quiet- nothing to report. friends all day, in various groups, on friday, jason fixed the leak in the bathtub on saturday and we were back and forth to church yesterday.

my mind is full of a few things:

-- i'm thinking about my study- faith and a continual believing in/of God

-- a little crib quilt i've started- needed cut more pieces

-- getting ready to fly to texas to see the folks and my sister, trying to figure out what needs to be done

-- finishing school with my little man- so few days left. what a journey this has been

-- why does making a delicious and nutritious lunch stump me so many days?



blessings on your weeks' beginnings.

field day

i'm sure that whatever your kids do for school, things are winding for you. we are counting down the days on our little sticker chart- 8 school days left for us. and today is the last day of math. i've already heard about that fact 4 times (5 since starting this post) this morning. the last day of math, people. worth celebrating.

some homeschooling mom friends of mine put together a little field day to mark the closing of the school year. we were invited. i asked samuel if that sounded like something he'd like to do. he was immediately excited.

and then i started to panic. see, my kid isn't the most coordinated kid on the block. he still can't ride a bike with training wheels. he's never been very fast. and he gets very frustrated when he can't do things that he really wants to do.

also-- i remember field day when i was in school. i dreaded it. i couldn't handle the pressure. i wasn't good at it. didn't like it.

so i went in to field day with some seriously low expectations. and a pact with my kid that if he wasn't having a good time, he would tell me and we could leave.



as the first race began, i stood at the end to help kids with the race's task. my kid ran to me and as he got closer, his face fell. and by the time he reached me, he was crying. "i can't do it, mom!"

we spoke a few words, tried a couple of things and he made it.

same thing happened during the 3rd race.

the 4th race was okay.

and before i knew it.



i had a field day kid.



proud and excited. thrilled with his successes. bursting to tell his daddy all that he had done- how he hadn't dropped the golf ball off of the spoon and his team had won the tug-of-war.

these expectations of mine. they get me in trouble almost every time. i almost missed a great day with my kid because i thought i knew what he was capable of. he is full of surprises, folks. chock full of them.

seasons

we are doing our best to embrace the season around us.

dinner outside as much as possible.





dirt. rain. mud. and lots of play.





and a field day



(more on this later)

we're going to try to take at least one walk a day- i don't always get out there, friends. even though i want to.

more eating outside. more reading outside. before the heat covers us in the summer-humid blanket it so often brings along, we are trying to get outside.

what are you doing to enjoy the season- this almost-summer, not-quite interlude from spring?

faith and righteousness

happy monday all.

our weekend was filled with a lot of lovely nothing. jason taught us how to do a loon call for a bout 45 minutes. there was baking, rain and cuddling under covers.

we talked of the coming weeks and months. thought about the 11 days of school we have left and what the next school year might hold.

but what is really occupying my mind is a new study i started. i'm afraid some of my friends might be (or soon will be) sick of hearing about it. but i'm just that excited about it.

my sisters and i have started Beth Moore's Believing God study, and i am hooked. i am almost finished with week 2 and already have so much to think on and have felt a fresh wind blow through.

one thought:

my righteous (good, positive, etc) acts- the good things i do- are not seen by God as good or righteous. all the good i do is still filled with so much of my own garbage that they are filthy rags.

BUT my faith- just faith- is seen by my Father as goodness- righteousness. before Abraham obeyed so many of God's commands, he was counted as righteous. because of his faith.

this thought is blowing me away. somehow my faith=righteousness.

Jesus is awesome, people. He just is.

a little Sabbath

i have a small job that takes up a lot of my sundays. and one sunday a year, our church has an outdoor service and i have the day off. 

so after worship, we went home. fast. and made a summer feast of cheeseburgers, watermelon, potato chips and corn on the cob. 

and then we did nothing. absolutely nothing. we read books, napped, cuddled, and ate popcorn for dinner. 

i don't have any pictures, really, because, well, i was doing nothing. 

in the evening, jason set up a tent in the yard. the boys were camping out. it was the best kind of fun. 

the kids wanted to go to bed at about 6:30. we sat in the tent while jason and samuel told stories. 

the sun eventually set, and everyone ended up in their beds. it felt like a true Sabbath, friends. something i need more than i know. something i don't make space for. something i don't prioritize. oh, He was so wise in telling us we needed this. i need to make this. my family needs this. rest. peace. Sabbath. 

baptism

yesterday was our church's annual outdoor service. a chance for our, normally, 3 services to come together in one giant mass of umbrellas, sunglasses, babies and sunshine. for one purpose: worship.



it is just fabulous. kids everywhere. people holding babies that aren't their own.





and one of the best things God invented: baptism.



a death, a new life. the symbolic washing clean. emerging from the tub. soaked and washed. this is a symbol- a declaration to the world that this individual belongs to Christ. Saving faith is their testimony. and the dunking and lifting is their shout. telling all who will hear-- Jesus saves. He saved me.

beyond glorious. what rich gifts we have, friends. a faith that saves. faith that is counted as righteousness. insane gifts.

grandma

while in minnesota, we got to have lunch with my grandma. now, i'm sure your grandma is nice and everything, but... my grandma is the best.



she made pork chops and mashed potatoes for lunch on a thursday.



and i sat at her table, looking at some of the same wall hangings i've seen since i was a pig-tailed girl. how quickly i felt small again. sitting next to my grandma. i felt like a girl. eating her pork chops on the plates i know so well.

my babies now get to share in the joy. the mashed potatoes. and strawberry shortcake for dessert. bowls piled equally high for all of us. my little ones' cakes swimming in whipped cream and sugared berries.





strange how the push and pull of age makes you feel so many things at once. i felt small and needy- gratefully receiving my grandma's care and attention. then remembered i was responsible for the little people calling "mama" and the phone that beeped.

my grandma is full of wisdom and kindess. she is quick to pat my hand and look into my eyes and deliver truth. she has the softest, warmest cheeks that make for the perfect hug. and i miss her so.

i'm telling you-- she's the best there is.

catch up

hello there. our week in mn was so full of... so much. good stuff. glad to be home.

the thought of filling you in succinctly on our lives for the past days seems overwhelming. so here are a few snippets.

we have had baby mockingbirds in our hedge. it has been magical.

we saw them as little teeny ones and one morning, samuel came running back into the house declaring that, "the babies aren't in their nest!!"

we got to watch them stumble around the hedge and the yard. learning how to use those little wings. 

i'm telling you-- magic.

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i love this little girl and her clothing choices. this ensemble was for playing in the rain.

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i made jam. 

i had envisioned a whole lovely post about this, but the day we made jam, we got the call that Jason's grandfather had passed, so the jam was quietly put up and the suitcases got packed. this is the only picture i have. but i loved it and i'm going to do it again. you'll probably hear about it then.

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and we had adventure in minnesota.

nothing like going home. even when you don't have a technical "home" there anymore. the streets are, for the most part, the same. the same row of lilac bushes i remember smelling every spring. the same drives and restaurants. 

and there are always new memories made. every time. 

fabulous. 

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and that's about all i have for today. 

working on some new pieces for a show this friday. if you're in Greenville, stop by the Flatiron Building from 6-9pm. i'd love to see you.