Family Fun Night -- Bowling!

Saturday was a fun day for us! We had a slow morning, just hanging around the house getting a few things done at our leisure. (Well, Chris was fixing his lawn mower with two kids watching over his shoulder, so maybe it wasn't so leisurely for him!)

After naps we went to Mammaw's house to see her new paint job and install a new outlet for her. (Again, Chris was working hard at least!)

I wanted us to do something fun that night, so we went bowling! The kids heard me mention it that morning and bugged me about it the rest of the day, wondering WHEN we were going bowling! Aaron told me over and over, "Well, bowling is fun, but it's not easy!"

The kids had a great time and we got to eat some bowling alley food!

How cute are these bowling shoes?




This is how Claire bowled:






Aaron was a bit more indepedent:


I'm surprised that lane didn't get a hole knocked in it!




And this is how Chris bowls:


I got to take a turn helping Claire


The final standings were:
Daddy, 1st, 136
Claire, 2nd, 85
Aaron, 3rd, 68
Nicole, 4th, 60

Yeah, I really suck! Good thing there is no picture of me bowling!



I promised Chris I would put this one on the Internet. :-)

Deception

I can hardly believe the deception that a 4-year old is capable of.

Aaron actually formulated a plan to get a treat that involved decieving Mommy and Daddy.

You see, he still wets at night, so he wears a pull-up to bed. We let him get a treat in the morning if his pull-up is dry. We don't make a big deal if it is wet.

Earlier this week he came into my bathroom after he woke up and said, "Let's go get my treat!" I looked at the designs on the front of his pull-up, indicating it was dry, and headed toward the kitchen. I looked into his bathroom and saw a wet pull-up on the floor with his pajama bottoms. Then it hit me--he got up, realized his pull-up was wet, so he changed into a clean pull-up instead of underwear like he normally does. I cannot believe he thought of that and actually did it! He wanted me to think the pull-up he had on was actually the one he had worn all night.

The next morning he came into my bathroom again, announcing it was treat time. Chris asked him if he had changed into a clean pull-up, and he wouldn't answer. I asked him, "Did you keep your pull-up dry last night?" and he said, "Don't ask that question!" He would not tell the lie--thank goodness. We went to his bathroom again, where I found his wet pull-up, again, and I had to explain to him that what he had done was a lie and he needs to tell Mommy and Daddy the truth.

I am not looking forward to more loss of innocence. Where did my little 5 lb baby go?

We've hired yard help...

He's a bit pint-sized, but do you think he'll do a decent job?


Chris had to show him the standard path around the yard...I figured yard boys knew this already.


He kept going the wrong direction...


He brought another pint-sized weed specialist. She sports that weed atop her head so you know what her job is.


She was great at getting very hands on with those weeds.


I think our yard boy wants to be in GQ magazine.


He takes good care of his equipment--I guess that's a good sign!


Attack of weed girl!


Sometimes weed girl takes a turn at the mower.


She would like to pose for a magazine too.


Our yard boy was trying to drum up business with the neighbor.


Time to wrap it up--yard well cut!

A brag on my Mommy!

This weekend my mom called to tell me she was being published! She is an awesome writer--although her profession is actually accounting (formerly restaurant management). I think she should write a book or at the least have a blog. She is an iVillage community leader for several food message boards, so I guess she just uses that as her writing outlet!

So back to her publication news...Apparently she was browsing the net one day and found an article asking for essay responses to the question "What do you LOVE about being over 50?" So she typed something up on her lunch break one day, submitted it, and lo and behold it was chosen for the AARP magazine fall publication!

She needed an updated portrait to submit for use with the article, so she came by my house after work one day so I could flex my new photography muscles and attempt a decent shot. We did our quickie photo shoot in my front yard while the kids made a mess with their dinner in the house. Mom is terribly worried about her wrinkles, but I assured her it is AARP magazine and she doesn't quite look like she's old enough to write for them!

Prayer Journaling

Today I'm participating in a blog carnival over on the blog Rocks in My Dryer. It's a weekly event called "Works for Me Wednesday"-- so this is my "works for me" tip!

I have always been a journaler. I loved keeping a diary when I was in middle school, although I don't remember WHAT I wrote in it. When I was in my mid-teens I started using a journal/diary to record my thoughts, particularly things I was learning in Scripture and things I was praying about. I also recording happenings of my day.

For some reason after I got married my journaling kinda fizzled out. Whatever the reason, I have one journal that has 4 years worth of entries--because I only journaled once every couple of months. It made me sad that I couldn't get back into the groove. I just wasn't very good about keeping my thoughts organized in prayer unless I was writing it down, so I knew that I needed to start journaling regularly again. Also, writing it down helped me think of things I wouldn't necessarily think about when my thoughts were jumping around so quickly in my head!!

Several months ago I attended a women's ministry event on prayer journaling. The speaker was an ordinary person--a bank teller, wife, empty-nester--who was just sharing what works for her with prayer journaling. That night we made cute little prayer journals, and I have been loosely following her method to get me back into journaling, and I have been loving it!

It starts with the word PRAISE as an ackronym - Praise, Repentance, Acknowledge, Intercession, Supplication, Exercise. In each of these steps, you just write out what you're thinking or saying to God. There is no perfect length--every step may be 1 sentence or 1 page depending on your day.

Praise - Talk to God about who He IS. Psalm 9 is a good place to start if you need some prompting on some things in God's character. I also printed myself a list of God's Names and some days I just pick one or two and reflect on that element of God's character.

Repentance - Once you have God's flawless character laid out on the table, you will inevitibly see areas of your life where you need forgiveness. Write to God about it, and ask him for forgiveness. Be specific. Ask God to reveal things to you.

Acknowledge - The easiest way to explain this step is with a fill-in sentence: "Because You are ______, I can be ________." Usually this sentence will be related to things you have written in the last two steps. "Because you are a forgiving God, I can be forgiviving to my friend." or "Because you are the Creator God, I can be confident you are in control."

Intercession - This is a big word the means "praying for others". We're all familiar with this one--pray for people who are sick, people who need guidance, people who are lost.

Supplication - This is praying for yourself. For your needs, questions, desires. Because you recognized God's character FIRST, your own needs just fall into place--you recognize that God is going to take care of you, and that maybe some of the things you thought you wanted are not necessary.

Exercise - This is where you say, "What now?" What do I do with what I have learned? Is there anything specific on which God wants me to take action?

I don't stick with this formula every day, because sometimes I just feel the need to brain dump. But it helps to keep my thoughts in a certain order--mainly, remembering WHO God is first and foremost.

It's neat to see how God speaks to me through my journaling. I'll be just writing things out, and as I'm writing something will become so clear! One day it was particularly evident when I sensed God was telling me to do something specific. I wrote out, "But God, I'm scared. What if I'm a total failure? I don't know if I can do this." The next thing I read was something to the effect of "Don't fear." (I wish I could remember the specifics, and I can't find this page in my journal! Too many pages to flip through!) There was no doubt that was God speaking directly to me--almost audibly! It gave me chills and I just thanked God for the gift of journaling so that I could hear his voice that way.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on how you commune with God!

Crazy Eights

Yesterday I taught Aaron how to play Crazy Eights. He loves to play games, and that one is fun and quick. Plus he got a new deck in a goody bag from a birthday party. The rest of the family was still napping so he and I had some quiet time together.

He immediately loved the game--especially when he had a "crazy 8" in his hand! He would get so excited when he got to play a crazy 8. He always saves his blue crazy 8 for last. He loves blue!

What melted my heart was when we were in the middle of a game and he said, "I wonder if Claire knows how to play Crazy Eights." That sweet boy loves his sister! Sure, Mommy can play with me--but how much more fun would this be if my sister could play??

So just a few minutes ago, before nap time, I got out the cards and let Claire and Aaron play a game. Claire did remarkably well. She was matching colors and even figured out which card to play by herself a couple of times. And Aaron loved playing a game with his sister. Sweet times!

Divine Interruptions

This morning I successfully rolled out of bed, got a shower, and got to have some quiet time with God before Aaron was up! Hooray! And I got just the Word I needed. My devotion today was titled "Divine Interruptions". The idea is that we can be going along in life with our own plans, but sometimes God has something different in mind so we need to be open to these "divine interruptions".

The last sentence of the devotion said, "The eternal value of serving God far outweighs the worldly value of completed tasks and achievements."

Wow. Talk about exactly what I needed to hear after yesterday's post about feeling so behind in everything I had to do!

Then it translated into application this morning. We got ready and headed out the door for the grocery store. The idea was to be home before 10 so I'd have time to unload the groceries, pack a quick lunch, and get us ready to go to the pool. We got home at 9:50 and while I was unloading the groceries the kids found some water sitting in a cooler in the garage and Claire proceeded to SIT in it. Fully clothed. So I got her changed into dry clothes, and finished packing lunch. I got everyone in the car and realized our little bag with pool toys and sunscreen was no where to be found. I scavenged the house, car, and garage for about 10 minutes looking for it. We couldn't go to the pool without sunscreen and floaties! I finally found the bag-- not sure how I missed it the whole time I was looking.

We got to the Y at 10:30, went to the dressing room and got changed. This is a production in itself--trying to get everyone in swim suits without letting anyone sit on the bathroom floor and trying to keep their hands off of everything. Got to the pool, got sunscreened up, and immediately the whining started. Aaron wanted to eat NOW. I gave him a granola bar to take to the picnic area, and while he was walking over there, half of the granola bar fell onto the ground. He cries any time his food breaks, so he let out this incredibly loud wail which caused the entire pool full of swimmers to turn to see the child who had busted his head open or broken his arm. "Nothing to see here, folks," I said, "Just a broken granola bar." What a drama king.

The water was fairly cold so Claire wanted nothing to do with it. She wanted her floaties on, then she wanted them off. She was mad because the skirt on her swimsuit got a little wet. Ugh, why do I even bother?? At this point they were both whining to go home, even though we had only been there about 20 minutes.

So we left, came home and ate our lunch, then had homemade snow cones for lunch. I think having some time to decompress this morning was just what I needed--instead of a long morning at the pool. As I type this the kids are laughing and playing the living room. I love the sound of them giggling and talking to each other.

What a sweet lesson I have learned today--God is in control of our days, no matter how much we try to plan. And sometimes His agenda is bigger than a morning at the pool or my long to-do list.

One tired little boy

Aaron had a hard day on Thursday. The kids are in "summer camp" (Mother's Day Out) on Thursdays, and often Aaron will not take a nap during naptime. When we got home this week they were watching a video and Aaron zonked out in the chair in the living room while I was cooking dinner. He had taken off his shirt when he got home because he got paint on it at school, and he even had some paint on his arm we had not washed off yet. Isn't he precious sleeping?



Check out those ribs!

In a funk...

I've been in a bit of a "funk" the last week. I can't really put my finger on what the problem has been, but I've just been in a very melancholy mood. I haven't been able to get excited about anything really, and I've just been in my own little world. I think I have mostly been overwhelmed by how behind I have felt in so many areas of my life.

First, the house feels like it is closing in on me! The latter part of the week I spent some concentrated time tackling piles. I am a piler! It drives me nuts so I can't figure out why I do it. I tackled a the microwave cart, the counter next to the garage door, the sofa table in the living room, our bedroom dresser, and my closet. Whew! I am embarassed to admit that I also just tackled a pile of the children's clothes which I had decided not to consign in the spring, either because it was too worn or stained or because I just decided I wanted to hang onto it. The pile of clothes has been on the bench in our bedroom since late February--how bad is that??? But now that I have tackled all of these piles, I have two bags of clothes to donate, and a pile of stuff to put in my "garage sale" box in the attic. I am feeling so much more put together!

I have also had trouble getting motivated to wake up earlier than the kids to spend time in the Word this week. Most days this week I just slept until they woke me up. My whole day feels behind when I do that, and I don't get any time to myself. My desire this week is to wake up before them 4 out of the 5 days this week! I'm thinking that my earlier organizing will give me a little boost so I don't feel quite so behind and I can sit with the Lord with less on my to-do list.

I also have a couple of things the Lord is telling me to do but I can't figure out exactly how to do them. One is to put together a women's Bible study for the summer. I'd like to have the group be a small group of women from all stages of life--I've come up with the name "Mixed Bag". But I can't figure out what book we should read, or who all to invite without hurting the feelings of others. I also can't figure out how to fit it into my schedule.

I am incredibly behind with work and it seems the more hours I work, the more projects I get, so the further behind I get. Not sure yet what to do about that!

So if you made it this far, thanks for reading. Just getting this off my chest feels good!

My first photography class!

Saturday I got to take my first photography class! It was for beginners with digital SLR cameras. It was very helpful to have been practicing shooting in "manual" mode the last couple of weeks--I had already gotten to know the settings and dials on my camera. I just needed some know-how on how to USE the settings!

The class was taught by a photographer in the area who focuses on architecture and industrial photography. The last year he has been photographing the gardens where the class was held. The only thing I wish I had learned more about was the nuances of taking portraits...since most of my pictures are of my children! I'm sure alot of that will come with practice.

We started the class in a classroom, looking at pictures on a screen, and getting some instruction about how to take a good picture. Then we went out in the gardens to take pictures.

This was my first picture out the door--I was pretty happy with how it turned out!


Another pic of the same flower...


Photographing the white flowers was challenging...you have to set the shutter speed just right to get the right amount of light in so you get details on the petals and leaves (not washed out), but so it's not too dark. If you look closely, you can see a little green worm on the petal!


It rained the night before the class, and I thought these leaves were pretty...


The garden we were in had these weird statues all around...


Playing with the depth of field here...I learned that the lower your aperture, the more the background will be "fuzzy". For lack of proper photography terms....


Pretty flowers...




Oooh...got better saturation on this shot!


A quick glance at what we all looked like taking pictures!


This statue was hard to photograph--the white statue with the dark greens around it made it hard to set the shutter speed right. The instructor said I did a good job on this one.


After the class I went to my grandma's house for lunch and practiced more. She has beautiful hydrangeas!






Grandma's lone rose...her roses are struggling this year.


I took this picture for the pretty bug!


Practicing when I got home...


My trumpet flowers...


Oooh...depth of field!


A snapshot of Chris talking to our neighbor:


We found a frog! He sat very still and posed for me.


Then Aaron picked him up!