Outdoor Water Play

We spent this weekend at my parents house to celebrate my dad's birthday. The kids always get alot of outside play when we're here. It is so nice. Yesterday, the hose was turned on for Heidi and she spent quite a bit of time playing with it and filling up buckets. Of course, once the boys saw the water, they had to join her. Mom and Dad's plants got lots of watering yesterday!

Baptism

Liam was baptized last Sunday evening at church. Jon went in with him. What a special time. We also gave him a full size Bible with his name printed on the cover.

We have a voucher for a video, so I am looking forward to getting that!

Beyond

It's Five Minute Friday time!!!! This weeks word is Beyond.

Beyond. My first thought is "beyond this life". The life to come is so unknown. Yes, when we believe in Jesus there are certain unchangable truths. Someday we WILL be with Him.  Someday we will not have to live by faith because someday God WILL be a presence we can feel, touch, experience. Revelation says that God will wipe every tear from our eye. Someday we WILL live in peace and wholeness and joy. And yet, while we live here and now, it remains Someday. Beyond the here and now. Beyond what we can see. And there are so many unknowns about the Beyond. And I think even with the truths and assurances we have, the unknowns can still be scary. I can trust that I will live in peace and wholeness and joy, but I still wonder what it will be like. What will it be like to experience a place where God IS the light? What will it be like to see Jesus face to face? What will it be like to have every innermost thought brought forth for all to see? It can be a little daunting and yet.....and yet it can be so thrilling too.

Craft Day

I have been wanting to schedule a Craft Day forever. I finally got one scheduled and today was the day. Sadly only Jessie was able to come, but I had so much fun that I am planning to do more---every two weeks or every month or so.
We did a couple of paper crafts using my plethora of scrap-booking materials and it really was fun. Here are all of our finished projects:

Here's my first. It's a house number door plate for our front door. Before was just boring old number stickers on the door. I like this much better (hearts are for privacy):

And this is Jessie's first craft, a poster for Allan (star bursts are for privacy):

For our next craft, we did the same thing, a flower petal craft based on this web site post. It was so much fun, I want to do another......Jon even wants to make one!!!! I want to try it with fabric too.....

PS...a huge thank you to my husband for letting me use his Iphone to take the pictures of my crafts. I have not been able to locate my missing camera charger yet...boo hoo. And thank you to Jessie for taking pictures of hers.

Five Minute Friday

This week's Five Minute Friday word is Enough. Here's my five minutes:

enough. that's the key word this week. Enough.
It can mean so many things. Like.....having had enough. Being frustrated with some part or portion of life. Or being enough, which in itself can have many connotations. Am I being good enough as a mom, wife, friend? Is a big question that pops itself into my head every so often.
DOING enough.......oh such guilt can be tied up in that!!!
And then, there's the enough that is contentment.
I have enough. Enough food, enough clothes, enough house, enough. 
I have enough. I am enough. God is enough. I like that way of using enough much better than making it a question. When it's a statement, not a question....that is when "Enough" is right.


....Limiting myself to only 5 minutes is a bit of a challenge. But fun too! Feel free to join in---the link's above!

Fun In The Tub

I lost my camera battery charger a couple months ago, and there's no way to get the pictures off Liam's camera without a special cord, which I do not have, so pictures are scarce right now. But I plugged the SD card from my camera (Liam's is a weird size and doesn't fit in the slot----believe me, I've tried a half dozen times) and found a cute set of pictures from.....the end of May.

If I remember right, the kids had been pretty squirrely....and I had needed something to keep them busy for a bit and needed it fast.

So, I got them all in their swim attire, filled up the tub and let them at it. It was pretty cute....

Story

So, I was recently "introduced" to Lisa-Jo of Tales of A Gypsy Mama through another blog I read often and she is such an encouragement to me! A God-sent blessing to me in so many ways. I've "known" her for maybe a week and I already love her.
Anyway, she does this thing on her blog called Five Minute Friday where she gives a subject, usually just a word from what I've seen, and people are supposed to write about the subject for 5 minutes. And then post it. Unedited...unscripted....in other words......Raw.

When I first found her last week I thought it was a fabulous idea. This week, I am joining in. Not sure I'll make it every week, but I will try.

This week's subject is: "Story". Here's what came out.....

Story

I used to write stories. When I was a teen ager I wrote and wrote and wrote.

Now I hardly ever write….fiction. Oh, I blog occasionally, but it seems to happen less and less.

The stories still swirl around in my head. Usually at night….when I can’t sleep. That’s when I let them out. Let myself dream a little and bring a fictional reality to light.

And it’s fun. I like making up worlds and characters and lives that have little to nothing to do with the one I live every day. I like using names I would never name anyone in real life, putting together a character I would never be…..

My stories are an extension of me…..of my thoughts and feelings, some of my dreams and aspirations. Sometimes they are just fancy. They are always entertaining.

I should write more. If only to let out some of these stories swirling around in my head. But I seem to always begin and never end a story these days. I never seem to be able to get to the point of “the end”.