Welcoming the mud...

...or stone dust.

Each month our church's Sunday bulletin includes the Focus on the Family Bulletin insert.  One of the story's from this past weekend, really hit home for me.

Welcoming the Mud

  "A farmer's wife once spent the day cooking to surprise her husband with his favorite meal.  With her friend's help, she scrubbed the kitchen till it shined and donned a new dress.  Candlelight flickered from tall tapers on the table.
  Her husband tramped in, weary from a hard day in the fields.  Large clumps of mud fell from his boots onto the freshly mopped floor as he crossed to the sink before removing the boots.
  Ready to leave, the friend turned to the wife and whispered in disgust, "Ugh!  Look at all that mud!" 
  The wife smiled.  "Yes, his boots bring the mud in, but they bring him in, too."  -Cindy Sigler Dagnan

This morning, as I walked across the kitchen floor, I felt bits of dirt under my bare feet.  I looked down and the light grey clumps of dirt confirmed that my hubby had walked across the kitchen floor, with his boots on this morning, rather than heading out through the garage.

It might be easy to angry or agitated, but I had to think back to this story.  I welcome the compacted little bits of stone dust, knowing that my husband was home all night and headed off to work planning to see us again, at suppertime.

Yes, his boots bring in the stone dust, but they bring him in, too!

Where has summer gone?

I cannot believe we are more than halfway through July.  UGH!  Summer always goes by too quickly.

This is VBS week at our church.  That makes this week go by so quickly - if I don't post about it now, it'll be gone before I do!

The kids are all having a blast and loving their classes.  I'm enjoying teaching 1st grade - because they'll be my Sunday school students when they enter 2nd grade this fall.  We're doing Gospel Light's SonQuest Rainforest theme. 

Once this week is over - July will almost be over!  EEeekk!!

1 happy lil' girl!!

See this face? 

She is just like her momma - she is not a morning person!  But, when I went into her room at 5:30 am this past Saturday, she got out of bed quicker than we've ever seen.

Why?

She knew that just the two of us were going to have a very special date - she just didn't know when.  We headed to the beach for a day with some friends (and wished some more could have made the trip as well!)

note: Elle is not the youngest in this picture!  Just the shortest! ;-)

We swam.  Played in the sand.  Jumped waves.  Shopped on the boardwalk! ;) Ate Mack & Manco's pizza - YUM!

It was a very fun one-on-one date with my peanut!

What's Cooking?

In our attempt to keep eating healthy, I have two more recipes to share with you.

This first one, Feta-Stuffed Chicken, is one I've posted about before on my cooking blog, but I did a few things to it this time to make it more kid-friendly.  Basically, I didn't add the walnuts and replaced the spinach with broccoli.  It was a hit.  Especially since we had our first helping of home grown corn on the cob with it! :)  Thanks Grandma & Grandpa!

The second recipe is found at eatingwell.com.  If you've never visited this site, go now ... run!  I'll wait! ;-D  There are a ton of great recipes found here.

Shrimp and Pesto Pasta is YUMMY!  The first time we made this, we used chicken and broccoli in place of the shrimp and asparagus - but I plan to make this again soon with the 'called-for' ingredients!

What are your favorite sites to get healthy recipes?

Wordless Wednesday

Weekend Recap and a Winner!

After a long day of having intermittent internet service (GRRRR!!!) I can finally post!

We had a really wet great weekend.

Thursday evening, with both vehicles packed, we headed about 35 minutes north to our favorite campground.  T helped me get the tent set up and all other necessities set as he was heading back home to work on Friday.  It would just be me and the kids until he returned 19 hours later.

Thankfully, the bee sting I got while setting up the tent didn't set the tone for the weekend. ;-D

It was H-O-T Thursday evening but the kiddos were tired from excitement and we drifted off to sleep rather quickly calmed by the sound of the fan in our tent.

On Friday, the kids and I spent the day playing at the playground, visiting with a few other families that had arrived early, went swimming, fishing, boating and painting.

Early Friday - before the other campers arrive. 

We were excited when Daddy arrived later in the day and we spent the rest of the evening visiting.  We went to bed, noticing 2 small stars in the sky - now, we wonder if it was our imagination.

We awoke after midnight (the kids slept through EVERYTHING) to rain.  The Lord was watching over us because through the rain, there was no wind with the storm and very little thunder and lightning.  We remained dry - others did not fare so well. :(

I pressed the light on my birthday present to see the time and was happily surprised when I found a cute little graphic on it for me!

It was still raining as we crawled out of the tent, so we decided to go out for breakfast, since we didn't have a tent over our food and making pancakes on the griddle in the rain didn't sound fun to anyone!  T's parents are on the site right next to ours, so they joined us for breakfast at the nearby truck stop!  My hubby treated, telling me it was my birthday treat... sigh!!! ;-D 



It rained on and off for a good bit of the day.  We decided to try fishing in the afternoon, and as we walked there, T said, "Watch it start pouring again as soon as we get to the pond."  And guess what??





The skies cleared and the sun came out in the afternoon, just before supper.  Some good friends invited us down to their campsite to have my second birthday meal of the day - Thanks Anne - I was so glad the truck stop breakfast wasn't my only "treat" of the day! ;-)

Sunday morning was cooler and things began to dry out.  And we could make pancakes!!

Flipping the tent to help the bottom dry!

I didn't grow up camping, but it has been something I now look forward to every summer.  And heading up the extra night was totally worth it - we hope to do that again next year!  Lots of fun memories made with some great friends!!!

And now, for our winner!!!

I numbered the "valid" comments in order and then went to random.org.  The number it selected was:

#8 - GINGER!!! 

She posted on her blog and on facebook and brought 8 more people here - putting her name in a total of 9 times!  LOL!!!  I'll be sure to get your info to CSN and have that $60 prize on its way to you!!! 

Thanks to each and everyone of you that celebrated with me!  It was a wonderful birthday!  And thanks to CSN Stores!

Celebrate with me!

Someone's having a birthday!!

I'll turn 35 on Saturday and the fine people at CSN Stores want to help me celebrate.  I get to choose one lucky commenter (on this post) to receive a $60 *SIXTY DOLLAR* gift certificate to use at any of their over 200 online stores - where you can find everything from cookware to cribs or even your most specific needs such as a bathroom vanity or a bird cage!


I'll be choosing a winner Monday, July 12.  So no entries after 11:59pm, on Sunday, July 11.  Only one comment per person will be entered into the drawing (sorry JM and G!) 


BUT, if you blog about it, tweet it, or facebook it and someone comments telling me that you sent them here, you'll receive an additional entry for each person!!!


So, what am I doing for my birthday?  Well, we have some plans to spend a lot of time outdoors this weekend.  While we desperately need rain  -  I'm hoping the predicted storms don't make too much of a dent in our plans.


So, I'm off to enjoy some wonderful time with my church friends and family!  All you need to do is enjoy the A/C for me and leave a comment below - and then go blog, tweet or facebook it! :-D

Triplets!

Elle - with her twin cousins (age 4).  This year at co-op, they will be in the same class (It's a split Kdg/Pre-K class).  We were at their house on Saturday to swim and watch the town's fireworks - which are put off right behind their house. 

We've been swimming everyday since.  We bought a pool membership this week - it is supposed to be 100 today.  I think this may have been our best decision .... EVER!

Elle and Quintin are finishing up their swimming lessons today and boy what a difference those classes have made.  Even Colin is beginning to enjoy the water a little more every day. 

We have a weekend of camping coming up and in a few short weeks, we'll be headed to the beach.  This summer is certainly flying by.

"Someone" has a birthday this weekend too - so check back tomorrow for a birthday giveaway!

That's all from here - how has your summer been?

More of You and less of me.

When this song cycled through my iPod 2 months ago, it grabbed me like I had never listened to it before.

(If it starts/stops a lot on your computer - let it play through and walk away, come back in a few minutes and then it will be loaded and should play straight through.)

I think so often, we forget - or don't want to realize - we need to be emptied.  We've gone along in our Christian lives -  happy go lucky - and when everything is good, we figure we're doing it all right.  But, God desires so much more for our lives.  No matter how long you've been a Christian - there is always more junk to get rid of.   I want Jesus to empty me and fill me with more of Him!

Holy Fire burn away,

my desire for anything

that is not of you and is of me.

I want more of you and less of me.

Holy Fire burn away,

my desire for anything

that is not of you and is of me,

I want more of you and less of me, yeah.

Empty me,

Empty me, yeah,

Fill, won't you fill me,

with you, with you, yeah.

Holy Fire, burn away,

my desire for anything

that is not of you and is of me.

I want more of you and less of me, yeah.

Empty me,

Empty me, yeah.

Fill, won't you fill me, with you, with you, empty me now.

Well won't you empty me, well won't you empty me now. repeat x2

I want more, I want more, I want more of you, Jesus.

I want more, I want more, oh.

Thank you, Jesus.

Thank you, Jesus, oh yeah,

Thank you, Jesus, yeah.

Holy Fire, Holy Fire, Holy Fire, Holy Fire.