i can hear Jesus in your heart

My goodness, we've been super busy
since returning from vacation!

But late last night it struck me that my last post
may have left you a tad worried.

So, lest you think that I did in fact push my beloved darlings
into the fountain,
don't fret....we all survived the trip and car ride home
quite peacefully.
Relatively speaking.

We really did have a fun time, stayed in a great hotel,
and enjoyed running ourselves ragged and relaxed a little.
Not near enough of the latter.

Sad to let go of care-free living but happy to be home.

*~*~*~*~*~*

Last night after a day of working in the yard,
catching up on all the chores that didn't take care of themselves
while we were gone,

Lucy decided that her dad needed a check-up.
She got her Dr.'s kit out and told him she needed to check his heart.

She listened carefully with her stethoscope
and quickly said,

"Daddy, I can hear Jesus in your heart!"



Super sweet.

homeward bound

Well, we will head back home tomorrow.

I'm sad/ecstatic that our vacation is coming to an end.
I love not having the cares of my regular routine...
but I'm really ready to get back,
to my regular routine.

And besides that,
I'm just going to be real with you here...
these kids are driving me crazy.

There, I said it.

Here is a lovely view from our hotel balcony.
It was such fun having great shopping just outside our
door.

Not sure why I took a pic of a shrub...

Oh yes.
I remember now.
There was this incredibly cute Chinese jumping bean
bouncing up and down behind it!

We had some great fun at the pool.
Especially Lucy.

And Nick soaked up the rays.
Though it was an indoor pool so he didn't gain
much color.
But don't burst his bubble, OK?

And it was this very picture that led me to
seriously want to push all four of these kids into this
very fountain.
They were being such brats.
I sure hope my social worker isn't reading this.

And if the last forced photo didn't do me in,
the next two did, for sure.

*No, she isn't laughing, trust me*

Yes,
I'm ready for my life to resume as usual.

Boring, mundane, and predictable.

Ahhhhh, that sounds nice.

lucy joy and me

Today was quite the interesting day.
It actually started last night when Nick and Brenden's golf coach,
who was here for a tournament and happened to be staying in our
hotel, called the boys to invite them join them for a ceremony celebrating the life of
Payne Stewart, an amazing Christian professional golfer.
They met some wonderful golfers and even got some books signed.
THEN,
Nick was invited to play in the Payne Stewart Cup!!
And guess what?
He (they) got SECOND Place!!
It was actually a 'best ball' tournament.
Nick was paired up with a 65 year old guy from San Diego.
He won a Ping putter!

Sadly,
no pics from that.

Nick assures me that the course was incredibly wonderful!

So since we were minus one young fella at the park,
K-man, Brenden and Macy decided to tour
the Marvel Cave.
So Lucy and I had some serious mother daughter time.

First it was the Lady Bug ride.
A two thumbs up from Lucy-bug.

Then the butterfly ride,
which is completely different from the ladybug ride.
Actually, it's the same but don't tell her that.

And like any great shopper-girl,
she found this fabulous hat that she HAD to have.
But, didn't get it.
I'm mean, I know.

My Lucy Joy and me.
We had a lovely time together, just the two of us!

one million arrows

Will the world change our children...or will our children change the world? Time is short and lives are at stake. Right now, God is inviting our families to become part of a bigger story—a vision that will engage hearts to make a radical difference. One Million Arrows is an inspirational call to raise our kids to impact their culture, community, and world for Christ. If we want our kids to discover their purpose, if we want them to live with passion for the Kingdom, if we want our family to go down in His-Story, accept the mission...and leave a mark for eternity.


Recently I was asked to read and review the book, One Million Arrows, by Julie Ferwerda. I eagerly agreed because, well, I love a good book and it sounded intriguing as my husband and I are in the midst of raising our family and can use all the help we can get, quite frankly.

As I turned each page, it left me really wishing I had read it about 15 years ago but it also gave me hope that the principles can start being applied now, even as my big kids have almost reached adulthood.

This book is about raising our children, not to be happy or reach success as the world sees fit, but to serve the Lord whole-heartedly which brings joy and eternal significance no other way.

Whether you are in the thick of parenting now or there are children whose lives God has called you to make a difference in, it is my challenge to you to invest in this well-written, Scripture-based book and see how God wants to use YOU to sharpen the arrows He has placed in your life.

Swing on over to Amazon and pick yourself up a copy! You will be blessed, I promise!

dodging lightning in flip flops

Not many pictures today because...

Did I just feel a drop on my head?

We had a torrential downfall at SDC and it never stopped so
we finally left.

*Imagine me running through the amusement park,
dodging lightning strikes....in flip flops,
all while making a plan in my head on how I'll salvage my hair for the day*

It was disappointing but there's just something very
exciting about a big ol' thunderstorm!

So, rainy outside leads straight to dining and shopping.

As the weather let up we walked down to the river
for some pics...

You can tell by Nick's hair how humid it is!
Sorry, Nick.

Then the shopping resumed
and Lucy found a thing or 15 she wanted to buy,
including this fabulous new ride.
By your 4th child you tend to learn what is fun and exciting
in the store but will be yesterday's news
once it arrives home.
Needless to say, this little filly stayed at the store.

Then we went *home*.

Night, night!

operation fun vacation

Our vacation is going fabulously!

I'll give you a quick run-down...

Here are the boys as we stopped for lunch en route...
their non-cooperative attitudes did not
set a good tone with me.
But I assure you, things did get better.

Driving, driving, driving.

Finally.
We made it!


Today we went to Silver Dollar City.
I gotta tell ya, this is one of my all-time favorite
amusement parks.

Lucy and me on our first ride together!

Macy and the boys on their second ride of the day.
This was a doozy!
Look at Macy's face.
Priceless.

Aren't my two middles cute?!

I love these next two pics!

An American classic,
the Tea Cups.

This ride, though innocently looking...
terrified us all.
Especially Lucy.
And the boy who barfed.
Not one of my boys, thankfully!

A FUN, very long, and HOT day.

The End!

macy's recital

I am literally trying to gather myself and stuff together
for our road trip as I write this!
We're leaving for our vacatuion in just a little bit!
Branson, baby!

But I had to take just half a second to tell you that
Macy did BEAUTIFULLY at her
piano recital yesterday!!!

It was held at the home where she takes her lessons,
which was great because it was familiar to her.
Although I don't think that made her one ounce less nervous!

Isn't she cute?!

We took a video of it but our cord to post it to our computer
is MIA.

But trust me,
she played wonderfully and we are so very proud of her!!!

When we got home,
she was literally hopping around the kitchen.
I'm talkin', jumping for distance.

I just cracked up.

This is sooooo not like our girl!
Typical behavior of most kiddos, but not this one.

So apparently she was super relieved to have the recital behind
her that it literally gave her a spring in her step,
and a huge boost in her confidence.

Thank you, Lord!!

big weekend

Well, I don't have much to say.

And don't have a single pic to share with you.

Sad.

But I have a little window of time to write something so
I'll just ramble on a bit,
you can leave me a pleasant little comment,
then we can all get on with our day.

We've got a big weekend!

You'll never guess in a zillion years what our sweet, SHY Macy
is doing today!!

You don't have a clue do you??

Didn't think so.

Our brave girl is going to be in her very first piano recital tonight!!!

She just started lessons a few months ago
and has amazing talent!!
And tonight at 6:30 she gets to share it with the world!
Well, with a handful of parents anyway.

She's had a really bad cold the last couple of days so
please pray that she feels better and plays her very best.

Oh and if you've been around here a while, you know that Brenden
WAS taking lessons but ummm, gave them up. Grrrr.

THEN,
bright and early tomorrow morning we are going on
our premiere vacation as a family of 6!

I'm super excited!!

And Macy is too.
She is going to ride on her very first roller coaster!
Again, our shy girl surprises us by
being really eager to jump on board.

Pictures WILL be happenin'.

So,
that's it for now.
I'll do my very bestest to blog while we vaca, OK?

and he continues to wait...

Look at this darling girl!!

My friend Leah and her husband just adopted her.
Her name is Abbey
and she is one of Macy's friends.
We simply can't wait to see these two girls reunited!

This picture was taken when they visited the orphanage
after their adoption was finalized last week.

But what I'd really like you to take notice of is
the sweet boy in the background.

He is the only older child, out of 30+ kids in the Journey of Hope Project,
that still doesn't have a family coming for him.

He has heard nearly all his friends receive news of
a family coming for them.

He's watched so many other kids eagerly open care packages.

And, as you see in the picture above,
he's witnessed child after child walk out of the orphanage,
once and for all,
with their forever families.

And he continues to wait.

Older child adoption isn't easy.
Sometimes, it's downright HARD.

But really,
is it fair that any of us should have it easy
when this boy just wants a home to call his own?

If you feel God possibly calling you to adopt this boy,
please email me or contact WACAP.

And I would love it if all of you would join me
in praying for him!


UPDATE:
After much prayer, it turns out that WE are
this sweet boy boy's family!

lucy burrito {egg roll}

Last night Nick wanted to make a burrito.

A Lucy burrito.

Or perhaps it was more of an egg roll.

Whatever it was,
ummm,
she was NOT happy about it.

And in the all too common dramatic-Lucy fashion,
she made sure we all knew her unhappiness
about this appitizer-ish activity.

How dare he??!!

Then Nick showed her how it's done.
And all the *fun* to be had.

She wasn't all that convinced.

white box mystery {solved}

I'm so very sorry to have let you linger in the mystery
of my last post.
It truly wasn't my intent to leave you hanging like that.

Or was it?

Anyway.

Some of your guesses made me laugh.

Are swim suits really that scary?
Latin?

Ugh.

But the white box was in fact....a dissection kit.

Gross.

To end a successful year of biology.

Here is how we spent our Monday evening:

A worm.

A crayfish.

A frog.

A fish.

Ewww, ewww, ewww.

I can't tell you how very happy I was that the principal
stepped in to take on this task.

He was squeemish-less.
He actually knew parts.
He knew how to work a scalpel like nobody's business.

Ummm, why aren't I living the life of a doctor's wife right now?

Perhaps it's not too late if I enroll him in med school
next fall.

I digress.

Anyway,
Nick is determined more than ever to pursue his
career in golfing.

And we have officially fulfilled our labs for this year
of homeschooling.

YAY!!!

**Just so you know, I spared you the detailed pics.**
You're welcome.

Now I'll leave you with a love photo of my girls
who watched with wide eyes the entire dissection process.
They were much braver than I was,
I'll tell ya that right now.

it's gonna happen

One day, next week.

It's gonna happen.

It must.

It simply must.


Do you see that white box on our book shelves??
The one under the Scrabble box?

Gasp!!

Ummm, yeah.

It's a little somethin-somethin' I ordered a couple months ago.
Paid darn good money for it, in fact.
It was delivered, I opened it (grimaced) and just as quickly,
closed the box and stowed it away.

But the school year is almost over (thank you, Lord)
and we simply must face its contents.

Believe me,
I'll be blogging more about that,
once it happens.

But for now, I simply can't talk about it.


Heeheehee.

I'm sure a good number of ya'll know what I'm talkin' about.

a big day yesterday

Sorry about another golf post.
To those who don't play,
it is extremely boring, I'm sure.

But it's the big news around our parts and since
grandparents and great-grandparents
read my blog,
I gotta milk it, folks!

This was a two day tournament and the first day
was COLD and RAINY.
But they played anyway.
The team stayed all night together w/ their coach
so the next day, the boys had to either play in their soggy golf shoes or....

Play barefoot.
Yes, Brenden played barefoot.
And loved every second of it.

And as for Nick...
the only dry shoes he had with him
were his basketball shoes.
And to add to the look,
he also wore his basketball socks.
Nice.
I have a feeling this will be his new look
being that he won and all.
*This was the winning putt on the 18th. Woo!

And here is the big winner and me
right after that great round.

*~*~*~*~*~*

But also yesterday,
we started a new women's bible study at our church.
I just love my little group of gals!!
They are the best!
We laugh a ton and thoroughly enjoy digging into
the Word together.

So ladies,
here is what I promised:
Do your homework...EVERYDAY!
And JUDY, I'm talkin' to you, girl!
Heehee.
Next time I'm posting a pic.
;)