Making Memories

Today I’m grateful for
A vacation that can only be described as perfect.
We enjoyed:

• A week away from our normal schedule and routine
• Camping at Sam & Ruth’s 5 star backyard campground!
• Delicious food
• Great conversation
• Children getting to know their second cousins better
• A meaningful worship service
• A lovely river walk, beautiful scenery
• Campfire, black sky full of stars
• Rehearsing old memories
• Telling the children stories of their Dads when they were younger!
• Monday morning iced coffee
• 4 nights in the beautiful Adirondack mountains
• A fun filled campground
• A little boy fishing
• S’mores
• The satisfaction of completing a long hike
• A beautiful view of Lake George from the top of Prospect Mt.
• A cruise on the lake
• Watching Nicholas mini-golf for the first time.
• Campfire meals
• Ice cream on a hot afternoon
• Loving to learn about history, together, at Ft. Ticonderoga
• Blue lakes and blue skies
• Just being a family - together.

For this I am grateful, “Thank you, Father!”

Now it's time to get back to normal after a week long vacation, to face the challenges, the chores, the busyness of life, but I do feel refreshed and ready to start a new month - August.  I really do need to get serious about planning and preparing for the year ahead.  I have all of my curriculum I just need to spend some time at the computer making lesson plans, especially for my kindergartener!  He's excited and so am I.  I'll be using "Five in a Row" with him (a literature based unit study).  I used this with the girls and it was a very fun way to learn.  Nicholas is most excited about his math book.  I just hope that excitement about math lasts for the next 12  years!  So my mind will be focused on school prep whenever I have spare time over the next 3 weeks.

Yesterday I finished the book “Heaven is for Real.”  Wow, this is a “must-read.”  I’ve been pondering it all day.  I plan to read it aloud to the rest of the family starting tonight.  I’m so glad heaven is for real!  For those of you that have already read the book, you'll remember the little boy's constantly telling his parents that "Jesus loves children."  I was so challenged, and I hope, changed by that.  I want to love children (not just my own) but all children, the way Jesus does.  For some reason, the Lord keeps bringing children (and teenagers) into our home, we'll have an extra person at our table every evening this week.  My goal - to love them and to provide a place where they feel safe and secure!

The Best Days of our Lives

This morning I’m thinking about the journal I’ve begun - writing down 1000 things I’m thankful for.  I’m wondering why I’ve been too busy to take the time to write in the journal, berating myself.  I’ve been told  how to slow time down. Ann Voskamp in her book “One Thousand Gifts” tells me how.  Live in the moment, intentional gratitude, recognizing the blessings, thanking God for them.  That will slow time down, that will help me step off the treadmill of life.  Thank you Lord for a little boy who at bedtime snuggles close and asks for "one more chapter, Mom."  These are the moments I treasure.  Days and nights together as a family.  And they may well be the very best days of our lives, this period of time when the stress and fatigue of pregnancy and babyhood are behind us, and college and marriage, and moving away are in the future, these days when our children are between the ages of 5 and 16, still under our wings, and we are together as a family.  Perhaps these are the very best days of our lives, and I will savor each one, recognizing the blessings, the things I love, the everyday graces.

A weekend away together, relaxing
Tiger lilies growing by the roadside
Shrieks of laughter from children on a tire swing
A little boy splashing in the creek, catching little critters in his net
The sound of frogs croaking
Nature, and quiet, and peace
Mountain pies over the fire and s’mores
Sleeping late
Time to discuss our family’s life purpose, how God wants us to live and glorify Him
A daughter reading her Bible
Hiking One Thousand Steps
A garden growing
Healthy food to feed my family

As we hiked up one thousand steps I thought about my list of 1000 things to be thankful for.  That written list takes deliberate effort too just like our hike, deliberately putting one foot in front of the other till you reach the top.  And then the view, what a beautiful view from the top!

So I will take the time to continue my gratitude list.  I will live in the moment and savor today and all of it’s challenges, interruptions, the joy and the laughter all mixed up with the demands and irritations, all of it, life, now, thank you Lord!

The Ways We Change

How do I change?  Sometimes it's the influence of others, sometimes it's a sermon, 

or the conviction of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  Circumstances change us,

time changes us, we grow, we learn, we adjust.

Sometimes we resist change, other times we embrace it.

Books change me.  Some books inspire.

Some books entertain, some challenge,

and some change us.

Beth Moore's book, So Long, Insecurity, had a profound impact

on my life in the last  year.  Joanna Weaver's book, Having a Mary Spirit, also

changed me as did Nancy Lee DeMoss's book, Lies Women Believe.

And the latest "change" book I've read is Ann Voskamp's book,

One Thousand Gifts.

Because of her influence I'm about to embark on a journey,

a journey of thanksgiving,

thanking the Lord for 1000 things...

the things I love,

the everyday graces,

blessings.

I am thankful to my heavenly Father for...

1. a husband who prays
2. perfect spring mornings
3. early morning quietness
4. the smell of good coffee
5. strength to do my tasks
6. health
7. a new day
8. the Holy Spirit
9. grace - God's ability in my life
10. a book that challenges and changes me...  

Blessings, Marilyn