Quote for the day.

"God's work done in God's way will never lack God's supply."
~Hudson Taylor

Whew.

It can be a bit of work to change one's blog around! What do you think??

Great verse

"Wisdom begins with respect for the LORD. And understanding begins with knowing God, the Holy One. "
~Proverbs 9:10

Family Update Friday, after the fact, 2

A few recent pictures of Joel as well!
Keep an eye out, I will be making it my mission in life over the next few days to get a picture of those two new teeth!

So happy!

Family Update Friday, after the fact

An exciting weekend for Luke!
We spent almost the whole day at Luke O.'s house on Friday! whoo-hoo. Just a couple pictures of Luke and his best bud. (No pics of Joel because he is behind the camera helping take pictures)

Then Saturday was special too! Another one of Luke's friends had a birthday party. Happy Birthday Philip! This was very exciting-Luke's first invitation to a 'real' birthday party-he had fun, can you tell??

Luke and the birthday boy

Do you ever stop and listen to the words?

Again, if you want to listen to this song, scroll down to the bottom of this page and listen to my playlist.

I Will Rise

Chris Tomlin

There's a peace I've come to know

Though my heart and flesh may fail

There's an anchor for my soul

I can say "It is well"

~

Jesus has overcome

And the grave is overwhelmed

The victory is won

He is risen from the dead

~

And I will rise when He calls my name

No more sorrow, no more pain

I will rise on eagles' wings

Before my God fall on my knees

And rise

I will rise

~

There's a day that's drawing near

When this darkness breaks to light

And the shadows disappear

And my faith shall be my eyes

~

Jesus has overcome

And the grave is overwhelmed

The victory is won

He is risen from the dead

~

And I will rise when He calls my name

No more sorrow, no more pain

I will rise on eagles' wings

Before my God fall on my knees

And rise

I will rise

~

And I hear the voice of many angels sing,

"Worthy is the Lamb"

And I hear the cry of every longing heart,

"Worthy is the Lamb"

And I hear the voice of many angels sing,

"Worthy is the Lamb"

And I hear the cry of every longing heart,

"Worthy is the Lamb"

You are worthy

Worthy is the Lamb

~

And I will rise when He calls my name

No more sorrow, no more pain

I will rise on eagles' wings

Before my God fall on my knees

And rise

I will rise

I will rise

Thankful Thursdays

1) Addy! My niece turns 1 today!! Happy birthday princess! Her party is Saturday.

2) Bags on my doorstep. Clothes for my two sons were left the other day, and yesterday another was handed to me, by two different wonderful ladies! Thank you.

3) Naps. Not my own-haha-my sons. Without them I would be a zombie. or insane...or both.

4) The people who love my children. Offering to babysit because they truly enjoy them-what a blessing!

5) "Accidents". Last night I tried to call a friend and "accidentally" called the friend whose name is under their name in my phone directory-we hadn't talked in a while and had a great chat! Thanks God.

6) Luke's memorization abilities. I love listening to him recount stories, verses, songs, movie narrations-hilarious.

7) Date night! Yes, another one-dinner and a movie. woo-hoo.

8) The offer of a pool. I sure hope we can get over to it soon-I so want my kids to love to swim.

9) My sister-in-laws. I couldn't ask for better friends. God gives you your family, not all in the same way.

10) Southern Living. I love that magazine! I may not be there-but Southern Living doesn't know that! Thanks Jane!

Lukes First Year

Click here to view this photo book larger

Wordless Wednesday

Quotable Tuesday

"Its not whether you win or lose,
its how you bag the produce."

-Instructions to Curious George

Tell me what you think?

Do you see any resemblance?

They are so good looking!

Recognition

Happy Father's Day!

...to my dad, to my Father-in-law, the daddy of my children, my grandpa, and the daddies of my nieces and nephews. And all you other dads out there.

Love you.

What do you think?

Do we have the right to be wrong?

Here are some thoughts on the topic I found:

"Free Will is the right to make your own decisions and to live with the
consequences, whether good or bad, of those decisions."

"Sometimes you will have to watch someone you care about make a
decision that you feel to be wrong for them. Although you are right to
contribute your ideas and opinions in order to try to help them to make the
correct decision that is all you can do. You cannot force anyone to follow your
advice and it would be wrong if you could - how they live their life has to be
their free choice and even if they make a wrong decision, they have the right to
get it wrong and live with the consequences. to decide how they will react to
their circumstances."

"We've gotten to the point where everybody's got a right and nobody's
got a responsibility." - Newton Minow

"Freedom is the right to be wrong, not the right to do wrong." -
John G. Diefenbaker

"Freedom means free to be wrong. being
free means having the right to be wrong, the right to make mistakes: the freedom
to fail."


"Liberty not only means that the individual has both the opportunity
and the burden of choice; it also means that he must bear the consequences of
his actions... Liberty and responsibility are inseparable." - Friedrich von
Hayek, The Constitution of Liberty (1960)

...what are your thoughts?

Lyrical Saturday

Whatever You're Doing (Something Heavenly)

Sanctus Real

Songwriters: Gartley, Dan; Graalman, Mark; Hammitt, Matt; Prevost, Peter; Rohman, Chris

~

It's time for healing, time to move on.

It's time to fix what's been broken too long.

Time to make right what has been wrong;

It's time to find my way to where I belong.

There's a wave that's crashing over me

And all I can do is surrender.

~

Whatever You're doing inside of me

It feels like chaos but somehow there's peace,

And it's hard to surrender to what I can't see

but I'm giving in to something heavenly.

~

Time for a milestone,

Time to begin again;

Reevaluate who I really am.

Am I doing everything to follow Your will

Or just climbing aimlessly over these hills?

So show me what it is You want from me,

I give everything

I surrender...

~

To whatever You're doing inside of me

It feels like chaos but now I can see,

This is something bigger than me

Larger than life something heavenly.

Something heavenly.

~

Time to face up,

Clean this old house.

Time to breathe in and let everything out

That I've wanted to say for so many years,

Time to release all my held back tears.

~

Whatever You're doing inside of me

It feels like chaos but I believe

You're up to something bigger than me,

Larger than life something heavenly.

~

Whatever You're doing inside of me

It feels like chaos but now I can see,

This is something bigger than me

Larger than life something heavenly.

Something heavenly

Something heavenly

~

It's time to face up,

Clean this old house.

Time to breathe in and let everything out...

Joel at 5 months

Joel is laughing now, mainly at his brother Luke who fascinates him! He can roll over front to back and back to front, but that is old news!

Now he can sit in his high-chair and play, and he has a tooth! His favorite game is chasing Luke (with a little help from mom)-Luke likes that game alot too.


He is certainly growing and is so much fun!

Fun stuff lately

our visit with the Mussers and Barths! Luke and Isai got to hang out again and we met Jude.Aunt Emily's visit was so much fun
And Stephanie too!

Luke and his bud Luke O. watched the church softball team playAnd Mrs. Patty and Jessica took Luke to Blackberry Farm for the first time!

Don't you wish you had this much fun?

Daytrip to Chicago (overdue post)

First we started out on a train into Chicago's Union Station

Then a water-taxi on the Chicago River through the city
(if you ever get a chance to do this, you should! Its a unique experience and offers a different view of the city)


Stopping on Michigan Ave-look what we saw!
(The Farmer and His Wife were also touring Chicago!)


Then walking South to Millenium Park
seeing: The Bean - or the CloudGate, depending on who you talk to (AWESOME for picture taking-TONS of tourists)





The Jay Pritzker Pavilion, coolest outdoor ampitheater
(supposedly there is actually method to the structure! very cool)


This awesome bridge (the BP Bridge)


And the crazy Crown Fountain
(features Chicagoans' faces/ Looks like you are walking on water-pretty neat)



Making our way further South to Grant Park
and it's awesome Buckingham Fountain



(and no, we didn't ride these-but we wanted to! next time maybe...)
Giving us this view of the city

and a peek at Queen's Landing
(where Queen Elizabeth's boat landed when she visited Chicago)


On our way back up through the parks

anyone tired yet? ...too bad.

Because now we walked ALL the way up the Magnificent Mile


Stopping at the end to visit Water Tower Place
(a pretty cool mall that is very tall and narrow)

Then eating lunch (that's right, we did all of the above before lunch!!!) at the Cheesecake Factory-yummy.

...which, just so happened to be on the ground level of the John Hancock Center.



So we travelled up to the Observation Deck,
had fun and listened to some history of Chicago
(for the record-this is wwwwwaaayyyyyy better than the Sears Tower. Just go here, don't go to the Sears Tower. Take a picture of the Sears Tower FROM the Hancock Building. Seriously.)




and of course took some great shots of the city
(these are only a few of many)



hmmm...that beach looks interesting...

lets go look at it


Its so neat to see a real beach in the shadow of skyscrapers


Then we walked Lake Shore Dr...


...until we reached Navy Pier

where we walked around and saw Thomas-of all people, err...trains

went up the Ferris Wheel
(which is not the one from the famous World's Fair, but like the original, you have to get on and off it while it is moving because it doesn't stop!)

giving us even more picture opportunities

(this is personally my favorite way to get pictures of of Chicago)


Ate a quick dinner and for the grand finale:
A show at Chicago's Shakespeare Theater!

Twelfth Night to be exact. One of my favorites!

(you can't take pictures during the performance,
but here is a shot of it's very different and cool stage)

yes-that is water! And they use it during the play frequently-it is SO cool! lol.

Then a great view of Chicago at night




A quick taxi back to Union Station,
a few more Chicago-at-night pics


and the train awaits


Well, we got home very late and it was a Very Long Day. But loads of fun. If you ever want to do any of what we did-let me know and I can tell you prices. But all in all, it was pretty affordable!

I had a great time with Emily and Stephanie-thanks for coming!!

whew. that may have been the longest post ever. EVER.