THE END...or is it?

This blog is at an end.  I'll leave it here for now, but we are no longer the "Mississippi Bonners in Illinois".  
We have a BRAND NEW blog now, check it out here:

www.bonnerlife.blogspot.com

Please keep up with us! 

Love,

Brittany (for all of us)

Laugh Out Loud Quote

Luke: "Hey Mom-there's smoke around the bathtub because it's hot. I think you're trying to 


cook us alive!"

And then we got to Mississippi

We spent a little time there, settled in somewhat...

Aaron's present from his dad

Our house

deck

back view

beautiful front yard tree

THEN we (Brittany, Luke, Joel and Aunt Em) went for a visit to Texas...

Amanda and Joel in the pool

Addy driving the golf cart with her homemade seatbelt

all the kids on the hammock with Brittany pushing

kids driving with Grandpa

The Boys

Cody helping Joel eat a popsickle

2 generations of boys: Cody with his nephews

going to Momma Nell's house

Joel driving Addy on the tractor

Grandma with her Granddaughters

Grandma shooting the hose with lots of help

playing in the sprinkler

Olivia's smile!

Movie Night!

 We had lots of fun!

Stay tuned...

These pictures are from during our period of leaving Illinois:

Missions Night After-Party and our near empty house

Senior girls getting their gifts from us

Aaron's last Summer Wednesday, they celebrated by beating him up!

Out to eat with our Hensley girls

the amazing volunteers who came and helped us with our last minute cleaning up and repairs and then they loaded our truck for us! Thanks guys!

On our way to Mississippi.  Sad and exciting. 

I love these pictures. I'll put up some more later so stay tuned!

Aunt Em's Visit-working

 Aaron and Emily doing some of the painting in our house as we prepare:

And BONUS picture, our new floors!

 Good job Aaron! And thanks to Jim and Ryan!

Aunt Em's Visit-Play Day

Philips Park Zoo

Mastodon Lake

Fun or Frightening?

Throwing rocks in the Fox River

Lazy swing

Luke

Joel

Emily

Yes.

(the Holy Spirit) "helps me to do what is right and to not be afraid to do what is right."
-Luke

Changes

As I type this I am surrounded by equal parts empty space and boxes.  We are packing up life in Illinois and though the accumulation of six years and 2 kids later will fill the U-Haul, we find that we are leaving much behind of ourselves with the people of Central Bible Church with whom we have loved and invested ourselves.

Six years ago, after much prayer and waiting, God called us to Illinois to be on staff at Central Bible Church for Aaron to fill the position of Youth Pastor.  Much has happened since then, barely a month after we arrived the Senior Pastor, Ken Weddle, was diagnosed with cancer and died a mere 2 months later.  Around that time we discovered we were pregnant with our first child.  We grew in our ministry, our marriage, as individuals and in so many other ways as we learned ministry while the church grieved and was refined through the pastor search process.  One more son and senior pastor later, we were watching our first class of 7th graders in their Senior year when the Lord began to tug on Aaron and mine's hearts individually toward our next step in His will for our lives.

Again, with much prayer, we are responding to His call on our lives to serve Him at the ministry of Friends of Alcoholics in Jackson, Mississippi.  This is, of course, the ministry where we both grew up, our parents serving at F.O.A.  While as Youth Pastor, Aaron led his youth group in two missions trips to the ministry of F.O.A., and last year had the privilege of leading a teaching conference there as well.  Though F.O.A. has always been so much a part of our hearts, we were not expecting to be called there to serve and while we are sad to leave the people at Central Bible Church, we are delighted to be able to see God's clear direction for our lives and to be walking in that.

Please pray for us when you think of us-we anticipate moving very soon.  The drive, the settling in, the selling of our current house all need prayer.

Please pray for CBC as they search for a new Youth Pastor.

Also for our family as we adjust to our new life/ministry in Mississippi. 

Please visit F.O.A.'s website at www.friendsofalcoholics.blogspot.com and explore and acquaint yourself with it's amazing ministry!

Thank you!

Brittany (for all of us)

P.S.-Also, we will be needed a new blog name-any suggestions?!

Character share

Our favorite villainous sidekick:

LAMPY

Dance with me Lampy!








From Veggie Tales' Larry Boy.

Quote

Joel to Mommy: "I love you all the time."

The Paris Wife by Paula McLain

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


"I close my eyes and lean into Ernest, smelling bourbon and soap, tobacco and damp cotton-and everything about this moment is so sharp and lovely, I do something completely out of character and just let myself have it."



"We called Paris the great good place, then, and it was. We invented it after all. We made it with our longing and cigarettes and Rhum St. James; we made it with smoke and smart and savage conversation and we dared anyone to say it wasn't ours. Together we made everything and then we busted it apart again.

There are some who said I should have fought harder or longer than I did for my marriage, but in the end fighting for a love that was already gone felt like trying to live in the ruins of a lost city. I couldn't bear it, and so I backed away-and the reason I could do it at all, the reason I was strong enough and had the legs and the heart to do it, was because Ernest had come along and changed me. He helped me see what I really was and what I could do. Now that I knew what I could bear, I would have to bear losing him."



"He and I had already had our time, and though it was very close and real to me, as beautiful and poignant as any place on the map, it was, in truth, another time-another country."



"...I only cried a very little, and then it was gone."



"The myth he was creating out of his own life was big enough to take it for a time-but under this, I knew he was still lost. ...that he feared death so so much he sought it out where and however he could. He was such an enigma, really fine and strong and weak and cruel. An incomparable friend and a son of a bitch. In the end, there wasn't one thing about him that was truer than the rest. It was all true."



I have read little of Hemingway's works, but fell in love with A Moveable Feast. Paula McLain has created an amazing story, almost poetry at times. I loved this book. A novel, yes, but in a way it felt like a peek into reality. I appreciated the complexities of the individuals...the contradictions in character. It made her characters feel only so very real. The way the lifestyle of the peers that Ernest and Hadley wrapped around themselves slowly influenced them-to the sorrow of those same peers in the end. I stand in awe of the author as I agonized over the startling reality of the Hemingways' marriage crumbing around them and their life continuing with it's disorienting moments of normality.



Falling away from each other is not clean or easy or quick or simple, it pulls us and tears us...two people who have become one in a marriage cannot be torn apart by circumstance or choice without losing bits of themselves in the process. Without leaving pieces behind and carrying broken parts with you. I think the harshness of this was felt in the story of Ernest and Hadley.



You fell in love with him right along with her, and you ached as their marriage was ending. As in life, we are more than one-dimensional, we are vindictive and kind, we are confident and insecure-one person isn't painted "villian", but many facets of their person was given and in the end-it was all true.



I gave this book 5 stars even though I don't admire or agree with much of the content...the worldview is so different from my own, but because I personally appreciated it very much. If you enjoy Hemingway, A Moveable Feast, Paris, complexity of character, a good debate-starting point (ha!), this is a must-read.



**Caution to younger readers.



View all my reviews

Goodreads review: The Lotus Eaters

The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


"If the picture was no good, it meant that you weren't close enough."

"She herself full of latent images taken over the years, and yet what she had seen would stay inside her, hidden. Linh had covered her eyes...because he understood that for them the eye was the most important thing. We close our eyes to spare ourselves or those we love. To see demanded responsibility."

"The pictures were good and were taken at great risk, they had a shot at some of the prizes...but even as she got closer, she understood...that by the time one earned such accolades, one had paid many times over what they worth."

A vivid view of the Vietnam War interestingly told through the story of a female photographer who finds herself becoming a part of what she struggles to capture on film.

*Not for younger readers.*



View all my reviews

Eavesdropping on my children

I heard whispering during naptime today and went to go and shush them, but as I got closer I stopped to listen.

Luke was reading the Bible to Joel. 

I listened for a minute and let them whisper. My heart is swelling!

Questionable parenting review

Many of you have asked how the "NO SHARING DAY" went. Actually, it went really well! By mid-afternoon they were begging to be able to share-and they shared beautifully all day.  I'm not going to make any predictions about the long-term future, but I consider "NO SHARING DAY" a success!

Questionable parenting

Today's solution to the neverending "he's not sharing!" and "he knocked over my tower!", etc. 

NO SHARING DAY!

All the toys that aren't packed (which are, of course, the best of all the toys) were divided equally and the room partitioned.  "Mommy" has declared NO SHARING DAY for her own sanity... and in the hopes that the little people will decide that "sharing is better because then I have access to all the toys..." (one can dream).

I'll let you know how it goes!

**UPDATE: Before I finished writing this Luke has already asked if he could trade something with Joel.  He was denied and is disappointed...keep your fingers crossed!

Graduated Cubbie!

Last Wednesday was our AWANA Awards Ceremony, Luke completed his Cubbie program, getting his Second Book Award! Yay Luke! Congratulations-you worked so hard!

Isn't he cute?!

He is looking forward to starting Sparks and couldn't be more excited for Joel to begin Cubbies when he is 3 years old! (isn't that sweet!)

Truer Words Never Spoken

A portion of Luke's Prayer tonight

"Dear God...
....please help us with you for your word that you speak...
...In Jesus name,
Amen."

I Am New

This song means so much to me. I hope you listen to the words when you listen to the song-they are very powerful.

I Am New

by Jason Gray

Now I won't deny

The worst you could say about me

But I'm not defined

By mistakes that I've made

Because God says of me

I am not who I was

I am being remade

I am new

I am chosen and holy

And I'm dearly loved 

I am new

I am new

Who I thought I was

And who I thought I had to be

I had to give them both up

Cause neither were willing 

To ever believe

I am not who I was

I am being remade

I am new

I am chosen and holy

And I'm dearly loved 

I am new

I am new

Too long I have lived

In the shadows of shame

Believing that there

Was no way I could change

But the One who is making everything new

Doesn't see me the way that I do

He doesn't see me the way that I do

I am not who I was

I am being remade

I am new

I am chosen and holy

And I'm dearly loved 

I am new

I am new

I am not who I was 

I am being remade

I am new

Dead to the old man, I'm coming alive

I am new

I am new

I am new

Forgiven. Beloved.

Hidden in Christ.

Made in the image of the Giver of life

Righteous and holy

Reborn and remade

Accepted and worthy, this is our new name

Forgiven. Beloved.

Hidden in Christ.

Made in the image of the Giver of life

Righteous and holy

Reborn and remade

Accepted and worthy, this is our new name

This is who we are now...

Boys faces.

Blonde and Brown, Blue and Green, diagonal and round...so different. Both beautiful.

Do you see similarities? I only see the chin or shape of the face...my Day and Night.

This is me.

(Click to view larger)

Fun Things I Want to Accomplish

My friend k. inspired me to post on this:


Fun Things I want to Accomplish (no way could I ever say "top five" pssht)


1) Be fluent in at least one language (working on Spanish with the boys).

2) See my name on the binding of a book in a library.

3) Visit each of my siblings at their own home.

4) Go camping with the Bonners (never done that).

5) Go ice skating outdoors (maybe in Chicago?).

6) Go on a vacation and stop every time something interests us.

7) Have a really nice guest room that is regularly occupied.

8) Homeschool my children.

9) Go snorkeling with my parents.

10) Get to a place where it is so normal for me to wake up early that I couldn't possibly sleep in past 8 am.

What would you put on your list?

Out on the town

Thank you Ms. Patty and Ms. Carol for taking us to see the Toy Story show! We had so much fun!!

-Luke and Joel