It's raining, it's snowing...

Richmond, VA is a strange place weather wise. We have had three BIG snows this winter. And then this week it rained a lot. It's hard to know if it's winter or spring. The weather seems to go back and forth quickly. We're trying to embrace whatever the Lord brings our way and face it with joy! Here is a taste of some of the fun we have had in this crazy winter weather. (Note: I am thankful for my sister-in-law Becky who taught me that you can let your kids play in rain/puddles/muddy yard, etc if you just put rain boots on and grubby pants. Otherwise I'd be tempted to stay in until it dries up! Thank you Becky!!)

Sledding on our very small "hill" I created in our front yard. He loved it! Thank you to Mary and Rick McWhorter for giving us their sleds!!







B "playing" Hi Ho Cherry-O. A new family favorite.



Owen and Matt made a "mighty fortress fire truck" the other day!





Rainy Day fun...

Better late than never...

We took a trip to Charlotte at the end of January, and I never posted our pictures from the trip. Oops. So it's a bit late, but I'd like to post them anyway.

The main prompt for our trip was that our good friends from seminary, Jake and Melissa Hunt, and their two boys (Sam and Foard) were gearing up to move from Charlotte to Prague to serve with World Harvest Mission. (Since our visit they have arrived in Prague and found a flat to live in and are moving in their stuff! Pray for them as they transition and as they help their boys too! and start ministry in the church) They are serving at a church plant from the church we attended in Charlotte. We went through all three years of seminary with the Hunts - Melissa and I even worked on the same floor in the same building in Uptown Charlotte our first year there and then at the same school our second year there! They are dear friends, and so it was sweet to have a chance to say - see you later - to them before the left. (Matt has hopes of organizing a summer missions trip to Prague in the coming year or two!)

We also got to visit with some other dear friends -Dave and Mary Kulp and Mike and Melissa Kruger. It's so neat to spend time with dear "old" friends. It was very encouraging and refreshing. Our kids got a long as if they hung out every week. It's like sweet "cousins" - I pray it will always be that way!

Here are a few pictures of our visit.

Mary, me and Melissa



The kiddos all huddled around a worm that we saw on a walk around Dave and Mary's neighborhood.



The kids in the play area at Chick-fil-a.

Free giveaway

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What is a normal day like?

Sometimes I think that our blog could give the idea that our life is always happy and full of photo-opps. The reality is that I blog about the happy moments and photo-opps, but A LOT of our normal day to day life is not "blog-worthy." There are many many parts of the day that are full of joy and full of sweet times, don't get me wrong. It's just that there are also VERY many moments that are very trying and very exhausting. I am learning to see that the Lord is not only in the happy moments. He is in fact in the FREQUENT temper tantrums of our sweet little B, the laughing rebellion of our precious O, the loud words and impatient heart of their mommy and the quiet frustration of their daddy. The Lord is in it all. That is our hope.

Tonight after dinner, we were all in the play room playing before Matt went back out for a men's ministry event. Baxter almost tipped upside down over the side of the couch because he did not stop when I said stop. Owen at the same time was throwing the basketball someplace he knows not to throw the basketball. I rescued Baxter and had to exit the room. I stood in the kitchen and prayed and cried and prayed and cried.

What else can I do? How can I handle a full day of being ignored/rebelled against/laughed at... Matt came in to comfort me and about 3 seconds later we were beckoned back to the playroom with screaming and crying again.

I was reminded about something I had read this morning. I have started to re-read a book called "Parenting in the Pew" by Robbie Castleman. As a side note, I have really enjoyed it so far. The subtitle is "Guiding your children into the joy of worship." Anyway...thanks to my husband I now read the prefaces to books. I am thankful that I do. Here are a few things that Robbie said as she started the book (She wrote the book when her kids were in High School. She wrote this preface when they were graduated from college and are married and both serving Christ through their jobs.)

"I am grateful to the Lord for his good keeping and faithfulness in the lives of my children..."
"I was reminded time and again in their early college days that we, as parents are never allowed to take the role of the Holy Spirit in the lives of our children."
"Great is God's faithfulness."

These are some truths that I needed to be reminded of in that moment. I do not need to despair that we had a long day and that we were assaulted by sin around every corner. I can and I need to hope in the glory of God - the power of the Holy Spirit - the love of God - the gift of Jesus Christ. Praise God that we have so much to hope in in the midst of our normal - non-blogging- days!

Sweet Visit

On Thursday, the boys and I headed up to Harrisonburg for the day to my parents house. My best friend from High School, Tori, was bringing her oldest boy, Luke, skiing at Massanutten. (Her little boy Ty came too, but he did not learn to ski yet!) Tori learned to ski when she was hardly old enough to walk and has loved it ever since. Luke is almost 3, so she was excited for him to learn. Her parents were down from CT as well. I didn't want to miss a chance to see all of them. I spent about 50-75% of my childhood with Tori either at my house or at her house. It's been a while since I had seen her parents too, so it was very sweet to all be together for an afternoon. Here is a picture of our 4 kiddos!

SNOW!

So I have gotten used to winter without snow since I moved down South after High School. This winter it feels like I have returned home to Connecticut. Yikes. Snow after snow. It just keeps coming! Thanks to some hand-me-down snow clothes, we are all geared up and ready to face it. Before the boys both hated it. They were freezing in rain boots and windpants. I am now convinced that it is well worth the money to find snow gear each year...even if from now on it only snows once per winter!

Here are some pictures from our 12ish inches LAST weekend and our 6ish inches THIS weekend!

Some School

We have not been doing quite as much school at home the last couple of weeks. I had a bad stomache bug and our printer is not cooperating. Between the two of those things, we are just doing more day by day projects and such. But, we did manage to do a few things that I thought I'd post.

The Letter C
"Children obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing to the Lord." Col. 3:20

We have been using a book by Susan Hunt - The ABC's of God's Word - to direct our choice of a verse for every letter of the alphabet. We generally do one project on the verse and then one on the letter itself. I have been putting Owen's verse projects in a binder that he'll have when we're done to go back through to help him further remember these verses. I am constantly encouraged and challenged at how applicable and convicting and challenging God's word is! Every week we focus on a verse there are multiple chances that God gives us to use that verse to help and teach ourselves and our kids!









I saw this on some homeschool blog that I was looking at. I forget which one it was. The hardest part was drawing straight lines that were at least somewhat equally spaced out. It was one of those that I thought would last a while. O was done with it in 3 minutes flat. SO...we took off all of the clothes pins. Turned them upside down. He had to pick one and then find where it went out of order. Still didn't take long, but he loved it. I put it away for now and we'll get it out again someday.