Our Camping Adventures Part 1

Over mother's day weekend we planned for a family camping trip to check out the KOA Kampground in Tennessee. It was FANTASTIC. we had such a wonderful time. I am kind of wishing I had someone get a family picture of us here but here is my two cuties being sweet.  Whily my hubby checked us in to the site the kids got to play on this great playground that they had. I wish I had a better pic of the fun slides and little houses that they have.

 Tent set up......kids were playing and throwing rocks in the river.......

time for me to blow up the air mattresses. it was pretty slow going. we don't have an electric pump. we do have a foot pump. bad planning. there is a bathroom and a pavilion with electricity that we could have used to pump these bad boys up. after pumping two, the hubby asked one of the camp workers if there was a pump that could pump up the other two........my legs thanked him. although it was a pretty good work out.

camp site set up and ready to go. let he fun begin.................

Evidence that God is listening

My son is finishing up his kindergarten year in public school. Public school in general was a little scary for me but while there were somethings about it that I wasn't crazy about this year my golden boy has done great there. Anyone who knows us knows that he was fitted for hearing aids three and a half years ago. I wrote about it here, here and here.

While the disability was somewhat life changing for us it has been beneficial in some ways as well. One of the ways is that with him having as IEP (individualized learning plan) at the school we are able to get recommendations from his teacher and from his speech therapist about what teacher for the next year will be good for him. Both ladies had agreed that there were two first grade teachers that would be great for him. After meeting with his teacher she was able to get a better idea of who would be best for him. We had his IEP meeting and she was put in as his first grade teacher. I have still not met her yet though.

All this brings me around to my title of this post......evidence that God is listening.  While we were at the park the other day I met a mother of four kids who all are at the same school as my guy.  Her youngest is a girl and she is in second grade. I asked her about the first grade teachers for her kids and three of her kids have had this teacher that my golden boy will have next year. This mother had nothing but wonderful things to say about this teacher. She especially said how beneficial she was for her two boys. My heart was settled. A peace came over me. My pray has been that he has a great  first grade year, that this teacher that we have never met but was recommended to us will be wonderful. I know it is still two or so months away but i also know that it will be here before i know it.  He has been hearing my prayers. He knows the desires of my heart. He loves me with an everlasting love. He loves my golden boy too and wants the best for him.  Feeling blessed.

Gentle Reminders

This mornings devotion in Jesus Calling by Sarah Young was relating to others through His love and not our own. It spoke of our love being limited and full of flaws.  It talked about letting Gods love wrap us up and flow through us as we reach out to others. 

One of the reference verses was Matthew 11:28-29 (I went on to read verse 30 as well because I think is should be included in with these verses.)

"Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."

I read this, this morning and around lunch time when I was coming home from a meeting the radio had the same verses as their verse of the day /word on the way. It was just another gentle reminder of what I read this morning. Then I heard three of my favorite songs on love.

I am daily amazed at how God works in our lives and speaks to us. I think my friend Shannon would call that a "God Wink."

Blessings on your day.

Mothers

I have been so blessed in my life to be surrounded by so many women who have prayed for me, encouraged me, cheered me on, taught me, molded and shaped who i am today.

My mom is for sure the #1 person who has been that in my life. I am so grateful for the Godly woman that she is. For the endless prayers i know she has prayed for me. For encouraging me through all of life. For be there to let me talk and talk and talk about anything and everything.

Aside from my mom there has been so many other women that i feel blessed to have in my life.  My grandmother, my sister, my aunts, Sunday school teachers, youth group leaders, camp counselors, mothers of some friends, friends who i looked up to in youth group, friends who stood by my side while growing up, friends who are still there, my mother in law. these women are tremendous and wonderful. they are a part of my past, present and future. I am thankful for the roles that they have played in my life and continue to play. 

Being a mom is hard work. I think a lot harder then I envisioned growing up. I am thankful to be a mom and even more thankful to have a mom to look up to through out this process and these women to think back on or turn to for prayers and encouragement because it would be pretty hard to go through this motherhood thing without it.

Happy Mothers day all you moms out there and also to women in general. Mother's day can be a hard holiday for some. It never really occurred to me until i heard a devotional at a meeting on Wednesday night. It was so eye opening about how there area so many women who can be hurting during this holiday. The woman who has lost their mother (no matter how long ago it was). The woman who has lost a child. The woman who is unable to conceive. The woman who is a step mother. The woman who is going through a custody battle. The woman who as had an abortion. The woman who just never had children, she just decided that she wasn't going to have children.  I pray that all of these women feel loved from someone on this day that can be so painful. I hope i can be a blessing to a woman in one or more of these categories.

I love you mom. Happy Mothers day.

Be Present

two years ago i went through the book One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp and just fell in love with all of it. even though a lot of it was also difficult. i made it a point to count my gifts and be thankful for all that i have, all that is around me and thankful even in the mundane of life.

last year i made a point to record things that my children said or did that made me smile, the day shine and life great.  i love quotes and have since i was a kid.  i came across quotes like these

found this image here

see download here

 this year i wanted my "word" or "phrase" to be "be present"
i don't want to blink and my children's life to have passed by
i came across these quotes that help remind me to be there and be involved and embrace all that life has with the two little ones that i have been blessed with

i want to be all there in my life with them and my husband. i want them to remember the little, the big, the exciting, the low key, all the moments that we have together.

Teacher Appreciation 2014

 well it is teacher appreciation week and pinterest is  overflowing with ideas for those teachers in your life. after the abundance of strawberries that we picked this past weekend I knew that on Monday my little guy would be bringing some to his teacher. I searched pinterest for a way to make a box to put them in. I had about four of those cute blue berry boxes at one point but I am down to only one left and I can't manage to part with it. I had a just emptied wheat thins box so that was what I was going to use. i came across this cute little box and decided to follow the tutorial to make it for the berries.

what you need: cardboard box

paper towel

strawberries

staple

tag

hole punch

bakers twine

i came across this pin on pinterest for the tag. i just now opened the link and saw that the tag in the picture is a free download. it's cute too.
here is another link to some cute things you can so with those empty cereal boxes

Strawberry Picking 2014

 we go strawberry picking pretty much every year. we got a call from some friends of ours letting us know that whenever we went to give them a call. on Friday night my hubby told me to call them up and see if they were able to go on Saturday. it was very last minute but it was going to be a great day and we were ready. they were able to go and boy and I glad. these strawberries were fantastic. first let me say that if you have never had a warm strawberry right off the bush then you are missing out. find yourself a strawberry field and go pick some. we must have hit the sweet weekend because these berries were so big and yummy.

 our little strawberry picker and helper. check him out here picking strawberries in 2009

 thumbs up dude

 we were finding some weird shaped strawberries.

 mother and daughter

 strawberry fields forever

 don't let that bear get you guys

 my sweet family

some great friends

Fairy Tale Ball

 Last Friday my boy had his Fairy Tale ball at his school. The school sent home a flyer about two weeks before announcing it and to make sure the kids dressed up. That afternoon I asked him what he wanted to be for the fairy tale ball. his very first choice was a dragon. he saw Disney's version of Sleeping Beauty and just loved the dragon.  I couldn't imagine at first how in the world I was going to make that and I didn't want him looking like a toddler in an all in one outfit. I asked him if there was anything else that he would be interested in being. his next thought was one of the three little pigs. my reaction, really, a pig is pink!?!  Later on when I asked him again he said mommy, if you want to know what I want to be then it is a dragon. ok got it. a dragon it is. I got on Pinterest of course and started searching. I came across two tutorials that were extremely helpful in making my sweet boy into a dragon.
the first thing I tackled was the wings and I came across this tutorial to help me out. luckily I had all of the materials that I needed from when he was Robin Hood this past year for Halloween.

 next was the tail.  I found this tutorial on a tail. I wanted the spikes to all be different so I cut the two triangles in big to small sizes and stitched them together and then flipped them inside out. after all of the triangles were made I used some green felt that I had and cut the tail in a triangle shape that was long enough to fit all of the triangles. then I started from the bottom and started sewing the triangles on all the way up. I wasn't sure what I was going to use to tie it on his with but I was at Michael's one day and saw some bungee cord on sale for 70% off. I thought it would work great and it did. I came home and stitched it into a fold of the fabric and tied it on and walla.......his dragon tale. I stuffed the tale with scraps from the triangles and wings and tale and some cotton balls. use what you have laying around right?  since I had everything already this project only cost me the .75 cents that I paid for the bungee cord. of course I don't have a sewing machine so I had to hand stitch it which took a could nights but it was worth it to see his face when I showed it to him and he got to wear it.

 the next thing was that I knew that I wanted something for his face or something for his head. I searched pinterest again. (have I said how much I love pinterest?) for dragon face painting. I wanted to do this but he said he wanted the dragons fire to go down his face. so we came across this what that is what I did. of course his hair is so long it was hard to see it but you get the idea and I think he was precious.

 

 

Books Read in 2013

I have been posting by book list for the past couple of years and I have been a total blog slacker and while here is now way on earth I can catch up with all that has been going on with us I am going to try to be more intentional about updating the blog so here goes. a post that should have been written at the beginning of the year

Cottage by the Sea-Robin Jones Gunn
River's Edge- Terri Blackstock
Her Mothers Hope-Francine Rivers
Breakers Reef-Terri Blackstock
The Thirteenth Tale-Diane Setterfield
Her Daughters Dream-Francine Rivers
The Night Circus-Erin Morgenstern
Grace Based Parenting-Dr, Tim Kimmel
The Power of One-Bryce Courteney
Falling Together-Marissa de los Santos
Breathe- Lisa T. Bergren
Glamorous Illusions-Lisa T Bergren
Gone Girl-Gilliam Flynn
The Bridge-Karen Kingsbury
How to be Lost-Amanda Eyre Ward
The Chance-Karen Kingsbury
Cutting for Stone-Abraham Verghese
Palace Circle-Rebecca Dean
Life of Pi-Yann Martel
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie-Alan Bradley
Frenchman's Creek-Daphne DuMaurier
Firefly Island-Lisa Wingate
A Step of Faith-Richard Paul Evans
A Winter Dream-Richard Paul Evans
The Christmas Jar-Jason F. Wright

such a fun year of reading. four months into this year and I am 15 books in........yeah for lists and for this years.........

Our Hope Chest

I added some tutus to my etsy Shop
I can take custom orders too.
Please go check it out and if you are on instagram follow the shop at @ourhopechest
Thanks