TODAY'S the DAY

SnapShop HALF OFF sale

till 11:59pm tonight

use CODE FALL50 for half off your registration

Click HERE to register and don't forget the code FALL50

the courses are so worth it!

if you are looking to take your camera from Auto mode to Manual and learn more about how to use your DSLR or great tips on using your camera phone.......this is the course for you.

TOMORROW......

.....is the day to sign up for SnapShop

it is a great program to help you to get your camera off of Auto mode and into Manuel. She has a phone photo course and lots of other great lessons of different areas of photography. 

I have been a student for over a year now and have really enjoyed the content and the access to it when i have a question about something with my camera.

Tomorrows deal is HALF OFF the registration for ONE DAY only.

Flash Sale will start at 12:00am CST on October 26th and will end at11:59pm CST on October 26th.

your discount code is FALL50 

 HERE is the LINK to sign up

don't forget to put in the code FALL50 for your half off special.

Twenty-Five

i am reading a book right now called Bittersweet by Shauna Niequist (you can download a sample chapter of the book at her website here.)

I have really enjoyed it, even though i am still early on in the book. 

these last few years i have been devouring non-fiction books, which are usually not my favorite kind of books.

the chapter that i am currently on in the book is called twenty-five. i was't sure what to expect when i started this chapter. what did twenty-five mean. Age, was not what i was thinking when diving into twenty-five.

i started thinking back to twenty-five.

i was married

no kids yet

living thousands of miles away from anything familiar

becoming familiar with new places

meeting new people

having adventures i could have never imagined
it my have been the poorest time in our life
but a time that changed and shaped and grew us the most

her chapter about what twenty-five is different and somewhat the same from my twenty-fifth chapter in life.
i was married young so there was no decision to be made about a relationship that my be good or bad for me.
i worked to pay the bills
i didn't have a season of space from going to church, in fact we jumped into finding a new church when we moved to WA state and we fell in love with the church and the people who attended that church. There was much community there.

Twenty-five was great. But over ten years later......so is the now. There is lots we have learned from twenty-five. Lots that is better  because of twenty-five. Equally lots that we miss from being twenty-five. Surprisingly the no kids is not one of them. They have made life interesting and added to an adventure like no other.

Patience

When we left for Honey and Bears lake house Golden boy had one thing in mind, "i wanna go fishing," he said.

Saturday was supposed to be for fishing but after driving the boat to the beach area and and finding mounds of sand to play on with cousins, fishing got forgotten about.  

Sunday morning came around and he wanted to go and fish.  It was raining sons but that didn't keep him from going out and trying.  Bear even took him to a special fishing spot. 

Them came back with nothing but golden boy continued to fish from the dock. 

Soon he was calling us out as he reeled in this 3 pounder, thinking it was the biggest fish he caught at the lake so far. 

Not long after that he caught a small perch and threw it in the ice chest.

But it was a little bit later that he was yelling and calling for us. 

He wrestled this 11 pound fish in and was thrilled.

His laughter was contagious and his joy infectious.  

We loved standing and cheering for him. E encouraged him, making a fisherman out of him. 

I am so proud of the patience and determination he had. It pays off my dear boy, it surely does. 

Our runner

He has always been fast.

He doesn't get it from me or his daddy, and that's ok.

One day, We will probably be parents in the stands cheering at every one of his track meets. Maybe. If he wants. But whatever he chooses, We will be there.

Watching when they start

Getting near the finish line

6 minuets and 35 seconds

Last year he came in sixth. He did again this year too. But he beat his last year time.

I'm so proud of this kid.

A Bike Rider

it has been a long time coming for Little girl to ride a bike.

she gets it honest though. I think i was way older than she was when i finally learned.

i am so proud of her and as you can see in the second picture, she is pretty proud of herself too.

she has some determination and grit.

when daddy came home with a bike for her and told her he would help she was ready.

she told us that now she just has to learn how to turn with out having to stop and start all over.

she will get there, i know it.

Written words

they have always been important to me.

i wrote letters growing up, too two friends that i saw on a weekly basis.

There was just something special about written words and it was great to get mail when you were younger.

i made friends at the summer camp i went to and we occasionally wrote letters to one another, until we saw each other again at camp the next summer.

I'm sure there were notes passed in jr. high but i remember it way more in high school.

Email happened around then and while it was no where near as wonderful as a hand written letter/note it worked too.

Now i am teaching my daughter about handwritten letters and how special they are. 

my mom brought me a wooden box, from my childhood home, a few months ago. it is a box that held all kinds of treasures over the years and came from my best friend growing up.

we have written numerous letters over the last 28 years.

We've lived in the same state for 13 of those years.

now she has a daughter and we have our girls writing to one another.

they have only met each another once.

i gave that little box to my daughter and put some of her letters from "D" in there.

i asked her where her current letter from "D" was and she said, "I put it in the box mom."

i dream of the day when we are once again living in the same state.

until then......

we have written words and occasional phone calls.

Tornado

Art by Mandy England
Tonight my deep thinking daughter had a lot of questions. Questions about hurricanes and our plans and if we are safe and where we would go.
She has lived through numerous tornado experiances that she vaguely remembers.....the worst in our area, when she was not even a year old.
Answering her questions were hard when she wants 100%s
We have a 99% certainty that no hurricanes are coming our way but there is always that chance it could happen. She wanted to know where we would go? I assured her that we were in the business of keeping her safe and that God was too. We prayed for peace for her head and heart and that God would remind her that no matter What, He is holding her in His hands.  Praying for Houston and surrounding areas tonight. #littlegirlandy

Prayer

If anyone knows us or has been at a meal with us 7 or 8 years ago, you know how difficult prayer time was for that meal. It usually involved our oldest melting down in a fit because it was time to pray.

Needless to say, this, very much embarrassed me. Probably even my hubby too. He however recovered from it a whole lot quicker and easier than i did.

I begin with this small story because today I may have finally understood how my son feels about spoken outloud prayer.

I've never been crazy about praying out loud. I pray, sure, but I avoid outloud prayer as much as possible.  Today I was invited to a prayer time for our kids school. I'm not sure what I thought would happen once there, but I agreed to go.

If it had been a week or two ago I would say that there was a 100% chance that I would be emotional at said prayer meeting, today though......i was golden. Not feeling overly emotional, things ok.

I think I may get that tiny 2 and 3 and sometimes 4 year old boy that would burst out in fits and tears over prayers. I was there today.  Couldn't control it.  Don't know where it came from.

 I just couldn't hold back the tears. And maybe there is just something tender and emotional about talking to our maker, our creator, the one who loves us more than we could ever know.  I'm not sure this will get any easier.  I'm sure the next time we meet there will be tears, even though i wish it wasn't so. But I do know, That even though it's taken 6, maybe 7 or 8 years, I finally get maybe a smidge of what my sweet boy felt.

Or I at least hope.

Love

 Ever witness that beautiful act of love?
I have been blessed to witness it twice fairly recently.  One was last night.

She kicked her shoes off and waded into the water to capture a lovely momma with baby in womb. It wasn't too much later that, that momma had her shoes on to protect her hurting feet from the painful rocks.

I love getting a glimpse of love on action.