Today is a big first for me, Roman and Jadon. We're spending the day together at my house! We started out with an early morning pick up at a half way point. We made a stop at the bank and then pulled into the Kush home, waking the rest of the house up with squeals of excitement from both boys.
Mamaw found out her great grandbaby's were in the area and quickly arrived with a box of powered doughnuts. That was received with some curiosity - I'm not sure they've ever experienced the mess of one of these sugary creations! I will say, however, they did enjoy every bit of it!
We've had so much fun today....playing outside on the slide, discovering the art of playing with "guys" (you know, little figures from Star Wars and Lord of the Rings), coloring, and even learning to play a computer matching game. I look forward to many more days like this one, spoiling and coddling my sweet little nephews! Next, it's pizza and apples for lunch and then maybe a few more photos.
Yesterday was a full one! We woke ourselves up at 5 a.m., showered, dressed and poked our way over to my parents house. We arrived to find four sleepy-eyed kiddos (remember our two little visitors?) and two proud grandparents anxiously awaiting the launch of our Chevy Tahoe caravan up and over to St. Petersburg.
The trip was nice for Dave and I, as all the chillin' (aka children) eagerly landed in Granny and Grampy's Tahoe--built in home theater is all I'll say! We quickly made a note to self:)
We arrived at Admiral Farragut Academy, where the Sea Cadet POLA week was held, and were directed to the chapel where the ceremony was due to start in 40 minutes. That gave plenty of time for pit stops for the eight of us!
The ceremony was quick - just under forty-five minutes. The chaplin of the Academy spoke, a few awards were given, photos taken and then the cadets were checked out by their parents and permitted to go home. Andrew and his buddy Alden rode with Dave and I so we got the low down on their week during the first part of the drive. A quick bite at Applebee's and they knocked off quickly for the rest of the ride home.
All in all the day cost us a total of twelve hours! Not bad for everlasting memories! Below you'll find a few photos of the day...
Summer is gearing up. Here's what the next couple of weeks look like for our family...
Our dear Wiggins-family friends are on a trip to New York until Sunday with their oldest daughter. We are enjoying the week hosting their two younger girls while they're away. Mollie and Benjamin are happy to oblige entertaining their long time buddies, Mandy and MaryBeth!
Andrew is currently in St. Petersburg attending a leadership academy program for Sea Cadets. He left at 8 a.m. Sunday morning, hitching a ride with our treasured friends, the Virelles', whose son is also attending. If you click on the above link (leadership academy) you can see photos of each days events.
Tomorrow, Mollie is going with her best girl Mandy, to Islands of Adventure with my brother's youth group, Calvary Chapel Jupiter. They leave at 1:30 p.m. and return Friday night around 9:30. Drop off and pick up is at Independence Middle School in Jupiter...about a 40 minute drive.
Saturday morning, very early, we load up the whole crew, including Grannie and Grampy, to attend Andrew's graduation from Leadership Academy and bring him and his buddy Alden home to West Palm. That's about a 4 1/2 hour drive each way. Graduation is at 10 a.m.--do the math and you'll see what I mean by leaving "very early" .
Sunday the Wiggin's girls go home and the Kush family starts packing again!
Andrew flies out of Miami Thursday morning, July 3rd, for our church's New York mission trip. We have to have him at the church before sunup for the 5:30 a.m. departure. We're so excited for him to experience his very first mission trip! I'll be sure to post details on that as I get them. Please keep him and his group in prayer!
Saturday morning we load up again with more bags packed to drive Mollie and Benjamin to Ft. Lauderdale where they will take their first flight to the sky alone. They are going to Tennessee where Mollie is attending Long View Ranch christian camp with her adored friend, Rachel. Her mother, my beloved Debbie, will be playing mom to Benjamin for the week while he enjoys a little time with their youngest son, James.
Andrew returns on the 11th, Mollie and Ben on the 12th.....what will I do with a whole week with no children, you ask??? Well, I'll just have to save that for a later post!
A couple of months ago some sweet new friends gave us a book, Rick Warren's Bible Study Methods. It's actually one I'd been eying for some time, so when they presented it to us I was charged!
As you know, I've been up to my nose in reading with our women's leadership group, so I had to put these "study methods" aside until I was afforded the time to investigate them fully. Finally the time has come! Due to summer schedules, we decided to take the month of July off, so a couple of weeks ago I pulled this soft-cover guide off the shelf and started digging through it.
WOW is all I can say! There are twelve methods divulged in this meaty little "how-to" book, all of which have the ability to transform your quiet time with the Lord. So far I haven't moved past the first method - The Devotional Method - only because, being a creature of habit, when I find something I like, I stick with it. It will take some Holy Spirit prodding to move me to the next level - The Chapter Summary Method - but I suspect it will be just as beneficial, if not more so. The cool thing about this book is that he has everything laid out with step by step instruction followed by a reproducible study form. It's so simple, I love it!
If you've studied the bible for years on your own, or if you're new to it, doesn't matter. This guide makes studying the scripture terrifically doable, whether you want to go deep or keep it simple. It's my new morning companion for now and imagine it will be for some time to come!
After a long weekend away, basking in the beautiful Appalachian Mountains, I'm back and attempting, with a bit of hesitation, to reengage! It's not easy when you get a taste of heaven and have to leave, return to reality.
The above photo is from about a 4-mile round trip hike we trekked out through a dense and steep trail landing us at this breathtaking sight. The kids actually jumped in the icy waters! We enjoyed a picnic lunch, took a few photos and then headed back. Unforgettable!
I'm currently investigating women's bible study ideas for the fall as well as a teen girl bible study. I recently came across these two titles by the same author. If any of you ever frequent Beth Moore's blog, that's where I found them. Anything recommended by the aforementioned living legend of bible studies has to be decent, but I'd really like some specifics. The author is Kelly Minter, whom I've not heard of, which means nothing except that maybe I've been out of the loop for a while. Her bio is interesting but I was left unsatisfied after my attempt to pull any reviews from her sight or LifeWay, where her books are sold. Any help out there would be appreciated!
Over the past few weeks we've begun enjoying some of the outdoor benefits of living in Florida. Penny & I were given the unusual opportunity to go with some of her girlfriends out to a huge sandbar up off of Hutchinson Island. We were escorted by a pontoon boat for the 30 minute ride to our destination--Roman and J.J's very first boat ride! This first photo is obviously the trip back to the mainland....they were little sleepy heads after so much excitement!
The second photo is another no-brainer...Grampy & Andrew enjoying a little underwater silliness during one of our weekly family nights. Chris got a waterproof camera several weeks ago and we've had some laugh-out-loud fun with that! I'm sure I'll have many more amusing pict's to share as the summer progresses.
For those of you who've already received this funny little story via email from a friend or co-worker, forgive me. I couldn't resist sharing it with all of my blogging friends. It will be appreciated mainly by you women, but I'm sure there are some men out there who can identify with this phenomenon since their wife may have experienced one or more of these "thefts"! Sit back and prepare to laugh!
Beware, this may happen to you, too??!!??!!>
Theft warning!!!! You've heard about people who have been abducted and had their kidneys removed by black-market organ thieves?
Well, my thighs were stolen from me during the night a few years ago. I went to sleep and woke up with someone else's thighs. It was just that quick. The replacements had the texture of cooked oatmeal. Whose thighs were these and what happened to mine? I spent the entire summer looking for my thighs. Finally, hurt and angry, I resigned myself to living out my life in jeans.
And then the thieves struck again.
My butt was next. I knew it was the same gang, because they took pains to match my new rear-end to the thighs they had stuck me with earlier. But my new butt was attached at least three inches lower than my original!! I realized I'd have to give up my jeans in favor of long skirts.
Two years ago I realized my arms had been switched. One morning I was fixing my hair and was horrified to see the flesh of my upper arm swing to and fro with the motion of the hairbrush. This was really getting scary--my body was being replaced one section at a time. What could they do to me next??
When my poor neck suddenly disappeared and was replaced with a turkey neck, I decided to tell my story. Women of the world, wake up and smell the coffee!! Those 'plastic' surgeons are using REAL replacement body parts--stolen from you and me!! The next time someone you know has something 'lifted', look again-- was it lifted from you??
THIS IS NOT A HOAX!!!! This is happening to women everywhere every night.
WARN YOUR FRIENDS!!!!!!
P.S. Last year I thought some one had stolen my Boobs. I was lying in bed and they were gone!! But when I jumped out of bed, I was relieved to see that they had just been hiding in my armpits as I slept. Now I keep them hidden in my waistband.
Peeking out the window to our back yard, Mollie thought she saw what looked like a snake. I couldn't resist and grabbed the camera. Sure enough we had a 3 foot black racer chowing down on an afternoon snack. He wasn't thrilled I was watching him, but he was so consumed with trying to fit a tree frog into his mouth, all he really did was just keep an eye on me while dining. I'm not a lover of snakes, but tree frogs are at the top of my list of detested reptiles, so I'm good with one less stuck to my french doors!
We'll I'm finally taking the time to sit down and post my thoughts on my most recent read - Burn Brightly without Burning Out by Richard Biggs.
Here's what I came up with:
Ability and attitude, when used in right combination, can determine the outcome of your goals. For example, if I say I want to run a 10K race, I'll never be able to do it if I'm constantly telling myself as I'm running, "I can't do it, it's too hard!" No matter how well trained I am physically, my mental attitude will destroy all of that with one thought! Attitude will make or break you. As John Maxwell says in The Winning Attitude - "Our natural reaction is to bail out of the right attitude to compensate for our problems." Here are a few of the most prevalent attitude busters as listed by Biggs: Problems, self-pity, worry, criticism and fear of failure. Personally, the last one is my vice!
Doing four things well is the next truth I found helpful: 1) Define your purpose, 2) Determine your dominant interests, 3) Develop your goals, 4) Decide on your priorities. If we maintain our daily priorities well then we will eventually achieve our goals. When you reach your goals in all of your dominant interests, you find balance. Where there is balance you are more readily able to "fulfill your purpose and lead a more meaningful life." It sounds simple but requires great discipline and focus to achieve. We need to be very intentional as we tackle each new day.
As women, we juggle a lot of responsibilities. Children, husbands, jobs, our home, ministry, and the list goes on. How do we keep things manageable without losing our minds? If you're struggling with this right now in your life, this system is for you! Biggs shares these 5 "D's" to help prioritize goals and get more done: 1)Determine Importance--develop a habit of listing the things that need to be done each day and then stay focused, 2)Deadline It - assign items a specific time slot and stick to it, 3)Decide on a Plan of Implementation - beware, however, of letting the planning become a time waster, 4)Delegate - if someone can do it better than you, let them! 5)Do it! - speaks for itself!
The last thing I took away that really hit home with me was "Develop Good Habits." Due to the fact that fear of failure is one of my frailty's, I took to heart Albert Gray's quote that "successful people form the habit of doing things that failures don't like to do." Wow! I read on only to learn that "successful people are influenced by the desire for pleasing results. Failures are influenced by the desire for pleasing methods and are inclined to be satisfied with such results as can be obtained by doing things they like to do," I almost gasped! Is that me? I hope not, but for safe measure I will, from this day forward, determine in my mind to no longer take the easy way out! Jesus didn't!
The humidity is back! If I make it through another summer running in the water-filled air I'm breathing, it'll be a miracle. It's surprising to me that there aren't more drownings recorded in this state! Maybe I should start running with an oxygen tank strapped to my back?
I'm under a little pressure here! One week from today is our next monthly gathering for our Women's Leadership Training. I just finished the itty bitty book that should have taken me two days, not a week and a half to read! So today I'm setting aside a big chunk of time to process through it, take some notes and figure out what was most compelling to me in the nineteen chapters of this 129 page book. I'll fill you in on my findings!
Found out today that Barak or Buraq in Arabic is, "according to Islamic tradition, a creature from the heavens that carried Muhammad from Mecca to Jerusalem and back during the Isra and Miraj (Night Journey), which is the title of one of the chapters of the Koran." Interesting, huh? Oh yeah, and have you seen this video??? Remember to pause the jukebox at the bottom of the page before you push play. I'm sure this is NOT the man I want running the country I'm a citizen of!
Location: Royal Palm Beach, Florida, United States
I've enjoyed documenting life stories and events through the lens of my camera for a few years now, deciding to take my hobby to the world of blogging. I'm no professional, just a mom with her own take on things who loves to share her perspective with others. I hope this photographic journal inspires you!
