Blessed With 40 Years Together!

My kiddos and I recently traveled to Kansas City to visit with my parents. I enjoyed one of the advantages of home schooling my children: I can take school with me! We stayed with them for two weeks and had a wonderful time with them.

One of the reasons for the trip was to help my parents celebrate 40 years of marriage. My two siblings and their families (as well as my hubby) joined us for a special dinner in honor of our parents.

My sister-in-law, Penny, decorated the table with my Mom's wedding china and some lovely fall decorations.


We gathered some photos from their wedding and from their married years and made a display.


We asked them to share some of their story with us: how they met, where they dated, about their wedding day and interesting things that have happened since their marriage.

We chose dishes to prepare for the meal that were reminiscent of their marriage...favorite dishes that reminded them of a certain time in their life:

Mandarin Orange Salad reminded them of a church where Daddy pastored in the early 1970's.

Green Chili Auction Special ... a recipe given to them while they lived in Wyoming.

Chips and Salsa to remind them of a friend who made yummy salsa when they served in Illinois.

Lemon Pound Cake..a favorite of the family's during the 1980's.

We enjoyed a fun and meaningful time with my parents. I am so grateful that they are my parents and that God has given them so many years together.

Chore Charts

Our family shares the chores around the house, and there is nothing like a new chore chart to help us stay on task. Every few months, I like to find a new one to hang on the refrigerator. I guess we get tired of looking at the same one after a while.

Yesterday, while browsing the blog world, I found this one. It is really cute and its free! Go check it out!




photo by ModEcoKids

Sunday On Vacation

We are not at home on this Lord's Day. We are on vacation at a Florida beach. As a result, we truly rested today.

We had a family church service here in the house where we are staying. Joel led us in music with his guitar. We then read and discussed a story from the Bible.


Afterward, it was a restful day of naps, leisurely bike rides, and a stroll on the beach at sunset.




At the end of the day, I read a friends blog and listened to this song. What a fitting song for a blessed day!

O Day of Rest and Gladness

O day of rest and gladness, O day of joy and light,
O balm of care and sadness, most beautiful, most bright:
On Thee, the high and lowly, through ages joined in tune,
Sing holy, holy, holy, to the great God Triune.

On Thee, at the creation, the light first had its birth;
On Thee, for our salvation, Christ rose from depths of earth;
On Thee, our Lord, victorious, the Spirit sent from heaven,
And thus on Thee, most glorious, a triple light was given.

Thou art a port, protected from storms that round us rise;
A garden, intersected with streams of paradise;
Thou art a cooling fountain in life’s dry, dreary sand;
From thee, like Pisgah’s mountain, we view our promised land.

Thou art a holy ladder, where angels go and come;
Each Sunday finds us gladder, nearer to heaven, our home;
A day of sweet refection, thou art a day of love,
A day of resurrection from earth to things above.

Today on weary nations the heavenly manna falls;
To holy convocations the silver trumpet calls,
Where Gospel light is glowing with pure and radiant beams,
And living water flowing, with soul refreshing streams.

New graces ever gaining from this our day of rest,
We reach the rest remaining to spirits of the blessed.
To Holy Ghost be praises, to Father, and to Son;
The church her voice upraises to Thee, blessed Three in One.

Doodles!

My previous post featured some colored pencils that my kiddos have loved using! In this post, I want to show you what they are drawing in!


Just like the smencils, we discovered these great books when someone gave us one as a gift! These books are full of page after page of fun things to do with pencils and crayons!

This page from Beautiful Doodles lets the creative child on the other end of the smencil decorate cupcakes however she wants.


This page from Oodles of Doodles lets the boy in our house draw a really long piece of spaghetti (that's right up his creative alley).

And after you've had fun coloring and drawing on every page of these books, you can start on one of several other Doodles books like this one or this one!

For more information of Doodles books, click here.

Smencils!

My daughter recently received these colored pencils as a gift.


And we LOVE them!

They are colored pencils made from recycled newspapers and scented with some fabulous scents.

We can't seem to quit sniffing them....


And they make math worksheets so much more fun!



If you are looking for a way to add some more fun to your lessons or need a great gift, check out the great Smencil website.

Memory

Memory is a funny thing!

It makes twenty years feel like yesterday.
Yet, it makes twenty years feel like the two decades it is.

Memory recalls funny snippets of times past.
Yet, it fails to remember some of the most important details.

I took a walk today....a walk back to twenty years ago.

She remembered too many practical jokes I had played on her.

I had forgotten them.


I remembered detention shared with her (my ONLY detention ever; probably hers too).

She had forgotten that.


My memory recalled a certain teacher with fondness, hers recalled with much less admiration.

She affectionately reminisced about another teacher, I...not so much!

She remembered letting me read an important journal entry.

I remembered her high school crush.

Memory is a funny thing.

We made new memories today....a shared past, a similar spirit and vision, a common Hope.

Saturday, Sun, Special People

Last weekend was fun! It was one of our few trips to the lake this summer. We used to go to the lake almost every weekend, but as our family and other responsibilities grew, our time there has become limited.

So when we do get to go, it is with much anticipation and excitement! We invited some other Student Ministers and their families along for this special day, and enjoyed a relaxing and fun time with them. One thing I like about being at the lake is I can actually sit in a chair and do nothing. If I were at home, I would feel the pressure of all the house keeping and other duties hanging over me. While at the lake, I can't do anything about those things. Therefore, I enjoy relaxing without guilt. Add a couple of friends in nearby chairs and my day is made!

Of course, sitting in a chair is not ALL we do.

We swim...

and tube....

and eat...

and kneeboard!

We even got our eight year old daughter on the kneeboard for the first time!

We are so grateful for Saturdays with friends...for time to relax...for time for fun!

If only tomorrow were going to be so fun! The to-do list here is lengthy, and I hope to knock out a big portion of it in one day!