Here are some pictures of us enjoying the weather...
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| Apple Picking at Carter Mountain |
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| GeoCaching |
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| Biking in the leaves |
~LL
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Fall Fun
I just love this time of the year more than any other. It is cool outside, it's beautiful with all of the leaves changing, and everyone seems happy to get out and play.
Here are some pictures of us enjoying the weather...
~LL
Here are some pictures of us enjoying the weather...
~LL
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
15
Well yesterday came and went. Sunday they were 14 and Monday they were 15. I did a little reflecting here and there as the day approached. Smiling at what beautiful, amazing young ladies they have become. Reminiscing at funny little stories of the past. But then it hit me. I began to think about how different my life is 15 years later. How different OUR life is 15 years later.
I don't think back much. I don't even think about last week to much. I have learned to live life looking forward. The only time I look backwards is to take notice, small glances, at the stones of remembrance that I have left in my past.
Some of those stones are past hardships that now help me to press on when we have tough times.
Some are stones of people (wretched people :-) that now stand to remind me of the kindness I should always show people.
Some are stones of places that we have lived, and loved.
Some are stones of bad choices that stand to remind me of God's grace and mercy in my life.
All of my stones stand to remind me of something great, that God has allowed in my life. Good or bad, but all great. When I pause to glance back at the stone that was placed in my life 15 years ago, I can't help but to shake my head. I am still dumb founded at what God allowed into my life to show His grace to me. I glance at our beautiful daughters and I can't believe that He would entrust them to us. Despite my choices.
The girls are now 10th graders. Six months from a learners permit, two years from graduating. Both love life in their own ways.
B loves horses. She is compassionate and heartfelt. She is giving and kind. She reads anything she can get her hands on. She is a dreamer. She dreams of a horse farm and a cowboy to run it :-) She is the kindness I want to be.
S loves the arts. She is passionate and driven. She is already planning her move to a film school and then out of the country. She is kind to people when they wouldn't even notice it. She reads like crazy but it is always for information not fiction. She is grounded and a planner. She is the curiosity I wish I had.
Fifteen. Wow! Fifteen.
~LL
I can't even begin to express my awe for the life God has allowed us to walk over the past years. We (a family of 6) are truly blessed beyond measure.
I don't think back much. I don't even think about last week to much. I have learned to live life looking forward. The only time I look backwards is to take notice, small glances, at the stones of remembrance that I have left in my past.
Some of those stones are past hardships that now help me to press on when we have tough times.
Some are stones of people (wretched people :-) that now stand to remind me of the kindness I should always show people.
Some are stones of places that we have lived, and loved.
Some are stones of bad choices that stand to remind me of God's grace and mercy in my life.
All of my stones stand to remind me of something great, that God has allowed in my life. Good or bad, but all great. When I pause to glance back at the stone that was placed in my life 15 years ago, I can't help but to shake my head. I am still dumb founded at what God allowed into my life to show His grace to me. I glance at our beautiful daughters and I can't believe that He would entrust them to us. Despite my choices.
The girls are now 10th graders. Six months from a learners permit, two years from graduating. Both love life in their own ways.
B loves horses. She is compassionate and heartfelt. She is giving and kind. She reads anything she can get her hands on. She is a dreamer. She dreams of a horse farm and a cowboy to run it :-) She is the kindness I want to be.
S loves the arts. She is passionate and driven. She is already planning her move to a film school and then out of the country. She is kind to people when they wouldn't even notice it. She reads like crazy but it is always for information not fiction. She is grounded and a planner. She is the curiosity I wish I had.
Fifteen. Wow! Fifteen.
~LL
I can't even begin to express my awe for the life God has allowed us to walk over the past years. We (a family of 6) are truly blessed beyond measure.
Monday, October 3, 2011
Crock pot
I don't know about you but....tis the season....for crock pot cooking. One of my favorite things about fall is that I get to start using the crock pot regularly without complaint. Not that I stop using it in the spring and summer but I just try to not use it as much.
Anyway, as the season kicks back up I wanted to post this website that I found off of pinterest. Its HERE. Tons and tons of crock pot recipes to try.
Happy Crock potting :-)
~LL
Anyway, as the season kicks back up I wanted to post this website that I found off of pinterest. Its HERE. Tons and tons of crock pot recipes to try.
Happy Crock potting :-)
~LL
Monday, September 19, 2011
Gifts
School has started, the temperature has dropped, and some way some how (if only for a moment) our house has slowed down. It kind of seems that every year around this time, life kind of slows down a little. We all get back into our routine, Summer church projects have been completed and Christmas ones have yet to get started. I have determined that God gives me this couple of weeks so that I can regain my sanity :-) Because I don't know about you, but summer at our house is just.plain.busy.
I was sitting the other morning at the Home school co-op that we are apart of and I was observing the, over 50 families that are there. Some are your typical home school families, some are normal looking people who just happen to home school, and then there is us (I don't know where we fall on the spectrum anymore :-). As I sat there I began to admire how different all of our families are and how despite the different looks that some of us embrace or the different schooling styles we use, we all were there for the same reason. We all, at some point, for some rationale, decided that our children would be better in a home based educational environment than public/private school.
And then it hit me as we were all asked to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance....I was reminded that we, despite our motivation, we home school because we can. We home school because we have the freedom to choose to home school. I all of the sudden found myself holding back tears. Tears of thankfulness. For all who had fought for my family and the 50+ sitting around me, to be able to make choices like to home school or not.
It is very easy for me to sip my tea sitting by the window on a cool brisk morning enjoying the sound of school buses going by, and LOVING the fact that mine don't have to get on it. But it is also easy for my to miss all that I have been given and who gave it to me.
My tea,the coolness in the air, my sleepy children, my husband, my home, my rights. Truly 1000 gifts.
Did you know that the Pledge of Allegiance was first published in 1892.
It read like this:
I pledge allegiance to my Flag,
and to the Republic for which it stands:
one Nation indivisible,
With Liberty and Justice for all.
On June 14, 1923 the Pledge received another make over and it read:
I pledge allegiance tomy the
Flag of the United States,
and to the Republic for which it stands:
one Nation indivisible,
With Liberty and Justice for all.
The following year it changed again:
I pledge allegiance to the Flag
of the United States of America,
and to the Republic for which it stands:
one Nation indivisible,
With Liberty and Justice for all.
The last change in the Pledge of Allegiance occurred on June 14 (Flag Day), 1954 when President Dwight D. Eisenhower approved adding the words "under God". As he authorized this change he said:
"In this way we are reaffirming the transcendence of religious faith in America's heritage and future; in this way we shall constantly strengthen those spiritual weapons which forever will be our country's most powerful resource in peace and war."
It is then that the Pledge of Allegiance was changed to read:
I pledge allegiance to the Flag
of the United States of America,
and to the Republic for which it stands:
one Nation under God, indivisible,
With Liberty and Justice for all.
~LL
I was sitting the other morning at the Home school co-op that we are apart of and I was observing the, over 50 families that are there. Some are your typical home school families, some are normal looking people who just happen to home school, and then there is us (I don't know where we fall on the spectrum anymore :-). As I sat there I began to admire how different all of our families are and how despite the different looks that some of us embrace or the different schooling styles we use, we all were there for the same reason. We all, at some point, for some rationale, decided that our children would be better in a home based educational environment than public/private school.
And then it hit me as we were all asked to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance....I was reminded that we, despite our motivation, we home school because we can. We home school because we have the freedom to choose to home school. I all of the sudden found myself holding back tears. Tears of thankfulness. For all who had fought for my family and the 50+ sitting around me, to be able to make choices like to home school or not.
It is very easy for me to sip my tea sitting by the window on a cool brisk morning enjoying the sound of school buses going by, and LOVING the fact that mine don't have to get on it. But it is also easy for my to miss all that I have been given and who gave it to me.
My tea,the coolness in the air, my sleepy children, my husband, my home, my rights. Truly 1000 gifts.
Did you know that the Pledge of Allegiance was first published in 1892.
It read like this:
I pledge allegiance to my Flag,
and to the Republic for which it stands:
one Nation indivisible,
With Liberty and Justice for all.
On June 14, 1923 the Pledge received another make over and it read:
I pledge allegiance to
Flag of the United States,
and to the Republic for which it stands:
one Nation indivisible,
With Liberty and Justice for all.
The following year it changed again:
I pledge allegiance to the Flag
of the United States of America,
and to the Republic for which it stands:
one Nation indivisible,
With Liberty and Justice for all.
The last change in the Pledge of Allegiance occurred on June 14 (Flag Day), 1954 when President Dwight D. Eisenhower approved adding the words "under God". As he authorized this change he said:
"In this way we are reaffirming the transcendence of religious faith in America's heritage and future; in this way we shall constantly strengthen those spiritual weapons which forever will be our country's most powerful resource in peace and war."
It is then that the Pledge of Allegiance was changed to read:
I pledge allegiance to the Flag
of the United States of America,
and to the Republic for which it stands:
one Nation under God, indivisible,
With Liberty and Justice for all.
~LL
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Volunteers or Activists
What would we do without volunteers?
Webster defines them as one who renders a service or takes part in a transaction while having no legal concern or interest (2) : one who receives a conveyance or transfer of property without giving valuable consideration.
That definition doesn't come close to the way I would define Lifepoint's volunteers. "having no legal concern or action"..."without giving valuable consideration" Clearly Webster is wrong. The word Activist almost seems more appropriate. Webster defines and Activist as one who is especially active, vigorous advocate of a cause, especially a political cause. That seems a little more accurate except for the political part :-)
Our volunteers/activist serve with hearts like I have never seen. They move vacations to volunteer, they arrange work schedules to volunteer, they are 2nd time guest and they sign up to volunteer. The volunteer culture at Lifepoint is amazing. There are teams all over the place on Sunday morning and throughout the week who work tirelessly to serve our community for ONE purpose "To Reach People Who are Far From God". That is their cause! Most serve because they have been in a front row seat of a "life change story". They have either personally experienced it at Lifepoint or they know someone who has. They have seen God save marriages, heal homes, and change lives. They have watched children invite families and homes be changed forever. They have watch Husbands lead their homes and entire families come to Christ. They have watched Hell be shaken because they chose to be an active part of what God is doing in a little town in Virginia.
Each Sunday these volunteers serve God, our Church, and our community and this past weekend we had the chance to serve them. Each year the staff and staff families celebrate our volunteers at some type of dinner. Last year it was a Luau but this year it was an 80's BASH! There were costumes and costumes and more costumes. It was unreal how excited everyone was over dressing up in their 80's stuff. This seemed to be the only topic of conversation for weeks leading up to the big event. I will list some of the highlights:
-A Rubics Cube cake
-A living room setup to play the original Nintendo
-An 80's Mustang parked in the middle of the room
-Karaoke (with only 80's music of course)
-Roller skates for those who wanted to wear them
-Tin Lunch boxes, Stuffed CareBears, My Little Ponies as table toppers
-Tv's around the room playing 80's movies
-A dance floor where the Staff (not spouses, just the staff :-) came out and danced the Thriller dance.
And this is what the staff did to show their love to all those hard working volunteers :-)
This is just SOME of the over 300 costumes:
Webster defines them as one who renders a service or takes part in a transaction while having no legal concern or interest (2) : one who receives a conveyance or transfer of property without giving valuable consideration.
That definition doesn't come close to the way I would define Lifepoint's volunteers. "having no legal concern or action"..."without giving valuable consideration" Clearly Webster is wrong. The word Activist almost seems more appropriate. Webster defines and Activist as one who is especially active, vigorous advocate of a cause, especially a political cause. That seems a little more accurate except for the political part :-)
Our volunteers/activist serve with hearts like I have never seen. They move vacations to volunteer, they arrange work schedules to volunteer, they are 2nd time guest and they sign up to volunteer. The volunteer culture at Lifepoint is amazing. There are teams all over the place on Sunday morning and throughout the week who work tirelessly to serve our community for ONE purpose "To Reach People Who are Far From God". That is their cause! Most serve because they have been in a front row seat of a "life change story". They have either personally experienced it at Lifepoint or they know someone who has. They have seen God save marriages, heal homes, and change lives. They have watched children invite families and homes be changed forever. They have watch Husbands lead their homes and entire families come to Christ. They have watched Hell be shaken because they chose to be an active part of what God is doing in a little town in Virginia.
Each Sunday these volunteers serve God, our Church, and our community and this past weekend we had the chance to serve them. Each year the staff and staff families celebrate our volunteers at some type of dinner. Last year it was a Luau but this year it was an 80's BASH! There were costumes and costumes and more costumes. It was unreal how excited everyone was over dressing up in their 80's stuff. This seemed to be the only topic of conversation for weeks leading up to the big event. I will list some of the highlights:
-A Rubics Cube cake
-A living room setup to play the original Nintendo
-An 80's Mustang parked in the middle of the room
-Karaoke (with only 80's music of course)
-Roller skates for those who wanted to wear them
-Tin Lunch boxes, Stuffed CareBears, My Little Ponies as table toppers
-Tv's around the room playing 80's movies
-A dance floor where the Staff (not spouses, just the staff :-) came out and danced the Thriller dance.
And this is what the staff did to show their love to all those hard working volunteers :-)
This is just SOME of the over 300 costumes:
 |
| Mary Lou |
 |
| Optimus Prime |
 |
| Prom |
 |
| Smurfs |
 |
| Elliot and ET |
The Cake ! And if you can see beside the cake are little real Rubics Cubes with the LC logo printed on them. They were "take home" gifts.
It was an amazing night to honor and love on some amazing Activist. Who vigorously advocate for the Cross.
~LL
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