Juniorish Status

Stephen has begun his new chapter for his education.  On Monday 8/25, he ventured to Temple University to begin his course work.

There will be many new and exciting (hopefully) changes that will go along with this season.  Namely taking the train as his method of transportation to school every.single.day.  Brings back memories as I too went to Temple and took the train to campus.  

Another change is that he is working at a restaurant.  While it is close to home, there will be days where he goes straight from train to work.  This, I think will be the bigger adjustment as he did not have to go from school all day and then an 8 hour shift.  Only to be followed up by a wakeup call at 7:00a the next day.  

I see God preparing him for so many good and interesting things.  

Summer Time Finale

My young ones have been attending Surf Camp with Urban Surf Ministries for a few years now.  They say it has become their favorite time of summer.  But the sad fact is that it means summer is coming to a close and school will be starting.  So here are some photos from this year.

Walk out in Faith

So this past Saturday I had the honor and privilege to listen to a testimony from a Godly Woman.  She and her family are missionaries in Kenya.  (This is where me and my young ones went back in November).  In listening to her I was reminded to allow God to direct my paths.  This means to walk out in faith even if I don't know what the next step will be.  Let me just say, that is HARD.  I am such a person who plans and likes to have an idea of how things will go.  But God is reminding me that I am His, so He should do all the leading.
I am not too excited to be heading into this kind of season.  However, I do trust my God to push, pull, prod and carry me when and where needed.
Today I read Philippians 4 and was reminded about being anxious.  Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Hard Day

Yesterday was a hard day for me.  Can't really explain as to why but there was a lot of frustration and irritation over the least little things.
My constant throughout the day was to remember all the blessings in my life.  I went on a 30 minute walk and the entire time I was thanking the Lord for all that he has given me and done in my life.
It can be so easy to camp in the frustration and irritation but I was not allowing the enemy or my flesh, for that matter, to win.
Every victory is given to us my our Heavenly Father.  I know I could not have changed yesterday around on my own strentgh.  It was by inviting him into my presence that I was able to let go of all that I was feeling and change it around to be thankful and grateful.
So today, my day started way earlier than I wanted or expected.  (Especially since I did not fall asleep until 2:30a).  The maintenance guy that was due between 9a-12p came 2 1/2 hours earlier.  Needless to say when the phone rang at 7:13a, I was none too thrilled.  But as we are meant to do, I put on my big girl pants and started my day.  And what a beautiful, gorgeous, splendid day it is already.  Just look at this beauty.

My House My Home

Last week two of my children were away on a missions trip.  My hubby was traveling two days and my eldest was working 3 days/nights.  I was inwardly looking forward to some quiet and solitude.  Thinking I would be able to get so much accomplished within my home and some reading I challenged myself to last month.
All I have to say is.... HA!  What a joke.  The storms that moved through made my house a chaotic nightmare.  My eldest and I were scooping bucketfuls of water out of one of our window wells as the rains poured down and the well filled up.  If the well gets too full, the water makes its way into the basement.  Ugh, is that a mess.  (Unfortunately this has happened too many times before).  We thought we got a handle on this buy purchasing a pump to drain the water out of the well.  We did not account for loss of power.  Hence, the scooping.  We were able to eliminate a lot of water from entering but we still had some enter in.  Lots of towels to the rescue.  We just kept praying for the power to come back on so we could stop scooping and use the pump.  Plus we were getting low on towels and needed the power on to dry all the towels!!
Eldest had to leave for work and thankfully the worst of the storm had passed through our area.  We had two days/evenings of this.  Thankfully only 1 day consisted of power loss.
Husband returns after grueling travel for him due to the storms.
I spent a day with family as my aunt was diagnosed with breast cancer and she required surgery.  Wanted to be able to see her and make sure all was well.  (Amen, it is).
Home Fellowship was that night, so I rushed back to get house and snacks ready.  Next morning it was preparing the youngest's room for his new bedroom furniture coming later in the week.  Let me just say he had items tucked in places I didn't even know existed.  LOOOOONG day later we were able to get it all prepared.  Now we wait for the arrival of mattress and bed and new bedding.
My thoughts of quiet solitude did not turn out. (Body aches however, were very present).
This afternoon I picked up the young ones and my house is back to normal noise level.  As I currently type this they are all playing a game together and the volume keeps getting louder and louder.
It is so good to have them home!!!
Enjoy your home while the people are there because all too soon they will be leaving in one way or another.