Best Friends

Happy Memorial Day! These three plan on having a lot of fun this summer.

 

 
 

School is out!

I can hardly believe another year has come and gone. My sweet little Amelia finished Kindergarten today, and Ella's moving on to the third grade next year. Say what? Seriously, the days are long but the years fly by. So here's to summer! Here's to another great year!

Amelia with her best friend, Liam, on the first, 100th, and last days of school. They are so cute.

My cute Ella joins in on the fun.

Goof balls😜
 
 

 

Air Show

Posing with the military from different wars we have fought in.

Yes, that's my daughter with a bazooka!

And my other daughter with a rifle.

One of the many really cool planes we got to see.

Alex had fun too.

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 
 

 
 
 
 
 

 

 

Field Trip!

I volunteered to help chaperone a field trip for Ella's Gateways class. We went to the high school for an Oceans and Motions exhibit, where all the high school students taking advanced science classes set up different stations with fun hands on stations. Ella enjoyed learning about marine life and getting to explore more about human skeletons and all the things that give us motion (hence the name Oceans and Motions). It was a nice day.

Ella and some of her classmates. 

 

 

 

Nationals Baseball Family Outing

Shaun's company gave us five tickets to a Nationals ball game along with $15 for each person for food. It was fantastic! The whole evening ended up costing about $300, but we only paid about $30 out of pocket, and that was for parking and some souvenirs. The kids had a lot of fun, and the Nats won!!! Good times had by all😊. Hopefully we can do it again next season!

 
 
 
 

 
 

Some Days...

 

Look at these two? These stinker angels who confiscated my phone and took the above selfie. I have beatiful moments with these girls. "Aha" moments where they've learned something for the first time, or they make connections with certain concepts. Or best of all, they feel the spirit and we point out what that feeling is and we embrace the peace and comfort speaking to our hearts. But then, some days... Days like today, I wonder how on earth I've failed as a parent. When it's raining for the 20th day in a row, and your husband is stressed because he's starting a new job, and the baby only takes a 20 minute nap, and anything that can possibly go wrong does just that.  These are the days I wonder about what my life would be like in a parallel universe. I think I'd be single and I'd definitely be in shape because of all the time I wouldn't be spending feeding my children nutritious meals like macaroni and cheese for the third time in one week. I'd be an interior designer and I'd live in the city. I'd dress well and have fabulous shoes. I'd have an amazing social life (obviously), and I'd travel frequently. *sigh* Some days I think I need a re-write. I wonder if this truly is the "plan of happiness" because happy is not an adjective I'd use to describe what feels like an endless life of servitude with very little gratitude or appreciation. Seriously some days I feel my faith waiver and doubt creeps in. I wonder what is all of this for? The three hours of church where you spend the first hour in the hall with your baby, the second hour helping in the nursery, and the third hour teaching the youth who all have their doubts.  Then you come home and there's so much arguing the spirit is long gone and it's all I can do to not want to pull all of my hair out. Some days I long for peace and solitude found in nature and away from the chaos of my home where the messes are endless and the frustration levels are mounting. So tonight I just left. I left Shaun with the kids and I got in the car and drove. I drove down one of my favorite roads and tried to bring my soul back to nature, back to God. I parked at an amazingly beautiful vista where Virginia's rolling hills and shades of blues and greens met a gray sky. I sat marveling at the beauty of God's creations and pondered.

I thought about all of the things that are on my plate, and the sheer fatigue at the thought of trying to accomplish them, and the likely frustration and disappointment that would ensue. But as I turned my thoughts to God and his power and grace, the thought that entered my mind was that I didn't have to solve all of the struggles in that moment, I just had to put one foot forward and stay on the path. Sometimes enduring well simply means that you don't throw in the towel. That when you're ready to go live your life in your parallel universe that you say "heck to the no" and you drive back home and hug your babies and stay the course, the very bumpy and not so easy course. Some days... you just have to take life one step at a time. Then moments will come where you can look back and see the beautiful view and where you have been and why you had to be there. Those beautiful moments give clarity and bring perspective. Much like the beautiful vista I was looking at today, they help you realize the drive was worth it. But a lot of the times our route is cloaked in fog and darkness. It's hard to figure out why the road turns sharply, or we're tasked with the steep hills, but in those moments we take one step at a time until in God's own time and in His own way He shows us what all of it was for. Today was hard, but I didn't give up. I went home and I hugged my babies. We had a good talk about showing respect and listening, about bringing the spirit of peace and love into our home by making good choices. And tomorrow we will start all over again. And so it goes, day in and day out. I wrote earlier about "becoming" the best possible me, and some days that means just taking steps into the darkness in faith. Some days are just like that, and that's okay.

 

3+7=Reflective

So this week I turned 37. I love birthdays and I think if you have a reason for joyful celebration embrace it and embrace life. But I do feel old. For that reason my husband threw me a "little kid " party and told me I was 3+7. Well math has never been a strength of mine but I'm pretty sure that makes me 10! So there's a reason to celebrate right there. Here are some photos from my childlike festivities.

My cute kids!

We also got together with friends for dinner this weekend. And I had a great lunch date with Emily in Fredericksburg, so my week long celebration (scaled down from my month long parties) was a success.

In typical birthday fashion, I've grown reflective this week as I've thought about where I've been and the direction I'm headed in. I've pondered what it means to become the best possible version of myself. I believe this is only possible through turning my heart and will over to Jesus Christ, who makes weak things strong. I've asked myself: How can I reach my full potential? Am I conducting my life in such a way that I'm not merely surviving, but thriving? What are the spiritual gifts I've been blessed with and am I using them? Am I magnifying them? Am I becoming the person God intends for me to be? Am I merely enduring or am I enduring well? I pondered these questions because I wonder what sphere of influence I will have in this life. When I am no longer, what legacy will I have left? Whether large or small I want to be a change agent for good. I want to help my fellow man. Right now at this stage in my life  I'm primarily focusing on being the best momma that I can be, but one day my children will be grown and leading lives of their own (I hope). So who am I? What are my gifts and how can I best use them to serve? As hard as it has been for me to put my full heart into social work really since starting my own family, I think it truly has been a good fit for me. I think at this point however I just have depleted resources to give because being momma always come first, and my littles require a lot of attention and energy. But in ten years, twenty years, maybe I will go into private practice? Or maybe I'll go for more of a macro level systems change role. Maybe I can one day supervise others. I've been the lead social worker and I feel like my organizational skills really lend them self to management in the future. Of course I could change course completely and start staging model homes. I guess the nice thing is to have options. But on an even more personal level, whatever I decide to DO doesn't compare in importance to who I decide to BE. I think the two can shape each other and are inextricably linked, but the BEING is so very important. So who do I want to be? I want to be a daughter of God, sanctified through the atoning blood of Jesus Christ. I want to BE an instrument in His hands. I want to live close to the spirit so I can follow promptings as they occur. I want to BE what I could never be on my own. I want to have my heart changed, the natural man washed away. I want to live as He would have me live. I want to be who He would have me to be. Through prayer, through study, through pondering, through the choices I make and the way I conduct myself, I want to love others as He does. So that's my reflection for 37. I want to become. It's a process, but I want to be more fully engaged in becoming than to let life act upon me. I want to proactively seek out life (because right now I feel the only thing I proactively seek are naps)and be the best possible me there is to be. And I think if I'm doing that there is no telling what I can do. I think through power from on high weak things are made strong, and my sphere of influence, whether great or small, will be powerful. What I do and what I become, when linked with the help of the Lord, will exceed even my own expectations.