It was TEXAS hot today!

I am always the first one to scoff at the people here who say how *hot* it is because I know (along with fellow Texans) that you really can't appreciate *hot* till you have been in Texas in the summer. When we visit home, I have to acclimate my children to the heat down there and remind them of their born ability to cope, since they were born on Texas soil. It's that sort of heat where you just get out of the car, breathe and move quickly towards a body of water or air conditioning. No speaking or groaning because that would just make you hotter.

You just focus...Focus on surviving.

Well, today was a vivid reminder of what *hot* is and so we stayed cool by swimming with our sweet (sweaty?) friends. We do not have a pool and most people we are friends with do not have a pool (of their own) but large neighborhood pools are very common here (just not in our neighborhood). We most often frequent the same pool and I refer to our family as the vagabond pool bums. No bother, really because the pool isn't that crowded so it isn't like we are stealing someone else's spot but I am sure if they check surveillance they might reconfigure their neighborhood covenants after this summer.



We had a wonderful time and tried to relish the end of summer with the fellowship of our friends. We are relatively the same age with at least of couple of kids in the same grades. Not one of us is from this state, but most of us have some Texas roots (not a prerequisite but it helps). What has drawn us together is the common thread that we want desperately to have holy homes, godly marriages, and Christ-centered families. The Texas part is just the cherry on top (hee-hee).


I am immensely grateful for the Godly council & accountability that I am blessed enough to be on the receiving end of. I am never able to take credit for compliments or praises in regard to my parenting or life skills because it has been such a combined effort of these sisters that God has so wisely placed in my path and the Lord himself as he has shaped any and all of the *right* things I have done. I have always been a brain-picker (better than nose) and most always it is so that I may examine their ways and try to glean a nugget of how that God-fearing woman/wife/mother made her choices.

Without my own mother or sister, you would imagine a void or absence existing somewhere within me but incredibly there is none. I have found that in the place of that void the Lord has most graciously placed beautiful friends and family both near and far that love me with this radical, forgiving, unexplainable kind of love. A great big hug & kiss (we kiss in Texas) to my sister & mother substitutes because the Lord has used you in a mighty way and through that you have unknowingly shaped my life and I am forever grateful!