With Chick-fil-A sauce please ...

Status Report

Sitting... a foreign concept but if it happens, it is mostly at the computer but also in my car A LOT for the past couple of weeks.

Drinking...Coffee

Noting...a grocery list ... I will be out for several hours today and I need some productivity to happen. I waited for it to just "happen" yesterday but apparently a list is a necessary component.

Weighing...well not myself that's fur-shur.

Tired...like you would not believe and out of breath all the time. Stairs are an Olympic event and carrying Benjamin up those stairs should elicit a round of applause.

Thinking...about changes. So many that are close to me are going through great trials and changes. My thoughts are heavy and I am struggling to remind myself ... His ordained plans shall come to pass and bring Him glory ... this too shall pass.

Wondering...if my doctor would allow me to forgo the whole getting on the scale ordeal. It makes me grouchy.

It also makes me want to drive through Sonic and plow through the dollar menu.

Reading.. This Momentary Marriage by John Piper. I know I should be finished with this already but Chris and I are reading it together and he always has a couple of other books in his pipeline. He is a very studious and serious kind of person.

Recently finished...The last book I finished was A Sane Woman's Guide to Raising a Large Family. Since that was a couple of months ago you could deduce that I am not a speedy reader.

Also wondering...How to keep myself from buying things like this ...


I double-dog dare you to stop me from putting this little cotton-tailed outfit on my baby girl, come springtime.

I. DARE. YOU.



Needing... A week at home without the runnin' and gunnin'. I have some projects that need tending to, but they require hours at a time and not minutes. I find myself with 56 minutes or 23 minutes and that is barely enough time to change out laundry or thaw out some chicken.

Since I excuse myself from getting an actual task accomplished, I usually end up spending 23 or 56 minutes milking a diet Dr. Pepper while watching a recorded episode of Food Network Star.

Since it's all I have time for.

Not liking...All the Michael Jackson coverage. Sorry. We have the entire MJ collection from iTunes so you cannot say we aren't fans of his music. Still, the insanity of the coverage should be a glaring reminder of what kind of importance our culture places on the famous ... and famous for what? Don't get me started.

Leslie posted this on facebook and I thought it was pretty funny ;)


Feeling silly...For ranting about cell phones and teenagers. Cause now my teenagers both have cell phones and we love them. They love them in a hound dog loves the smell of blood sort-of way and I love them because we are able to stay connected through texting when I leave them somewhere.

We have very clear boundaries and a very limited number of folks who are in contact with our children.

Oh. And our children bought their own phones and pay monthly towards the bill.

On that note...I am off to prepare my house for another day of runnin' and gunnin'. The girls have been participating in a drama camp in the West End of Richmond which has required a daily drive time of approximately 3 hours. In that time I have grown to LOVE LOVE LOVE this new song by David Crowder.



He is jealous for me,
Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden,
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And I realize just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me.

And oh, how He loves us so,
Oh how He loves us,
How He loves us all

He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.
Yeah, He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.

We are His portion and He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,
If grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking.
So Heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss,
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest,
I don’t have time to maintain these regrets,
When I think about, the way…

He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.
Yeah, He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.

Status report idea courtesy of Lisa :)

"I'm a Big Boy"

Do you ever notice they stop saying this right about the time it becomes very obvious ...

Disney World ... Part 2

We made it to Orlando around 10:30 a.m. and took the Magical Express bus to Disney. After checking in we decided to head straight to Hollywood Studios for Star Wars Weekend.

Call me a fool, but I was under the naive impression that this would be a great opportunity to see the real "Darth Maul" who was scheduled to sign autographs that day. Each weekend there are different actors & actresses from the actual movie who are present for Star Wars weekend as well as costumed folks who look the part.

I grossly underestimated the popularity of this weekend ... especially in the category of grown men.

If I tried to explain the mobs of people it would never do justice to the actual number of humans crammed into very small spaces in order to see Ray Park! Look ya'll, it's Ray Park! Ray Park!

What in the world is a Ray Park?

Well, the actor who plays Darth Maul of course! Without a stitch of makeup on! So he looks like this:

A nice enough looking fella but we (namely, my 6-year old Jedi son) were thinking he might look more like this:

Especially when we found out that autographs required a special Star Wars fastpass that were unfortunately all given out at around FOUR O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING.

Cause, you see ... folks (namely 40+ year old men) came at the crack o' dawn to received said fastpasses.

So we aimed for a quick ride on Star Tours and knew that we would have to scrap this day and try again the following weekend ... much earlier in the day.

The best part about having happy children? They could care less! I used my lens to take some pictures of the characters that Sam couldn't see and he was cool with that.

The rest of our family made it in town that evening but we had some pretty heavy showers so we hung out in our room for the evening. Rain is pretty much a summertime given in Florida. As veterans we never (almost never) leave our rooms without our ponchos!

Happy 4th!

We had a very sweet 4th of July here at home ...

• Bocce Ball
• Baseball in the backyard
  
• Burgers

And lest you think I was headed towards an alliteration of sorts we also had ...

• Homemade Ice Cream with custom add-ins ... Chris added this, Hannah added cookie dough, Emma added Reese's peanut butter cups and Sam had M & M's. In keeping with the tradition of past pregnancies ... I had heartburn.
  

It was a far cry from the excitement we had last year and we missed our Ferguson family! We have already made our reservations for next year. Hope they can accommodate our growing brood! I am certain we can make room for a pack n' play in master bedroom, right L?

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day Christopher. Our children are blessed beyond measure to call you Daddy and this life is truly a gracious restoration from the Lord. I love you.

"I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten ..." Joel 2:25

The Daily Reception ... Daddy's Home!

Disney World ... Part 1

I cannot believe how fast this summer is flying by! I planned on posting about Disney over the course of several days but it looks like that may turn into several weeks.

We left on a Sunday morning following Emma's dance recital the previous night. I managed to have everyone packed and ready to walk out the front door at a glaring 5:30 in the morning.

My peacock feathers were opened up for the world to see.

If I fail to mention Benjamin's rash it will come up later ... because it only got worse. At this point in our trip I was convinced it was something as simple as sun poisoning or an allergic reaction ... I was convinced and somewhat delusional.

As Chris parked the truck in shuttle parking I went to check our 10 pieces of luggage with the airlines.

What's that? Checking luggage cost money?

Pfft. Nonsense. Bologna. Crazy talk.

Um. Guess what Proud Peacock Momma had no clue about on her "Oh-So-Well-Planned-Out" vacation?

Please do not take this opportunity to tell me about how everyone knows the airlines charge for baggage. I will then take the opportunity to ask you HOW?

I watch very little television. I am not a world traveler. When my husband travels for work he always takes one carry-on piece.

TELL ME HOW I WAS SUPPOSED TO KNOW THIS???

I booked through Travelocity and there was nary a mention of such an atrocity.

Had I been even remotely aware of this gouging I would not have encouraged my children to Surely! Pack your stuffed animals in an entire suitcase! Bring your blankies! I love to pay money for senseless things!

It sort of knocked me off kilter for a bit.

The airlines encouraged me to carry a couple of more bags on with me, which we did.

Here is a piece of helpful advice. Luggage carts are available at the Richmond Airport for arrival only. If you have four children and 6 carry-on pieces you might should consider how you shall get to and fro.

My husband is glad I shared that. His back and forearms are forever changed.

By the time we had everyone barefoot and ready to go through security I felt like we might just be okay.

Until she brought me an item from the above mentioned suitcase (brand new bottle of sunscreen) and another item (brand new bottle of lotion) and then another item (brand new bottle of dishwashing liquid) and then another item (brand new bottle of Wrinkle Release).

As my body began to convulse, I threw the unopened bottles into the trash can.

Apparently, in my zeal for packing early, I had forgotten a few of these oddly placed items.

Fancy that.

I've taken the baby out of the stroller, folded it up and we have made our way through the "I can see your insides" archway and have started to try and gather our massive mound of carry-on.

Big Daddy is soooo thankful that I saved an extra $50 and carried that luggage on the plane ... he told me so.

In a sort-of sarcastic tone.

As the very unhappy and angry-to-have-a-job airport employee tested Benjamin's milk for Agent Orange, I decided to make light of the situation with a teensy little joke.

I said:

"So. Do you ever have people break down in tears at this point?"
(thinking to myself ... DON'T YOU CRY YOU BIG BABY ... it's just Wrinkle Release for crying out loud)

To which she responded:

"Uh. No ... E-REE-BODY knows the rules."
(while her eyes rolled back in her head)

Let the floodgates open.

The ugly cry began and I thought my oldest was going into a tiger-like pounce position, so we made our way to the gate.

I am blubbering all the way.

"IIIII ... tttried (snort, snot, snort) sssssooo ... hhhhard (snort, snort) I ... cccan'ttt ... bbbelieve (snort, huff, huff, huff)

Hannah has now grown about 6-inches and would like a word with the airport employee ...

Outside.

Things calmed down rather quickly as I gave up my snubbing & sobbing session.

The flight was uneventful and I even had an extra seat for Benjamin. These pictures show off his splendid rash and precious lovin' session with Daddy ...

All Over the Place

Our state homeschool convention starts today and I will be in and out trying to visit as many sessions as I can. This is my first time to go and I am so excited about seeing all my favorite curriculum's up close!

I have my lists, which are bound to be illegible before this weekend is over, but it's a good place to start :)

We went the Pocahontas State Park pool/waterpark earlier this week and I am officially the "most-white girl" in the county.

No question.

Chris bought me the This Momentary Marriage for Mother's Day and with it the Marriage Gift Set which included Velvet Steel & the audio CD's.

"Most foundationally, marriage is the doing of God. And ultimately, marriage is the display of God. It displays the covenant-keeping love between Christ and his people to the world in a way that no other event or institution does. Marriage, therefore, is not mainly about being in love. It’s mainly about telling the truth with our lives. And staying married is not about staying in love. It is about keeping covenant and putting the glory of Christ’s covenant-keeping love on display."

“If you are married, this is why, If you hope to be, this should be your dream.” - John Piper

It was my favorite Mother's Day gift thus far.

I took this picture of Benjamin last month at a friend's birthday party. Do I need to tell you how much I love my camera?

(the boy too)