cement day

This is for Gail...:)

it is no suprise that the kids ideal day would be to spend all day at the Campground with Daddy.  As well, they both have a great love for Cement Trucks.

This was last years cement day at our house when we first started our addition.

And these are some pictures from Woodsmoke the other day when the men were pouring a cement pad.  We got the kids up early, picked up some bagels from Panera and brought them to the guys, and they helped Daddy pour cement.  What a fun day!

What the boys are loving right now!

Getting Soaked and Filthy!

Owen's required item for playing outside: sunglasses 

Caeden's required item for playing outside: shovel 

Puddle Splashing!

Playing in the rain

Fun with the hose

Answered Prayer

My oldest boy has had glasses for 2 years now.  He was born with a dermoid on the lateral border of the iris in his right eye.  When he was 2 years of age our pediatrician recommended we see a Pediatric Opthamologist to further diagnose his eye.  Through several doctors visits we found out that he had an astigmatism and amblyopia and would need to wear glasses at all times and  a patch for 2  hours a day (on the good eye).  Last week we had another check up with the doctor and received a huge answer to prayer.  His eyesight has improved so much that he no longer needs glasses!! Amazing.  The doctor wants him to wear a patch on the good eye for up to an hour a day. In order to do that we need to either use the patch we have that fits on his glasses, but pop out the lens on the left eye or find a cool pirate patch like this ...

 I am so thankful that we serve a God that heals and a God that truly bends down an listens to the prayers of his people.  

We will return to the doctor in 8 months to re-check 

his eyesight as well in July, we are taking Owen to the 

opthamologist for his first eye exam since amblyopia can

run in the family.

It's a boy

I previously posted this really quickly because I had just received the news that Amber is expecting a boy due Oct. 10, 2009.  I didn't had time to explain myself before, so, now I will.

My sister, Amber, and her husband, Sam,  have lived over in Italy for 2  1/2 years now as missionaries with Saints Bible Institute.  It is a place where christian college students can study abroad for a semester, receive training in Biblical Theology and Missions and travel throughout Italy.   Sam is the dean of students and Amber teaches Italian to the students.   The school is located in San Lorenzo, Italy which is northeast of Venice.

It was founded by Amber's in-laws (Sam and Chris Spatola) who 11 years ago also founded  Saints Equiped to Evangelize. (SEE)

SEE is a ministry that utilizes short term missions teams to travel Italy in the summer preaching the good news of Jesus and connecting them with local church plants around the country.  I have had the privilege of being involved on a missions team back in 2001 and it was an experience I will never forget.  We were located in Trieste, Italy, during the day we scoured the streets with evangelism and tract distribution, and at night time we performed ministry through mimes and songs in order to draw a crowd in the piazzas, then at the end someone would preach God's salvation message through an interpreter.  I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a life-changing missions adventure in Europe.

If anyone knows of any college students that would jump at the chance to study abroad in Italy, then please contact here  to obtain information.

In October, Owen and I will be flying over to Italy to meet the little bambino and help care for him and my sister.  My parents will be over there as well, but for a longer stay.  I am really excited to be there to purely serve my sister through the birth of her firstborn son, although the location does make it a little sweeter.

Can't wait to see you Am, I love you 

Found Art

This is a plug for my very good friend, college roomate, and VB teammate.

Her name is Leeana (Miller) Tankersley and she has written a  book that you can pre-order on Amazon right now.  It looks like an amazing book, but she is an amazing gal.  She and her husband also have a blog about their twins (Luke and Lane).  Leeana has always been a person that makes me laugh in life, as well as makes me think deeply about life.  I am so proud of her.

So everyone, go order the book now.

And thanks to my great friend Ashley for filling me in on the pre-order!

The description on the book's back cover says:

Found Art is about seeing a certain beauty in an object, a beauty that isn’t inherently there on first glance. It requires vision, a look beyond what is to what could be. 

Navigating a relationship with God in the midst of chaos, confusion, and disappointment can be disorienting. And though glimpses of God appear here and there, more often readers face the frustrating inability to find him in the midst of any of it. 

But what if, like a found artist, God were busy creating something enduring from the scraps and the cast-offs? What if art is seen, not in spite of, but because of, the raw materials?
Through the lens of Ecclesiastes 3, Leeana Tankersley shows readers that sometimes they must let something die if they are ever going to be born again. Sometimes they must fight to keep their roots planted while life is trying desperately to uproot them. Sometimes they must mourn as grief is the only passage out of their pain. And sometimes they must go to war while in the very next moment they long for a day when peace is possible without it.

Any one of these scraps might be a discarded item, but collaged together, they become something entirely different. Art emerges from the carefully collaged odds and ends. God takes the unlikely moments of our lives and pieces them together into something of beauty and worth. 

(taken from Amazon)

Lee, I wish you all the best with this book, I can't wait to read it.

We have sprouts!

our sunflowers have sprouted in the small pot as well as outside.!!

i am excited about our future flowers (and my cheap sun hat)

Obsessions as of late

I have an obsession with rain boots (wellies) on my kids.  They are so great for Fl. summers and so cute in pictures.  We shopped around at few stores this season and finally found our favorites and the most inexpensive too at TJMAXX!   I am also obsessed with figuring out iLife 09 and its photo editing tools.  I might go a little overboard on the editing, but who really cares anyway, it's not like i am selling them.  O is wearing the yellow fireman boots and C is wearing the camo.

But First, here are last years photos:

and here is what last years looks like now.  The green ones got pitched in the trash.

Now, here are this years boot photos so far:

P.S. if I really needed a pair (and I just might) I would want these

these are pretty darn cute also (ebay)

Here is Our Heart

Today's encouragement on "Motivation for Moms"  

Pray for purity in the hearts of your children, and the renewing of their spirit as the Psalmist wrote, "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me." Psalm 51:10

It blew my mind when I read today's Motivation for Mom's because it is EXACTLY what I was praying for my children today and the last few days.  Ever since God impressed upon me to pray Matthew 5:8  for my boys.  "Blessed are the Pure in Heart for they shall See God."

In my journal today I wrote on my thoughts about Purity.  In my mind,  a pure heart does not let any outside/worldly influence crowd the space where God resides.  So i struggle with how to teach my kids to stay pure in such an impure world.  When boys in general are so easily enticed by the lusts of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.  The two verses I came across in my studying purity this morning were

1) James 4:8 "Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.  Cleanse your hands ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double minded."

2) I John 1:7 "If we walk  in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His son, purifies from all sin."

This second verse seemed to lift the burden of my thoughts.  It made me understand all over again that it is not about our actions or about us purifying ourselves.  We need to pursue fellowship with Christ and allow Him to purify us from within.  So instead of my boys constantly struggling to keep themselves pure, they need to pursue Jesus wholeheartedly.  They need Faith in his cleansing power!  

  So how do they take hold of Jesus as their own?  Mike made a comment the other day that impressed me.  He said , "How will my sons ever know my heart, unless I give it to them?"

Which tells me that we can't expect our children to live for Jesus and understand how he can change their hearts as He has ours unless we share it with them.  Unless we bind it on their hearts and meditate on it day and night and talk about it as it is life.  Because they are our children, we pass down not just physical traits, but character traits as well.  They inherit our sin, YUCK! Oh, how we want them to know how they can be set free from such bondage. How Christ can take the pride, fear, lust, anger, insecurities, judgement, and lies and create Purity!

May God help us in this journey!

Sunflowers

Here's to hoping that our project of planting sunflowers today turns out beautiful.

I will be the first to say that my thumb is anything but green.

C and I took an hour planting these and as soon as we finished the storm came and watered our seeds.  Grow please Grow!  

movie night

I like Netflix, but sometimes we pick movies on our list that we might not otherwise watch and then end up really disappointed.  Like last night for instance, we tried to watch The Bank Job.  We watched 5 minutes of it and i had to turn it off.  I should have known since I had to skip over the very first scene.  There was so much flesh and I am so not comfortable with that.  No matter how good the movie might be otherwise, I just can't watch it.  I used to hate it when we would be young and watching a movie at our house when my Dad would walk in the room and hear or see something that offended him and he would turn it off, no questions asked.  

Those seemed like such harmless movies back then, but in this day and age it seems so different.  I remember when I was 13 and at a basketball camp, I called home to ask my mom if I could watch Dirty Dancing with the team.  I sure hope my kids are that sensitive to what goes before their eyes.  As I have gotten older, you would think I could handle more, but I think I acutally tolerate less.  

Like the old song goes, "Oh be careful little eyes what you see..."