OK. Let’s catch up here.
It’s pretty much more of the same awesomeness.
A lot of this…
(Gosh…I love those boys!)
The sun has been magnificent…making me oh so happy.
The Dads…
Forcing my friends to hike with me….
Me and Zeke…again.
The issue is that I always look around for someone to document the moment with and he’s the one there. Always.
I also have the most precious picture of Dawson…which I am not posting because he’s almost 14…and I’m really trying to respect his growing independence. But trust me. They are all adorable.
For now…it’s me and Zeke. We traded our scarves for sunglasses at the ball games. Yay!!
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May is a bit insane.
It just is.
Completely operating in 24 hour segments. I don’t even allow myself to look at the calendar except in the 24 hour increments.
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Some good stuff I’m loving this week.
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These videos are really good for anyone but especially church leaders and mission’s directors.
“When asked to describe their poverty, the poor most often said, “I feel ashamed, I feel embarrassed, I feel less than human.” They describe it in psychological terms, we define it in far more material terms. That disconnect creates a huge problem. When people describe their poverty they don’t point to their circumstances, their health or even their finances–they typically point to their sense of self-worth. We suddenly feel a sense of pride because we feel like we are making a difference, unaware that at the same time we might actually be making the other person feel less valuable.”
(RESTORE videos)
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I’ve said it before. But I love teachers. LOVE them.
This had me all choked up yesterday because it’s so true.
The whole post here.
“Teachers, when you instruct our kids that struggle, I know you have, yet again, patiently pulled up a seat next to their desks, 24 other kids still in the room, and kindly helped them toward mastery. I know you modify, adapt, adjust for their success, which takes so much time and energy. Children with emotional or physical challenges, kids with language barriers and personal turmoil, those who struggle to learn and retain, test and succeed, they require so much of you in the midst of your regular responsibilities, and your patient attentiveness cannot possibly be over-celebrated.”
(Jen Hatmaker)
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Oh…and this from the weekend.
This boy is his father’s shadow at any time possible…
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This is, in fact, not a math equation.
But an example of our daily texts…and an example of why you definitely should name your children with different beginning letters….
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Gabe hit his first home run the other night. I’m sorry…but that is the funnest.
Permanent smile for a good 24 hours.
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Zeke: “It’s going to be a couple busy days, huh Mom?”
Me: “Yep it is.”
Zeke: “You are going to be super tired.”
Me: “Yah. Probably.”
Zeke: “Mom.”
Me: “Yes?”
Zeke: “I love you.”
Um. Seriously. Who is this kid? And how in the world did I get so lucky??
I’ve been reading a lot lately.
It’s been grand.
But I have noticed a bit of unsettling in my spirit.
I am one of those people who desperately wants to get it “right.”
I’ve said before that I am a rule follower to a fault.
So as I am sorting through and trying to reconcile the variety of perspectives and interpretations on my kindle, I have felt myself getting a little stressed.
So today I decided to settle my heart and mind on one thing.
I love the way Manning says this.
So this morning, I took a walk and committed to meditating…yes, I’m trying that…meditating on only this:
“He is not moody or capricious; He knows no seasons of change. He has a single relentless stance towards us: He loves us.”
When I felt my mind start to wander, I brought it back here.
Only here.
Not to mention that this is my backyard and where my morning walk took me:
It was good.
Andy is at a conference (his favorite) this week.
And we have clearly mastered the art of covering all important issues in 30 words or less….
And I did.
It is.
Beautiful here today.
We are at an interesting season in our lives.
I can’t quite articulate it yet.
I feel like I’m floundering a bit.
But I’m OK with that for now.
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Here’s a couple things I am owning this week:
1. I miss people. I miss the comfort of friendships where you show up unannounced, and feed your kids together, and spend hours upon hours every single week together. I’m starting to wonder if that was a season too that has simply passed.
That’s OK. I just miss it.
2. I made these. That was a good choice.
3. Money. It’s just frustrating. That’s all.
4. I am crazy, crazy fond of these people that live with me.
Found these in the archives.
This one in particular confirming that we have in fact always been stellar parents…
Sometimes we feel so inadequate to parent these new teenagers. It’s a whole new world.
We have no idea what we are doing.
But in all honesty, we never had any idea what we were doing.
It just feels like the stakes are so high these days.
Each season brings new joys and new challenges.
I’m thankful for them all.
And yes…sometimes I miss this…
Seriously…too much…
We are logging our hours this week in the stands.
It’s a little chilly…and so stressful (baseball is so stressful to me)…and so much fun.
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A hard week on many levels.
I appreciated this from Anne Lamott:
“There is amazing love and grace in people’s response to the killings. It’s like white blood cells pouring in to surround and heal the infection. It just breaks your heart every time, in the good way, where Hope tiptoes in to peer around. For the time being, I am not going to pretend to be spiritually more evolved than I am. I’m keeping things very simple: right foot, left foot, right foot, breathe; telling my stories, and reading yours. I keep thinking about Barry Lopez’s wonderful line, “Everyone is held together with stories. That is all that is holding us together; stories and compassion.”
The never-ending rainfall cancelled most of our weekend games.
Which made for an unusually calm weekend.
The rainfall did not, however, cancel church.
This was my crew after our post-church sprint to the car…
I just like them. They are so fun.
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In other news–
The cast is clearly doing a great job of slowing this one down…
He’s counting the days until it comes off.
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This has helped my Monday.
Might of done it for breakfast.
And lunch.
I mean…sometimes….it just works.
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Brennan Manning passed away yesterday.
It was a bit surreal for someone I didn’t know but whose work has so profoundly impacted my life.
” In the last few years, nearly blind, subject to illness and falls, at an age when he should have been enjoying retirement on a beach in Florida, he kept getting on airplanes and flying places to proclaim a Gospel he believed with all his heart but could not always live.”
–Yancey on Manning (full article here.)
I did a quick search of my own blog to see the countless times I have quoted him here.
And I join the chorus of people whose faith has at some point been saved by his words.
I am incredibly grateful for his ragamuffin courage.
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“I am being told anew in the unmistakable language of love, ‘I am with you, I am for you, I am in you. I expect more failure from you than you expect from yourself.” (Manning)
“He is not moody or capricious; He knows no seasons of change. He has a single relentless stance towards us: He loves us.” (Manning)
