The Week In Review - A Photo Blog (8-20)

What a great week!!

We had the State Track Meet on Saturday. Colin did great in all of his events and the relay team cut 14 seconds off their qualifying time!!! I am sure that it was because 2 of the 4 boys cut their hair off! (The other two already had short hair.) I didn't manage to get a lot of pics this year - which is odd for me - but here is a good one of Colin crossing the finish line.

 And here is the update from Colin's garden. This was the second tomato that we have gotten so he let me have it! It was SO good!! These are supposed to be big tomatoes but for some reason they are turning while they are still small. I'm not sure if it because it has been a dry summer, even though we have watered it. Anyway, the plant is LOADED with tomatoes so we are thrilled!!

On Thursday I took Colin and Zoe to the ocean! We LOVE the ocean!! This was the first time that we have been able to go all summer so we were super excited! This trip has Sabbath written all over it! I will write about that in a day or so. For now, here are a couple of pics :)

And Friday morning , bright and early, I went to hang out with the local Christian radio station's morning show DJ's while I waited in line for tickets to see Third Day and Tenth Avenue North in concert!! WOOHOO!!! (That was for the concert, not the DJ's -- LOL) They were broadcasting live and I even got to be on the radio!

So, how was your week? 

I pray you were all blessed by the Greatness of our Lord! 

I know I was :)

His Way Or My Way?

What if you could get what you wanted but in order to do so, you would have to be out of God's will for your life? Would you do it? What would you do to get your own way? And would the sacrifice be worth it?

When we were on our vacation in New Hampshire we played a game called 'Would You Rather?' Essentially you are given two choices and you must pick one of the two. So, I'm going to give you my own version of 'Would You Rather?' today.

Would you rather:

Get Your Own Way

OR

Be In God's Will For Your Life?

You MUST choose one. You cannot always have it both ways. (Yes there will be times when these two choices line up with each other).

Is what we want really more important than what God wants? How near-sighted we are when we are upset and disappointed that things in this life aren't going the way we want. If the thing we wanted would accomplish God's will, then OF COURSE  He would give it to us!! Like a loving Father, He doesn't withhold ANY good thing from us.So why are we so bogged down with depression, sadness, wanting what other people have? Why is it that we have such a hard time with TRUST? Can't we see that God has our best interest at heart?


God's ways are so much higher than our ways. He sees the end from the beginning. He has promised me that He will NEVER leave me or forsake me (Deuteronomy 31:6, Joshua 1:5). He has promised that He has plans for me to prosper and to give me a hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11).

Shouldn't I be trusting in that instead of doubting??

PS -  Here's a preview of this week's Week In Review post:

The Week In Review - A Photo Blog (8-13)

This has been a busy week!

Here is the latest from Colin's garden. These will probably get to be big tomatoes but this one is turning already and it's not big yet. We are thinking that perhaps it's been too dry lately for them to grow bigger? Plus there are about 30 or so on our one plant! YUM!






The track team took their annual trip to the amusement park this week.

Colin came down this one slide and literally sat on top of the water!
And Zoe came down this one backwards!

Then they had the great idea to go on this ride, but they had to make sure they did it before lunch!

Here it is up closer.

And here is Colin pondering going on it. At this point I was starting to feel so sick just from the thought of him going on this ride! But he chose to wait it out on the ground - thankfully!

 For some reason, it doesn't bother me at all if Zoe goes on it though...

Here she is with her friend Sam ..

Before...

...And After!

Matt ended up with a schedule change at work this week so we all had an extra day home together. He suggested going somewhere together but since I was still trying to get over the one ride I went on two days before, we opted for a quiet day at home instead.

How was your week?

Our Vacation To New Hampshire - Part 3

This is the final installment of our vacation to New Hampshire.

I really wanted to take a scenic drive through the White Mountains. This was something that I haven't done for many years.

None of these pictures are going to do God any justice for how incredibly beautiful it was! It was absolutely breathtaking!!

Colin called this 'Mom's Dream Tour Of New Hampshire'. Can you hear the sarcasm in his voice? They weren't too excited to take this trip with me, but they got over it. They even told me later that they were glad they took the 'tour'.

We drove right between those mountains!

This is what my tour was really about:
Mt. Washington!!

How can I tell at this distance which one is Mt. Washington?? It's they only one with towers on the top of it!

This is Mount Washington (see the towers?) According to Wikipedia:

Mount Washington is the highest peak in the Northeastern United States at 6,288 ft, famous for dangerously erratic weather. A weather observatory on the summit long held the record for the highest wind gust directly measured at the Earth's surface, 231 mph, on the afternoon of April 12, 1934.










 This is the Mount Washington Hotel & Resort. It was completed in 1902 and at one time was serviced by as many as 57 trains a day!! It became known as one of the most luxurious summer resorts in the United States! (That information was on a plaque at the road-side turn off.)

That's the hotel on the left and Mount Washington is right behind Matt. This is the Presidential Range.
Every year when we get home from New Hampshire, I am ready to pack my bags and move! I just love it there so much!!

The Week In Review - A Photo Blog (8-6)

We've had a pretty quiet week. Even so, here's how it went:

This is our first harvest from Colin's garden. We gave the big one to his Nana who inspired him to have a garden and helped him to start it. She was very excited!

This is just a random picture of Zoe from the week.

Colin cut his hair! Last time he cut it, he regretted it afterwards so I really encouraged him to THINK ABOUT IT FIRST! 

Nope, he was sure. I think he did it to be faster in running though.

This was from a couple of weeks ago, just to give you a comparison.

This is Oreo :)

 We gave him a bath this week. He doesn't mind. Whenever you want to wash your hands, brush your teeth or do the dishes, he is right there trying to get in the water! 

He is a CRAZY cat! LOL

This may not be nice but ... This picture TOTALLY cracks me up! LOL

And I have spent a lot of time with these two books this week. That has been really good for me.

It was also Matt's birthday this week (but I didn't get any good pics from it). I am so thankful to God that He blessed my children and I with this man in our lives!! It has made all the difference.
What have you been doing this week? I'd love to hear from you!

May the Lord bless each of you as you seek to know Him better :)

Learning To Sabbath - The Beginning

The photos in today's post are brought to you by: my mother-in-law's flower garden :)

I have recently started to read a book by Mark Buchanan called The Rest of God - Restoring Your Soul By Restoring The Sabbath. I am LOVING  this book!! I am only up to chapter 3 but each chapter has had something really worth pondering and worth applying to my life. I want to be careful that I take my time and learn from this book so I started to keep a notebook of chapter notes of the things that I am learning and want to apply. This process of careful application really got me to thinking about what God has to say about the Sabbath and not just what Mark Buchanan has to say so I am also using my concordance to see what I can learn. I thought I would share my learning experience here and how I am applying it to life.

I was recently reading back through some older posts on the blog and this one was among them:  Mary, Martha & Facebook. It was very funny to me to be in this current situation of studying about the Sabbath and to re-read my own words saying: 'I would love to be like Mary but honestly, I just don't understand her. How can she just sit there? I have way too much to do for that!' How precious of God to teach me how to be like Mary and to give me the desire - the heart - to learn how to sit at His feet!!

Welcome to my new series called Learning To Sabbath. Join me as I read, study, apply and share what God has commanded us about the Sabbath. I for one, know that this is something that my life NEEDS. What about you? Could your life use some rest too?

I really like these last two pictures! This was a grasshopper that Colin caught. I have never seen one with a camouflaged body like that before! He was really hard to get a picture of because he kept kicking and moving and Colin's hand was wiggling too! I really like the picture of his face. How cool of God to make so many different creatures, each with a different look!

Our Vacation To New Hampshire - Part 2

Here is the continuation of our vacation to New Hampshire.

(Please excuse the appearance of this post if it doesn't turn out well. I am having technical difficulties today.)

We took a kayak trip down the Saco River, which starts in New Hampshire and flows into Maine. This is an annual trip and we enjoy it with our extended family as well. There are not a lot of pictures from this trip since neither my father-in-law nor I had a waterproof camera with us.

This year the water level was really low so a few times we go stuck and had to get out and manually adjust the kayak in the water. That just added to the fun. Also there were alot of trees that had fallen in to the river this year so we had to navigate around those. It was a very leisurely trip :)







Please stay tuned for Part 3 :)

Good vs. Best

The photos in today's post are brought to you by: Last week's trip to the coast.

Last week, while I was writing THIS, Pastor Dan was also looking at Luke chapter 10. What he got out of it was totally different than what I had seen in it previously. His message was great so I thought I'd share it here with you.

As a refresher, here is the passage from Luke 10:38-42:

As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!” 

“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things,  but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

You can live a life OR you can live a life that matters!

Living a life that matters for something means learning to make choices wisely. Every day we are given countless opportunities to choose - countless ways to choose what is good or what is best. People who live lives that matter learn to discern what is Best from what is good. Our time here on Earth is very short - we need to choose the Best way to spend our time.

Mary and Martha were given the EXACT SAME choice. They both had the opportunity to prepare a meal and they both had the opportunity to sit at the feet of Jesus. (I had NEVER noticed this before!!) Mary probably had other things to be doing at that time but she chose to create a moment with Jesus.

She made a deliberate choice to Worship!

Then Pastor Dan challenged us with this question:
If Jesus knocked on my door, would I make Him wait on the porch while I finished up my tasks? 'Oh just wait here a minute Lord, while I do the dishes and tidy the living room. You don't mind, do you?' Would I create time for Him? Would He be a priority?

Often times in life, the good things demand more of us then the Best things but they are NOT more important. Often the clamor of the good drowns out the whisper of the Best.

If Satan can't make you bad, he'll make you busy. Martha was busy. To choose busy is to choose what is good. So, am I justifying my busyness? Do I truly make Jesus and Worship of Him a priority in my life?

We are all given the same choice everyday. Today will you choose what is good or what is Best? I am striving for what is Best.

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May the Lord Bless you all as you seek to know Him better!