Eeewww

1. Pollen. Yuck. It's everywhere. It is the worst it has been in 25 years, and we've had no rain.

2. My sister is certifiably crazy. She's getting rid of her shed. You should see this shed. You really should. It's awesome, stick a window unit in there and it's a workshop/school room/playroom, whatever you want. And it's huge. Would somebody talk to her please? She won't listen to me.

3. Is this not the biggest carrot you've ever seen?

OK. My wellspring of information has run dry. More next time!

Roan Quote: “Mommy, when we get home, I need to wash my hands. I have ‘boogeryness’.

"Fully Devoted"

So, I’m back from the ladies retreat. We had a really nice time. It’s always great to get away with the ladies and get to know them better. One lady said this weekend renewed her faith in women’s ability to be nice to each other! LOL. The setting was beautiful. We were up in the mountains by a lake. We even had a campfire one night and made smores. The one downside was it was pretty cold. The temp wouldn’t have been so bad except that being right on a lake it was also very windy. Saturday afternoon Brandy, Leanet and I had a great time going for a nature walk around the lake with our cameras. It’s a little over a mile. During the weekend, we sang karaoke, played games, laughed a lot, and the food was good.

But, as fun as all this was, it was not the focus. We went to get closer to God. The theme of the weekend was ‘Fully Devoted’. Did you know that in Hebrew, the word devoted is ‘Herem’ which means ‘objects devoted exclusively to God? It means ‘chosen’. It’s not something you do, but something you are. I never thought of it like that. Pretty cool. Have you ever wondered what your ‘purpose’ is? I have. It can be a very difficult question to answer. For most it seems full of great and grand things that we should be doing to change the world and give meaning to our lives. But the answer, for those who follow God, is actually very simple. When it comes right down to it, our PURPOSE in life is to know God and his love for us and be transformed into someone who can love him back. The happiest people I know are those that have ‘knowing God’ as their purpose. Think about it.

These are the bare bones of what we learned this weekend. Just a few of the things that stood out for me that were simple enough to record here. I hope I didn’t bore you! If you have the opportunity to go on a retreat such as this one, I urge you to take it. Now the challenge is to carry what I learned down from the mountain into my daily life.


Roan Quote: We saw the first BIG bee of the season. It was hovering right by our front door. Roan doesn’t like insects, and he asked me why the bee was here. I told him I didn’t know. He thought about it and said, “Maybe the bee is here because it’s Tuesday.”

War On The Homefront?

Look-Up Lodge here I come! This weekend I'm going to a ladies retreat. I am SO looking forward to it. I went last year. It was at the same place and we had an awesome time. Also, Dean recently spent two 3-day weekends in a row away at Marathons, so I'm really looking forward to my trip. Of course I'll miss them. Obviously.

This week I've been working on the Tot-Trade. For those who don't know, this is a huge bi-annual consignment sale. I've been doing it for about 3 years to save money for our big family trip to Disney. After this one, I'll do one more, then maybe I'll be done. I'm getting tired of them.

We've had an interesting week dealing with one of our children who shall remain nameless. It left Dean considering the strength of his right hook, and me contemplating how nice a LONG walk would be. Then we decided the wise parental choice would be putting said child on restriction. Let's just say, this week led Dean to buy the book "Ending the Homework Wars".

Roan Quote: Roan was eating oatmeal for breakfast and sneezed. He called me in and said, “Mommy, I ‘bless you’d’ all over the table!”

Roan Quote

Short but sweet, this one stands on its' own!

The other day Roan asked me if he had to take a nap that day. I told him no. Later, I was teasing him and saying maybe he should take a nap, naps are REALLY nice. He looked at me, very seriously, and said, “Mommy, in my heart, Jesus says you can’t change your mind.”

More Miscellaneous Information

Dean ran the Black Mountain Marathon last weekend and loved it. He was happy with his time. He’s really becoming interested in ‘adventure’ marathoning. A friend of his fell and hurt is knee. Rick was running the full 40 miles. He fell at mile 20 but finished the race. His knee was bleeding the whole time. When he finished it swelled up like a grapefruit. Of course, Dean was jealous and wished it had happened to him. Makes for a great story, you know. It’s gross, but here it is if you want to see it. Dean has decided that next year, he's going to do the full 40.

We finally got our new roof! We’ve been blessed in our recent endeavors to fix up the house. We want to sell it, but it needs some major work first. Last summer we had to replace the whole AC unit. As expensive as that is, we were referred to someone by a neighbor and got a really good price. Less than we thought. Now, with the roof, we originally thought it would be close to $4000. We had a friend at church quote it for $3000 but it ended up being only $2500! So, praise the Lord! Those were the main things to do. The next thing is to replace our deck. That thing is dangerous. Who knows, maybe we’ll finally get to move someday!

Alyssa got her ears pierced! This may not sound like a big deal, but it is. She is very afraid of pain, and has been wanting to do this for a couple years, but chickened out. The problem was everybody kept telling her that it didn’t hurt, that it was just a pinch. But when she would ask me, I’d say, “Yeah, it hurts!” So, maybe that put her off for a while, but when she finally did it she was very brave. I asked her, “So did it hurt?” She said, “YES, it hurt a lot!” She asked why people told her it was just a pinch. I explained that maybe for some people it really doesn’t hurt much, but others might say that just so she wouldn’t be scared. I told her I knew she would think it hurt and I didn’t want her to come back and say I lied to her. I think this was a great opportunity for her to learn, 1.) That she can be brave and take the pain, and 2.) Mommy won’t lie to her. She loves her earrings and is glad she got them.

Roan quote: “Mommy, I can NEVER go in my nose. It’s gross in there!”