Purpose

"The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me;

your steadfast love, O LORD, endures forever.

Do not forsake the work of your hands."

Psalm 138:8

Saw this today and thought it fit where I am right now.

Trusting that God will fulfill HIS purpose for me.

I am also accepting that He won't be giving me a teleprompter so I can see what is next for me.

Strange week so far with lots of ups and downs, but overall I feel I am on the plus side.

Trusting in His purpose and timing.

Back to Reality

After a wonderful week off of school for the kids, everyone headed back to the grind today.   Surprisingly everyone got up great this morning and seemed to have a good day.  Davis and Hannah start the CRCT (standardized testing for the state) tomorrow, so they are willing to get to bed early tonight.  I don’t really sweat these tests and none of the kids “have” to pass this year to advance. 

I had a lot of fun with the kids at the zoo on Friday.  It was crazy busy and we had to park pretty far from the zoo.  We had a lovely walk through the park and the weather was beautiful.

I couldn’t get Noah to look, but this was at the entrance with some very excited kids!!!

They made their own train…. 

We had a picnic…

We saw pandas, lions, Jason’s Dad orangutans, gorillas, zebras, monkeys and giraffes.  We saw a strange “yelling fight” with the lemurs that happened right in front of us.

The girls bonded…..

 

And somewhere along the line, my little girl grew up…..

 

Spring Break

This week is Spring Break for the kids and we are having perfect weather so far!!

The only problem is the pollen count is now almost 3000 and my contacts don’t appreciate that nasty yellow pine pollen (if you look at the wings of the butterfly you can see the pollen…and it just started).

I want to give a big shout out to my parents who have all the kids until tomorrow!!! Mom is still recovering from foot surgery and Dad is loving his retirement (he looks so wonderful and relaxed).

Pete is off on Thursday and I am working 10 hour days so I can be off on Friday. I am taking the kids to the zoo and meeting my sister and her family there!!

Pete and I are off to get something to eat….all by ourselves!!! I will update about our trip to the zoo when I can!!

Easter

Happy Easter….I hope you are enjoying some time with family and friends and remembering that we are celebrating God’s promise fulfilled!

Yesterday we colored eggs.

Even Hannah managed to color eggs even though she has strep again ( the medicine seems to be working better than the stuff she took a couple weeks ago – she feels so much better today already)

Our finished product

The Easter Bunny was good to the kids and brought bathing suits, sidewalk chalk, itunes card and lots of candy. Hunter even got some bowls that Hannah painted for him. That bunny did a good job of hiding the eggs, good thing because we waited until Daddy came home from work to hunt them!!

Hunter has the hardest time leaving those plastic eggs alone. This is him trying to get one of the eggs he broke open.

These are some sugar induced happy kids!!

This is my favorite picture of the day. Matt wanted to hold Hunter’s ears back….

Seder Meal

Davis and I went to the Seder Meal at our church on Friday night. We went because he is making his first communion in May and it is a wonderful ritual paralleling communion we celebrate every week.

He was none too pleased to be dragged from his friends on a very nice night, but off we went.

It is a very festive celebration and the children are encouraged to participate.

The dessert Matzoh (bread) goes missing and the children are rewarded with money for some leftover bread. Monsignor Pat handed a 2 dollar bill to each child. I didn’t know about this tradition, so it was a surprise for both of us.

Davis was almost giddy by the time we left….maybe the 5 glasses of grape juice had something to do with it.

He grabbed my hand on the way out and said “Well, I learned something new tonight”.

I got so excited and asked him what he learned and he said…

“Father Pat is rich”.

I guess we have a ways to go on the training!!!

Motocross is dangerous

Not for my boys though...

Last night after Matt's first practice at Bremen I was coming down the hill where the arrow is (I stand at the top so I can help if he falls).

And I fell....face first into the dirt.

In front of EVERYONE!!!

I even had dirt in my teeth.

I jumped up as quickly as I could to lessen the embarrassment as much as possible.

Hannah quickly came to my rescue and helped clean the dirt off my face.

This morning I HURT so bad and I know I don't look much better.

Not sure the picture shows how bad it actually looks and I know you can't see how much it hurts.

Do you think people would laugh if they saw me out on the track wearing one of these......

Happy St. Matty's Day

6 years ago today our family was finally complete.

What a true blessing this little guy is to us.

Pete described him perfectly yesterday...

Matt knows exactly what he wants, when he wants it, and how he is going to get it.

This kid is crazy smart.

This kid is stubborn.

This kid has the kindest heart.

This kid can scream.

This kid is funny.

This kid is loved to the moon and back!!!

Happy Birthday Matthew Charles!!

Now if we could just get him to understand that the world isn't just celebrating "his" birthday today!!!