My Thoughts & A little Help, Please

Earlier this week I was having a conversation with a friend, we'll call her 'Loretta', who had been lied to by someone close to her. This wasn't the first time and it was a false statement made with the deliberate intent, meant to deceive. We talked about many aspects of this, but one of my responses was that, we all lie sometimes, right?

It's been several days since that conversation and I just can't get this off my mind. Not the topic Loretta brought to the table, but the question, 'Do we all lie?' When you think about a lie being a false statement made with the deliberate intent, meant to deceive, I get a little nauseous. Think about the following questions: How are you? Fine. What are you doing? Nothing. How are you feeling? Yes. What Can I do? Nothing.

These are just a few questions I hear or am asked on a regular basis and obviously these can be trivial, but 'Fine' or 'Nothing' are also masks I hide behind...and technically, often they are lies (false statement made with the deliberate intent, meant to deceive). Does this mean I need to bear my soul to every person who asks how I'm doing? I don't think so, we've all met that person. =) But I do think, for me, it means I need to try to be a little more open and honest, even if it means I'm giving people answers to questions they didn't intend to ask.

Pictures

I haven't had much to blog about lately. With the three-day holiday weekend coming up, hopefully I'll have something to blog about next week! =)

Here are a couple pictures of Kabe from last night, a (little) man of many moods!

Book Review

I just finished reading The Shack by William P. Young. Have you heard of it? This book is a work of fiction, but is a recommended reading for every christian, seeking the true heart of God. Now that I've stated that, I will tell you, there is a lot of controversy regarding this book, but again, please note, this is a work of fiction. This book challenged my thinking in regard to God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the Trinity and how they relate to each other and to me, love, submission, independence, responsibility, and many other things.

To give you an example, when I think of what God looks like, I see an older white man with white hair and a white beard and mustache - much like the modern day Santa Claus, but not as round or jovial. In this book, God is portrayed as a black woman called 'Papa'. Strange...yes. But, that alone caused me to think outside my box. I don't know what God looks like and to presume he is my version is just one of the ways I put Him and my version of Christianity in a box and limit my trust in Him.

I want to share one passage that really struck a chord with me. This passage reminds me of what I read in my Bible in John 1:1
1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was with God in the beginning. 3Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood^[a] it.

It's a conversation Mack, the main character of the book, is having with the Holy Spirit about independence:

"Mackenzie, evil is a word we use to describe the absence of Good, just as we use the word darkness to describe the absence of Light or death to describe the absence of Life. Both evil and darkness can only be understood in relation to Light and Good; they do not have any actual existence. I am Light and I am Good. I am Love and there is no darkness in me. Light and Good actually exist. So, removing yourself from me will plunge you into darkness. Declaring independence will result in evil because apart from me, you can only draw upon yourself. That is death because you have separated yourself from me: Life." (p.136)

If you have a chance, check your local library or Amazon.com for this book. Then let me know what you think!

One Word

one word.........

So here’s the rules:
All of the answers must be just one word.

1. Where is your cell phone? counter
2. Your significant other? intelligent
3. Your hair? big
4. Your mother? crochets
5. Your father? fisherman
6. Your favorite thing? shoes
7. Your dream last night? unknown
8. Your favorite drink? coffee
9. Your dream/goal? home
10. The room you’re in? living
11. Your church? loved
12. Your fear? intimacy
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? secure
14. Where were you last night? movie
15. What you’re not? open
16. Muffins? banananut
17. One of your wish list items? Pilot
18. Where you grew up? NE
19. The last thing you did? wireless
20. What are you wearing? red
21. Your TV? old
22. Your pets? none
23. Your computer? Dell
24. Your life? busy
25. Your mood? mellow
26. Missing someone? Stacy
27. Your car? old
28. Something you’re not wearing? earrings
29. Favorite store? Target
30. Your summer? busy
31. Like(love) someone? Kabe
32. Your favorite color? pink
33. Last time you laughed? yesterday
34. Last time you cried? today
35. Who will re post this? Kelly
This is harder than it looks.

School!

Today was Kabe's first day of school. He's had a great summer packed with baseball, swimming, friends & fun and now he was ready to go back to school. He went with me last week to register and pick up his tool box (our school has an option of purchasing the classroom supplies in a toolbox rather than running around town trying to find everything). Of course, we've had this for a little over a week, but just last night we finally used the labels that also came with the kit to individually label everything -- including the crayons and markers.

He had a hard time going to sleep he was so excited about the two hours he had school today. I took the day off from work so I'm home catching up on stuff, but then tomorrow, he's at school all day and I'm at work all day.



When we arrived at Kabe's classroom we found his locker and unloaded all his stuff. He has his own locker this year which made him happy. He found his desk and got his stuff unloaded. There was a word-search on his desk so he happily got started on it. His year is off to a great start! And best of all, he gets to ride the bus home. Second grade is SO cool!

Fun Weekend

Our weekend started off with good Mexican food at 'Fiesta' one of our friend, Lynne's favorite's. They guys skipped out early to head out to the much anticipated Star Wars: Clone Wars. Kabe has literally been counting down for August 15th for the opening day of this movie. Luckily, we were free and Adam was able to take him... and it was all he expected. =)
The girls headed off to see Swing Vote. Very enjoyable evening.

Saturday, Kabe's friend Ben came to stay overnight.


The boys even went for a bike ride down to the park while I ran errands.

The day was gorgeous and all of us spent a lot of it outside.


After dinner we all took a walk to Dairy Queen. Does it get any better than that?

My Guy

About a week ago Adam surprised me with a new look. I'm very pleased with this look and thought I'd show it off to you guys near and far. What do you think?

A full weekend

Last weekend, on Saturday evening, we attended
Andrew and Laura's wedding (pictures courtesy of jeremy fenelon image design- link). Laura and her mom are so crafty, they took care of so many details of this beautiful wedding themselves. They even made the cakes! This was truly the most relaxed wedding reception ever. Congratulations to Andrew & Laura - a beautiful couple! God has great things in store for you two!





On Sunday we had a swimming party with some friends. It was a beautiful day...not too hot or too cool. Kevin was on hand with his massage table, selflessly giving massages to all of us with weary muscles. Here he is with Kay.

Kevin is an OT and in addition to that, just graduated from massage school last weekend. Congratulations Kevin!

An Update!

Are you enjoying the last few days of summer? I can remember a time (not too far back...) when I would hear my grandma, mom, or one of my aunts refer to time passing so quickly and I would chuckle and not really understand what they were talking about. But here it is, August, a week before school begins again, when school just got out for the summer. Here I am, sitting in the seat of 'Where did the summer go?', smiling as I think of my grandma, mom or aunts and of course, thinking 'Hmmm. Guess they weren't that old!' =)

I don't know about you, but I love, love LOVE the Olympics. Winter Olympics. Summer Olympics. Diving, Swimming, Gymnastics, Kayaking, Springboard, Volleyball, Beach Volleyball, Basketball, Synchronized Swimming (I know... this really gets to some of you, huh?...you KNOW who you are! =) We've got the DVR set to tape so that each night we can watch stuff that's gone on all day long and then catch up. Of course, I do fast-forward through quite a bit and miss a good deal of the chit chat. It's probably a really good thing it's only two weeks long! As noted earlier, I have been knitting while I watch as well, so at least it's not entirely unproductive... and of course, I am rooting on the Americans. =) Do you watch? What's your favorite sport or do you just go crazy and watch it all too?

Kabe's swimming lessons are finally over for the summer. The lessons this year focused so much more on technique rather than just the physical movement. He found this rather difficult at first.





The most difficult part for him was re-training his arms, but by the end of summer, he figured out that by using the new technique he could swim farther and faster.





After he finished his last lesson there was still a little time left before he moved on to diving off the board so he got to play a little water basketball.









He even figured out how to dunk a few! Swimming ended on a high note and Kabe can't wait for the next round of lessons...whenever that may be!

Neglectful...

Things have been busy and crazy around here lately and I haven't been taking many pictures -- so I've been rather neglecting the blog...sorry! Not to mention, I've been watching waaayyy too much of the Olympics, but hey, they only come once every four years, right (summer ones anyway!). =)

I do have a few pictures I'll be posting, hopefully later today. And....I'm actually working on a knitting project. I know! Can you believe it!?! One positive from all the tv time! Any guesses on what it is? One hint...it's not a dishcloth.

I'll be back soon with some more exciting news from our little world. =)

National Park

On our way to the hotel we took a wrong turn and came upon the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial, (we saw the cabin at the top of this link...although I didn't take a picture) a National Park on one side of the road and a state park on the other. It's set sort of deep in a forested, hilly area and it was dark already so we turned around and got on the right track and headed to our hotel, but the next night after we got done at the amusement park, we headed over to the National Park.
Wanting to capture the trip on film, I asked my guys to stand next to the sign...of course, they loved the idea.


So I tried again.


The area was beautiful and lush. There was this cool wooden fence made of logs. It sort of reminded me of something like the logs from Kabe's Lincoln Log set.

There were even crops growing. This is corn, but Adam says there was also sorghum growing in another spot.


There was a whole section of sunflowers and lots of wildflowers.


We saw a whole group of wild turkeys in the distance. Adam took these pictures and even got a rise out of them when they noticed him coming near.


Then we decided to take a one-mile trail that looped around through the forest.


This is Kabe, thinking we are lost after we've looped around and are heading back to the car. He was initially resistant to this process, but then got into it and eventually enjoyed it. National Parks aren't usually something we 'do', but overall, it was a good experience and we're glad we stopped. I think I can say we'll probably be stopping at a few more in the future.

Vacation

After getting back from Women of Faith on Saturday evening, we went to church on Sunday morning, then packed the car and left for a mini-vacation. We headed to Santa Claus, IN to Holiday World and Splashin' Safari.

We started off in the amusement park where Kabe got to try out his first real roller coaster, the Raven! He & I rode together and I was a little concerned he didn't like it until the ride stopped and he yelled, 'SWEET!'. Of course, we rode this a couple more times during our two-day visit. =)


We could hardly visit the park without driving the cars. Other than the roller-coaster, this was probably Kabe's favorite ride. I think we went on this at least four times. I may have lost count. Kabe drove every time. He concentrated very hard so he would steer correctly on the trail. It was so exciting!


Kabe insisted he & Adam, and then Adam & I get our pictures taken at the photo board. Adam was a bit resistant, as shown in the top picture -- he's getting a little scolding from Kabe. =)


And yet another photo board. Kabe loved this one.


The remainder of our time was spent in the water park where our camera was nicely tucked away in a locker so swim suit photo's wouldn't be possible. =)

Women of Faith

Last weekend I went with some gals from my small group to Women of Faith in Indianapolis. My friend, Tiffany, from church, organized the trip and about 40 gals went. The church bus only holds 20-ish people so we drove separately. I've been to the conference one other time, at Rosemont in Chicago, but this is the first time our church as organized anything, so this was sort of a last-minute decision to get a group together. It was a fun trip, not without its memories!

The conference was good. My favorite speakers were Patsy Clairmont and Lucy Swindoll. I could have definitely heard more from Anita Renfro. Too Funny! Sandi Patty was there too, along with her entire family. Sandi's dad led the whole gang in an acapella song that was just beautiful. I love that although most of what is heard at the conference is not new to me, the truths are things I need to be reminded of as a mom, as a woman, as Christian and at the end of the conference I leave renewed and refreshed. I laughed and I cried. I reflected and I repented.

God is good all the time. All the time, God is good.

VBS ReCap

On Friday night of VBS week was the fun night. If $1,500 was raised, the kids got to slime Erin, our Children's minister. If more than $1,500 was raised, then all the VBS directors would get slimed. The total raised was $1,860.77 which meant that everyone got slimed....YEAH!
I left town at 1:30pm that Friday for Women of Faith in Indianapolis. So Adam took Kabe to the fun night and captured the event on film. Below is Erin, FCC's Children's Minister getting slimed. YUCK!


Here is another great shot of Erin.


Emmy was lucky enough to be a part of the sliming....what a good sport!


In case you'd rather see the real deal, here's a video clip of the event. Too cool!