Rascals are the True Test

"The test of love is in how one relates not to saints and scholars but to rascals."
------ Abraham Joshua Heschel, in *A Passion for Truth*
I discovered this quote recently and felt it somehow applicable this week as I'm working at VBS. :) OK, most of these kids are not rascals, and today, the first day, I really didn't witness much rascally behavior, but I imagine as they all get more comfortable and relaxed, that we might witness a little more "rascaliness". If and when we do, Lord, may we pass the test! :)

New Blog I'm Really Enjoying

I've discovered a new blog called inspiredtoaction.com,and I've enjoyed several of her posts. Like any blog, you take what works for you and then work at not allowing yourself to over-analyze the parts that you might not jive with as much (her plan of getting up at 5:30 every day to complete her exercising, devos, and daily planning before the kids wake up--I can't figure out how this works. Do her kids sleep 'till 8? During the school year, my kids are up between 6 and 6:30 and we have to be dressed and eating breakfast by 7. Is she having really short exercise/devos? Her plan of going to Starbucks every single Saturday from 5:30-10:30 to plan her week. Do her kids never have Saturday morning activities? Maybe she just shortens her planning sessions when they have activities.) I really love her entries on the importance of daily, weekly and yearly retreating. Her post on how to create a mission statement as a mother was great, and I'm in the process of working on my own mission statement as a mother now. I am inspired (guess her blog title works) by her discussions regarding personal and family goal setting, and I absolutely adore the way she views the role of mother as such a high calling and how she approaches her role as mother as a profession. Much of what she writes is wonderfully encouraging and affirming to me as a mother. Her latest post is no acception: http://inspiredtoaction.com/2010/06/focused-motherhood-play-your-position/ I'm attempting to "play my position" as best as I can with the Lord's help. Just thought I'd post about her blog in case some of you otha mothas wanted to check it out, too. Bless you all, good people!

How Olivia Spends her Nap time/Quiet time

Olivia who is now 6 really doesn't do much napping anymore unless she is super duper pooped or if she's not feeling well, but during the summer time we're trying to have a quiet time each afternoon while Benjamin takes his nap (and sometimes Mommy and Daddy, too!). We have found Olivia doing all kinds of interesting things at the end of her quiet time. Today she dug out all of her markers from her art cart (the only reason she has a zillion of them is because many of them are remnants from my teaching days) and she organized them in color groups. She was very proud of herself and I thought she did a nice job, although we did have a little disagreement about where certain colors should be grouped. Where do you put teal? In the greens or blues? Olivia says most definitely blues. I said I was uncertain, but that I lean towards putting it with the greens.

A Visit to Grammy & Papa's Campsite

We snuck over to Waycross last night for a quick visit at Grammy and Papa's weekend campsite over at Laura Walker State Park. Mary and Stan sr. had sweetly fixed us a delicious dinner of BBQ chicken, corn on the cob and salad, and we had a great time joining them for the evening. They have a pop up camper and the kids thought that was just about the coolest thing they'd ever seen. Olivia seemed to really appreciate the air conditioner inside the camper! Who could blame her? It was a muggy evening. We had a time trying to keep Olivia and Benjamin from opening and closing the camper door every two seconds. We hope Grammy and Papa didn't eat flies all night long because of that! :) Olivia and Benjamin have loved playing with Bear, the new puppy. Mary said the vet told her he's probably part lab, part Rotweiller, but he really seems to have such a sweet disposition. They're working hard to train him, but he is definitely still a goofy little puppy at times. Eventually it cooled down and we had a nice little breeze. Grammy and Papa and their new puppy Bear took us on a walk to one of the fun play ground areas there, and we walked down to see the lake. There were lots of people there boating, skiing, jetskiing and picnicing lake-side. We came back to their campsite and I roasted marshmallows. I managed to torch only two of them. :) It was really nice for Mary and Stan to invite us over to get a little taste of camp life. So here's a slide show with some of the pictures we took while there. I love the one with Benjamin up on the yellow piece of play equipment and they're both smiling to beat the band. One other picture that I think is hysterical is the one that Olivia took of us four adults sitting on the picnic table. Stan jr and I are like book ends to my sweet in-laws and Stan sr. is cutting his eyes over at me like I just goosed him or something! :) I promise I didn't! :) It was a fun day, and after a quick bath and books, and prayer, they were zonked in just seconds! Fun times!

Garden Growth

So here are a few pictures showing the most recent growth. As predicted, they enjoyed gulping down all that rain water yesterday. I seem to only have 4 successful different vegetables growing right now. I believe I messed up planting the cucumbers and squash. I've made a second attempt on the cucumbers. We'll see what comes of it. I'm thinking of just planting herbs where the squash were supposed to be. We'll see. The little jellybean tomatoes never even made an appearance--either I planted them wrong or they weren't great seeds. Who knows. Next year I'll start tomatoes much sooner. The corn, beans, okra and peppers are coming in nicely, though. I had all but given up on my pepper plants, so I was thrilled to finally see some tiny little plants shoot up. I spoke with the extension office guy again to ask him about my squash and cucumbers. He talked my ear off about lots that wasn't really helpful, bless his heart, and I did get the clear feeling that he doesn't really like it when gardeners attempt to go organic. Bummer. I might try to seek advice elsewhere. Here are the pictures of the most recent growth above. They're in this order: pepper, beans, corn and okra!

Olivia Sang in Church This Morning

What a blessing to see your children assisting in leading people in worship. We were very proud of Olivia this morning as she sang a solo in the services. Stan did a lovely job accompanying her on the acoustic guitar. You'll hear in the video when Benjamin decides that the solo should've been a duet. :) We had a rough morning with Benjamin, but we just persevere as parents, trusting the Lord will give us strength, patience, courage and plenty of love to do what's right. It's a rainy Sunday here in Kingsland, and I'm sure my little garden plants are saying, "Gulp! Gulp! Gulp!" I pray that each one of you is enjoying your Sabbath.

And it begins!

I went out this evening to take a load to the compost pile, and low and behold, what did my eyes see??? The garden had little sprouts! The corn, okra and beans are all coming in beautifully! How exciting! They're tiny and who knows what will come, but it is exciting nonetheless. Here are some pictures of the little baby plants growing.