Two 2-year Olds

April 14, 2016:  

Carver and I head to Ms. Pearl's most every Thursday... it's always an adventure and we never know exactly what to expect.  Sometimes I am super excited to go and sometimes I have so much "stuff" to do at home that it's hard to give up an entire day.  It's on these days that "I really don't want to..." that God often shows up the most.  He reminds me of why I serve and why I teach my kids to put others first.  He fills my heart so full of Joy that it naturally spills out to my family and friends.  I have seen again and again that when I trust him with my time and talents, it is never in vain.

On this particular Thursday in April, we took the kids for a walk to Wendy's to eat lunch--Carver especially loved his frosty.  As we were walking home, I had Carver's hand on one side and another sweet baby's hand on the other side.  The thought struck me that I was walking with two two-year-olds who lead very different lives.  My brain kept focusing on how different these two sweeties were--everything from where they lived to how they spend their time each day.  I began to wonder why some children get placed in loving families where they have every advantage to help them succeed in life and other children are placed in broken families where nothing is easy and they may go to bed hungry on any given night*.  This way of thinking can easily lead to feeling sad and hopeless; however, I felt God speaking to my heart in that moment.  I could hear Him whisper, "These children are more alike than they are different.  These children were made uniquely by ME and I cherish them both more than you can imagine."  I could feel a peace washing over me that was only from God.  I knew in that moment that although we live in a broken world, our God redeems brokenness.  Want to hear the best part?  If we are obedient; if we give generously-without an agenda-of our time and resources; if we seek to "offer our bodies as living sacrifices"; our GOD, in all his holiness, lets us be a part of His redeeming work.

*This statement is not a reference to the girl in this picture.

Stopping to sing for a man working outside in his garden.

Hope for the Children

October 16:  Roseland Good News Daycare hosted their first giving dinner (first fancy one!)  I have helped Ms. Pearl plan many of these dinner that we hosted ourselves in the Agape center or the daycare.  We made lasagnas, salads, and desserts ourselves, decorated ourselves, and they were fabulous.  Cynthia (one of our board members has been encouraging Ms. Pearl do a bigger dinner for quite some time but the thought was just very overwhelming.  Ms. pearl decided this year with our new center open and a goal to be 100% self-supported by individuals & churches, to take the leap of faith and plan a BIG fundraising dinner.  I enjoyed helping plan and enjoyed inviting members of our church to attend.  TVCC had 28 guests in attendance!  It was such a great night of testimony from supporters, volunteers, and best of all MOMS!  We are already looking forward to this year's...

Ms. TayTay (Ms. Pearl's daughter--Pre-School teacher, Kinnick, Macey, and now Carver have all had Ms. TayTay as a teacher!)

My friend Erika

My friend Joy

 

Summer Miscellaneous

June 1:  Swim Lessons for these two...

June 2:  Field Day at Troy Hofer

June 3:  When Sadie was in Kindergarten, we started a new tradition for the last day of school--we make hotdogs and s'mores over our firepit and create our summer bucket list.  Each person in our family gets to chose 3 things to do and we try our best to get through them by the end of summer.  I made this reusable bucket list sign and painted lots of extra yellow clothespins.  After we complete and activity we flip the clothespin backwards.

June 5:  Celebrating Summer with Free Donut Day in our PJ's!

June 6:  Pizza Picnic

June 11:  So I waited all day to get my free iced coffee...  I picked it up before Kinnick's baseball game and planned to take it with me.  I set it on the kitchen counter while we were getting ready for the game and a few minutes later, this is what I found...

Carver & Macey decided to drink my entire coffee!!!

June 11:  Getting our hardwood floors redone...  On top of packing for vacation, we had to clear out all of our wood floors!

June 29:  Hot Tub Party!

July 2:  Lincoln Park Zoo with Ms. Pearl's Daycare

June-August:  This summer I participated in a "Read the Bible in 90 Days" plan with a small group of women.  It was a lot of work (especially during our vacation!) but it was totally worth it.

My Trusty Reading List

July 3:  We finished Harry Potter #3 and celebrated with Butterbeer and Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans while we watched the movie.

July 8:  Sadie had a friend over to make these tie-dye shirts with a kit she got for Christmas.

July 8:  TCBY Family Date

July 9:  Maggie Daley Park with Ms. Pearl's Daycare

July 9:  Movie in the Park

July 11:  Swimming at Ms. Jennifer's on a rainy Saturday...

July 16:  10-Year Anniversary

July 17:  My friend Michelle and I did a big cookie order for a wedding

July:  We took on the project of re-finishing our kitchen table.  It was a lot of work but it turned out beautiful.  I'm so glad we did!

Before

After

July 29:  Macey was a little obsessed with watching Space Jam for a time period.  She posted this sign on her door:

July 31:  We celebrated Harry Potter's Birthday at our library (wand making & house sorting) and Macey & Kinnick got to dress up and go to the Slammer's game that night with Marc for more HP festivities!

August 1:  We took our kids to the "First Saturday" workshop at Home Depot.  It was very cool--we have not been back again but would love to.  A great FREE program!  This month they built min-chalkboards...

August 6:  Bath Cutie!

August 13:  We had a fun date day with the 2 big kids going to Raging Waves water park for the afternoon and stopping on our way home for ice cream.

August 17:  We hosted a "Bayside Lane" ice cream party in our drive-way.  We passed out invitations to our whole street.  We did not have as many people show up as we hoped but it was a fun time with those who did come!

August 28:  These two... back together to cause trouble and be stinkin' cute every day!

Augsut 31:  Wants to be like her big sis...

Block Party

July 31:  Ms. Pearl had a HUGE block party each summer.  This year, our church was in charge of the planning and execution of this big event!  It is always such a good day.  On this particular day, my heart was overwhelmed with gratitude that I get to be a part of this amazing ministry and I was refreshed with a new passion to continue letting God use me to minister to these moms and their precious children. 

This little girl gave a testimony to how she sees God at work!

Macey's best friend K'myah from her time at the daycare.

Dancin' in the street

Thrift store--they moved everything out to the street so people could shop.  They were able to fill up a bag for $1!