Hope for today, look up,look ahead

Look up
Matt 11 tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest.Walk with me & work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me & you'll learn to live freely and lightly."

Got to love God, he is so much more then people represent him as.



What I are going through today, this season in my life is temporary, it will be finished some day. I don't have to work as if there will never be an end. There is hope in every season. I need to look ahead to keep plowing through the icky stuff,envision the possible futures. My favorite envision is to just be before God with him,worshiping him. Probably my favorite Christian song is I can only imagine (link below) . When I sing that song I see that day and it always moves my soul with strength,hope,peace. It is going to be glorious....



Look ahead

Heb 12 Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we're in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he's there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!

camping

Sorry another post without pictures I'm going to really try to upload some I swear.
We are back from camping. It was a lovely time. The camp ground we went to we had not been there in years. We've camped other places for quite a few years now. But when we were young and married we went there every year for weeks at a time. The camp ground was local so Chris could continue to work while I camped with the kids. A lot of our friends did the same in fact we always found someone we knew camping the same time as us,usually unplanned. So we always had company which was great. Not so anymore.... most of our friends only had two maybe three kids and now they are all teens ,no one really camps anymore. We have had weekends that we've had planned camping trips with friends but that's it.

I felt very much the passing of time. Walking by the camp site we camped when Nadia was two weeks old and we kept her in a dresser drawer,swimming in the pond we used to waterski day after day in,seeing the beach where my brother Sonny drove our boat onto the beach(long story) ,remembering all the good times with good friends... It was bittersweet ,lovely.

Funny thing is we rented a cabin... I remember mocking my in-laws when they were our age about the cabin vs. tent isn't really camping. I'm happy to have a bed to snuggle in at night,I would gladly never tent camp again! Ike and Nadia shared my sentiments!

People did not seem as friendly as they once were. I only met one friendly southern lady and a gentleman who like to travel from campsite to campsite finding work as he went. He seemed so lonely,he made me sad. Everyone else seemed like they wanted to be left alone.

We spent most of our days swimming. It was chilly but mostly ok. We found a rope swing and a HUGE rock to jump off of. I almost fell off the rock and removed quite a bit of my skin on my derriere,ouch! Even Ollie did better jumping then I did. I'm so glad the younger kids are swimming so well so they could jump. I was so tired every night we never made it back to star gaze (the older kids went),I regret that. Our old house had a fantastic open field and we would often lay out there just watching the stars. We almost never do that now.

We gave Ike and Nadia their first car red convertible la baron and they got it on the road this week. It was fun whizzing around in a convertible. My first car was a retired police cruiser not nearly as cool but it did have fantastic pick up and a great spotlight.
So that is it nothing exciting. :)

We've been having to much fun to post

Yesterday was our first day doing fall stuff. Did a bit of cleaning (House slowly descends into dinginess as we are just having too much fun in sun) It's my policy to enjoy life specially in summer. I decided that a long time ago when my Grandmother talked about how she would stay home cleaning,playing catch up when my Grandfather would invite her to go driving with him. Sometimes she would say yes and leave everything and she wished she had said yes more often. She said she would have, if she had known he would die so young.... Live like we're dying I'm actually thinking of stenciling Live like we're dying in one of our rooms. It's so easy to get caught up in things that just do not matter.

So that was bad ,cleaning I hate it but it really hit me later in the day that fall has arrived,when we went to the beach. When I saw the lifeguard stands gone from the beach, I just felt so sad.... I love summer it's my favorite season. Nadia and the kids made me feel better talking about how they are looking forward to fall and the yummy food I make. I don't cook inside all summer. We eat a lot of grilled food and I cook everything even things like rice outside on the grill. The kids all had their lists of food they are looking forward to and it did make me feel a bit cozier about fall.

Sebastian could live solely off my home mac and chez (it's spicy not the normal mac) he always chows when I make it which is usually a couple of times a week. Nadia was looking forward to waking up with me bringing her pancakes in bed. It's funny you do all these things for kids over and over again. You don't get much feedback then it's like they slam you with the love. I felt warm and cozy when they were talking. So I went home and we had our first fall meal oven fried chicken and homemade mac. It was yummy no wonder I gain so much weight every winter!!

I'll try to get back here sometime soon with pic from our summer
LOL Ollie just brought me breakfast in bed. My left over chicken, an apple, and choc cake....