Weeks in Review: 2014 {Weeks 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, & 35}

Sometimes the need, the drive, to put words on paper, characters on screen….sometimes it’s deep and maddening and yet the words won’t come or time won’t stop long enough to let them flow. And so a list or two and some photos. Because time goes so fast and I don’t want to forget these moments or how to find my words.

July was:

Grace going to Kanakuk
a glorious time on the lake with friends for the Fourth
Grace going to Haiti
Ellie enjoying her first year at Camp Enosh and Chandler enjoying her last
celebrating our 15th wedding anniversary
a week of nothing but laying by the pool with the girls
sorting through nine years of school files and still keeping too much stuff
Chandler’s first trip to Schlitterbahn
a LeCrae concert
back to school preparations and planning

August was:

our oldest turning fourteen
littlest one losing her two front teeth and learning to ride a bike (not related events 😉 )
the start of fall sports with volleyball and soccer practices
finally getting all of Amania’s documents updated with her American name
a few days away with my beloved soaking up the sun and burning through a stack of books and nourishing heart and soul, mind and body
the return of Friday classes for the girls
lots of race prep as Capitol Craze draws closer
friends in for the weekend to close out the month
a tour of our newly renovated Capitol building – architectural beauty

And of course, both were filled with countless good gifts…….

Jesus looked up at said, ‘Father, I thank you that you have heard me.’ (John 11:41)

The sequence of events in this passage seems strange and unusual. Lazarus was still in the tomb, yet Jesus’ thanksgiving preceeded the miracle of raising him from the dead….Jesus gave thanks for what He was about to receive. His gratitude sprang up before the blessing had arrived, in an expression of assurance that it was certainly on its way.

Streams in the Desert, August 4

And as I teach my girls that feeling follows action, I’m reminded that the practice of counting the gifts, looking for the gifts, often shows us just how much we have to be thankful for and a grateful heart starts to overflow. For God is a gracious and generous giver. We need only to open our eyes to see.

3006. a God who tramples our iniquities underfoot and casts all our sins into the sea (Micah 7:18-19)

3007. oldest off to Haiti for a week; this mama heart leaking just a bit

3008. fifteen years of marriage – lessons of love, sacrifice, friendship, and intimacy

3009. faith

3010. fire pit, friends, and s’mores

3011. girls all home

3012. mild evenings

3013. a broken Saturday – tears, struggle

3014. a Sunday that makes strong – music, sermon, concert

3015. beautiful Monday and little projects completed

3016. grocery shopping with Minion #4

3017. a fourteen year old in the house