Seventeen...

Aren't we cute?

 Oh, wait.  This one might be more realistic:

We dropped the kids off at Grandma and Grandpa's for 24 hours and celebrated.  We saw "The Giver", which was excellent, and had dinner at Texas Roadhouse, which was also excellent, per normal.

I am so blessed to be sharing my life with this man.

Let's start working on 18...

L. 

Such A Nice Day...

My mom had some free time, so we met up with her for lunch, a trip to the park, and some crazy good frozen yogurt! 

 The kids loved the waterfall:

 We hadn't been to this park since Seth was a baby:

 Mom and I actually got to sit and talk while the kids played:

 It helps to have someone big enough to chase Miah!

 Mmmm...  Fro-Yo...  We'll have to come back here again:

One of the best things about coming "home" is that we're close to grandparents now!  I love that my kids get to make memories with them during this stage of life!

L.

Is It Too Much To Ask...

for clothing stores to keep producing the same products for decades?

Because I insist that toddler girls should have the option of sparkly jeans! 

Grace always had sparkly jeans!  It was easy!  I just walked into the store and purchased them, and as long as I didn't inadvertently forget to turn them inside out before washing them, she was sparkly all fall and winter!  For Miah, the process has been a little more difficult.  For the past several years, I have been shopping for the best price on jeans (this year Osk Kosh won out, go figure), and then using permanent glitter fabric paint to make them shine.  Seriously, any children's clothing manufacturer who would just put out glitter jeans would make a killing!  But I do think this year's jeans turned out particularly well!
 

As a side note, a friend of ours gave Miah some clothes a few months ago.  They included two pairs of glitter jeggings.  You should have seen how happy this made me!  I mean, pink and sparkly!  She wore them both into the ground this summer!

As a second side note, Grace wouldn't let me spray her jeans...  That's OK, but I have informed her that next time we make a trip to Disney World, she will have pixie dust jeans... and so will Miah... and so will I.  It's just part of being part of this family.  We both laughed.  But she knows the glitter is coming...

L.

Campmeeting 2014...

This is the first time ever that I can remember being sort of glad that campmeeting is over.  But let me explain...

We knew, heading into this summer, that we were going to have six weeks of near non-stop activity.  Today (or maybe tomorrow, more accurately), marks the end of those six weeks.  And they have been good weeks.  Really, really good weeks.  But we're exhausted!

I'm looking forward to a (slightly) slower pace in August.  But before I switch gears, let me share some of my favorite things from this past week:

*We're home.  Last year I could hardy bring myself to pull away from the campground, I was so certain that we were supposed to return home.  This year, I walked across the grounds, opened my back door, and smiled.

*Old friends and new friends.  Every single time.

*My kids have been coming to this camp for years.  They have now reached a point where they have perennial camp friends.  I love the experience they're having.

*Great photo opportunities:

*Snow-Cones.

I hope this doesn't sound seriously "un-spiritual".  The truth is, last year I felt like almost every single word of every single sermon was specifically for me.  And, although the worship services were good this year, I have to figure that sometimes they have to be for someone else!  Every day this week just felt like a bonus day at camp.  And it's all good.  I'm really happy with where I'm at and with what God is doing!

L.

Embarrassing...

... but too funny not to post.

Miah caught me working out, this morning.

It was pretty cute when she pointed to a very skinny lady on the exercise video and asked, "Is that one you, Mama?"

It was just as cute, but more embarrassing, when she said, "Why is this making you skinny?  I like you to be fat!"

Well...  She's honest...

L.

Some Thoughts on This Day...

#1  You should take your children to doctor's appointments on the dates you have scheduled.  However, if you accidentally show up with one of them on the wrong day (a week ahead of time), you doctor might go ahead and see him, anyway.  If your doctor is awesome.  I might know this from experience.

#2  Nicknames can go too far.  When asked, at the doctor's office, what her last name is, Miah promptly responded, "Papaya"...

#3  My family should stop letting me walk into stores that are having school supply sales.  My name is Lisa, and I'm a school supply sale-a-holic...

L.

Sometimes It Takes 16 Years...

I'll never be able to adequately put it into words, but what an amazing week.

These are some of the highlights, for me...

I got to spend time with people who molded and shaped me - and I don't just mean my quizzing abilities, although there's certainly a lot of that, too.  Some of them probably don't even know it, or don't know the extent of it, and I'm not going to try to make an exhaustive list, because I'll miss somebody, for sure.  But I would be remiss if I didn't take a moment to mention Pat Turner, who was around when I was a quizzer, but who really showed up in my life when I was an adult, struggling through the early 20-somethings...    I would be neither the quizmaster I am, nor the person, without her influence.

And Bill Horning...  I can't say enough.  I'm generally pretty good at expressing myself in writing, but I'm finding myself at a loss.  And so, even though there are a lot of things I could thank him for, personally, what I really loved most about this week was how he was a part of molding and shaping the next generation of my family.  I could not have asked for more than to have Grace experience his leadership as her coach on the Regional B team.  When she missed making the A team by two points, in May, we were all disappointed.  After having experienced this past week, we wouldn't change it for the world!  This was exactly what she needed.

I knew I would have a good time with old friends at Q, but what I didn't necessarily expect was to make new ones this time around!  It's amazing how this quiz family just keeps growing!

The Ministry with Others project was definitely a highlight of my week, and it was meaningful to me that when Seth shared his favorite part of the week, that was it.  I can't think of anything that is more significant than teaching our teenagers to live out the Scripture they have learned by loving others like Jesus does.  That's what it's all about.

The plenary sessions were amazing.  The Trevecca student band, Awaken, had such a spirit of worship, it was palpable.  And Trevecca chaplain Tim Green brought new perspective to a passage of Scripture that has been one of my favorites for half my life!  I'll have more to share about that at some point.  For now I'm simply focusing on what it really means to allow God to change my mind.

Something incredible began to form, as we drove home yesterday.  Phil and I have always had our best conversations while on the road.  I think it's something we've known all along, and something we've practiced, but maybe we didn't have the words for it before now.  Quizzing is about studying and learning the Scriptures and allowing them to transform our lives.  Once we've done that, then we can take a seat, jump, answer questions, and bring home medals and scholarships.  It's not the other way around.  It never has been, but sometimes people outside the quiz world don't seem to understand that.  This is not a passive study of Scripture, where we learn enough to win competitions and then hope it might somehow permeate (or at least touch) our lives.  That's completely backwards!  And if you think that's what it's about, you've got it all wrong!  It's the knowledge and transformation first.  Then comes the competition.

And so, with that, let me say that we did bring a few awards home.  And that's fun and all. 

It's break time now!  Catch you for Acts in a month or so!

L.

And Death Happens, Too...

Oversimplified.  I know.

I'm probably not the one who has the "right" to put this into words.  I only met Pete once.  But you wouldn't believe how much I heard about him in the 17 years before that.  Or maybe, if you knew him, you would.  To many of the people to whom Pete ministered, he was a legend.

When people die, I think we often try to preserve a memory that is not quite real.  But this is what I really loved about Pete.  He didn't live a charmed life, and somehow, that allowed him to bless real people, whose lives didn't always pan out the way they'd hoped either.  There's something to be said of that.  Something to learn.

Even though I only met Pete once, there is a part of me that knows my life would be unfathomably different were it not for his influence.  Pete was my husband's first mentor.  He took a kid who wasn't really sure about who he was or what he might be becoming, and he cared enough to mold and shape him into someone who loved God and would grow up to give back to kids, himself, time and time again.  It's no easy task.

And so, although I know others have done so already, I want to take a moment to personally thank Pete's family for sharing him.  My world is a better place for your sacrifice, and I know, for sure, that I am not the only one.

When I think of Pete, Matthew 7:20 comes to mind, "Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them" (NIV).  Pete was a good tree... and he produced good fruit... and a lot of it.

May prayer marbles abound in the pockets of those who loved him, and may we also give selflessly to build the Kingdom of God, right here, right now.

L.

 Phil with Pete at NNU in 2011:

Life Happens...

I've been trying to work through my thoughts on some things for about a month now.  I feel like I need to be very clear, with this post, that just because I am having a rough time with some things does not mean that I do not recognize that I am surely, exactly where I'm supposed to be.  And I am blessed.  Really, really blessed.  So I don't want anyone to read into this post anything that isn't actually there.  I'm telling it like it is...

Let's backtrack to last month.  I took a pretty big hit.  I've only talked about it with a couple of people, because the truth is I spent about two weeks spontaneously bursting into tears, and... well... you all know how much I love to cry in public, so it was much easier to just stuff it.  There is something I have wanted to do since I was about 15 years old.  It's the kind of something that you tell people about when you're 15, and you say, "When I grow up, I want to be (fill in the blank)," and they look at you like you're a little off, shake their heads, and say, "That's never going to happen, but keep dreaming..."  Well, last month I was one of three "finalists" for just what I wanted... and that's as far as I got... 

Sometimes I feel like I'm still paying for decisions I made 16 years ago, but the lesson I cannot learn from that is, "don't make decisions!"  And so, as I so often do, I decided that instead of continuing to burst into tears for the next two weeks, I would breathe in... and breathe out... and keep moving...  I watched "Tangled", chanted, "I need a new dream," about a hundred thousand times... and I was just about OK.

In the ensuing weeks, the rug was pulled out from under us, not once, but twice more, regarding things we have dreamed of for years.  It's been this ugly process of just barely getting a handle on the emotions that go along with these kinds of disappointments and then blinking, only to find something else staring me in the face.  And I'm really, really tired of fighting.

So, the following quotation hit me like a ton of bricks the other day, 

"You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream." - C. S. Lewis

I don't think I can recall a time in my adult life when I have not had at least some sort of idea regarding what I wanted.  Today, I have no idea, and I'm not good with that.  Maybe I should be, but I'm not.  It's not that I don't have the general principle right.  I want what God wants.  I just don't know what that looks like in my everyday life anymore.  

These songs are helping, but you could pray for me, too.  It's been a rough one...

L.

Broken Bread

By: Rend Collective Experiment

May I be broken bread, may I be poured out wine
May I incarnate, Your kindness Lord
Spend my life Jesus, anyway You please
Whether on great things, or what seems small

Your will done your way
Your will done your way
Your will done your way

I will not fight You
Take me past the line that my heart draws
I will not fight You
Take me beyond the laziness of my thoughts
I will not fight
Lead me further than I've gone before
I will not fight You
I'm abandoned to Your call

Your will done your way

Do not let there be, any part of me
That’s untouchable, unreachable
Let my delight be, living out Your dreams
Washing dirty feet, and kissing yours

Your will done your way
Your will done your way
Your will done your way

I will not fight You
Take me past the line that my heart draws
I will not fight You
Take me beyond the laziness of my thoughts
I will not fight
Lead me further than I've gone before
I will not fight You
I'm abandoned to Your call

Call

God let Your dreams come true, dream through us
God let Your dreams come true through us

God let Your dreams come true, dream through us
God let Your dreams come true through us

Dream through us

And...

Everything is Yours

Audrey Assad

When all the world is blossoming
When everything around is bursting into life
And I don't have to strain to hear the beat of Your heart
Oh, Oh, Oh

When all the world is under fire
and the skies are threatening to thunder and rain
And I am overcome by fears that I can't see
Oh, Oh, Oh

If everything is Yours
Everything is Yours
If everything is Yours
I can let it go

No it was never mine to hold

Who could command the stars to sing
Or hold the raging seas from breaking through the doors
Until the fragile roses wear the very same hand
Oh, Oh, Oh
Oh, Oh, Oh

If everything is Yours
Everything is Yours
If everything is Yours
I can let it go

I can let it

I can let it go

Cause everything is Yours
Yeah everything is Yours
If everything is Yours
Everything is Yours
If everything is Yours
I can let it go
Oh, no

It was never mine to hold
Oh, Oh, Oh
Oh, Oh, Oh

Just In Case...

... she ever makes the National Spelling Bee Finals!

I want some proof that we started early...

And I know it's just her name...

I forgot to take a picture of the other words...

L.