Praise Him for Christian moms.

I will declare Your name to my brothers; in the congregation I will praise You. Psalm 22:22

God is so good! My Sydney graduated from kindergarten today! It was hard not to lose it when we all clapped and cheered. I just kept thinking, "I can't believe I'm here." It's so hard to fathom that my oldest baby is growing up so fast. I know, everyone says "it happens so fast"...they're RIGHT! Days like this just make me treasure every little moment with my children.

Here are a few pics from this morning...

Sydney in her new dress for the special occasion.

Sydney getting her diploma.
Sydney and her "Congratulations!" flowers from her family.

Outside Hodge Elementary. (I could NOT get Emerson to turn around and look at the camera until I said, "Hey Emerson, look! A monkey!" That's not really a lie is it?)
Leading up to today has been a pretty busy couple of weeks. Since Mother's Day I have had two medical procedures, Sydney's Children's Choir program, her field day at school, and her AWANA program. Seems like some of these things could have been spread out a bit, but I think it's just that time of the year.

Here's Sydney before her Children's Choir program.

Avery waiting to watch Sydney sing.
A couple pics of our visit to field day at Sydney's school.
Sydney getting her AWANA award.
I'm supposed to be taking Avery and Emerson strawberry picking with the Parents Club tomorrow, but I think I might try to hold off. I hate to do it without Sydney. (Even though she "graduated" she still has 2 weeks of school left.) Also, I just don't know about the Parents Club. I really like the other moms, and it has been a great way to learn about all the MANY family friendly things to do in the area, but I just don't feel a real connection to anyone. I find myself thinking sometimes that maybe I will just see if my neighbor friends or Sunday School friends would like to do these things with me instead. There's just something about being around other Christian moms. Maybe some of the other moms in Parents Club are Christians, but I haven't seen it yet. Who knows, maybe they don't know I'm a Christian...I hope they do though! I want everyone to know! I want it to oooooze from every pore of my being...is that graphic enough for you?

Loving this weather, by the way, but, man, are my allergies bad! I took the kids to McDonald's after Sydney's graduation and sneezed my head off the entire first half of the meal. Real appetizing to surrounding patrons, I'm sure. Thanking the Lord for the opportunity to play outside, though! Maybe we'll go to the park again this afternoon...AH, AH, AAAHHH....CHOO!!!

Praise Him for being a mom.

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever. 1 Chronicles 16:34

We had a great Mother's Day weekend. After the park fun yesterday morning, we enjoyed playing with sidewalk paint. Brian took some pics and then later went to play basketball at church. I couldn't figure out where the camera went, and had a sinking feeling that he had left it on the back of his truck when he left for the church. When he returned from basketball, this was confirmed. Oops! Then today, when I went to the grocery store, I ran into my neighbor who said that she and her husband found it in the middle of the road. It's still in almost perfect condition. Whew! Below are a few of the pictures Brian took.


Last night Brian and I finally finished watching Lost season 4. Now I'm all caught up, but impatient for the next season. We never have time to watch it when it's actually on, so we have to wait until the season's over to get it on DVD. No, we aren't fancy enough to have Tivo either.

This morning we had a great church service. Then it was nap time for all, especially me. Sydney had choir practice since their program is next Sunday evening. Then we all went to dinner at Chili's.


Here's a picture of my Mother's Day gift, which I LOVE. It's a large piece of metal art to go on the wall over our bed. In the picture it's just laying on the floor since it will take some careful planning to get it hung safely and properly.


I definitely have a lot to praise the Lord for today. I'm so grateful for the blessing of being a mom. There were years when I never thought that it would be possible. I'm daily reminded of God's goodness and grace in my life when I look at the sweet faces of my children. I've learned so much more about God's love for me by having the privilege of loving them. I think of how imperfectly I love my babies. Although I do it to the best of my ability, I know I often fail. In that failure comes a new understanding of how great and wide and deep is the love of Christ...the perfect love of Christ. With that realization, I can "love them like Jesus," (as the Casting Crowns song says), and in that way I will never fail them!

Praise Him for family time.

How can I repay the Lord for all His goodness to me? Psalm 116:12

This week has been all about doctor's appointments. Monday I had to go in for blood work, Tuesday I had to take Emerson to the pediatric dentist for his broken tooth, and Wednesday I had to meet with my Ob/Gyn. By Thursday, I was so glad to just be home. The weather has been pretty rainy all week, which doesn't help my PMS, but hey, what can you do?

I was so glad it was nicer today. Brian did a little work in the yard this morning and the kids actually slept past 7. Thank you, Lord, for small miracles! I had planned for us all to go to The Butterfly House since Sydney's class just finished an entire unit on bugs, especially focusing on the life cycle of the caterpillar/butterfly, but after a "money" talk with Brian, we decided to wait. It will only cost $16 for all of us to get in, but we are trying to be really frugal. Our plan is to be better at scheduling those types of things ahead of time so that we can really budget for them.

Instead of The Butterfly House we went to the Arnold City Park. We played on the playground for about 20 minutes first. Emerson's favorite thing is the spaceship that's attached into the ground. You sit on it, and it bounces. Of course, sharing is out of the question. When he's on it, he does not want me to join him. Oh well, I just had to wait my turn.

While at the park, I also had to remind Avery that the slide might be a little wet/dirty. Last time we were at this park she slid down through a little muddy water and was not very happy about it. She was better after I let her use a baby wipe on her pants, but then the rest of the time she kept announcing to me, loudly, "Mommy, I'm going down the slide again, but I will be VERY CAREFUL of the pee!"

I didn't want other parents to think there was actually pee on the slide, so every time she said that, I would respond, "OK honey, but it's not pee. It's just dirty water."

Another big hit at the park is the geese. The kids LOVE them, especially Emerson. Although, he thinks they are all ducks, which he adorably calls, "duck-uhs." It takes all my energy to keep him from chasing them all over the place. I wouldn't mind, except that I have heard that geese can be pretty mean, and I don't want them to turn on him.

After playing, we had our picnic of drinks, apples, cheez-its, and sandwiches (which tasted better than usual because Brian made them so I didn't have to). It was starting to get windy by that point so we didn't linger. It was about time for rest time for the kids, then, so we loaded up and headed home. All in all, it was a great morning!

Praise Him for never a dull moment.

I really couldn't find a praise verse that went with this post so here's a good one anyway!
Sing to Him, sing praise to Him; tell of all His wonderful acts. 1 Chronicles 16:9

My children crack me up. Night before last, Brian went to get Avery out of the tub and there was "dirt" all in the water. When asked if she poopied in the water she very matter-of-factly stated that, "It just came out of my bottom, but I picked it up and put it in the potty." YUCK!

This evening after dinner, the kids enjoyed watching Daddy mow the yard. Sydney spent the entire time acting like a sad little kitten that was devastated that there would no longer be long grass to lay in. All the while, Avery lovingly played with her hair and comforted the sad kitty. Emerson stood to the side staring longingly at Daddy, while wearing a pink bunny mask upside down on his head and periodically picking his nose.





After all of this fun, we went upstairs for baths where Emerson slipped in the tub and broke his tooth (that actually wasn't that funny).


To end the evening, when I asked Avery what song she wanted me to sing she said, "The Pray for the Pants song," which is actually her longer title to the song she usually calls, "The Pants song." The actual song is "As the Deer Panteth for the Water."

Never a dull moment!