Catching Up on Life

Psalm 25:4-5 "Make me to know Your ways, O Lord;

    teach me Your paths.

Lead me in Your truth and teach me,

    for You are the God of my salvation;

    for You I wait all the day long.

Wayne's prayer book came in the mail a few days ago. It turned out amazing. Thank you to everyone who participated in sending pictures!! The book meant a lot to Wayne.

Here's a peak inside the book. YOU made this project possible...thank you!!

Wednesday: 7/22/15

On Wednesday, we met up with some friends at the park and had a picnic lunch. It was such a blessing to spend time in fellowship! My friend Maria also helped explain some of the homeschool books I received in the mail. We are doing something a little different this year (I'll post about that another day), and I was slightly overwhelmed by the material. Maria helped explain things to me and I walked away encouraged and excited about this school year.

Micaela, Olivia, & Joella

Sophia & Miranda

Giana & Naomi (twins born in two different families)

Grace, Abigail, and Nicole

The girls coloring at Carmax as we did paperwork for our "new" van.

Waiting patiently to get our new car. Wayne has been looking for a few months on Carmax for a used Sienna (8 passenger). The other night he spotted a new listing of a van in Washington state (note: we only look for used cars from the West coast where they don't use salt on the road). He was able to get us a 2007 Sienna with only 16,500 miles on it!

Here is our "new" van. It looks and drives amazing. 

Thursday: 7/23/2015

Thursday we met up with some friends at the park. My friend Rachel, who recently moved to Colorado, was in town visiting. It was fun catching up with everyone.

Rachel, Rebecca, Denita, and Jaclyn

Naomi and Eve

The kids all playing together

Naomi and Eve

Watch out...Joella is driving

Paulie and Micaela swinging together

Apparently my children did not inherit my fear of heights

Friday: 7/24/2015

I recently won tickets on K-Love for a concert downtown called "Outcry". Grace and I had fun spending time together. The worship music was amazing-especially Kari Jobe and the Passion band. 

Grace enjoying herself

We had decent tickets...I'm glad we weren't any closer to the speakers. It was loud enough where we were and I didn't bring ear plugs for Grace.

A selfie as we ate dinner

Beautiful day downtown

Beautiful sunset and the skyline during the show

The skyline walking back to our car

I'm thankful for the evening alone with Grace and for the chance to spend time worshiping God. I love it when I can worship God and get my eyes fixed back where they belong. God knew what I needed when He allowed me to win those tickets to the concert. The best part of the night was when Grace, who loves singing and writing songs, leaned over and said, "Mama, I realized tonight that I'm not too young to get serious with the Lord and worship Him with all my heart!" Yes, sweet girl...that is the best thing you can do with your life!

Psalm 98:4 "Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises!

Psalm 95:1-7 "Oh come, let us sing to the Lord;

    let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!

Let us come into His presence with thanksgiving;

    let us make a joyful noise to Him with songs of praise!

For the Lord is a great God,

    and a great King above all gods.

In His hand are the depths of the earth;

    the heights of the mountains are His also.

The sea is His, for He made it,

    and His hands formed the dry land.

Oh come, let us worship and bow down;

    let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!

For He is our God,

    and we are the people of His pasture,

    and the sheep of His hand."

VBS

This week has been a busy week. Wayne has been on chemo and the girls have been attending two VBS programs. They attend VBS at church from 9-12 and then from 5:30-8:30 they attend a sports camp VBS. I thought that I would have some extra time with them gone, but somehow by the time I drop them off and go back to pick them up, there just isn't enough time to get my to-do list done. Good thing God is in control of my schedule and not me! Here are some pictures from the past few days.

On 7-11 day we actually visited 7-11 twice (a different one of course). The girls loved getting dessert at 7-11 for both lunch and dinner!

Joella and Micaela are learning to brush their own hair. My babies are growing up too quickly!

VBS at Oak Lawn Bible Church (Son Treasure Island)

7-14 was Chick'fil'a Cow Appreciation Day. We all dressed up (except Wayne) to get a free meal...I think $60 of free food is worth the embarrassment of dressing up like a cow.

It was windy and my ears look like dog ears, not cow ears. I allowed the girls to take a picture of me. I'm trying to remember that even if I don't like the way I look, it is important for our memories to include me in the pictures. Outside of Chick'fil'a K-LOVE radio had a table. The girls were so excited to see people from K-LOVE. We went and talked to them and the girls convinced me to text some code to try to get tickets to a concert. I received a text last night that I won!! July 24th, Grace and I will be going to Outcry in Chicago. I'm super excited about these tickets. I wanted to go, but I didn't want to pay $30 a ticket. God is so good!!

Sports Camp VBS - the girls are doing soccer. 

Sports Camp at Morainne Valley Church.

We recently had dinner with neighbors who introduced us to Ceviche. I found a recipe and attempted to make it last night. It turned out pretty good. I learned a few things to change. The best part...sneaking in lots of vegetables (carrots, onions, zucchini, cucumber, tomatoes). The girls loved it (for the most part).

Wayne is recovering faster this month then last from his chemo treatment. He thinks that he'll be able to go back to work on Monday!! Praise God for getting us through one more treatment. Two down, four to go.

Proverbs 17:22 "A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones."

A Week of Family Fun

Psalm 34:10 "The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing."

I chose this verse because as we have been driving around having fun this week, we have been listening to our Seeds Family Worship cds. This song is one of many that has been stuck in my head. 

God has been so good to us this week...we have not lacked one good thing, despite our circumstances. Wayne had a good week at work and has felt decent. He is just leaning on Jesus to get him through each day. The girls and I have had a fun filled week. 

Here is a summary of our week:

Tuesday:

Tuesday we went and watched the movie "Inside Out". We all really enjoyed the movie. I am glad that we decided to pre-buy tickets the night before because when we arrived, the next two shows were sold out! It was a great day to go to the movies-it was raining all morning. When we came out of the movies, the sun had come out! When we got home, everyone went outside to play. I'm so thankful for the neighbor girls that live up the street. They keep my girls plenty occupied during the summer months playing outside, swimming, riding bikes, and playing on the trampoline.

Naomi has been "growing" some butterflies. She was excited to see that two of them had emerged from their cocoons. We have to let their wings dry and then she'll get to release them tomorrow. On the sad side, our little cooper hawk died a few days ago. We discovered that the mom had five chicks and kicked the runt out. We didn't realize it until it was too late, but they weren't feeding that baby anymore so he/she died. There were some sad kids around here that day. They've gotten over it now as they have been watching the other ones learn how to fly.

Wednesday: Brookfield Zoo

Grace showing her sisters the animals.

Group shot

The snake was following Micael's finger as she moved it on the glass. She found that fascinating.

Double trouble.

Look what the kangaroo delivered!

Checking out the Przewalski Horses.

Up close

Naomi wanted a picture as well. 

Micaela

Abigail, Emma and the giraffes.

Micaela and the zebra

Naomi and the zebra

Watching the giraffes.

The girls and the Okapi.

Grace, my big helper, pushing Joella.

Sophia

Sisters

Sophia and the grizzly bear...the thing was huge. I wouldn't want to meet that in real life.

Micaela was a little more intimidated by the bear.

The Polar Bear jumped into the water when we got there. It was fun to watch it swim.

Pretending they were Jonah and the fish was eating them.

Penguins

Chasing bubbles!!!

We found another peacock and had to follow it around. They were hoping he would spread his wings to attract the female.

Festival of Flight!! This was an amazing show.

This bird grazed our heads...pretty amazing.

The girls were thrilled to see this Harper Eagle. They learned all about them on Wild Kratts.

The zoo was so much fun that we stayed longer then anticipated, so we made a quick trip to Taco Bell for some nachos for lunch.

Naomi releasing her Painted Butterflies!

We came home for them zoo and I got to work. That morning at the Farmer's Market they had a special on raspberries, Wayne's favorite fruit for jam. Sophia helped me make him 5 pints of raspberry jam!

Yep, crazy woman. I also decided to bake two fresh blueberry pies for company. I bit off a little more then I should have that afternoon. I had to bake the pies after I returned home from Bible Study.

Thursday: Great America

I rode Goliath with Naomi and Grace. It is the tallest, fastest and steepest wooden roller coaster!! That was an intense ride (especially after not being on a roller coaster for over a year). I have to admit that my eyes were closed until after the initial drop. I have a crazy fear of heights and yet I enjoy roller coasters. I do keep my eyes shut until we're done clunking up the big hills and start to drop...once we are dropping I'll open my eyes. I think that I'm almost getting too old for roller coasters...my neck has been sore for almost two days.

Abigail, Joella and Micaela enjoyed the little kids section of Great America. Abigail is a little afraid of roller coasters and enjoys the less "intense" rides that Joella and Micaela enjoy. The great part is that they have someone to ride with them on the rides.

I asked Micaela if she wanted me to ride in the tea cup with her and spin them and she said, "No Mama, I can do it all by myself." Needless to say, they didn't spin very fast. 

Waiting for their sisters on the swings.

Abigail didn't want to be filmed on the "baby ride". 

While I was riding Raging Bull with Naomi and Grace, my friend Toni watched the little ones for me. Joella took a tumble and skinned her knees. To make her feel better, she bought a boot of slurpee for Joella. The boot was meant to share, but Joella drank about 3/4 all by herself. She was very proud of that boot!

3/4 of a boot of slurpie = many bathroom trips. Unfortunately, we had a 2.25 hour drive home (due to wonderful traffic). Thankfully, I had a diaper in the car that the girls were able to put on her. There was no where to stop or take her when the slurpie hit.

Fun day at the park with my girls!!

Friday: Splash Park

Friday we met up with friends at a splash park. It was a nice, warm day and the kids had a blast playing in the water, playing at the park and eating a picnic lunch.

Note to self: always check Joella's shoes. When we got out of the car at the park, this is what Joella was wearing. Cowboy boots and a swimsuit!! Not exactly park friendly shoes or apparel. Thankfully, we still had extra outfits in the car from our trip to Great America for Joella.

We finished the day at the park with slurpees from 7-11 to cool down. That evening, we had our pastor and his wife over for dinner. Paula, our pastor's wife, is also going through chemo for uterine cancer. They wanted to get a picture of their two bald heads together. It was a great evening of fellowship!

Saturday: Free slurpees and a birthday

Saturday morning at 7am, I went for a run with my friend Kathy while the kids watched morning cartoons and Wayne slept. After doing some chores around the house, we took a drive to our local 7-11 and got our free slurpees for 7-11 day. We then took a trip to our library for the girls to turn in their reading logs for the week. Abigail set a goal to read 800 minutes this week and she did it! Later on today, we are going to be celebrating Wayne's birthday. His birthday is actually Monday, but why not make it a weekend of celebration? We went and bought him his requested ice cream and Mrs. Richardson's caramel. Guess what we are having for dessert tonight? Maybe we'll have to go on a sugar detox after this weekend of slurpees and ice cream...nah, we'll just eat more fruit next week. It is summer after all.

After looking through all of these pictures, no wonder I'm tired today. That was a lot of fun and activities!! Please pray for Wayne as he started his second round of chemo last night. So far he is just feeling extra fatigued. We are praying that this month goes smoother for his treatment and side effects.

Psalm 34:8 "Taste and see that the Lord is good, blessed is the one who takes refuge in Him."