cup o joe

perfect. just perfect.

mel's photo shoot

my beautiful sister...

cousins

ever since i had kids, i always thought that my boys would grow up with their cousins. my siblings are all very close, and so i just thought that's how it would always be. my older sister has 6 kids, and the cousins all love each other so much. when they lived in NH, we spent a lot of time together. me and erika would have coffee and the kids would all play together. could life get any better? well, it's been one year and one day since my sister and her family moved to virginia. we recently got to spend a few days with them, but i am really looking forward to heaven when we can be together all the time!! (with no guilt over the food we're eating! ha!)

caleb and riley have always been close, and it is unreal how alike they look! don't you think they could pass as brothers??

even though we don't live close anymore, i am so thankful for the relationship we still have with each other. i do not go for more than a couple days without talking to all of them. i know that my parents really instilled in us the importance of keeping our relationships strong...i am so glad they did!

beach boys

prayer

i have been thinking a lot about prayer lately.
first of all, i never pray as much as i want to. i envision myself up at 5:00 on my knees praying for an hour or two, before i get ready for the day. the reality of it is, sometimes i don't get up when my alarm goes off, and then in the middle of my prayer, i realize that i am planning dinner. ugh. i hate that! another thing, is although i have my list of people to pray for, i have found myself praying for the ones that are struggling the most, hurting physically or financially or spiritually. now, obviously that is a good thing to do, but i have been wondering lately why that is.
my pastor (aka "dad") has been doing a sermon series on traps of satan. "see the snare and don't go there." many of his points have been how most of the enemy's traps are subtle. also, it would be more beneficial to trip up someone who is really on-fire for God. someone who is serving, and reaching the lives of many people. so it makes logical sense that satan would be more active in trying to trap a strong christian than he would a weak one. that got me thinking. i need to be spending more of my time praying for the strong christians, who have no "major" needs or problems right now.
do you believe the verse "the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much" (james 5:16) and if you do, what are you doing about it? are you fervently praying. i hope that people are praying for me and adam. sometimes life can get so discouraging. i mean, we don't have any major health issues, major financial burdens, or any sin that we have fallen into. does that mean we need less prayer? i don't think so.
our church family came together last week to fast and pray for a certain family in our church. it was another reminder of how seriously we need to take prayer. the fact that we have DIRECT ACCESS to God is amazing in and of itself! how casually we enter before the King, don't you agree? this is a privilege, and i need to be thinking of it in that way.
my challenge for myself this week, is to spend serious time in prayer for the lives of God's faithful servants. that they won't become weary in well doing. that they would be steadfast and unmovable, and remember that their labor is not in vain! i hope you will do the same. remember, too. the ones you think are doing great...may not be. sometimes people just know how to hide it real well. (i AM a pator's kid after all - we know what that means haha... but that is for another post another time :))but instead of dropping the ones who are hurting, just add to your prayer time some others. i think it is well worth the investment of time.

oh...and just a couple pictures for you of my babies :)

York Beach

i love my boys. what can i say? i just love everything about them. they are so much fun to be around, and we always have such a great time together. yesterday, i packed up some lunches, shovels, buckets and chairs and we headed to the beach.






aj got some Bible reading in (could this BE anymore precious?!?)


we met up with my parents, and had lunch together. then me and my dad had a nice (HOT) run. it was a great day, and i imagine we will have many more beach days together this summer!

reminiscing...

homeschooling outside

i love how nice the weather has been lately. The other day i set up a little table outside and let the boys do their school out there. it was so nice to be able to do things a little different! one more positive aspect of homeschooling! :)

for once in my life...

i feel like i have no words. at least nothing that will make sense.
there are so many things going on in the lives of people around me. a death. a little girl on life-support, a divorce, a cancer diagnosis. it's like i almost can't take it all in. like i keep getting the wind knocked out of me. yet, through all of this, somehow, i have to trust. i have to hope.

"For you have been my hope, O Sovereign LORD, my confidence since my youth."

"Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope...it's because of your faithfulness that we are not consumed."

"But the eyes of the LORD are on those who fear him, on those whose
hope is in his unfailing love."

and that is it. my hope is sure because my God is love. unfailing love. the kind of love that had him send his son to the cross to pay for MY sins.

i admit that i sometimes check my sitemeter on my blog to see how many people have checked it on a particular day. what is my reason? to feel like i might have some sort of "celebrity status"? i hope not. i hope that anyone who stumbles across my blog will see one thing. not how cute my kids are (although they are) not how amazing my photography is (far from it!) and not how clever my words are (not often)
this only. my God is the only hope for anyone. that's it. He gives, and He takes away. blessed be the name of the Lord. i am nothing without Him.

here's a few of the things he has blessed with.






God's grace amazes me. i never want to forget how lost i would be without Him.

funny ry

although my aj enjoyed reading from the beginning, my riley does not find it to be his favorite pass time! he is a trooper though, and is still doing a great job.
so, today i was helping riley with his devotions, and we were reading in psalms. have i mentioned how funny he is? he is.
anways, he started "The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my ddd... my ddeee...my deeeffff... my deformed body?" oh. my. word. i started laughing sooo hard that i was crying. he just does these things to make me smile. the word was deliverer, by the way. so when i regained my composure, we continued. he then came to the word "whom" which he started trying to figure out how to sound out. after struggling with the beginning starting like wa (as in water) he said. wombat? oh my. is the school year over yet? i can hardly stand it!!
i am honestly thankful for LAUGHTER!!

Dear DCYF

just in case the word gets back to you, i wanted you to hear it straight from me.

yes. i did have my 7 and 9-year-olds up tonight until after 11.
yes. they were watching tv for 3 hours straight.
yes. they did have snacks that may or may not have been healthy. hmm...does popcorn count as a vegetable? good, because i'm pretty sure riley ate the whole bag by himself. and aj got a great amount of dairy with his bowl full of ice cream at 9:30
yes. they did use their outside voices inside. several times. but it was mostly their dad.
but for the record. THE CELTICS WON!! and more importantly, we had a great time together as a family!


ps please still consider looking over our application to become foster parents. :)

more of florida

we had such a great time in florida with adam's parents, i could never blog about it long enough.
we went to the beach, watched tv, went to the beach, went mini-golfing, watched tv, went to the beach...do you see a pattern here? - RELAXATION!!

adam got the chance to play golf with his dad

which he totally loved!

we enjoyed going to the beach and actually being able to stay in the water for long periods of time!! (can't exactly do that in hampton!)



it was great to see adam's little sisters, and their new apartment (which we loved!) they are so sweet, and the boys love them. they took us to play mini golf (i just watched. not my sport. um. i'm pretty sure it's not robin's either! :))





a little more beach time on sanibel island - beautiful. and the boys loved looking at all the shells.





aj found a HUGE sand dollar


and i have more pictures, but i will save it for another post :)

i ♥ photography

i love photography, and if i had more time, i would put way more time into it! i am shooting my first wedding next month, and i have spent a lot of time doing senior pictures. i grabbed a couple of my girlies to model for me so i could update my portfolio. i thought i would share a few of my favorites!

no pictures

i have a confession of sorts. sometimes, when i read blogs, i ignore the words and just scroll down and look at the pictures. yikes. sorry. then i get annoyed when there is only words and no pictures. not usually with my family, unless i am in a huge rush. but with people that i don't know, and i just sort of lurk around their blogs i do. ok. i just did that with someone's and so i didn't even read the whole blog. i'm sure she will really care! haha

so my only thought for today is out of the book of Job. it is when God starts talking to Job. It is so incredibly amazing to even think about the power that God has. in chapter 38, He says that he tells the waves "you may come this far, but no farther. your proud waves stop here". wow. God tells the waves what to do! is that unreal or what? have you ever thought things like that through? i just got back from vacation, where we got to spend three different days sitting on the beach. it's incredible. i love living near the ocean because it is so majestic and powerful, yet somehow so peaceful and calming! so God will look at the waves, and DEMAND
you can go no farther! unreal. i am so small, and so meaningless without the power of an awesome God. read Job 38-42. and i know that like Job, you will feel so insignificant, and it will make your problems feel much smaller. i am so thankful to have a God that loves little old me! aren't you?

dreaming...

i love this picture because i love to imagine what each boy is thinking. aj would love to play football in the nfl someday, and ry? well, riley informed me recently that when he grows up he is going to be a hunter. nice. that should make his future wife really happy. and bring in a ton of money :)

anyways, it is fun to dream about what God has in mind for my little boys.

wordy wednesday

i have been much more aware of the way that psychology has become the place people run to for answers, since being trained in Nouthetic Counselling

i was watching this show called "Hoarders: Buried Alive" about people who have such a problem with hoarding that it overtakes their entire house and life. the psychologist is called on, and proceeds to assure the "victim" that this is a disorder, and it is not her fault. she doesn't want to live this way, it is simply the disorder telling her what to do. hmm.

another example where "professionals" are called upon is in the case of unruly (aka bratty) children. the method that works best, they say, is a time-out. hmm again.

i love the verse in 1 Timothy 4:7 that says
"Refuse profane and old wives fables and exercise thyself rather unto godliness" -kjv
"Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives' tales; rather, train yourself to be godly" -niv

verse 8 says "godliness is profitable unto ALL things"

we need to be so incredibly careful where we get our advice.

in example 1. the person is told she is a victim with a disorder, and she has no control over what is happening. she doesn't really want to live this way.

the Bible says, every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of HIS OWN LUST and enticed. then, when lust has conceived, it brings sin...
you do have control of your actions. we can do all things through Christ, and God won't give us more than we can handle. hmm. is it me? or does worldly psychology go DIRECTLY against the Bible?

in example 2. i won't go on and on, i will just give one verse that i think pretty much sums it up. proverbs 29:15 - "the rod and reproof gives wisdom, but a child left to himself brings his mother to shame."

what do we do? put the Bible down, and pick the remote up, or the latest book that oprah recommends. we let the "godless myths" and "old wives' tales" come into our minds, and we act accordingly. we are supposed to shun, refuse, reject these things, and we are applying them!! that is all backwards. God's word is profitable...which, by the way means advantageous - YOU WILL HAVE THE ADVANTAGE IF YOU USE THIS!! unto A-L-L things.
run away from any godless form of advice in how you should be living your life and raising your kids. train yourself, or exercise yourself unto godliness. training takes work, no doubt about it. get in the Word. dig into it. let it determine your actions. is it worth it? you better believe it!

florida

we just got back from a very relaxing, refreshing trip to see adam's parents (and sisters) in florida. i have a ton of pictures, but not a ton of time. so here are a couple for now. we had a great time together. i will never take for granted the fact that both me and adam have such a godly heritage.







it just about killed me to upload pictures sooc (straight out of camera) with NO editing.
but i hope i never get to the point where my picture editing matters more than the content of my blog.
so, just in case anyone missed some of my previous posts, i am a servant of Jesus, and i live my entire life to please him :)