Celebrating and retiring

Our family is taking a little vacation in August. It is my home school retirement party. : )
The completion of 19 years and four kids' educations.
Such fun years!
Now they are all in college. Yay!

It took me forever to decide how and where I wanted to have this little celebration.
Life took such a crazy turn that I can't do what we'd planned, which was a cruise with my wonderful hubby, who made homeschooling possible in the first place!

Nathan is flying in and then we are road tripping to a cabin in the mountains near a lake for a few days!
And there will be a corny slide show with lots of pictures (not made by our resident professional -LOL) and lots of memories will be laughed over. We got started early and laughed together about these the other night while face-timing him.


Excited to celebrate this milestone and rejoice in what was God's plan for this family.

~Becky

Wednesdays in the Word

Sometimes we get caught up in the "why's."
We want to know 'why' this happened or 'why' that didn't happen. At times I struggle with the "why's."
But we just aren't going to understand everything that happens here, this side of heaven.
And I found Proverbs 20:24 comforting the other day. It says that "A man's steps are of the Lord. How can he understand his own way?"
Pretty sure the answer to that question is that there is no way we can.
And then a knot garden came to mind.

I'm sure knot gardens look like just a bunch of well trimmed bushes at eye level.
But not from above! They look completely different from above!
I think that's how our lives must look from God's eternal perspective!

And we will never have God's view while we are here on earth.
But since He plans our steps,  we can trust in His care and the beauty of the outcome!

~Becky

Random fun

It is summer in FL and I actually survived for TWO whole weeks without A/C in my car.  If that sounds like no big deal, then you have never been to FL in the summer when it is 95 degrees and the humidity is a million percent. : )
My many, many, many thanks to my hubby's best friend, who spent two whole days fixing it and saving my life and surely my sanity.

I do love the extreme weather changes in FL in the summer. When I am in or near A/C, of course! Just when you think you are going to melt or move,
it rains, or the sunset leaves you speechless or you see an entire rainbow across the freeway!

Andrew is back from his amazing trip to CO, which makes my heart happy even though he and I haven't spent more than 30 minutes together all week. LOL
His best friend is here from CA and they are always on the go. J always comes with a list of places he'd like to go while here. Those usually include lots of coffee shops and books stores and gourmet Popsicle places.  (those are a thing!)

I think Bree's sappy face here shows how much we all love J and enjoy his visits! : ) He's one of the family.

I bought these napkins recently. They are the cutest conversation starters. Thanks, Wal Mart.

Hope you are having a happy summer 

and that your cars are full of freon! LOL

~Becky

Andy in Aspen

Andrew has been on a family vacation with some dear friends in Colorado.
So, I've been getting these gorgeous pictures on my phone for the last 2 and half weeks from Mrs. P.
They've given him a once in a lifetime vacation and I'm so grateful and slightly jealous. LOL
My hubby grew up in Boulder so we have been to CO many times but never to Aspen.

He's been gone for 16 days, so needless to say, I can't wait to pick him up at the airport tomorrow night!

 And neither canhis best friend from CA who flew in last night to spend the next two weeks with our family.  

~Becky

Giving thanks

"All is grace. 
God is always good and I am always loved.
God is always good and I am always loved.
Jesus, at the Last Supper, showed us to transfigure all things
-take the pain that is given,
give thanks for it, 
and transform it into a joy that fulfills all emptiness.
The hard discipline to lean into the ugly and whisper thanks to transfigure it into beauty.
The hard discipline to give thanks for all things at all times 
because He is ALL GOOD." 

-Ann Voskamp: One Thousand Gifts

Amen!
~Becky

The glimpses

My hubby was passionate about parenting. He poured his life into our kids and I'm so grateful! 

It is a bit of a rough day for us but here's one thing that is really fun. 

I get to 'see him' all the time, so to speak.

All of a sudden he 'shows up' in some of the things our kids say and do and I get a glimpse of him all over again. 

I see him in their quick wit,

in their servant-hearts

 in their work ethics,

in the one who cares for the homeless and knows them by name,

in the two who will talk your ear off about theology,  LOL

 in the deep thinkers,

in how wise beyond their years they are.

In the one who can talk to anybody, 

 in the one who always intercedes for their coworkers,

and

 in the sweet way they love, honor 

and...tease me! : ) 

Several Father's Days ago : )

Happy Father's Day!
~Becky

The blurr

The day after graduation/the party, I slept until an embarrassing hour. And life has been an absolute blurr every since.

The blur included:

 ~Some fun time off  of work with my sweet, best friend, who was in town for Andrew's graduation.

~A funeral for a friend who impacted so many and who was such a good example to me when I was a newlywed. Watching her taught me how to honor my husband and then later how to parent patiently. Not that I learned that lesson right off the bat, because I sure didn't. : ) And she taught me how to balance my checkbook way back when we didn't have two nickels to rub together. LOL I'm so grateful for her life.

~A date with my oldest son. He only likes the beach on cloudy days, so we went to watch a storm roll in, which is always so dramatic on the beach in Florida. Then we ate a cute place across the street and watched the rain.

~Getting Andrew ready to fly off on vacation. His friend's family blessed him with a plane ticket for graduation and invited him on their family vacation to Colorado where they are having a blast at the foot of the mountains.
Bless his heart, he will actually be in CO on Father's Day which is so ironic! My hubby was from CO and we spent many vacations there ourselves, in the Rockies, while singing John Denver songs! : )

~Starting to facilitate our women's Bible study. This is way out of my comfort zone but our fearless leader is moving. We are reading and watching Ann Voskamp's One Thousand Gifts. Love her! Love being reminded that counting our blessing is really counting all the ways He loves us.

~And speaking of out of my comfort zone, being in a photo shoot to advertise an upcoming women's conference at our church! Thankfully, no speaking parts were involved! They just made video clips of a few of us ladies walking around  in a cute part of town eating gourmet Popsicles and chatting and pretending to shop. (and pretending to drink coffee in my case)  LOL We chatted and laughed and at one point ditched our little camera crew to pop in Anthropologie.

That's about it. Work keeps me busy and I love what I get to do. It's the cleaning and the cooking that are hard now. : )

This sporadic and often absentee blogger hopes to be back here a little more often in the future. : )

~Becky