Prepping for Irma

Hurricane Irma is on her way!
Thank you to all our family and friends who are checking on us and letting us know that they are praying! We are grateful!

In between going to and from our jobs all week, we have been getting prepared. We have our supplies. Our back windows are boarded up and we have sand bags outside our sliding glass doors.

It has been a tense week. The stores are out of most things and it has been a big challenge to find gas and water. (I got kind of a kick out of seeing what people had in their carts to survive on. One lady had bananas and lots and lots of wine! LOL)
But despite the it all, everywhere that I went, people were kindly helping each another with advice and info. Yay, Florida!
Yesterday, when I was a work, Andrew let me know that he and his friend had gone over to our 80+ year old neighbor's house to prep her yard for the storm and it turned out that she also was in need of water and food, so they took care of that and shared half of our sand bags with her. Proud of them!

I took this the night we bought plywood and I love how the light shines on the flag!

May we all keep shining, and loving our neighbors.

~Becky

Before Irma was a thing

We had fun watching the eclipse through a cereal box and sheets of paper at work a couple weeks ago. But not as much fun as Nathan, who drove to Oregon and saw the whole thing in totality! So amazing. He has so many fun adventures!

Last week, my friend's hubby's company gave them tickets to a pre-season Bucs game. My friend's hubby and son couldn't attend so she invited Joy and I to go with her and her daughter. It was great fun! I forgot that teams don't play very hard for pre-season games though. So, there really wasn't much action on the field, which worked out just fine because we were busy chatting anyway! LOL

When my hubby was in college, there was a year that he was in at least 4 weddings!
Andrew has at this point been asked to be in 4 weddings this year! The other day, this caused him to proclaim "I'm just like Dad!"

(Yes, you are, but for SO many more reasons than this!) LOL
It is a crazy thing when your youngest son's friends start getting married!
Last weekend was wedding #1 and it was beautiful. (even though I didn't get the best pictures of it)

My cute guy and a couple others didn't have their complete outfits until the day before the wedding, which was stressing me out! LOL But it everything came together and it was perfect.

Then I spent the rest of the weekend with a touch of the stomach flu.  And on Labor Day, we went to Zac's in-laws for dinner and had a great time.
And then on Tuesday, life became all about Hurricane Irma and getting prepared. It wasn't even a topic of discussion on Monday, which later amazed us.

~Becky

Wednesdays in the Word

I had never noticed the context of one of the most quoted verses in the Bible before and it surprised me.
It is: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Phil.4:13

And guess what Paul was referring to being able to do?
Be content! 
Ouch!
It isn't something that we humans are naturally. He said he had to LEARN it.
This helps me when I realize my discontentment.
We learn it.
And if that sounds impossible or hard remember that learning it is one of the many things he says we  can do because of Christ's strength.

"I have learned in whatsoever state I am to be content. (even geographical -LOL)
I know how to be abased and I know how to abound.
Everywhere
and
in
all
things
I have learned (there's that word again)
both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

Amen

~Becky

In Him we triumph

"God doesn't expect you to be happy about what has been torn from your hands...whether it's a marriage, your health, a job or someone you love, but if you are willing to trust Him, he can turn trash into triumph ." ~Levi Lusko

Wednesdays in the Word

The will of God:

"Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the willl of the Lord is." Eph. 5:17 

This verse caused me to look up all the verses that refer to the will of God and since I'm a person who love lists, here is a very simplified version of His will for our lives:

Never stop praying and to be thankful in all circumstances   1 Thess. 5:17

Be sanctified (set apart) and avoid immorality   1 Thess. 4:3

Do good  1 Pet.2:15

Know that He will equip us with everything necessary   Heb. 13:21

Persevere and receive what He has promised  Heb. 10:36  

It really is all Him! 

~Becky

Nathan's stay

I don't think my boys look that much a like but people mix up Nathan and Zac all the time when Nate is here. And they think that because he lives in CA he must be the oldest. LOL

He was able to stay here for a couple weeks after our trip and it was so fun! (expect for the part where he had oral surgery, I mean)
He needed his wisdom teeth out. Bless his heart. He'd been in pain for weeks!
For the first time ever in my life I have dental insurance! Whoo-hoo! Big fan! So, it was pretty thrilling to save over $2000 on this procedure!
He couldn't feel anything but he could HEAR it all. And he heard when the drill stopped working and he heard when the oral surgeon got mad and left the room!
(Yikes!) And then he felt them give him lots more laughing gas. It was all a bit disconcerting!
He came out telling me he was 'high as a kite.' LOL

Then I got to take care of him!!! Yay!!!
I made mashed potatoes and mashed sweet potatoes and lots of smoothies and bought blueberries and every soft flavored blueberry thing I could think of.
It was so much fun to care of my grown up kid, who has lived on his own for the last 4 years. And he was THE most grateful patient. : )
He was sure he wouldn't have survived on his own. Aww!

When he felt better he threw a little beach BBQ to watch the sunset. Then he and I had a date night to eat crab from a crab shack. (that was an adventure!) Next time I want a crab-opener-thingy! LOL

 We went to the movies and caught up on our superhero  with our dear friends a couple times.

So, including this fun and the 19 hours we were driving together on the trip chatting and listening to each of our favorite books on CD, I feel like I had a lot of quality time with my sweet boy that I hadn't seen in 8 months! Yay!
And now the countdown to Christmas begins!

A dear friend bought me this mug after he left, which I LOVE!

I'm so proud of who he is and what he does.
He leads a youth ministry, goes to school and he wants to use his future marketing degree to support himself as a missionary to Iceland someday.
(but I'm totally OK if that Iceland thing doesn't actually work out -LOL!)

~Becky

Photos of the fun

So, today was the first day of college for Andrew! Whoo-hoo!

Now, my homeschooling season really feels done! 

And here are the pictures from our celebration!
 (AKA my home school retirement party)

Road Trippin' with my girl!

Our cabin in the woods! 

This is where I get to joke that my kids are brighter than your kids! Just kidding!
The sun was setting and they look photo shopped in! LOL but they were all there! Being the shortest I ended up in someone's shadow.

They took me our to dinner to celebrate! 

We visited a National Park and these two did some Pokemon hunting

 Nathan and Andrew did the full 3 mile hike up to the waterfall because elevation is apparently not a thing when you are young and in shape! : )
 -Unlike when you are not so young and not so in shape! And you think you might pass out after walking up these steps. LOL

This is us looking down from the very top of the waterfall

And this is our top-of-the-waterfall-selfie

And here it is in all its majesty from down below

Then there was a day that we rented a pontoon boat because we got a partial refund on the cabin due to the broken hot tub. Yay!

Joy and Nate spent a whopping 10 minutes getting certified to drive boats in Georgia and did a GREAT job! This girl loved it!

I forgot to ask the question all Floridians know to ask! So, as we were driving around this gorgeous lake, I was calling the marina to find out about ALLIGATORS! LOL

And since they had never seen even one, we spent the day diving off the boat and swimming! Something we will never do in our state! : ) 

Happy New School Year, Everyone! 

~Becky