Our family's band

Our family's band is Switchfoot.
They were my Hubby's favorite.
We raised our kids listening to them.
 He and the kids learned to play their favorite songs together on their instruments. We listened to Switchfoot while building an addition onto our house. Hubby chose one of their songs to be our family's anthem during the cancer battle. And my kids sang and played one of their songs at Hubby's memorial service.

They will be in concert in our city tonight! With Relient K! How epic is that!?

Here is an example of how we all differ in regards to this and dealing with grief:

-Two of our kids are going to see the concert and are so excited! They wouldn't miss it for anything!
-One of our kids can't even listen to the band right now and didn't get their new album
-And for the other one, just talking about the band caused so much grief that their body literally, physically hurt

Everyone is different.

I was going to go and then I realized that I
would literally cry through the whole thing. I cry a lot.
 Anyway, I decided I would much rather treasure the memory of seeing them in concert WITH him
than go again without him. :)

So, there you have it. Switchfoot will always have a big piece of our hearts!

Learning,

-Becky

Wednesdays in the Word

"For we have become partakers (or companions) 
of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end." Heb. 3:14

Friends, holding fast to our confidence in Christ, with everything that life in a fallen world throws at us, is sometimes hard. Amen?
We have got to:
Hold on to what He accomplished on our behalf at the cross.
Hold on to who we know He is,
and to who we know we are, because we are His.

And as a 'companion' of Christ's
we are to "exhort one another daily, while it is called 'today,' (verse 13)
Exhort means to "strongly encourage."
How would our world look different if we made sure that TODAY we are strongly encouraging the people around us?
How would they feel?
How would their confidence be strengthened?
How much more would they persevere?

And what about the honor it is to be a companion of His at all?!
Those are the thoughts in my head tonight. : )

Blessings,

~Becky

The week and the weekend

Wednesday, our church held their annual Fall Fest and I was given the choice of which carnival game to man and I quickly took an inventory of all the games and chose the one where I would clearly have to bend down the LEAST. LOL

Because this was not, by any means, my first Fall Fest, I have learned not to work a game that includes rings or basketballs that you will have to chase and bend down to retrieve at least 100 times or more in 3 hours. ; ) 

And this was by far the coolest game out there! Giant rubber frogs!

 And what little kid does not want the chance to smash something wth a mallet?!

 They hit the edge of the yellow board and that made the frog jump up and if it landed on the lily pad DOUBLE PRIZES! Fun stuff! -There were a few times the frogs got out and a couple when my fingers almost got the mallet but overall, great fun!

Zac and Tiffany moved in last month, to make it easier for Zac to finish school and we suceeded in combining two households in our little house. It has been fun to see them more, although we don't all get to see each other very often because we have different schedules.

But this Friday night, was actually one of the rare times this month when we found an evening when everyone was free so we met up at a restaurant and had a family dinner! Yay!

~Speaking of dinner, since I work full time, I think it is the most amazing accomplishment ever if I come home and actually cook.  And bless my heart, the only one left I really have left to cook for is SO picky. Let's just say there is a mighty big difference between what this one thinks of my cooking and what my hubby thought of it. ; )

Last night was the big EP release for the worship album that our church produced and that Andrew played the bass on. Such an exciting night! 

the band

And tonight my kids look like this:

And here's the grand-dog! LOL

Have a great week! 

~Becky

Favorite quote of the week

"I want to do what you say without an attitude, Mom,
but I'm angst-y!"    -the 17 year old

Oh, how I love this kid!

~Becky

Wednesdays in the Word

I am reminded today (from Mark 4:35-41)
that we serve the One whom the winds and the seas must obey.
Can you even picture being on a boat and the wind obeying you? Or the waves doing what you say? It is just laughable.
Once the disciples woke up Jesus, who was sleeping during the storm, they experienced that very thing!
They watched as creation obeyed its Creator.
Imagine it.
It must have been so humbling and mind boggling all at once.

The notes in my Bible say that "Peace, be still," is literally just "Be quiet."
I love that. Nothing fancy for King James-ish. He didn't wave a rod or yell or gesture wildly. He didn't need to.

"And the wind ceased   (here's my favorite phrase) and there was a great calm."

And who doesn't want "a great calm" to come over their tumultuous situations?
My winds and waves are probably different than your wind and waves. But there isn't a storm inside of us that is more powerful than His "Peace, be still."
He can absolutely rebuke whatever it is that is trying to sink us and take us under.
His presence can overcome our storms because He is greater. And so is the calm that He gives.

~Becky

Pumpkins and more pumpkins

Recently, I have learned how much air to put in my car's tires, 

 and how to change the string on the weed-eater 

and yesterday I learned how to use a drill! Whoo-hoo!

Don't get me wrong, I didn't do any home improvements with that drill. I just used it to 'carve' a pumpkin, which is all the rage on Pinterest! ; )

There's a cute pumpkin patch at an old church near our house, which had me thinking about the time we went to one in San Diego when Joy was almost one. Here she is picking out a pumpkin 19 years ago!

Soo cute! And here she is picking one out yesterday! Time flies!

Before we arrived, we realized that we matched! So, here we are twinning in the pumpkin patch!

We planned to buy several pumpkins there until we found out that they cost 

thirty

actual

dollars 

each!

So then we headed to our neighborhood Publix, which was lacking in all the previous charm, 

and bought pumpkins that were five dollars each! : ) 

Then we made a great pumpkin mess all over the kitchen table 

and what came out of it were these amazing creations:

And here is the one that I spent two hours drilling holes in! For some reason it seems to defy illumination! I guess my holes aren't big enough?! : (

Next year I am totally going back to two triangles for eyes and a mouth! LOL

Happy Fall!

~Becky

A blue day

We woke up to cool weather on Saturday!
It was absolutely gorgeous out! Only 73!
We didn't run our A/C for the first time in a gazillion months! Yay!
And we decided we just had to be outside!

 These two hunted for Pokemon

And as always, were made to take a selfie with their mom! LOL

Then we stopped for donuts at this cute place!

We did not actually buy the ice-cream cone that is made out of a doughnut because it is EVEN larger than these!  

And these were HUGE!

After that we went into a couple shops and then headed home. It was a lovely way to spend our Saturday! I know we may not always leave near each other and so I'm extra grateful for all the memories we get to make!

~Becky