The summer is off to a rockin' start!! We have been to Charleston for the beach and aquarium, Kevin took a trip out to California for work (3 weeks long!!), I was in a wedding in OREGON!, and we went to Atlanta for a week to visit with Kevin's family for the 4th. Kevin and Ruth both celebrated birthdays last week, and our anniversary is this Thursday.
The original plan was to school year round and just take off the month of July- BUT with Kevin's travel and the time we wanted to spend as a family, we haven't done any school since the end of May. We'll start up the first week of August, after our last trip out of town- Myrtle Beach with my parents. :)

Pics to come of the trips and birthdays!! Children are waiting to play!

 We're headed to Atlanta this weekend for a Kevin's brother's wedding.  There's alot to be done before we leave.  Add into that list of things to do a sick child and a recovering mama, and BLECH.  My list of things to do just grows. Extra things that got added to my list on Monday:

• Anna's BABW dog split open in the back, so I needed to take it to the mall to be resewn.  It could wait, but she likes to sleep with it.  And I was headed to the mall anyway...
• Trip to Sears to buy a filter for the refrigerator.  For anyone else, it could have waited, but I'm quite embarrassed to say how long its been since we replaced it, nor can I remember when, so off we went armed with the refrigerator model #.  Little did I know that the model # is useless, and there's a push button by the filter that I somehow missed.  Again, maybe if we replaced it more often, I would have known.  So I bought the wrong one while I was trying to wrangle my 4 children in the Large Appliance section of Sears.  An 8:30 pm trip to Sears was required to exchange the filter for the right one sans kids.  Next time, I'm ordering online. 
• The Dry Cleaners.  We don't generally use the dry cleaners.  But, the girls' Easter dresses are silk, and they're wearing them again for the wedding.  Wouldn't you know that Anna's had crayon on it?  And Ruth's still had a smudge of dirt from our Spring Picture session?  So off we go, to drop off dresses.  Thankfully for this mama, the dry cleaners has a drive thru.
• Call the hotel.  Not an easy feat when children are constantly vying for your attention, or fussing with each other.  Whichever comes first.  I decided to give everyone a firm warning and got on the phone to confirm a few things with the hotel.  Is there a high chair in the reception room?  Will we be able to check in early?  and most important- The rooms MUST be adjoining.  Normally when we travel, we just throw us all in one room, but these rooms are maxed at 4?!  So, Kevin's parents will have a rollaway bed in their room, we get a crib in ours, and HOPEFULLY, all works out as planned.   

This was one of those days that seemed to go wrong from the very start.  We had trouble leaving the house, getting Michael's school work done, and just plain being nice to each other.

Makes me think about what Francis Chan says in his book, Crazy Love. 
"I think most American churchgoers are the soil that chokes the seed because of all the thorns.  Thorns are anything that distracts us from God.  When we want God and a bunch of other stuff, then that means we have thorns in our soil.  A relationship with God simply cannot grow when money, sins, activities, favorite sports teams, addictions, or commitments are piled on top of it." 
Oh how this just screams how my life went on Monday.  My relationship with God suffered from my list a mile long of things to do.  My relationship with my children suffered because of my lack of time with God, and my list of distractions.  My children's relationships with each other suffered too.  Its humbling to see the effects of what can happen when we choose to allow thorns into our soil.

Revive Our Hearts posted this to their Facebook page yesterday:
Jesus' prayer from John 17: “I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work You gave Me to do.” Jesus didn’t try to do everything, and we shouldn’t either. All we have to do is the work God assigns us. What a freedom it is to know that there’s enough time to do everything that’s on God’s to-do list for my day!

What an amazing insight.  How many times do I get frustrated with myself that I can't DO more?  It was a beautiful day when I accepted that my home, my husband, and my children were MY ministry for this season in my life.  Sure, there will be times when I minister to others outside of our home, but these will be my priority.  I still struggle with my inability to help/volunteer more at times, BUT  I can't do everything- and that is a beautiful thing. 

God has called me to a purpose that will glorify Him.  He has called each person in the body of Christ to a different purpose- some will minister as missionaries evangelizing both home and abroad, some will pastor, some will teach, etc.   My purpose, for now, is to teach and love my children, love my husband, make my home a safe place for my family and my friends, and to do all those things to HIS glory, not my own.