Harvestfest recap

Thanks for praying for us this week. Harvestfest is almost over. 3 services at church tomorrow and then we really are officially done with missions conference.  Oh my goodness…It has been a looong week! I know I am exhausted when I go to bed without washing my face and changing into my PJs  –and I think I did that three times this week. I literally fell into bed–one night with my jacket on.  

But it was a great week.  So great that Rodd and I know that our 3 months out here were a gift to us…if only for the 3 mornings of meetings we had with a great, wise couple that shared with our group.   We spent all week with the same group of missionaries and so we made some new special friends. Yesterday morning we ladies had an amazing brunch together.

Rodd’s mom stayed with us a few nights and helped keep things on the home front under control–  keeping up with piles of laundry and straightening up the house.  I’m thrilled I won’t have to play catch up all week on this kind of stuff.  This is great because we feel like we have so much to mull over and then also so many people to see in the next 3 weeks. Sydney is still hoping for snow before we leave.

Harvestfest

Two days  from today is the beginning of Harvestfest  which is Elmbrook’s big 9- day missions conference. We are mostly looking forward to it.  I say mostly because when you are participating in something like this, you can never sit back and enjoy it to the fullest but are always making sure you’re in the right place at the right time.   Apart from that, I know it is going to be a fantastic, challenging week.  The focus is on children at risk,  and I know we are going to be blown away with the horrible things that are happening all over the world and in our own cities here in America!!   Our schedule is literally packed from 8 am to 9 pm every night!  Thankfully there is great childcare provided for all of it which is a huge blessing.  If you think of it, we’d appreciate your prayers for extra strength this week. The kids aren’t feeling 100% so we’re praying they get better instead of worse.

Psalm 68:19 “Praise the Lord; Praise God our Savior! For each day he carries us in His arms.”

Matthew 10:38 “If you refuse to take up your cross and follow me, you are not worthy of being mine.  If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for me, you will find it.”

 

Time capsule anyone?

Can someone pleeease find me a time capsule?  Why is my baby 6 months and eating sweet potatoes… 

…and my big girl is almost 5?

 Rodd and Sydney go to TNL (Tuesday Night Live)  on Tuesdays. It’s a night at church where they have something for every member of your family.  We all went the first few weeks, but in the end it worked out better for just Rodd and Sydney to go, and I stay home and can put the boys to bed on time.  (This past week I spent 45 minutes trying to teach Logan how to use a lasso. We were on youtube trying to follow instructions.) That picture above is of Sydney in her shirt she wears to TNL.

We had a week  where we pretty much stayed indoors. It’s been cool and rainy. I don’t mind bundling everyone up and venturing out in the cold–but the cold + rain is too much of a bother.  We do have some fun things planned for the weekend!

(Logan is growing up far too quickly and I want to freeze frame him as well…even though he told me at breakfast point blank, “I want to be selfish today, mom!”)

Elegant Farmer

We are enjoying the fall. It’s outright COLD but it’s so fun experiencing the changing of seasons which we don’t get to fully appreciate in FL.  Last weekend we went as a family to the Elegant Farmer –famous for their paper bag apple pies, which are out of this world delicious!!

 

Rodd is home now from a trip to Indiana for a few days, where he spent time meeting with a group of college students at Taylor University.  As one of their courses they are doing a project for NTM and he and several others met together to discuss how the Taylor project and Gravity could interact. They were able to come up with some good ideas & finalize on decisions to keep this rolling.

Inspire U conference

I am now in love with women’s conferences.  I went to one this weekend at Elmbrook and it was SO fantastic.  I wasn’t even planning on attending until Rodd came home after work on friday with a ticket for me.  I’m always amazed how people can talk about the same Bible verses I’ve heard a hundred times and bring out such awesome challenges & truths from them. Now to the processing & obedience of it all!   

Door County

So here are a few pictures of my time in Door County (an adorable touristy town/ peninsula off the tip of WI) with Faith and Heidi. We had been planning this for a long time and this was the one weekend we were all kind of  free.  So we cleared our schedules and made it happen. We went kids free–with the exception of Carson who still needs his Mama.  He was the best little traveler and with 3 moms along & one baby, he was well taken care of.  You can look at a few more pictures HERE!  We really had a great time.

 Faith showing us where we were going

Enjoying the best sawdust pie, key lime pie and lemon tart

Refining the English language

Mark Twain once said, “The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter — its the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.“

My brother had a knack for using the almost right word that provided my mom and me (Rodd) hours of entertainment.  He would suggest we buy some food at the “confession” stand or throw “confederate” on a friend who was arriving home.  I won’t mention his biggest faux pas as he’d never forgive me for making it public.

Well, my daughter seems to have my brother’s gift with words — except that she has taken it a bit further.  She actually creates new words.  The most incredible thing about it, is that she actually creates words that make very good sense — words that are much more descriptive than those currently available to us in the English language.  So, I’d like to suggest that the two following words be added to the English language.

pest – i – fied - To be terrified of anything considered a pest.  In the case of my daughter (and my wife and my eldest son), this would include almost everything God created on the fifth and sixth days (excluding mankind).  “Daddy, did you tell them that we’re pestified of dogs?”

muke – The milky puke that Carson produces after being bounced around by Daddy shortly after eating.  “Daddy, can you take Carson, he just muked all over me.”

I’ll be waiting for the folks at Websters to give us a call.

7 years

We are LOVING this cool fall weather up here. I went away for the weekend with 2 girlfriends to Door County and we had a blast together.  It was further north and the leaves were especially pretty up there. (It was peak season for tourists because of what’s known as ”tree-peeping season” up there.) I’ll post a few pictures of that soon.

 On monday Rodd and I celebrated 7 years together.  I was thinking back on our first year of being married and the crazy things I would get worked up over.  I’m so thankful we’re  commited to love each other more now than ever before!! I have several friends who have chosen to do life w/o their spouses and it makes my heart so sad to know what they are missing out on.   I really wanted to eat in a quaint restaurant in a barn–overlooking a corn field but could not find such a place. :/  (I keep telling  Rodd I am a country girl at heart and he says I am city all the way.) A friend came and watched the kids so we could have  a few hours away. In this season of life with 3 little kids…those few hours away are so treasured.  

Cute

Went to a cute coffee shop in Mukwonago that our friend works at.

(not cute prices…but worth drinking out of a cute cup like this:

 Our time here has been good. I can’t believe it’s 1/3 of the way over. We’ve been meeting people here and there, volunteering at different things, I’m in a great MOPS group that I love, Rodd is in a tuesday night men’s  study on James, the kids are in several different kids programs etc.  Seriously…whatever we can do to connect!  Elmbrook is a big church!  It’s weird going to church and not seeing faces of people that you know.  That’s to be expected though when you’re only here every few years. :[

We heard this quote last week and it stuck with both of us.   “We are educated beyond our obedience.”  More often than we’d like to admit, we choose far too many things over being obedient to God.