would you join me in praying today?

Precious Esther, daughter of  my sweet friend, Sarah, is undergoing open heart surgery in Boston this morning. Esther's broken heart needs a lot of fixing and it is going to be a long day. Please pray for Esther, her mama & daddy and all her siblings at home today and in the days to come as well as the medical team taking care of Esther.

Jon and Sarah were in Boston in May and June with their son, Timothy, as you may remember. These days ahead will be hard. Please pray for their strength and comfort to face each hour and that their unending love for the Lord will shine to those around them.

On our way back from the coast in August, we were blessed to attend church and be there for Esther and brother's baptism, then spend a few hours with their family. 

God, we know that you had Esther and you love her more than we can grasp. We know you are with her and her family today and and always. We pray today that your peace that is beyond our understanding will fill their hearts, the operating room and the halls of Boston Children's.

You can follow on Sarah's blog- www.risleyfamily.wordpress.com

Science fun...

The boys have been learning about birds in science the last few weeks. 

When I ordered our science kits for this year, I noticed that the company had "Owl Pellet" kits as well reasonably priced so I ordered a couple, knowing one of the birds the boys would learn about was the great horned owl.

Shawn was home of Friday so I decided it was a good time to "dissect" owl pellets with all the kids.

The weather was beautiful so we started on back porch.

 

 

The kits come with questions to answer through the process.

We were able to tell pretty quickly that our pellets had bones in them!

As the kids pulled out bones, I put them on a ID page to figure out what things the owls had been eating. Both our pellets were full of mouse and rat bones!

The kids loved it and learned a lot I hope!

A Jiu-Jitsu stripe and new belt

 The boys have been in Jiu-Jitsu for about a year and a half now.

They both seem to really enjoy class and practicing on each other form time to time.

This past week, one of them got to test for a new belt and I got to thinking that I don't have a lot of pictures of them practicing, etc.

 Clara and Wesley had fun watching their class last week!

 They practiced skills through class and Eli & Nate were paired together.

 At the end of Class, Coach M told Eli that he was going to test for a new belt, we hadn't told him that he was going to get to! He picked Nate to show his skills one.

 Coach M would tell Eli a skill and then he had to show the skill.

 He was able to complete the skills and moved up a a gray belt.

 Nate also earned another stripe for the night for his hard work.

 A big thanks to all the coaches who work with our boys!

 Way to go boys!

Sometimes there are no words....

{Bird Watching in the Bottoms...}

The boys are studying birds in science. One assignment was to go birdwatching in the backyard or a wooded area. Where we live... there are no woods so that ruled out that options. We often watch birds in the backyard but thought it would be fun to try and see some other kinds of birds we don't see often.

We had appointments near the Cheyenne Bottoms and thought it would be a great stop for an hour to watch birds.

We were not disappointed!

The weather was beautiful!

We were able to get some great pictures that the boys are putting in their bird project books to identify!

Vacation memories August 2015 Part 4

I have a lot of pictures of our day at the Coastal Discovery Museum from each of the special stations set up for family day.

Needless to say, we would finish one station and be off and running to try something else...

 Blue indigo was colonial South Carolina's 2nd major cash crop for export behind rice. It was started on a coastal plantation by Eliza Lucas Pickney in the the late 1730's and early 1740's.

Indigo worked well to dye cotton is is most commonly referred to when talking about jeans.

The kids got to try their hand at indigo dying.

 Dying the fabric...

 After you remove the fabric from the dye, then you need to process it with another mix to set the dye.

 After processing the fabric, we got it ready to hang and dry.

 All the kids had a great time doing this. Hands on activities are always fun!

Double digits...

The beginning of the month we celebrated Eli hitting double digits.

If you have been here awhile, you know parts of his crazy birth story and the days that followed. 

When I think back to that day, I am reminded of God's faithfulness in the events that took place then and His faithfulness to us now! I am humbled and I rejoice in the gift we were given in our oldest son.

Eli had one main request for his birthday.

Eli played this game with friends on vacation and fell in love with it!

He was excited to get his own for his birthday and already we have spent hours around the table playing Carcassonne!

 

He's come a long ways from this 10 day old little guy with his daddy getting to hold him for the first time. It's not that fragile little guy any more but instead on his way to becoming a young man and God is still faithful in the details!

We love you Eli and are so thankful for what God has done in your life and are excited to see what His plans for your future are!

I want to be just like you...

 Lenna has a practice partner each day...

 he pulls up a footstool and gets out his straw bow and broken violin...

 then looks to her to teach him all that she knows!

{I Remember...}

exactly where I was on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001.

I remember watching in horror as the news covered the first plane hitting the World Trade Center and as the second did the same as I watched. I left home for a morning of training for work at a large church, not long after I arrived the 3rd plane crashed into the Pentagon and the Pastor came into where we were meeting and requested that everyone join him in the sanctuary to pray for our Nation, for those who lost their lives and their families, for those missing and for the heroes who would spend hours around the clock in the coming days looking for survivors, removing those lost from the rubble and those who defend our country and for our President. As we prayed, word came that a 4th plane had crashed.  Memories of those hours and the days to come will forever be etched on my heart...

Tonight, I ask for your prayers for all those who grieve, for the children whose worlds have been shattered, for all whose sense of safety and security has been threatened. And I pray they will be comforted by a power greater than any of us, spoken through the ages in Psalm 23: ‘Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me.’ 

– President George W. Bush on Sept. 11, 2001.

This morning, I watched with my children and remembered...

planes crashing...

buildings falling...

innocent lives lost...

But I was reminded of the HOPE that came forth...

heroes...

bended knees... 

and a country united.

I want my children to know the sacrifice made that day for their freedom and the sacrifice of many others in the years before in our nation and the years since. Freedom comes at a great price that should not be forgotten or taken for granted. 

Vacation Memories August 2015- Part 3

The Coastal Discovery Museum- exploring the Salt Marsh

Two of the stations you could visit that day were docks out in the marsh.

At the first one, they taught how to throw nets to catch shrimp and small fish. They also had some crab traps set. We went out there a few times because the kids loved casting nets!

Eli got pretty good at it. You had to hold the net with one hand, hold a weight in your mouth and throw, making sure you kept hold of one spot and let go of everything else!

The kids had fun checking the traps too.

Success!

Check out these marsh periwinkle snails... 

the kids thought they were cool. They live on the grass and clean the salt off!

These two found something good to look at over the edge...

Wesley wanted to try casting the net. I was really impressed that the volunteer was patient and willing to let me 2 year old try. Eli was great about handing on to him so he didn't end up in the marsh with the net!

Nate took a turn too.

At least we know that if we needed it... Eli could catch a few shrimp for us if the tide was right!