national day of prayer

I've had this post started for weeks and really can't find the words to fully share about the sweet time in our church prayer garden on the National Day of Prayer.  Our staff beautifully set up multiple stations to represent different elements of prayer with sweet music playing and hands-on activities to make it all so tangible for old and young.

We started by writing our favorite attributes of God and then praying together, praising Him for being eternal, grace-giving, shepherding, redeeming, holy.  How incredible that such a great God hears our prayers and longs for communion with us.

We added gifts to the gratitude tree and gave thanks for our many blessings and then headed to the cross.  Here we wrote sin that we wanted to nail and leave there...fear, being mean, selfishness, judgmental attitudes.  And then a time of confessional prayer...and marking stones at the foot of the cross with hope.

There were pictures of places and people in government, school systems, etc to kneel and pray over. A map of the world to mark and pray for peoples in other lands. And salvation bracelets to make and take home to remember our lost family, friends and neighbors that we prayed for there. Hearing the kids pray with such love for people and things that I didn't even know were on their hearts brought me to tears at every stop.

We ended at the firepit, writing a list of supplicating prayers for us and people in our lives.  Garner asked to write down the names of her friends to pray for.

Then we offered them all up to Him, leaving it all at the altar...

Again, hard to describe or convey the preciousness of the time with them, but I never want to forget it.  Easily, one of my favorite times with them ever.  

My mama heart overflows with joy to think on it again even now...

Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always.  1 Chronicles 16:11

The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.  Psalm 145:18

Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.  Colossians 4:2

wrapping up the co-op year

The last day of co-op before summer break is always a good mix fun and chaotic :).  So thankful for such a great year with these families!

Greer's class...can you find her? :) 

Setting up for family night and displaying science and geography work for the year...

Dinner time!  Thankful for the great co-op dads who cooked hamburgers and hot dogs for all these...

And then, Gehr received the science award for his class!  Such a sweet moment and sad too that he won't have the amazing Mrs. Wells anymore after she's moved up the past two years to have his class from 2nd-4th grades. All of their teachers have done so much to teach and love and train our Gs...we've been so so blessed by them!  Thankful they get a great summer break too...they most definitely deserve it! :)

A few days later, we all met up one last time for the 2014-2015 school year for Field Day.  Mrs. Pope does such a fantastic job organizing it all...love all the team colors :)

Cutie-patooties

Spectating...

And joining in the fun!

Treats and fun for the littles...thankful we were able to catch some smiles from Garner on a day where she wasn't completely sure of the whole deal ;)

Time for a little friendly competition between the outgoing and incoming co-op leaders!  They were so fun about it all :))

And we always wrap up the field events with some water balloon fighting :).  This year, the littles had a separate area...

While the older students readied themselves for the teachers' balloon attacks ;)

Free-for-all...so cute :)

And when Mrs. Cannady ended up a bit too dry, Mrs. Rucker and I helped her cool off ;).  No worries though, I got it good soon after!

Ending it all with some yearbook signing...such cuteness :)

So thankful for the amazing opportunities this co-op provides for our family!  Although we love summertime and the slowdown it provides, we will miss this crew and look forward to coming back together in the fall :))