National Day of Prayer

If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

2 Chronicles 7:14

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Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near.
Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts.

Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him,

and to our God, for he will freely pardon.

Isaiah 55:6-7

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Today is our National Day of Prayer. Please be sure to take some time to lift up our country on this day. And take a few minutes...the two "God and Country" messages on this link are must-see:

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http://www.northpoint.org/GodAndCountry

Pictures

April gallery is posted!

Real Life

Just to be honest and fair, I thought we'd show a little "behind the scenes" from our family time. Greer does enjoy a good tantrum and I can tell that we are going to have some interesting experiences together as she gets older! I wonder where she gets her strong will from? :)

(Blogger keeps rotating some of these pictures. They are regular landscape pics and are showing up sideways...any ideas??)

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She is much more "into things" than Gehrig ever was. It is funny and frustrating! She has created artwork on the bathroom wall with bath crayons (fyi: only comes off of the bathtub, not walls!) and climbed on top of the kitchen table, more than once...

For the past 2 days, we haven't been able to find our cordless phone. A problem since it's the only home phone we use, but we haven't worried too much. As B stretched before a run tonight, he noticed the phone lying in the front flower bed outside! I'm embarrassed to say that I have no idea when or how that got out there, but I have a strong suspicion of who's responsible. Haha!

And then just when you think she is such a tough cookie, she turns soft, starts giving love and signs "more" for more kisses from her daddy. Sweet and sassy. We love her like crazy! :)

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Meanwhile, Gehrig had some tricks up his sleeve yesterday too. As Greer and I put some clothes away in her room, Gehrig disappeared for a few minutes. Aunt Gretchen came for a visit this past weekend and brought some cool tshirts back from her recent travels. He loves anything from her and apparently couldn't decide which tshirt to wear first.

And then, after getting a few laughs from us, he continued on. I love when he cracks himself up!

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So, there you go...a little fun, some frustration and lots of laughs! Our life, for real.

The Perfect 3yr Old Day

Part of growing up is finding out that we don't always get to do what we want to do. And though we often remind Gehrig of that, Saturday turned out to be a day where everything pretty much went his way.

First, Daddy's baseball practice was cancelled which meant a whole day together!! Yippee! The Gs and I needed a good catch up day after missing him so much Masters week. We started the day at Panera for some yummy breakfast (G's choice).

Then, Gehrig and Daddy bought G's first pair of baseball cleats. I'm not sure who was more excited! Gehrig rode around in the car all day with the shoebox proudly in his lap and B told us all about getting his first cleats. It was the cutest thing.

Our next stop was Party City. Gehrig turns 4 next month (sniff sniff) and we let him pick out his party theme and accessories. It was fun making the hard decision!

Gehrig's friend, Cooper, invited him to go play putt-putt next. He said afterwards, "Mom, we had SO much fun!"

After a quick lunch and nap, we headed to Gehrig's tball team pictures and exhibition game! This Daddy's dream come true. :)

The Dodgers.

Introducing the line-up.

Swinging the bat...he did a great job!

And the slide into home!

Gehrig's biggest fan. :)

Playing the field. Something about this pictures makes him look old.

Opening day = inflatables and carnival rides. 3yr old perfect.

Finally, we met Jessica and Eric for dinner. G loves them and literally clapped his hands when we told him we were going to meet them! (At "Peppers," aka Chili's.)

I don't know how we can do much better than that! Now back to real life!!

Easter Weekend

Backing up to recap fun Easter activities...we had some fun making cookies!

And dyeing eggs. :)

This is right before the blue dye spill.

Back in business. Gehrig LOVED dyeing and decorating the eggs.

Greer was mostly uninterested in the eggs, more into phone talking.

Which was probably better since she didn't really understand the process anyway. :)

So proud.

Making Daddy's Easter card.

Easter goodies.

Happiness and bed-heads.

Spotting Daisy!

Checking out the loot.

The Disney characters were/are a hit!

Some after church pictures. Gehrig loves hugging the trees. :)

And she is so cute, I want to squeeze her constantly. :)

Easter lunch with our extended family, Matt, Jenn & Madi.

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Before B left to go back to Masters work...with our yummy cake.

Too hard to get them all to look...they were ready to go get the eggs!

Afterwards, playing the beautiful weather.

Happy Easter...our Lord is risen!!

Grace

Undeserving. Unworthy. Not good enough.

Have you ever felt that way?

A couple of Saturdays ago, I laid down to nap while the kids napped. I was so exhausted and needed sleep badly. Almost every day, there are a couple of hours in the afternoon of pure, lovely silence for napping, working, blogging, cleaning, cooking...just alone time. I rarely choose the nap option, but on that day, I couldn't think of anything else.

As you might suspect, it didn't happen. After an 18-mo-old talked and played for 2 hours, a stranger rang our doorbell and a phone rang, I RELUCTANTLY gave up. B had been working in the yard and came in to find an irritable, grumpy version of myself. It makes me sad to think of how short and ugly I was to my family because I was tired and didn't get my way. As I sat there being pitiful, not wanting to do anything, I was ashamed of how I was acting and yet seemingly unable to change it. B took the kids out to play and told me to go try to lay down again.

When I woke, he rounded us all up in the car and started driving. We ended up at the beautiful lake not far from here. On a peninsula overlooking the water. With a full picnic dinner made by this man that I had just been ugly to. My eyes filled with tears, realizing how much love he has for me despite the way I acted. I felt God's love through him...a real life example of His grace.

grace, n.: the freely given, unmerited favor and love of God

The next morning in church, we celebrated Palm Sunday. As we took communion and remembered Christ's sacrifice for us, I was overwhelmed with thoughts of shame... "I am so undeserving, unworthy...I am not good enough for you, God!" My eyes poured tears as I remembered His body and blood, broken and shed for me, so that I can be in heaven forever with Him...despite the way I act. My heart is overwhelmed with gratitude.

We are studying Isaiah in Sunday school right now and I have this passage marked up to say:

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Yet it was my weaknesses he carried; it was my sorrows that weighed him down. And they thought his troubles were a punishment from God for his own sins! But he was wounded and crushed for my sins. He was beaten that I might have peace. He was whipped, and I was healed! I have strayed away like sheep. I have left God's paths to follow my own. Yet the Lord laid on him my guilt and sins.

Isaiah 53:4-6

Yes, I am undeserving, unworthy and SO not good enough.

But He loves me still. Thank you, Jesus.

More Pre-Easter Easter Fun

Last weekend, the county hosted an Easter Egg Scramble for the kids with lots of fun activities. After two rained-out egg hunts, we were glad to give it a go outside in the grass!
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Gehrig has historically been scared of mascot type things, but Greer has never met one she doesn't love. Now that Gehrig is older and understands the whole costume idea, they both loved seeing the ones at the park. We actually had to pull them away so as not to annoy the guys inside the costumes. :)
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It was fun to see friends there too. Greer and Finley.

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Greer, Finley, Gehrig & Luke after the 30-second Easter egg scramble!

Our fam.

Amanda and I enjoyed our visiting too. :)

The Mareks, Luke and G&g watching the magic show!

The blessing of fun friends...Gehrig is his silliest with Cole & Luke!

Looking like they're on a date.

An alternative way of wearing pirate eye patches. :)

Luke, Gehrig & Cole finished the morning playing on the soccer fields. We are so thankful that Spring is here!