The incident

There was an incident the other day with one of my girls. I won't say which one because it could have been either. It could have been me when I was a child.

Yes, that's me trying to push my little sister out of the photo. 6 and already rebellious!

My girl flat out told me she wasn't going to do what I asked her to do. I think she kinda freaked herself out when she did it! To make matters worse, in the same breath, she told me what she wanted me to do for her.

As you may have guessed it did not go over very well with me.


Without allowing the steam to escape my nostrils...O yeah, it could have happened...I had a little talk with her about her rebellious attitude...Not OK...and my hope that she would have a greater appreciation for all her Dad and I do for her and that that appreciation would cause her to desire to have a loving respect and obedience toward us.

My beloved girl was very quick to apologize. Like I said, she really surprised herself, me too actually. It certainly isn't that my girl never does anything wrong. It's just that this particular incident of rebellion was more direct than any other before.


As I said, she apologized and I forgave her. We hugged and all was well. As I began to walk away, she quietly asked, " do you still love me?"


I knew instantly that she wasn't simply looking for confirmation of my love. My girl wanted to know if I would always love her, would I always forgive her, even if she rebelled again and again and again. She is very smart my girl. She could already see that her human nature, our human nature, is prone to rebellion.


"My love for you does not depend on whether I think your behavior is good or bad. "I explained. "I love you because you are my girl! I gave you life and you are precious to me! Rebellion can make a heart grow hard though, and a hard heart struggles to feel loved and rebellion can hinder a loving relationship between parents and children."


As I spoke the words out loud, I heard them softly echo in my mind and I was reminded that that is how God loves. As a parent I do my best, but God loves perfectly. His love is unconditional. His love is not dependent on our behavior. He created us, gave us life, we are precious in His sight. However, when we rebel we struggle to feel love, and we are prone to rebel. I am prone to rebel. 


Sadly, rebellion separates us from God's unconditional love. Not because He has taken it away, but because we have hardened our hearts. As a child struggles to feel a parents love when they rebel, because rebellion brings strife, we too struggle to feel God's love when we rebel against Him. 


As a parent I long for my children to walk along side me, willing to be taught, protected and loved. I hope they will desire to obey me because they know I love them and want the best for them and they recognize all that I do for them. 


God, our heavenly Father, who created us, who gives us all things, who has taken responsibility for us by offering His Son as the propitiation for our sins, wants us to know His love. He wants us to walk along side of Him, trusting in His goodness, willing to lovingly obey Him because of all He has done for us. He wants us to seek forgiveness for our rebellion so that we may feel safe, protected, comforted, precious!


God is so good, that though we rebel, if we will seek it, He will forgive us over and over and over. His love will never fail! 


Christine

Dads

Father's Day may be a day we celebrate only once a year, but we are thankful for dads every day!


Thankful for Dads who are loving!

My Dad!

Thankful for Dads who encourage!

My girl's Dad!

Thankful for Dad's who are silly!

My Dad in law!

Because it is way more fun to spend time playing with Dad than it is to play Plants vs Zombies!!

Thankful for a Dads strength!

Thankful for Dads who provide and protect! 


Most of all, thankful for Dads who share their faith and love for Jesus!

We've said it before, and we will say it again and again!

Thank you Dads!


Christine

Growing pains

My baby!

My cutie pie!

My sweet pea!

My honey bunch!

My lovey!

My dear,

my darling girl,

grew taller than me. Overnight! It's not allowed! I won't stand for it! At least I won't stand close to her anymore! Not close enough that anyone can tell for certain that she has gotten taller than me!


My baby has grown into a beautiful young woman, who is taller than me!


It is wonderful and painful all at the same time!


If only her feet would grow just a little more too, so she will no longer be tempted to borrow my shoes!


SIGH!


Christine

Happy campers

The girls began volleyball camp this week. I have been very excited that they wanted to try it and so far, they both seem to like playing volleyball. I'm glad. 


They got their interest from me you know. I played volleyball for a whole year in 8th grade...wait, it was 7th grade...no, it was 8th...I played volleyball for a year in junior high. The girls definitely take after me!


I will miss soccer though. (the girls decided to give up soccer to play volleyball) Soccer was always a surprise. We could be sitting outside in the sweltering heat watching a game or we could end up sitting in the rain. For sure by the end of the fall soccer season we would be outside bundled up for the freezing cold and at least one game a season we would get covered in the snow. Yeah, I'm going to miss that while sitting inside a temperature controlled gymnasium watching the girls play volleyball. Hey, it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make if the girls are happy!


I arrived early yesterday to get Miss Sofi Bug from camp because I really wanted to get some photos of one of my super hot shot volleyball players in action.


I was sure I'd get some pretty amazing shots. I was hoping to get something like this.

not one of my girls, random shot found on google

Wouldn't that be a cool shot to get of one of my girls?


Well, either my memory is very bad, or the game of volleyball has really changed.


I don't remember piggyback rides in volleyball!

I also don't remember chasing my teammates around in circles!

I may need to have a talk with the coach! Although, I don't want to ruin my chances of watching my girl's sporting events indoors! Dilemma!


Actually the girls were just finishing up practice with, what I think is best described as, a volleyball version of musical chairs? I think. 


My very cool, hot shot photo will have to wait for another time. I'll get it. They take after me you know. (snort!)


Christine

Maybe Friday

It has been on my mind for about a week now, a post I want to write. I've been composing it in my head almost daily. 

I finally decided it was time to write this post that has been nudging and nagging at me.

When I sat to write, I began to struggle to get the words out, it comes form the depths of my heart you see, and those are the posts I struggle with.


I tend to wonder...what if I don't write it well? Will it matter to anyone? Will I get it right? Will my heart be too exposed?

So I began to look through some old photographs instead.


I love looking through photos.


What we've done.


Where we've been.


How cute I think my girls are.

Then I began to play with different effects on the old photos.

Like this antique look.

My little beach baby.

This picture now reminds me of an old camp photo.

I don't remember raking up these! How cute are those girls? VERY! They aren't all mine. Two are neighbors. I love their smiling faces! 

There you have it. I totally avoided writing the post I intended to write.

I know, procrastination is bad.

I need to work on that. 

Soon. 

Tomorrow.

Maybe Friday.

Christine

Time to blog

It's been several days since my last blog post.


I haven't given up blogging! I've just been kinda busy.


Busy with the garage sale that started last Thursday. I didn't get one photo. I'm still kicking myself!


Thursday was also the girl's last day of school for the year. I now have a 5th grader and an 8th grader. What!? Where does the time go? The Husband and I took the girls to dinner to celebrate.


Friday, my friend Amy and I continued our garage sale. The Husband took the day off and made coffee and lunch runs for us. He also spent some time making fabulous trellises for the beans and snap peas in the vegetable garden. I'll show them to you later in the week. The Husband is the best!


We finished up the garage sale Saturday. We didn't do too bad. We sold off a lot of items we no longer needed and brought in a little cash. Hurray! We still had some items left over though. Those items will be donated to the Salvation Army. The Salvation army does good work for those in need. I like them!


Friday I had fully intended to show you a couple of photos of the flowers that are blooming in the flower beds, but I just never found the time to post. 


Better late than never.


It rained Friday morning. Can you tell? The flowers were plastered to the ground.

Hello gorgeous.

Blooming Clematis.

Fortunately the rain did not continue. That would have been a bummer for the garage sale. It was cold and gloomy, but hey, the rain stopped.


By Sunday, I was exhausted and very much in need of a day to relax, so we strolled the farmer's market. The market was full of beautiful flowers. 


Peonies!

Lilies!

And flats full of brightly colored annuals.

My favorite thing about that day was the Husband in his kilt!


Yes, the Husband wore his kilt. 


I really like when the Husband wears his kilt!

We also went for a picnic. It was a very good day!


Hopefully, now that all that business of the garage sale is finished, I can get back to my regularly scheduled blogging! Especially now that the girls are on summer break, life should be easy breezy. Right! Right? Did someone just laugh?


Christine

It's summer

Though the calendar indicates that summer doesn't officially begin until June 21, it is clear to me that summer has already started.


I have seen the signs!


My entryway, that once looked like this...

...now looks like this.

Our summertime guests have returned to the garden,

and the girls are babysitting their offspring...in my kitchen! 

And last but not least, we spent the weekend splashing to our hearts content. We'll be content until next weekend anyway, then we will need another pool fix!

Yep, summer has begun and I am lovin' it!


Happy summer!


Christine