Where or Where Has Our Summer Gone?

Wow! The month of July has flown by so fast. We've been on a mission trip to Michigan with our teens. Most of my family came to visit, and we finally got to hold my sweet little nephew, Trevyn. We have been school supply shopping. We've been swimming. We made a quick trip to Edmond, Oklahoma to visit friends and family. It honestly seems like we have spent more time away from home than at home this month. It has been a very fun month though, and we will spend the next week and a half recuperating and getting ready for the boys to start school on August 11th.

Tomorrow I will try to get some pictures uploaded from our summer, but here are some classic quotes from Nathan that I will share with you for today:

Big brothers are so much better than little brothers.

Mom, I think we should use snot as sunscreen.

Yep...so sweet at moments and not so sweet at others.

Some Deep Thinking

Yesterday, Nathan's Sunday school teacher called to talk to me. When I first got the call, all I could think was "Oh no! What did he do now?!" However, this was a pretty neat call. Apparently on Sunday, she made the comment that God made everything, so Nathan asked her if God made the devil. She told him yes, to which he asked how God could make something evil when he has nothing to do with anything evil.

Wow! Not to shabby reasoning for a five year old, huh?

Then, last night the boys and I were saying prayers (Dad was at movie night with the teens), and we were praying for some people who have cancer. After we were done praying, David asked, "Why do we pray for people to be healed? If they die, they get to go to heaven, and heaven is where we all want to be. So wouldn't it be better if we just let them go there?"

Man! Tough questions from the boys these days. We spent a little while talking about heaven and talking about the human desire to be with the people we love, and how hard it is to balance the two.

I love it when my boys ask questions like this because I am able to see how some of the things they are learning from us, in Bible class, in worship, in chapel and at Bible time at school are sinking into their ever-growing brains. I love that they are already trying to flesh through some difficult questions. I am scared to death of what they will ask next and pray everyday that God fills me with the answers to guide them to those answers. I also pray that there will never come a day that they don't ask questions or quit seeking the truth to those questions.

Some days I wonder if I am effective as a parent. There are those days where they spend the whole day fighting with each other, arguing with me, or just being plain ol' naughty. However, these moments where they share the most insightful thoughts about our God or ask a question that lets me know they are working on building a foundation for their spiritual growth help me to realize that we are making a little headway in the greatest responsibility that we have as parents. It also makes more sense about why Nathan has been praying for me so much lately!

Favorite Things About Family

I was thinking about family today, so I decided to ask my boys what some of their favorite things are about family members. Here are their answers:

David's Favorite Things about Family Members

Daddy

1. We go on trips together.
2. Our hair looks the same.
3. We both like Indiana Jones and Star Wars

Nathan

1. We play Star Wars Lego game together
2. We pretend to "toot" together.
3. We snuggle together.

Grandma Sandy

1. I like the look of her house.
2. I like to hug and kiss her a lot.
3. She rubs my back.

Grandma Barbara

1. Sometimes at Christmas she is with us.
2. She lets me sit on her lap.
3. She brings us a lot of presents

Uncle Steve

1. He is funny.
2. He is a farmer.
3. He likes to wrestle with me.

Aunt Rachel

1. She is pretty.
2. She bought me light up Mickey Mouse ears at Disney World.
3. She is nice to me.

Michael (cousin)

1. He likes Legos.
2. He has seen “The Last Crusade”.
3. He likes to dig for diamonds with me.

Tyler (another cousin)

1. We are both funny.
2. We both played T-Ball.
3. He likes trains.

Kylie (yet another cousin)

1. She is cute.
2. She likes playing with the play kitchen.
3. She’s my only girl cousin.

Trevyn (the youngest cousin of all)

1. He is cute.
2. I like him.
3. He is my baby cousin.

Nathan's Favorite Things about Family Members

Daddy

1. That he goes to work.
2. He types on his computer.
3. He plays the Star Wars Lego game with me.

David

1. He plays with me.
2. He gives me piggy back rides.
3. He holds me.

Grandma Sandy

1. She plays with me.
2. We do stuff with each other.
3. She swims or anything and I like her.

Grandma Barbara

1. She helps me get up.
2. I like her.
3. She does stuff for me

Uncle Steve

1. He is my uncle.
2. He does stuff for Kylie.
3. I am his nephew.

Aunt Rachel

1. I love her.
2. She is pretty.
3. She presses buttons for me.

Michael (cousin)

1. He likes me.
2. He does stuff for me.
3. He plays checkers with me.

Tyler (another cousin)

1. He eats with me.
2. We have fun with each other.
3. He puts my shoes on for me.

Kylie (yet another cousin)

1. I like to kiss her.
2. I love her.
3. She likes me.

Trevyn (the youngest cousin of all)

1. I like him a lot.
2. He is a baby.
3. I want to hold him.

There are some big trends here, which I am sure you have already noticed. It matters a lot to David if you like Star Wars and Indiana Jones. It matters a lot to Nathan if you do stuff for him, which is funny because he has always been the "I will do it myself" kid. Brian, I am not sure exactly what it means that Nathan's favorite thing about you is that you go to work. I will let you interpret that one on your own. :)

Nathan's prayer

Every night we say prayers as a family, and each person says their own prayer. David's prayers are always pretty long because he prays for a lot of sick people and for families that have lost a loved one. It is always sweet to hear how thoughtful his prayers are and how he thinks of others.

Nathan's prayers tend to be a bit shorter and more to the point. He always thanks God for each of us by name and then generally will pray that tomorrow is a good day. Every once in awhile he will throw something else into his prayer. Two nights ago, he finished his prayer with "and help mom to behave tomorrow. In Jesus name...amen." Help Mom to behave? I glanced over at Brian and he was shaking because he was trying so hard not to laugh out loud.

Last night, Nathan took it up a notch and prayed for both mom and dad to have help behaving. Guess we need as much help as we can get!

Happy Fourth of July....late, of course! :)

I know! I know! I know! I am supposed to be catching up on lots of blog posts, but as usual, I just seem to remain behind. So here is the quick version of what is up in our lives.

Fourth of July weekend was a blast. Brian has off Thursdays, and he helped me get ready to have Buncos at our house Thursday night. (What a sweet husband!) He whisked the boys off to go watch a movie in the youth room at church while all of us women ate supper and played the game. I really do enjoy having people over, but usually the people coming over are in their teens. So, I was a little nervous about my house looking nice and being well decorated. A friend of mine who is a genius decorator came over on Wednesday and helped hang pictures and rearrange some stuff, and I must say that it is amazing what a person with talent can do with a bunch of old stuff! :)

The other part that was a little nerve racking was cooking supper for 11 women who are all really good cooks. This is when I wish I was our friend Erin Cox, who is able to whip up these incredible meals. Since it was so close to the fourth of July, I made brisket, a potato casserole, and a baby spinach salad with strawberries and almonds topped with a homemade honey vinaigrette. On each table, I put some fresh fruit with a fruit dip (in my new $1 star bowls). I finished up the meal with a "flag" dessert. It had a sugar cookie crust, and then was topped with a cream cheese/powdered sugar mixture with strawberries and blueberries placed to look like a flag. While it wasn't quite an "Erin Cox" meal, it did taste pretty good.

On Friday, we were lazy and spent the day playing the Lego Indiana Jones playstation game and just hanging out with each other. We had thought about going to see Wall-e but were so glad that we didn't because some friends of Brian's from Alabama called and were in town bringing their son to Honors Symposium. Brian met up with them at a coffee shop and got to visit for a little bit. When he came home, he was telling me how surprised he was to see that their youngest son was already three. He also said he felt bad for them because he hadn't gotten much of a nap and they were having to take him to a dinner. So, we came up with the plan for Seth to come over so they could enjoy the dinner. It ended up that their twin boys (going into 7th grade) came with him since he didn't know us, and we all had a good time. David loved getting to play with Seth and Nathan attached himself to one of the older boys when he agreed to play the Lego Star Wars game with him. We took them back to their parents about 7:30 and then took the boys to get Frosty's. We finished up the evening by watching fireworks from a parking lot.

This is almost embarrassing to admit, but Saturday, we spent the whole day in our pajamas being lazy. We played games and just had a fun day. Little did we know that it was giving us strength for Sunday.

Sunday was busy! Both Brian and I taught Bible class. There was a potluck that a friend and I were in charge of after morning services. We had a work time for our Michigan mission trip as well as an information meeting. I ended up teaching a class at the last minute for our Sunday night kid's church. Needless to say, it was one of those days where we didn't stop all day. After a really lazy weekend, it was kind of nice.

So, that was our weekend. I hope that everyone had a wonderful fourth of July!