Monday Monday

Hope you all had a blessed weekend!

Ours was packed but a good one.

Friday daddy came home early and surprised the boys. When they saw him drive up in the drive way S had to hold them back until he was parked before they went barreling out the door. They were glad to have him home.

Saturday morning D had a meeting with the Emmaus committee to prayerfully choose the group of men that he will be leading for the next Men's walk which will be in October. There is alot that goes into planning each meeting so they have to start early. He's very excited. God's been doing some good work in his heart as well. I look forward to seeing all that God does with these guys.

I stayed home with the boys and did some house work, and got my work out in. I was reminded why it is that I usually exercise when the boys are sleeping...lol It's difficult to keep up with the steps of the video when "mommy" is repeated so frequently...lol

We spent the afternoon at the beach. I wish I had had my camera with me this time. N tried his hand at boogie boarding. He was great!!! Of course...lol E, not so much. He wanted to be on it and try it but then when I placed him on it he would scream to get off. It was a bit frustrating for us both. He wanted desparately to get on and go, but was too scared to. Poor little man.

We also had some interesting interactions. As I was standing at the water's edge a little girl, about 5 yrs old, walked up to me, took my hand and said... "let's go in the water". Some interesting observations about this interaction to me were, that she was only about 5 yrs old, she was AA, she was alone and she didn't know me from Adam. I looked around, wondering if she had family around. I didn't see any. I then asked her where her family was, and she said absently "over there". I told her we needed to find her family. She then let go of my hand, said no, and began to walk away. I was kind of stuck at this point because I had E in the water with me, and D and N were to far out to see what was happening. Right at that point a woman who looked to be her grandmother walked up. I asked if the little girl was with her, and she said that she was. The thing that struck me was her lack of concern. I honestly had to pray hard to keep those whispering voices of Judgement and Pride out of my ears. They were almost yelling. Doggon those little devils. I didn't know these people, I didn't know they situation...perhaps the grandmother was there by herself and overwhelmed. She needed some compassion from me, not judgement.

Ok so why was it interesting that she was AA? Because in the past I have never had a child of another race walk up so comfortably to me and ask to play in such a random setting. Perhaps because I had E with me? Perhaps because it's such an integrated beach, I love that!... perhaps because finally some of those barriers are dropping... or perhaps just because she thought I would go in the water with her and she didn't care what color I was... lol

Interestingly enough after that incident I was playing in the sand with the boys and another little girl, also AA, came over to ask if she could play with us. I sat there smiling for a bit... thinking of what wonderful doors our boys have been able to open for us. We all sat together and built sand castles. It was a fun afternoon.

We went home exhausted and happy. Then went out for ice cream after dinner with a dear friend. (not so good for the diet...oops)

Sunday D had to leave again. This time he had to drive to Chattanooga TN. Ugh that's a long lonely drive.

I took the kids to church and then back to a different beach for a Sunday school get together. It's more of a local's beach, not the touristy one we usually go to.

It was a good time...sort of. ;o) I think the boys were over being at the beach.... or just being with mom... or because we went during nap time... or because we missed daddy...but they were both missing listening ears, and E ended up screaming the whole way off the beach when it was time to leave. Oh, the joys of parenting.

After we got home though we got washed up and had some quiet time just hanging out and doing nothing. That was MUCH better. ;o)

S and I ended the day by adding some strength training to our work out. All I could think of was that turtle from Finding Nemo, I could hear him saying " hey, jelly man" ;o) It did feel good though, and today I feel strong. We are going to alternate strength and cardio every other day.

We added 3 more people to our mission team! We are now up to 11 people confirmed. YAY! God is Good!

Please pray for D and I as we both lead such large faith opportunities at the same time. We want to serve God faithfully and with the right hearts, but not put our families on the back burner. It will be a juggling act, but I know God can and will guide us.

That's about all for now. Have a blessed one.