Amazing Day!!

One of those days that I just love!

Spent some amazing time with God and am seeing Him all over today!

Now we're heading out the door to help at a homeless ministry.

God is moving in a major way right now in our home and I can't begin to describe how overwhelmed I feel with His goodness!!

Hopefully I'll get a few moments in the near future to document it all and share it with you!

God is good!!!

Admit it...

Go ahead ~ admit it...

...we all have days when we feel like we go from Diva....

To Ogre....

Hmm...Sounds like the title of a book or something.

Maybe I could make this my next project! :)

Nap Time!!!

The big yellow bus came this morning and greeted a very happy little second grader who is WAY excited to be back in school.

Unlike last year when I was feeling completely sad that summer was over, this year I am absolutely ready for the change.

I think the fun-filled summer, combined with looking forward to fall weather, has made the transition easier this year.

In the meantime, I now will head off to bed to nap with a little 4 year old boy who will not start Preschool for another few weeks....now that may be a bit of an emotional day. :(

Nap time here I come!!!

Last Day Of Summer!!!

Sooo, what does one do on the last day of summer in our house??

Well, of course we wake up too early (when a friend calls to borrow a tool) and then we spend the entire day in the backyard mowing, weeding, painting and picking up sticks.

Remember how exciting I made summer this year?? Trips to tour NFL stadiums, trips to vineyards, trips to beaches???

Okay, so maybe I didn't finish strong.

Oh well....Ayden actually raked a pile of leaves and jumped in it! He told me it was the most fun thing he could think to do on his last day of summer!

At least my kids have positive outlooks on Mommy's busy day!

Happy last day of Summer! And here's to having a nicely manicured backyard! :)

The Blind Side...

Wow! Another friend posted this trailer on her blog and I pretty much cried all the way through it! It looks amazing!!

It comes out on November 20th (my Mom's birthday)...Gee Mom, wanna go?? :)

Focus...

Do you ever feel out of focus? Like your glasses have a big smudge on them or you just can't quite concentrate on the things around you?

I've been feeling that way for a while now.

Unfortunately, I don't wear glasses and I have no vision issues...my focus is a heart problem.

In the last month God has been impressing more lessons on me than I can even begin to describe.

One of those lessons has been in the form of focus.

What am I really focusing on? Where does my ministry lie? What are my gifts, talents and passions and am I using them appropriately?

In the past few days God has brought this to my attention through countless readings that I've been doing and I am finally hearing what I believe God is saying....

"Be intentional Cyndie...figure out what I'm asking you to do and DO IT!"

So, today begins a bit of a journey for me. I have now sat and written down everything I spend my days doing.

Everything from my precious "Mom's Group" to laundry. I'm working on getting it all in black and white and then the prayer begins.

I am asking God to pare down my focus. Show me where He wants me serving...show me what things on my list are from Him.

Of course, that also means that there will likely be some things that are not "From Him".

The tough part will be making that change. It won't necessarily be easy to cut out things in my life but I've come to one major reality - I DON'T WANT TO WASTE ANY MORE TIME!!

What if my life ended tonight...what if I live my life like each moment is a precious gift instead of acting as though I have an eternity left? What if I focus on the things that matter instead of getting bogged down in the things that don't?

What if??

Of course, selfishly I would love it if God told me that I no longer need to do laundry - hmmm- something in me thinks that may be pushing it. :)

What if??

Totally Proud!!!!!!!!!

I must admit that I'm a totally proud Mama today! The other day when we stumbled upon the family that sold everything and moved into an RV to travel across America helping the poor, we began watching some of the other videos on their website.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you can either read my post from yesterday or just jump on their site http://www.thearktour.org/ It is really an amazing story!

Anyway, on their site they have a video clip of an idea they had of putting together little bags of toiletries and other items to keep in their car for when they pass a homeless person on the street.

Ayden was so impacted by this idea he immediately said, "Mom let's go to Target to get some stuff right now!"

Later that evening as we walked the aisles of Target with our list of items (rain ponchos, wipes, pens, etc) I watched as Ayden stopped in front of something in the toy aisle that caught his attention. Then I heard the words that any mother would be proud to hear.

To himself he said, "Ayden...it's not about you."

And there you have it!

There are SOOOOO many days when I can't say that my children's behavior has quite lived up to my expectations but on this particular day I couldn't have been more proud of my little 7 year old!

I think I may try using his little phrase the next time I walk into Target (or Ikea...as the case may be)!

Would you have the faith??

For some reason, God has really been speaking to me lately. That's not to say that I don't hear God at other times in my life, but as you all know, there are just some times when His words seem to be coming through more clearly.

Probably they are the times when I am listening more intently and when I'm searching for His presence in every breath I take.

This is one of those times.

Lately He has been asking me to have faith. Radical faith. Not just the "faith" that I say I have as a Christian, but a faith that is willing to live out anything...whatever He asks...Wherevever He asks...Whenever He asks...True FAITH.

He's asked Donn and I to have faith in big things - like the adoption our son Prince from Africa.

He's asked us to have faith in smaller things - like raising enough funds to send a few of our Liberian brothers through college.

He's asked us to have faith - big or little - lately it just seems to be the mantra of each and every day.

I pray hard during times like these. I find myself in a mix of pure excitement and pure terror (all wrapped into one 5'1" frame). I'm an absolute joy to live with I'm sure!! :) Don't ask Donn or the kids please :)

Whatever the case may be, I am excited to feel God so near at this point in our lives. I can honestly say that I have no clue what it is that He's got planned for our little lives, but I pray that I will always have the faith to take bold steps and trust that His grace is sufficient for anything.

Ironically, remember the whole incident with my dumb tooth the other day?? Turns out even that was something that God had orchestrated (shocking I know!).

You see, I sat in the dentist's office for an hour waiting for my appointment. Most people would have been upset. I started to get fidgety for a few minutes then a revelation hit me...NO KIDS! Here I was in a seat by myself sitting next to a table of the latest magazines and I have NO KIDS IN TOW!!!!!! HALLELUIA!!

And that's when I met God. Right there in the pages of the latest "Ladies Home Journal". I couldn't believe what I read as I flipped the pages of this article describing a family who is living out life with pure faith.

Absolute, complete abandonment!

As I sit in the midst of our life and assess how I am serving the Lord, I found it ridiculously refreshing to see a family who has taken the calling of "Go and make disciples" to a whole new level.

See what you think... Would you have the faith?? Would I???

The ARK Tour Video from Jay Loecken on Vimeo.

It's Finished!!

Well, here it is!! Ayden has finished his lapbook and is SO proud of it!

We had a great time putting it together and we had so many great conversations that came out of doing this project.

Like I said before, I'm not jumping on the homeschool train just yet, but I do think I will keep up with doing lapbooks throughout the year!

Perfect Endings...

So, there's no better way to end a nice vacation than a little trip to the dentist.

Yup, that's right...It's my curse ya'll....Teeth.

If you've been reading my blog for any amount of time you probably remember a few other posts about my teeth. Oh how I love my parents but oh how I HATE their genetic disposition to BAD TEETH!

Needless to say, apparently bad teeth and swedish fish (which are a staple in the little town where we spent vacation last week) don't mix. Luckily, I bought my kids a big bag of the little red delights but never actually ate one until I walked in the door on the day we returned home.

One little bite of one tiny little fish and out pops my tooth. Oh yea, I'm dead serious. So now I have diapers in my driveway, my husband drives a truck that 1990 is begging to get back and I'm missing a tooth (praise God it's a back one)! Do we sound like a bad sitcom or what?

And so I head to the dentist today.

Do you think if I bring them a bag of swedish fish they'll cut the cost?? And those stupid fish have smiles on their faces..dumb grins are more like it. :)

This is the picture my sweet mother-in-law just sent me....remember last week when I said I actually had a mother-in-law that I didn't mind hanging out with? Yea, I take that back. :)

Lapbooks...

Okay, first let me say that I have some incredible friends who are amazing homeschoolers. I myself; not so much. I gladly send Ayden off on the big yellow bus every morning and welcome him back with open arms every afternoon.

I love the idea of homeschooling but I've never felt very adequate as a homeschool mom. A few times I've wondered if I should be homeschooling but deep down inside I still worry that I'm not structured enough or don't have enough patience. As you can see, I've opted for public school for the time being.

However, I must admit that something inside of me must have a bit of my mother's DNA (my mom is like the superstar of all teachers). For example, I LOVE looking at homeschooling blogs and I also LOVE going in the teacher stores!

Recently I was on the most amazing homeschool blog known to man and I came across "lapbooks". The best way I can describe lapbooks are that you pick a topic (giraffes, George Washington, Scuba Diving; whatever). Then you make a bunch of "mini books" or small projects that relate to that topic.

For example, for giraffes you might have a "mini book" that talks about where giraffe's live and what they eat. You might also have a mini book about how tall a giraffe is and then you might decide to relate that to measurements and do a little lesson on using a ruler etc.

In the end, you put all of these little mini books together on a file folder and you end up with a "lapbook" which describes all the things you learned when you studied a giraffe.

I decided that even though I'm not feeling called to homeschool right now, it might be fun to do some lapbooks to get Ayden's mind going as summer winds down and school creeps up.

Soooo, here is our first attempt at a lapbook. We basically stole everything from my friend Carisa's blog (thanks Carisa!) and Ayden has had a blast! We are working on a lapbook about money.

Ayden already knows basic values of money and things of that nature so some of it was review for him, but the part that has been most fun has been researching some things that he didn't know about (like mints and the history of money).

We're not completely done but I'll be sure to post a picture of the finished "book" when we complete it.

In the meantime, if you're dying to do a lapbook yourself (or you just want to see a picture of a completed one), jump on over here to get all the free templates from Carisa's amazing blog!

Home!!

Well, we're home again and though we had a great time away, we are enjoying the comfort of our own beds and trying to get back into the routine of daily life.

My parents followed us back to Charlotte as they head down to Florida, so we are spending a nice relaxing day with them and hopefully I will get back to "normal" posting tomorrow. :) Great to be back!!

Proof....

Just a bit of proof that when I say I'm travelling to the "black hole" I am in fact telling you the truth.

As you all know, the other morning my mom and sisters and I all went out for breakfast. We had an amazing time of laughing too much and eating our breakfast in an old inn from the 1800's. This has easily become one of my favorite traditions of all time.

As we were leaving breakfast and discussing how late we were for an appointment, we came upon a flagman at a "construction site".

Now, if you live in a city like I do, when I say flagman and construction site it probably conjures up images of busy 4 lane highways with traffic stopped and red brake lights flashing.

As we slowed down the car and came to a stop I muttered, "ahhhh traffic" under my breath. We all laughed as we looked around at the woods surrounding us and the tiny little road that barely fit two cars on it. My sister began joking about how long the "commute" was and we waited for the traffic from the other direction to come through the "construction site."

Low and behold, as we sat and waited, along comes a person on a bike peddling down the road. The flagman then flipped his sign around and let us go through.

And that was all the proof that I needed. When I say that I'm going to the "black hole" I really mean it....Imagine that; the flagman had to stop traffic for a bike to come through. Nope, there weren't any other cars - just a bike on a tiny little country road.

I have to say, I just love this little "black hole" of a place. The biggest hindrance to a morning "commute" would be a random turkey or deer or maybe that occasional bicyclist!

And, come on, it's really not all that far to the nearest Walmart! Just go to the first stop light and take a left....granted, the first stop light is in fact an hour up the road! AHHH!!! :)

This is dedication!

To all of you who emailed me letting me know that you won't leave me even if I miss a few posts here or there - thanks! You're the best!! It feels like 6th grade again when you declare to your "BFF" that you'll stick with them through thick and thin. You all gave me warm fuzzies and I've decided that even though 90% of you are scared to death of my "Mr. Comment" button, you're still the best blog readers out there. Definitely the best I've ever known! :)

So, needless to say, we made it to the "black hole" and we're enjoying a great time of rest and catching up with family.

Wait...that's not entirely true.

Take a look at the little timestamp on this post. Yup...it's 6am. UGGH!!!

The fact is, I've been waking up at 4am for the past few days (for some reason I'm having trouble sleeping). Sooo, maybe rest is something that I'm not enjoying much of, but I am enjoying family! I'm heading out the door in about 4 minutes to have breakfast with "the girls" (aka, my mom and 3 sisters)!!!! Watch out everyone! When you put the 5 of us together it gets pretty crazy!

And so, I'd better get going so we can paint this town red (can you paint a town red at 7am?) I guess if you're talking about a town that doesn't even have a stop light, you can paint it red whenever you feel like it!

Anyway, just wanted to touch base and let you know that I'm alive and well and missing you all!

Have a great Monday!