Our first foray into tackle football. Spring football. A little less intense, short season, short field. Good intro. Great exercise. Full Saturdays. With 3 games to go, we finally get a “W” on a cloudy (briefly rainy) Saturday.
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Road trip…view from the backseat
Last weekend, my girls and I took a road trip to see my sister, brother-in-law and nephews; while we were there, my sis, my girlfriend and I were going to see my friend’s daughter in “To Kill a Mockingbird”. It was a whirlwind weekend, rainy, cold and eight hours of car time, but we had a great time.- Quality time with my sister: a play AND appetizers/dessert (I know you are jealous…you should be), something that so rarely happens without at least one of our children present.
- Catch up (in fast forward) with a good friend and praising God for His mercies and the works He has done in her family’s life after just a year ago their son being diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma. To just visit with her after their year that changed their lives and see the grace and growth and the LIVING that continues…HUGE. God IS good. Even when the circumstances purely suck.
- Mass at our old church with a powerful sermon by a young priest who is simply ON FIRE and IN LOVE with our Savior. Seeing and hugging old friends and their growing children. Life goes on. We are blessed with the richness of friends and family and this weekend was but a small example.
Back to the road trip portion…..the girls come ready, they pack their own bag o’ goodies. Snacks. Games. Books. They are veterans of this drive and they know what it takes to stay busy and pass the time. In the end, they barely touched their bag (aside from the snacks) and we listened to their music so we could hear Taylor Swift (Mama’s iPhone needs to be updated with T’s music), they made up car games, sang songs, played on the iPhone, watched the world go by and took pictures. Love. Them.
They packed their own snacks. And dad vaccuumed the crumbs when we got home. oops. 
It’s a long boring drive
Hoping the truck gets close enough to do “the sign”…you know ‘honk your horn, mister!’ he didn’t.
Searching for horses….
Finally. No offense to country music. After 8 hours though….Mama needed a change-up in tunes!
10 and 2, baby! It was comin’ down!
Should have checked the weather before we left….
Love. Free. Apps.
More clouds.
Rewarded by a group performance in the garage by Ty and his crew…PRICELESS! (he’s the one commanding the lead from the cooler/stage)
So THAT’S how I talk…
A while back I agreed to do an interview with Pat Gohn from the Among Women pod cast. She’s a wonderful speaker (voice like butter!) and I always enjoy her pod casts: part women Saints history and the other part an interview with various women on various topics. I love getting a glimpse into other people’s lives, their faith walk and how they incorporate their faith into this world. Her program feeds my “spiritual voyeurism” and encourages me to keep on keepin’ on. We all need that from time to time, don’t we? Back to the interview…..she asked me to speak about MY faith and how it was tested, evolved and sustained me through our own trials. For some reason I agreed. Completely out of my comfort zone, I assure you. However, I had prayed for a long time that if our suffering and faith walk were ever to be a comfort and encouragement to others, than “Lord, here I am”.
Pat was amazing. Having NEVER done anything like this in my life, she guided me each step of the way. Beginning with a draft AND a word count (sheesh!), she edited my story showing me where to fill in the holes. Once I got going, I didn’t worry about the word count, the story wrote itself. We Skyped a couple of times to go over things and prep and then came the interview. It was like chatting with a dear friend over coffee, which is exactly as she wants it to feel. HOW does she do that???
In the end, the show was aired this week. I listened yesterday and once I stopped counting my “uh’s and umm’s” (a public speaking gig I won’t be pursuing any time soon) I listened. And relived. And stepped out of myself. And praised God for a wonderful work that He has done in our family. (and continues to do so daily) I also realized that I need to get back to THAT place of prayer and faith that I purely lived in heart, mind and soul for so long. I hope it was somewhat of a tribute to how God blessed us so amazingly with family and friends in our life willing to do His work for us. It really does take a village and our family, our children, have been blessed mightily in spite of this period of difficulty.
So cling to Him. He will deliver you. Today’s Readings are of Esther asking for God to put the words in her mouth to release her people. She gives Him full reign, full obedience. Waiting on direction. The Psalms remind us that when we call on the Lord, He DOES hear us. We are to trust. And in the Gospel according to Matthew, Jesus reminds us to ask, seek and the door will be opened. And if even we as earthly parents give our children what the ask for can we even IMAGINE what God can do for us. I’m here to tell you, it’s true. Every bit. It’s a huge step in faith. Easy to say, but that first step is a doozy and won’t be one you regret.
Blessings!
French horn. Football. Fabulous.
We have a funny kid in our family. He’s the clown. Always. He brings the funnies potty humor or just plain funny, he’s always honing his act. This year he entered the dreaded Middle school years and….he is flourishing. Opting to join band and learn the French horn he has excelled. First chair. (okay, out of 3…but c’mon, I gotta brag) Superior at solo and ensemble. (that’s fo’ realz!) The funny thing is neither Hubby nor I are musical. Not one bit. In fact, when I sing, the kids beg me to stop. Except at church. Somehow they know they can’t here. However, THIS kid, is so self-motivated and self-disciplined it’s amazing to watch. “Mom, I’m going to learn the French horn. And next year, I am going into Advanced band. (beginning this year, he’s decided to skip Intermediate) Perhaps pick up the trumpet and join Jazz Band.” I have no doubt he will. When he puts his mind to it, he does it. And then, he decided he’d like to give tackle football a try after years of flag. When a spring league opened up, he joined. And for the first time, he’s not top dog. Now he is the youngest in the 12-15 league and that makes a big difference in size and experience. I’ll give it to him though. He gets beat and bruised and exhausted and he utterly loves it. He’s improving. And now his brain is contemplating if he could play football and be in the band. Hmmmm. Time will tell. For now, it’s pretty fun to watch. This past weekend, we combined them both. Solo and ensemble on Friday night. Double-header football game Saturday. 



I’m baaaaack….a (semi) photo essay.
To properly welcome back “my Precious” to the blog world, I thought I’d post some pictures from our time away…even though I was still click, click, clicking way with my camera and my phone.
Caught a glimpse the leftovers from a very busy spider one morning on the way out…
We’ve had some amazing weather…
Then we had a super cold morning…here I am walking and completely regretting leaving my hat and gloves at home!
A birthday breakfast for our girl hitting the double digits!
Saw a Mama duck and her babies on a walk around the lake with my girls…
We had wonderful friends come for a visit… (yes, it’s blurry, but really the fact that my clown son was able to get a decent picture in the midst of his hijinks and making us giggle is pretty impressive!)
To be continued on tomorrow’s Quick Takes @ Conversion Diary….


































