Valentine Banquet 2018

Last week was a busy one!!

Our little school co-op administrator decided he wanted us to 

go ahead with our annual Valentine Banquet this year

and we spent several days preparing for that.

What fun my girls had creating cupcakes together that

reflected the theme,
Let Me Call You Sweetheart.

All the children served tables and helped clean up.
Some helped with making signs.

It was a collaborative labor of love and we

all had a lovely time!!

{Even though the lasagna entree ended up taking an

additional hour to bake than was planned and gave me 

a heart-attack,

so we had to quick change up the program a little

to accommodate extra baking time!

Meh~whatever......we still had a blast!!}

 

Birthday Fun!

Last weekend was also my birthday.

The older I get, the longer the celebrating goes on.

I kinda like having a birthday month,

rather than just one measly birthday party.

This year, my birthday landed on a Sunday,

so the sweet lady scheduled to bring snacks to our Sunday School class

spent all week preparing for things she would bring in 

to make the morning special for me!!!

I appreciated all her effort so much!!!

My husband is a birthday freak!!

He is waaaaay more about them than I ever was,

so he likes to either take his whole day off work and give me

a "day off" or take me out for dinner!
This evening, we went for my favorite Italian where our favorite

server works (our oldest daughter!)  

She usually bakes me a cake, but this year

she brought me a special dessert and brought all her friends

over to meet her dad and I.

They all sang "Happy Birthday" although I failed to get

any pictures of that!

I'm so thankful for another year to serve the Lord, to enjoy my family

and point them to Him, and to encourage those in my path to see Him too!!!

 

Final volleyball tournament

Since the beginning of this new year, 

Ashlyn, Abby, and Aryn have been preparing for

one last volleyball tournament of this school year!

It is always their favorite tournament and they have looked

forward to it with great anticipation.

This would have been Ashlyn's last volleyball event of

her high school career, but as fate would have it

the very night before they would get up early to leave

she contracted some sort of stomach virus and was vomiting.

This is never good even without a chronic health condition,

but as a Type 1 Diabetic this meant higher blood sugars and ketones

that had to be treated.

So Ashlyn ended up staying home.  Bummer!!

But even though this team was down one of their strongest players,

they played with heart and endurance all day and ended

up taking second place in the entire tournament!!
Our girls lost their first game, won the next two,

and played for first place in the final at 10:30 pm!!
Our "varsity" team consists of two 4th graders and a newer player,

two 13-year olds, and two high-schoolers.
It was definitely a "David vs. Goliath" scenario.
But our girls played tirelessly and pulled through to the finals,

and took home second place out of 4 varsity teams!!

We are so proud of our girls and their sportsmanship, enthusiasm,

and hard work!!!
Great job, Lady Minutemen!!!

Valentine Tea Party

Have I mentioned before how much I love Valentine's Day?? 

I love the whimsy of all the decor and the pink and the flowers!

I love the teaching opportunities!

I love that we can use this "holiday" to focus on our Heavenly Father's greatest attribute:

His unconditional, everlasting, selfless love!

"The one who does not love does not know God,

because God is love."

I John 4:8

Imagine if everyone who claims they know and love God,

would actually try to emulate Him

 and be as loving as He is to everyone they meet?

This last weekend was a busy one for our family!
My youngest girls were invited to the most adorable Valentine Tea

where we would be celebrating the "Love of God"
and dressing like princesses of the Most High King!!
What a treat!!

In Titus 2, we learn that the "aged women" are to teach the young women

to love their husbands and children, to be keepers at home, and to be good

among other things.

The lovely lady who hosted this delightful party is exactly as described above.

She loves to celebrate all the milestones of life and is always inviting

people into her home.  She is the epitome of hospitality and loves

to love on children.

She sees the value of investing in the lives of young ones

and mentoring Mom's and encouraging people of all ages

to love the Lord and to love each other!

One day, when my nest is nearly empty like hers, I hope to

do things like this!!  What a wonderful way to share the love of Jesus!!

Another driver is coming!

So this has been happening here at house.

Our second born earned her permit to progress to the driving stage of her training

last summer.

Training your own children to drive is not for the faint of heart.

Let me just put that out there!

It takes enormous determination and motivation to get out there

and try to transfer the information you've had embedded in your brain

for 30 years to the inexperienced mind of your teenager!!

Some days there are triumphs and some days there are tears!!

But we are enjoying the funny moments and the trips to Sonic for a drink

while we are out!!

Because she is a Type 1 Diabetic, we've also had some sobering

conversations about good blood sugar management

as well as being consistent and faithful about wearing diabetic alert jewelry!

We have to face the facts that with this disease comes the added risk

of DKA while operating a motor vehicle!

Let the good times roll!!!!