Staycation Event #2

Pardon me for getting my events out of order, I forgot about this one before I posted the other one! Anyhow, our second fun Staycation event was going to the the HiWay 50 Drive In down in Lewisburg! Roger and I went to a drive in once a very long time ago and I have been to one or two as a child, but I could not wait to take my girls to one. This theatre is about 45 mins away and a very easy drive. We got to see Up and Night at the Museum 2. I really didn't expect everyone to stay awake the whole time, but they sure did! During the first movie the girls were nestled down in the van, but it got very cold outside. So during the next one we all piled in the back of the van. It was quite squished up, but we survived and got lots of snuggling in! We left about midnight and got home around 1:00 AM.

I would love to take them back again this summer if we have another weekend we can go and the movies are acceptable. It was also dirt cheap, $6 for adults and $3 for kids.

I highly recommend it!

O:)
Melissa

Hometown Swap

We will now take a short break from our Staycation information to let you know about my Hometown Swap thingie I did. Somehow I found Shannon at The Nuthouse and decided to take part in her Hometown Swap. You can read about it here. I got the pleasure of sending some thing from here to Rachael in Washington (as in the state!) but it was harder than I thought! I decided to send her a Titans tshirt and a little country goodie from the Back Door, a little antique shop here in town.

Today I received my package all the way from Natalie in Austin, TX! It was full on fun goodies like steak spices, gingerbread pancake mix, and some sweet BBQ sauce. Because I am a goofball and can't figure out how to put pictures elsewhere in one blog, you'll have to see her goodies above the Hometown Swap button. Anyhow, thanks, Natalie, for all the yummies! We can't wait to see how they taste!

O:)
Melissa

Staycation Event #3

Rebecca headed off to CrossCamp, our church camp for 3rd-6th graders

Our #3 event was swimming at our local Rec Center pool. It was a really hot day and I spent most of it hiding under towels and reading a good book. (I sunburn so easily, even with tons of sunscreen on!) I only had Leah and Katie with me since Rebecca was at camp. They really had a fun time, but did not like "break time" every hour. Below is a picture of them "on break".



I did get in the water some, but there were hundreds of kids and it made it hard to even move around. It made our little neighborhood pool look really nice, since there are usually not too many people in it.

Stay tuned for more fun!

O:)
Melissa

Staycation Event #1 -- The Nashville Zoo

My three monkeys at the zoo

Last summer, after we returned from Disney (one of the BEST vacations ever!), most of my girls summer was wasted vascillating from the TV to the computer. That was fine with me at the time, they stayed "happy" and out of my hair. They are not too big on playing outside, unless we are at the pool, which we did at least once a week. Other than that, inside homebodies.

This summer I determined was going to be different! They are older now (9, 7, and 5) so I figured we could do a lot more. Katie is transitioning out of naptime, which I have mixed feelings about, but it certainly does open up our days not taking that afternoon nap into consideration! So we have our summer calendar jam packed with fun things to do, little things, big things, around the house things, and of course the pool every chance we get!

On Wednesday, June 3, we had our first Staycation event of 2009 -- the Nashville Zoo. This was a big, big trip for us, THE FIRST TIME IN 10 YEARS WITH A STROLLER!!! It was so nice to have the freedom to just walk wherever, not worry about leaving stuff behind, etc. We did pack lunches, but they were very small and not in need of refrigeration. We had lots of fun, despite the heat. One of our favorite, absolutely hysterical things that happened was that at the "Wings of the World" bird show, one of the birds acutally flew off out of the ampitheatre! The host had just been talking about how nothing can keep them from flying off, but that they are trained to follow a certain pattern and then, WHOOSH! There that silly Diego went. They could do nothing to reign him back in, so they had to cancel the whole show. That was a bummer, because we wanted to see more birds, but she said it had something to do with the fact that once one bird "flew the coop" the others might get keen on it and fly away too. We saw lots of cool animals including funny looking zebras, anteaters, meerkats, boring, lazy tigers, elephants, giraffes, ostriches and some very noisy gibbons!! All in all, it was a good, hot day. We left the house about 9:45 and got home after 4:30. Whew!

Stay tuned for more fun and exciting events!

O:)
Melissa

The last lunch together on April 24

More than likely, from now on for a very long time, I will not be eating lunch with any of my children on April 24, or the last Friday in April. Everyone will be in school. Did you get that? Everyone! For so many years now I have taken it for granted that on non-preschool days I will always have someone to eat lunch with. But not after August 2009. I will be eating a lot of lunches by myself. And that will be a problem for me. I mean, who would not want to eat lunch with this precious jewel?

Today we have been playing house, which means I clean up. She has been playing the sorting game, by dumping out neatly organized boxes of My Little Pony stuff, Littlest Pet Shop stuff, Soda Pop Pet stuff, and other numerous small toy stuff and reorganizing them in another, different way that makes sense to her. She was the teenager and was 18 and I was the mom and was 27. Go figure.

On an unrelated subject, for anyone who was been looking for me on FB, I am officially off. It was like a drug to me and I have gone cold turkey. I unfriended everyone (no offense, please!) and logged myself out. Some days I miss it, but I feel like I have been given a gift of at least another a hour every day.

O:)
Melissa

Sandals of Peace

In the midst of yesterdays ultra cool God is So Here experience at breakfast, there was also another thing happening that I didn't really get until later and I want to write about it so I don't forget about it.

A little background: I had gotten new white Sunday sandals for the girls earlier this week and Katie had hers on at breakfast yesterday.

So when I was going over the armor of God, I was talking about the sandals of peace, ready to share the gospel and Katie jumped up and said, "Just like these sandals!" I love almost 5 year olds!

Later that day on several occasions when things were a little ugly she would look at me and say, "Mommy, do we need my sandals of peace?"

I just absolutely LOVE 4 and 5 year olds and their complete innocence, yet wisdom and simplicity that we need to hang onto as adults.

Do you need your sandals of peace today? I know a sweet girl who can share hers!

O:)
Melissa

And a child shall lead them

Man oh man do I love my Jesus! Let me tell you what HE did this morning! I'm not sure where to begin, but suffice it to say that there are some issues God is really working with me on and, as with anything, there are times I feel more strengthened to fight the enemy and some days it just doesn't seem worth it. (Satan likes those days) I was having one of those days yesterday and last night and feeling down in the deepest pit. I was crying out for help this morning in my sweet QT, reading over some scripture, trying to find something that I could not find. Still not feeling like God was listening (even though I know HE was) and cried for the Spirit to groan for me (Romans 8:26). A while later things started hopping around the house and sweet little Leah came down. I was looking all over Habakkuk trying to find what I was looking for but I couldn't. Then I remembered about Haggai and that is exactly what the Lord was trying to point me to. More on that in another post, I need to muse on it a while. So, the morning progress with thankfully not too much trouble and blah blah and we are eating breakfast. The conversation moves around to homework and practicing Bible verses for Bible drill. All of a sudden Rebecca jumps out of her chair and says, "The armor of God, Ephesians 6:10-20" I just sit there stunned (the Lord is using that with me too) then say, "Well, what is it?" But she reminded me it was just a key passage and she just had to know the reference. So I proceeded with great flair to go over each part, literally putting it on all of us and showing how to apply it. Then when I got to the Belt of Truth Rebecca jumps up again and says, "Just like the Voice of Truth" (on their musical for choir they are working on at church). She is tearing the living room apart looking for the CD and finds it and we fix it to #13. Pow! Right there GOD socks it in my house and flows down THE TRUTH over me... Oh, what I would do to have the kind of faith it takes To climb out of this boat I'm in Onto the crashing waves To step out of my comfort zone Into the realm of the unknown Where Jesus is, And he's holding out his hand But the waves are calling out my name and they laugh at me Reminding me of all the times I've tried before and failed The waves they keep on telling me time and time again "Boy, you'll never win, you'll never win." But the voice of truth tells me a different story the voice of truth says "do not be afraid!" and the voice of truth says "this is for my glory" Out of all the voices calling out to me I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth Oh, what I would do to have the kind of strength it takes To stand before a giant with just a sling and a stone Surrounded by the sound of a thousand warriors shaking in their armor Wishing they'd have had the strength to stand But the giant's calling out my name and he laughs at me Reminding me of all the times I've tried before and failed The giant keeps on telling me time and time again "Boy you'll never win, you'll never win." But the stone was just the right size to put the giant on the ground and the waves they don't seem so high from on top of them looking down I will soar with the wings of eagles when I stop and listen to the sound of Jesus singing over me But the voice of truth tells me a different story The voice of truth says "do not be afraid" And the voice of truth says "this is for my glory" Out of all the voices calling out to me I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth (you can listen here to the whole song by Casting Crowns) It was all I could do to just sit and bawl my eyes out. Thank you, Holy Spirit, for groaning for me. Thank you, Jesus, for loving me and putting up with me, no matter how many times I fail. Thank you, Jesus, for reminding me about the voice of truth and belt of truth I need to keep around me. Thank you, Jesus, for using my precious challenge child to send me where I needed to be, even without knowing what she was doing. Can't you just imagine the angels waiting breathlessly after she jumped up and said that about the armor of God? Like when you are giving someone a really awesome present and you can't wait for them to open it? How many times do we do things or say things the Lord wants us to, without even knowing what we are doing? How many times do we not heed the Lord's nudging and someone, even a stranger, misses what may be exactly what they need for that moment? I don't know if the Lord nudged Rebecca this morning to jump up and say that, or if she just did it to show me she is one step closer to getting her verses learned. But she did, and now I won't ever be the same.

Isaiah 11:6 ... a little child will lead them.

O:) Melissa