God's gifts from a family visit

Whew, I'm having a hard time keeping up lately.  I also have difficulty not returning to my ungrateful, controlling tendancies.  I have been working on pulling out my camera to look for God's moments when I am struggling with ingratitude.  There are so many moments of grace when I only look.

Starting with last Tuesday, here are some of the blessings from each moment...

- Adrianna and Abel wearing their Ethiopian clothes 
- Sharing about adoption and Ethiopia with Adrianna's class

- Curling up with Abel on the couch and reading book after book with him
- Abel wanting to ride his horse
- Abel playing ball while wearing Adrianna's boots
- Having a candlelit dinner with music, just because, as Adrianna read about in a magazine
- Having fun making hairbands for Adrianna
- Wildflowers on our trails
- Abel riding his glide bike all the way to music time and back (two miles!)
- Abel's funny naptime positions
- Abel counting the days until "Tom" comes (Mr. Thomson, Bible study leader)

- Making granola to share with my dad
- Getting goofy with Adrianna's hairband
- Abel finding new ways to use his dump truck
- Abel's constant love of playing in water
- Abel coloring on my car seat while I was vacuuming the car...
and it wiping right off

- My dad and step-mom coming for a visit with my niece, Olivia

- Adrianna and Olivia sharing Olivia's Leapster
- Adrianna and Olivia playing Squinkies together
- Enjoying a chilly Farmer's Market with the family

- Heading for the big company picnic in the wagon
- Enjoying the bounce houses and face painting and rockets at the picnic




















- The weather clearing from all-day clouds and sprinkles just in time for our annual block party

- My father-in-law cooking for our block party again

- Loyal dogs

- Sharing delicious left-over lunches
- New enjoyment of the old Jeep

- Adrianna figuring out how to make her own crayon-resist painting
... And a painting of rain on cats and dogs (I don't think she intended a pun :)
- Watching my husband and father-in-law be baptized

- Bees buzzing in bushes
- Abel learning to balance going downhill
- Adrianna making a bookmark for Jenny, just like the one Jenny made for her
- Adrianna playing with toys I played with as a kid
- Deep-dish, gluten-free pizza
- Getting goofy with "The Chicken Dance" over dinner
- Abel wanting to color
- Adrianna selling for her school PTO... and getting lots of orders from our kind neighbors who can't resist a cute kid with a smile

- Adrianna writing a note to send with the PTO catalog to Scott's work
- Sun shining on raindrops

Comments

Sherri said…
Zade likes to ride a horse like that too! Glad you had a nice family visit.
September 13, 2011 at 7:23 PM
Em said…
Aw, love the pictures! Lol, I'm counting the days till "Tom" comes to visit me, too! Love to you all! <3
September 25, 2011 at 5:31 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Driving on

Image
After eleven years and 127,000 miles, Scott's Saturn has driven on.  That amazing little economical Saturn saw us through life in the college dorms, life in married student housing, our first apartment, our first home, our first relocation, and the addition of our two kids.   We're happy to say it ended up in good hands, with my cousin, Angei, and her husband, Adam.  We had a wonderful time visiting with them for a speedy 12 hours, before they needed to drive it on to its new home.  We even got to show them some small town fun at our annual Christmas parade. Thank you for the loyal service, Saturn.
Read more

Together at last

Image
In that delicious dim of late afternoon cloudy day, with thunder rolling in the distance, and the glow of premature artificial light, the children bubbled with joy.  I, too, had a hop in my step; even the usual dishes and laundry and scooping of the cat litter seemed no trouble, as I lingered in that cozy, moist atmosphere, of rain promised and rain fulfilled.  In our high country desert, with years of too little winter moisture to meet the requirements of even our shrubby plants, the moisture brings such deeply satisfying nourishment... not only to the plants, but to our spirits. And as school lingers just four more days before us, we enjoyed an afternoon homework-free -- and for the children, chore-free.  Even I had the benefit of dinner already prepared -- leftovers from my father-in-law's talented hands.  So I prompted the girls to invite their neighbor friend over, even invited her to stay for dinner and our special movie night.  And the boys played in th...
Read more

God's gifts from Kindergarten completion

Image
Catching up from the last two weeks, as Adrianna finished Kindergarten and we enjoyed our first two weeks of summer vacation... - Adrianna starting "summer lessons" ... and her being excited about the journal topics and lesson ideas we put together  - Adrianna making thank you notes for her teachers ... and Adrianna thanking her teacher for helping Adrianna learn to spell  - Attending Adrianna's Kindergarten Revue - A rare morning home with just Abel, Scott, and me, as Adrianna finished her last day ... And watching a few minutes of Sesame Street with Abel for the first time ... And him realizing, "I have Elmo in my room!"  - The last day of Kindergarten - Adrianna reading me the Skippy John Jones book her teacher gave her - Attending Adrianna's piano recital ... And her walking up calm as can be, the first student to be called  - Spending a morning at Farmer's Market and lunch out (a rarity for us with the food all...
Read more