Apple Jack The Ripper

Trying to have a good attitude about changing out all the seasonal clothes and shoes.....this is not the most wonderful time of the year, but it is a necessity.  Who do these fit this year?

Savannah and McKenna are "killing it" doing AWESOME getting organized!  I love that they are now able to do this pretty much on their own :P

Brad came home and said he had bought himself some birthday presents.....hmmmm....he showed them to us.  They are the epitome of manly!  An ax, a hatchet, and a combo saw/machete...THAT WOULD BE TOTALLY SCARY if we didn't have tons of wood piles in our yard right now.  I know it's a stretch, but the way his hand is around the machete looks a little like Wolverine.

McKenna wanted to pose with the hatchet....isn't she cute?

We told her she looks a little like a serial killer.....so....

Watch your back, APPLE JACK!

We're switching out all Spring/Summer for Fall/Winter clothes this weekend...

Oh, there will be mountains to move :P

I Wonder Why We Say, "There, There, There"....

when we try to comfort someone?  

Anything Is Possible ~ Anointed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDbL9jVNbSw

It's Great To Be #2

If God is my #1....
(actually there is the whole J.O.Y. order...Jesus, others, you...but, I am just saying put God first :)

This is just a sampling of the pencils we should own.  The only thing I see wrong with this picture is that if these were my pencils the erasers would be much more worn.  I always thought it was so cool when I was younger....no, I like it now too....that my pencils would say No. 2 HB on them....and HB were my initials.  It's still my first and middle initial....anyway, I always felt like they burned my initials into my pencils because I was special :P

BUT,

Wait, that's pretty special :)

Keep writing, God!

So, sometimes I write something random and then I'm like, "Wait, why is that?" So I looked up why pencils are marked with HB and this is awesome....God always knows when I will dig a little deeper so he has more for me....I learned now they even sometimes use an F to classify pencils...(they are totally trying to keep up with me now that my last name is different...hehe...I am a little delusional, right?  :)  Anyway, this is what I found out....pencils are measured on a graphite scale....H,B and sometimes F mean things about the pencil.

HB Graphite Scale

The second graphite grading scale is known as the HB scale. Most pencil manufacturers outside of the U.S. use this scale, using the letter “H” to indicate a hard pencil. Likewise, a pencil maker might use the letter “B” to designate the blackness of the pencil’s mark, indicating a softer lead. The letter “F” is also used to indicate that the pencil sharpens to a fine point.

Wow....this is another one of those things in life that teaches me the importance of being hard....and soft....and always open to sharpening....
Saying No.2.HB and YES to GOD...He's the writer.
Powerful message, GOD!

Wherever The Van Gogh's

There are a lot of articles that talk about balancing your life or juggling your commitments, but today I read a devotional that expressed a slightly different perspective and it was pretty refreshing....it was about living a GODWARD life.  I think even if I get off balance or drop everything I am trying to juggle I can at least be good at leaning :)  I thought I would share what I read...this is from a devotional by John Piper.

A Godward life is lived leaning toward God. We turn our face toward him and not away from him. We enjoy the consciousness of his presence moment by moment. We remember him and do not forget him. At every turn of the day, we put our trust in him. We count on him, not only to save us when we die, but to help us in the next hour. Really help us.

We think about his superior worth in all our reckoning. In all our dealings and relations, we are reminded of things he said. His promises and warnings are the sound of the quietly whirring gears in our minds. The memory of his Son’s ways on the earth is the drama playing between the operations of our brains. And walking across the stage of our thought are the heroes we love to admire because they imitated him.

We see God’s artwork in the world everywhere we turn. Types and shadows of divine things lurk with serious and happy lessons everywhere. We are conscious of his providence as we watch the events of the world. Every object, every event, every person, every thought, every possibility is seen in relation to God.

Standing in the grace of justification by faith alone, we aim to please God in all we do. We aim to pattern our feelings after his feelings, and our thoughts after his thoughts, and our words after his words, and our deeds after his deeds. We aim to maximize the rewards he promised to those who live to him. We unashamedly desire and pursue the pleasures of his fellowship — now and forever. He is ever our greatest reward.

We do not have a God-segment of our lives. Monday night is as God-conscious as Sunday morning. All our work, all our leisure and amusement and recreation and social media are lived in the purifying presence of God. There is no empty space in our lives where God is not. Every moment, every act, is from God and through God and for God. This is the Godward life.

At Least Your Chair Spins

Guess what,....I added an international student to our database who has the middle name, Studd.

Sometimes I think God does that on purpose!

  That would make getting in trouble and having your middle name yelled out much more fun!

What would you want your middle name to be?

It's the little things, really :)

I hope you are enjoying your work too and you're not like...

A Complete Stud Muffin!

I told the girls they could make some cupcakes for daddy for his birthday today....and then I got this brilliant idea that we could call them STUD MUFFINS....totally forgetting that my girls would have no idea what that means.  I told Savannah about it and she laughed and said, "how would you even tell someone they were a "stud muffin"?....that is so dumb!"  I made her say it out loud to see if the words came out naturally.... HAHAHA!  I then proceeded to tell her a bunch of terms we used to use to say someone was good looking or that we liked them....that was the most I have laughed in a while.  McKenna also thought it was ridiculous and made up her own name for Brad's birthday dessert....Hunk Cakes....and this makes perfect sense to them :P

WHATEVER, HUNK CAKES IT IS!

...wow, they did a great job!
Maybe I SHOULD let Vannah open a bakery like she's been dreaming about.

Brad loves mint and chocolate, so they actually baked some Andes mints into the cupcakes...

....and Karly had to make a portrait of Brad out of her dinner...leave it to the youngest, right?!