I'm Into All That Sappy Stuff...

Like....flowers in her hair....

After painting the wildflowers last night, I started thinking about all the wildflowers around my house right now...lots of purples and whites.....so I mentioned to the girls that we should make some flower crowns and do a little photo shoot in our yard.  Vannah and I took some fun pictures today :)  I took some of Vannah too, but she had not cleaned up and did not want me to include her pics in the blog this time.

My favorite artistic pic.....I love how something as simple as grass can make a lovely background.

I will tell you a funny story....so, after all the girls pictures, I decided to put on one of the crowns and get a selfie....

I leaned against that tree behind me for a "great" shot and afterwards I had tons of sap stuck in the back of my hair.....oh my goodness....it was a MESS....you can actually see the sap coming out of the tree in the picture above where I am CLUELESS as to what is about to happen to me.  Then, I had to cake the back of my head with peanut butter to try to comb out the sap.....AWESOME!  Now I emit the fragrance of pine and peanut butter....and just in time for date night....hehe!  It is a wonder he takes me anywhere :P

King Of The World

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOVuhQ7akTg

Paint The Town

Danielle and daddy got to take a field trip to Chicago today :)  

On top of the world!

Of course a stop in Chicago includes a trip to the American Girl Doll Shop.....that is like a close second to Giordano's or Garretts, right?  It sounds like they had a great time!

With daddy on the Architectural Boat Tour

The other four girls and I went to a painting party at our church in Jackson, MI.

It was kind-of like Painting With A Twist if you wanted to paint a large sunflower, but I opted to try my own thing......a little wildflower scene.....

  

Some of my girls tried their own thing too :P  It is so fun to watch what they come up with.

She did a really fun and funky background....and....drum roll....this girl tried out for Cheerleading today and found out during our painting party that she made varsity!  She is pretty happy about that!

I liked how Kassi decided to go ahead and do the sunflower thing, but with non-traditional colors....her's turned out so cool.

I like how the little flower looks like it is in a sunbeam behind the larger flowers.

Kenna doesn't think painting is her forte....but she did a great job on her first masterpiece!

The thing that is amazing to me about fine arts is that you cannot help but express a little of your personality when given the opportunity to be creative....I look at these and smile because I see each of us in our paintings.

Hooray For Field Day!

The girls are having so much fun on these last days of school....today Kassi and Danielle had field day.  Kassi came in 3rd place for her long jump...9'1".... and Danielle's relay team won their event....yahoo!

In between events, Danielle showed me how she could hula hoop multiple hoops :)  I used to be a really good hula hoopster too.  Karly made a breakthrough today in her gymnastics skills....she finally got her back tuck....so cool.  She has been doing that on a trampoline for a long time, but never successfully on the floor until today...McKenna tried out for sideline cheer and found out today that she made it and Vannah won an award for her high academics this year....so many reasons to celebrate!

I have just been working like a crazy lady trying to make sure all the students I am recruiting are ready for school this coming fall (and I have been pretty happy that my recruiting numbers are looking pretty good...the God of my nets has been my help), running the girls to all their events and try-outs for next year, and it seems like I have been making a lot of desserts....

....this batch is for tomorrow.

Then, I realized it's June 2nd today....I have exactly one month left in my 30's....that means this is my best vantage point, right?

I had a crazy dream last night.  For some reason we were all in this house or resort or something and a bear got into the building.  Brad and I were on an upper level floor and the girls were on a lower level floor, so I ran a back way to wake them up, warn them about the bear and make sure they were safely locked in.  Other people were coming to the lower level as well to congregate and wait until the bear was removed from the premises, but those people were just leaving doors wide open, so I was running around closing and locking doors.  Then, Brad and I were waiting in a room where there was a man who was a car salesman and he started to try to sell us a car.....but he had a monotone voice and he got stuck on a word and kept repeating it every time he would tell us about a great feature on the car.  He would say it had "more"....."mooooore"......"moooooooore"......and even in my dream state I know I was annoyed....ha!...because I remember saying, "more what?"

Anyway, eventually I woke up for a second and realized Brad was snoring :P  The times the monotone car salesman was saying "more" over and over were coinciding with the sound of Brad's snores...haha!  That is so weird that dreams can do that!

This was the topic of our Bible Study tonight....taken from one of John Piper's Desiring God devotionals...

How to Count Everything As Loss

In everyday practical terms, what does it mean to do this? It means at least these four things:

1. Renouncing all (counting all as loss) means that, if we must choose between Christ and anything else, we will choose Christ.

That is, even though God does not bring us to the crisis of either-or at every point, nevertheless, we are ready, and have resolved in our hearts that, if the choice must be made, we will chose Christ.

2. Renouncing all (counting all as loss) means that we will deal with everything in ways that draw us nearer to Christ, so that we gain more of Christ, and enjoy more of him, by the way we relate to everything.

That is, we will embrace everything pleasant, by being thankful to Christ; and we will endure everything hurtful, by being patient through Christ.

3. Renouncing all (counting all as loss) means that we will seek to deal with the things of this world in ways that show that they are not our treasure, but rather that Christ is our treasure.

That is, we will hold things loosely, share things generously, and ascribe value to things in relation to Christ. We will seek to live the paradox of 1 Corinthians 7:30–31, “Let [Christians] buy as though they had no goods, and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it.”

4. Renouncing all (counting all as loss) means that if we lose any or all the things this world can offer, we will not lose our joy, or our treasure, or our life — because Christ is our joy and our treasure and our life.

That is, in smaller losses we will not grumble (Philippians 2:14), and in greater losses we will grieve, but not as those who have not hope (1 Thessalonians 4:13).

A Settled, Joyful, Defining Resolve

This is what I believe it means to find Jesus so all-sufficient and all-satisfying that 1) we count everything as loss (Philippians 3:8), 2) renounce all our possessions (Luke 14:33), and, 3) “sell” all we have to possess the treasure of Christ (Matthew 13:44).

None of us loves Christ this perfectly, or lives so consistently. But to be a follower of Jesus, to be a true Christian, means that these four ways of dealing with “everything” will be the settled, joyful, defining resolve of our lives.