The big 3-0!

It feels a little weird to say that I'm thirty. Not sad or depressed or whatever else people seem to feel and deal with when they reach a certain age. Maybe when I hit forty...who knows.
So funny how when you are a little thing you can't wait to hit 10, then you can't wait to be a teen! And your teenage years....well those last an eternity! I'm pretty sure they felt like an eternity to my older sister too :)
I could NOT wait to "grow up". I still can't believe that I have 3 kids...is that possible? When did I turn into a responsible adult with 3 children? And that question brings along a other set of questions and request.
Am I raising them the way I should?
Am I teaching them to be responsible? honest? kind? patient? God-loving? Graceful?
Am I modeling all of those things to them?
Shouldn't I be able to do all of those things by the time I'm 30?
Pretty sure I'm failing in the teaching patience department. I have been asking God to be with me during those "on the brink, I only have one nerve left" moments.
And...talk about time. During this stage of my children's lives can I please have the clock that I had when I was a teenager? I want time to slow down like it did when I was 14.
Time is FLYING!!!
I remember sitting in my 2nd grade classroom in 1985 talking with the boy sitting next to me about 1996....the year that we would graduate high school. I can still see us sitting there. (Even though I don't remember what I had for lunch today.)
What a great 30 years though.
I was just e-mailing my dad about one of my favorite times as a kid. I never understood why my dad was always up so early. Now that I have 3 kids, I know. Getting up at 4:30 a.m. is the most peaceful time of the day! Sunday mornings were my favorite mornings waking up. Sometimes my dad would come storming in, turn on the lights, and say rise & shine if we happened to sleep in too late the particular morning. Most Sundays though we would all find our way to the kitchen table at a decent hour. We would have regular old cereal for breakfast or my dad may have gone out early and gotten donuts and bagels. Steph would eat one that had sprinkles. Why do I remember that? Then we would systematically ruin the nice piles of newspapers my dad had made during his peace & quiet. I loved Sunday mornings. Maybe that's why one of the biggest things I miss doing with Aaron is going out to breakfast, or any meal for that matter, and sit and read the paper to one another like we did...before kids. We still buy the paper everytime we go out breakfast only to have one of us hold it and then stare at the other and say, "what we were thinking?" Oh, I digress.
My 30 years...playing on 8 acres, tree houses, playing house, basketball, college, marriage, 3 kids....am I really playing real-life house??? Wouldn't want it any other way.
Can't wait to see what the next 30 years holds for me and my family.

Happy August 2008!

God is at work...

Our family is so blessed. God is SO good. Since the moment I knew that we were moving here, I have been praying to the Lord to lead us to a church and to please send me some moms. He has answered those prayers.
I was thinking tonight of the Garth Brooks song, Unanswered Prayers. The song about how we pray and pray and pray about something we feel we need so very badly. And just about the time we think God hasn't listened and has failed to answer our prayer...He has answered it...just not in the way that we had thought or wanted him to answer it. God answers our prayers. We just have to ask.
In my quiet times I had given up the idea of being a part of a church and being involved in ministry. I had kind of settled with the idea that we would drive an hour and 15 minutes to church every Sunday morning and that would be it. Not that that isn't important and a good thing to do, but I saw this move as an opportunity to be involved in our church in a way that I failed to do so many times back in Michigan.
This weekend I was like a school girl. I loved all of the wonderful people the Lord sent to me this weekend. I was busy enjoying our friends from Michigan and their two children. Around dinnertime Friday evening 2 members of the church we had visited came to our home, hugged us, invited us to their Sunday school class and their dinner that they will be having tomorrow night. That evening I checked my e-mail and received 2 e-mails from two women at church. One I have met and one I can't wait to meet.
We went to bible study this morning. The kids couldn't wait to go to their Sunday school classes and we took Maggie with us. When we walked into our study group everyone stood and introduced themselves to us. It was wonderful. I am trying to make it a point to remember everyones' names.
Tonight we went to a cookout at the church. I met another wonderful lady, a mom of 4. Talked with her about raising her 4 kids, the schools, our shared naturally curly hair and how it drives me crazy. At the end of the night she gave me the numbers to her hairdresser, who knows how to tame this crazy naturally curly hair in the Kentucky July heat. She also gave me her number. I can't tell you how many cell and home numbers I have received this week. We spent the evening listening to gospel music, eating burgers, hot dogs, & wonderful homemade desserts. The time flew by while meeting new people, talking with Molly's Sunday School teachers, watching Max make new friends, enjoying fellowship. It was a perfect ending to a great weekend.
I LOVE our new town. Our bible study teacher called this area the "bible belt of Kentucky". I love that I live in that belt. I love that no matter where our children attend school they will have the influence of God loving teachers in their lives.
Oh...I have also been invited to a sleepover with other moms. How fabulous is that??? Of course, I can't go all evening but I am looking so forward to that visit and meeting all of these God-fearing women. Who would have thought I would get so excited about a sleepover on my 30th birthday?!?!
Lord, thank you for answering my prayers even if it may take me a second or 2 to realize that it's You working in my life. Please help me to see the ways in which I can use the gifts you have so freely given to me to work in the lives of others. Amen

God is good...all of the time.
All of the time....God is good.