Smile on Saturday (09.29.12)

I have many smiles this week, but one of the biggest was working on this slideshow. For something different I thought I'd post it on Saturday. It's a little blurry in full screen for some reason, but I hope you can still enjoy it! It's kind of a re-cap of my amazing summer with my friends.

Songs: "God's Been Good" and "O, Say but I'm Glad" - both sung and played by my sister Amie.

"[A God Thing is] when something happens in your life, and you look at it and you can't explain how or why it happened, but you know there's a reason for it. You know that God is doing something in your life, and it changes you. There's no other way to explain it except to see it as a God thing."

The Great Milkshake Debate

Drew said his was the best, Amie said hers was. Today, we found out who was telling the truth....

 Drew's milkshake

 Amie's milkshake

And then, the pastor (aka "Daddy" to me and Amie) judged. And the winner is...Amie! (And it had nothing to do with the fact that hers had peanut butter in it. Of course. ;)) Bro. Brad also tested it, and to be honest, they said it was a hard decision, they were both good. But ultimately Amie won. Drew is now forcing me to add that Bro. Ron DID say that more people would like his, but he prefered Amie's due to the peanut butter.

We also did some recording....

 He's not actually doing anything...

 I'm just posing too. :)

 The song she's recording will be on here tomorrow! Wait for it!! :)

 

Bro. Jim - the only one who actually knew what he was doing up there.

As I blog...

And other than folding newsletters and bulletins, eating lunch and making a slideshow, this was my day! The boys are off to practice basketball and I'm going home. I hope you enjoyed the pictures!

Smiles on Sunday (09.23.12)

I apologize for not getting around to doing Seven Smiles on Saturday yesterday - I found some books on my Kindle worth re-reading and became something of a hermit. Last night the Phillips' had their annual Fall/Harvest party for the teens at their farm, and since I don't know how many smiles that's going to add up to, here are my Smiles on Sunday....showing you what our autumns are all about!

Football.

The girls in our youth group have tried for years to get the guys to play something other than football every now and then. Can you tell who won? If you can't beat 'em, concede and take pictures.

The weather.
It was absolutely gorgeous last night. After eating a big barbeque supper, sitting on the grass, watching football, and enjoying the outdoors...it's not so bad. :)

Hayrides.
You never outgrow them, they never get old, and the longer they are the better.

Sweatshirts!
It's definitely fall! We got cold on the hayride!

Bonfires.
Because they go along with the next one... 
 

S'mores!
Mmmmm....if you don't like s'mores something is wrong with you! ;)

Good friends.
Having friends makes you rich. I love each and every one of mine, and try not to take them for granted.

A Beautiful Evening

My three-year-old nephew Jace got a bike today! They bought it around 1:00 this afternoon (then he had to take a nap), they came over for supper tonight and by 6:30 this is what he was doing:

(No, he couldn't quite stop yet, but what better place to fall off in than a field of soft, thick grass?)

By 7:30 when they left he was braking and steering - I'm very proud of him!

Other parts of our evening....

"O taste and see that the Lord is good:
 blessed is the man that trusteth in him."
 Psalm 34:8

Happy Fall!

These little boys....what our family did before them I do not know! Happy fall from us to you!

Seven Smiles on Saturday (09.15.12)

1. Our house guests this weekend!

Jace (3), Jackson (2) and Tanner (11 months)!! My nephews:

Amie, Jace, me, and Jackson

Tanner

2. The slow approach of Fall.

Although I love all the seasons, I'm always more sad to say goodbye to summer then I am any of the other seasons. Which is why I'm so glad that while we've been having some chilly mornings and nights, it still gets pretty warm and sunny during the day. I don't think summer is quite done with us yet!

It was cool enough this morning that we needed light jackets and sweatshirts.

3. How Jace reminds me to be thankful for the little things.

"Thank you for reading me this book, Kelley. That was fun."

4.Quotes.

If you know me, then you know that me saying "Quotes make me smile" is quite the understatement!

 

5. Peanut butter and raw honey on Ritz crackers.

With the glass of cold milk and a really good book wearing a sweatshirt with the windows open and the curtains blowing into the room. Yes.

6. Fall decorating.

Decorating for each new season is like getting a new house! 

7. Singing!

"Behold, behold, I stand at the door and knock, knock, knock..."

(I took this video with my iPod so that's why it's so small. The background noises are Tanner and his little music-bug toy that he plays with all the time.)

A Symbol

"Bind them upon thy fingers,

 write them upon the table of thine heart." 

Proverbs 7:3   

 

All over the world, for so many different things, there are symbols. Something that represents something else, that stands for it. Serpents on a pole is the medical symbol, a rams head is the Dodge symbol, and so on and so forth.

Jesus died on the cross as a symbol of His love, and today people use a cross symbol as a reminder of that.

My friends and I have braided bands and bracelets as a symbol for something I'd like to write about.

This summer my friend Faith was able to take a seven week missions trip to the country of Papua New Guinea. She went with 3 other college students to help the Allen family. Before she left, she braided us all bracelets out of old tee shirts. The colors were red, black, and yellow - the colors in the PNG flag. They were a reminder to pray for not only her, but Ashley, Xander, Scott, the Allen family, and the country of PNG. We prayed for safety, protection, blessings, and countless other things as we got prayer requests in our email inboxes. When she tied that bracelet on my wrist and I promised to wear it the whole time she was over there, I didn't realize it wouldn't be budging for 13 weeks.

This summer, if you happened to visit our church or come to one of our camps, you would have seen these braided bands all over the place. On peoples wrists, as bookmarks in their Bible, on their car's rearview mirror, on key chains, and even one iPod. Several people asked about them, and we nearly tripped over ourselves talking about Papua New Guinea. We fell in love with a place we'd never been, because we loved someone there.

They started out with just the teens and a few adults. I made some bookmarks and mailed them to some of my family who asked for one, and we made them in our VBS class and little kids proudly wore them and prayed for PNG and people they didn't know.

And then, a few weeks before Faith came home, another missions trip was planned. This time for ten of us to go to Germany for ten days. The flag colors - red, black, and yellow. Coincidence? I choose to think not.

The bracelets stayed on another week and a half, to remind everyone to pray for us, the Biermans and the Lawrences, and Germany. And then we returned. A few of us left them on even longer. By this time, mine felt like an extension of myself. Unconsciously, I would put my left hand over my right wrist and pray for everyone I had promised to in my mind. This became a habit, as did holding it away from the pages from my Bible in church on Sunday mornings because it was always still wet from my shower, or not writing for a while after showering because it got the pages damp.

I took my bracelet off last Saturday night. It was strange. My wrist felt bare, and I wanted to put it right back on. But instead I attached it to my key chain and vowed that I wouldn't stop praying.

Last night on the way home from church Amie and I were talking in the car, and once again, in my head, I was praying for all the things I had been all summer. It was like my conscience "came to" and I looked down to see my left hand on my now-bare right wrist. A habit that I don't plan on breaking. It's still a reminder, even if I can't always see it. Just like God is always there, even if we don't always feel Him.

This summer, like most of our lives, our hearts beat as one. Something happened two years ago, when God became almost tangible, that knit us together. There is a desire in each of us to please the Lord, we crave His will, and it makes us close. We are a unified group. It’s diverse yet beautiful. And these “braided bands” are symbol of God’s wonderful blessings on us this summer.  Even for those who weren’t able to go on a missions trip, and maybe even especially those. They were and are the prayer warriors, and God’s getting ready to pour out His blessings on them as well, I just know it. Because whether it’s our little hick town or a clinic in Papua New Guinea or a village in Germany, our mission field is where we are. Where God places us. And this summer, He showed His love for us once again. He shows it all the time and when our eyes are open, we can see it clearly.

Seven Smiles on Saturday (09.08.12)

"The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him." Psalm 28:7

1. Labor Day Meeting!

It was so good. Staying late after services was fun too, listening to the impromptu "jam sessions" and taking pictures of ourselves like this:

2. Those three beautiful days we had Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.

Sunny, not too hot (although WAY too humid, but that's just a given), and the pool water (by 12:00) was perfect. I'm sad to see summer go. Super sad.

3. Matching hair.

At the Labor Day Meeting this week my grandparents came up for the services. We discovered that PawPaw and his great-grandson Tanner have matching hair!

4. Glass straws.

I'm not even sure if I knew these existed until my mom bought a few, and now I love them. When we use them I feel oh-so-fancy.

5. Bible Verse Exchange.

An email recently began circulating called the "Bible Verse Exchange" it was super confusing and no one did it right, but the gist of it was to forward it and send out a Bible verse to people, and you'd end up with Bible verses from all over the place. The last part of that kind of worked, and I got several really good verses that other people found encouraging and I hadn't really given much thought to before. I'm pretty sure this explanation made as much sense to you as the email did to me, but that's one of my "smiles" this week, so yeah. I liked the different Bible verses people sent me.

6. Sun tea.

Do any of y'all make sun tea? My mom makes it all the time when the sun's out. Even in the winter, if there's sunshine, there's a jar of tea on our porch. When I move out someday, I want to do the same thing. I don't know if it tastes any different or not, but it's just nice. And country. And southern. And will be sweetened before it's put in the fridge.

7. Talking to my brother on the phone.

My oldest brother is nine years older than me and lives in Texas. I'm terrible at talking on the phone, I don't like it, and I'd prefer to write someone a letter. But I called him a couple days ago to ask a question and we ended up talking for about 30 minutes. It was nice. I really miss him and his wife, and we get to go visit in October!

Seven Smiles on Saturday (09.01.12)

Look at that - I'm channeling my dad! I can alliterate too! :) Here are seven smiles from today, Saturday. A compilation of little things that made me smile this week!


1. Clean sheets that were hung on the line.

2. Chinese food.

3. When people pronounce words the same way I do.

4. Tanner's wave. It looks like he's trying to flap hard enough to fly, but it's cute.

5. The way Jace says certain words. Elephant is "ephelant", Mississippi is "Missy-missy". He also told me today that he likes me more than tractors! (Which is saying a lot for that little boy!)

6. Eating watermelon with Jackson, and the way he says "Luf you to de moon an back!" (He got stung by a "waffer" this week, but he's ok now. :))

7.The new book I bought yesterday for $.25!

The end. What makes YOU smile?

This picture was taken some time this summer, and was not posed. It's one of my favorites!