Are You Ready for Some Football?

Jonathan and his buddies were getting a briefing from the coach on how to be an all star water boy! They did a great job of making sure the team stayed hydrated!

Brent played starting QB among other positions last night. He did a fantastic job! We were so proud of his football abilities and of his leadership abilities on the field and off.
Brent passed for lots of yards. He had great help with blocking, which gave him plenty of time to find someone who was open downfield.
Brent and his seventh grade teammates and friends. They put on quite a show. Even though the scoreboard didn't show that we won, I was so proud of the way our team played and the attitudes of the players and coaches afterwards. This is going to be a fun season!

Lunar Lunatics!

Who gets up at 5:30 to stare at the moon? We do, of course! Who gets their children up well before they have to so they can stare at the moon? We do, of course! Picture this. Up at 5:30. Sitting in chairs on our driveway. Staring at the sky. Trying to be quiet so the dogs won't wake everyone in the neighborhood. Not successful:( Eating Poptarts in the dark. Discussing with our kids why the moon moves in the sky the way it does. Getting eaten up by giant mosquitoes. Moving our chairs periodically so that we can still see the eclipse through the trees. Reminding our kids to be quiet because most people don't choose to be up yet. Being ready to leave for school on time. Priceless!

Overwhelmed

So many times when I hear the word overwhelmed, it has a negative conotaion, a feeling of despair or stress. But recently, I received an email from someone I do not even know well who let me know she was praying for us. Her specific prayer was that we would be overwhelmed with God's love and peace during this extremely difficult time. Those words brought me such comfort and it is evident to me that God is answering those prayers.

I don't believe I can think of a time in my life that I have felt so overwhelmed, but in a positive way. People have surrounded us with God's love in ways large and small. Many may even shrug off what they have done, saying it was nothing. But it has been everything to us.

I am going to attempt to list some things people have done to show their love. This is by no means an exhaustive list because I still can't remember the last two weeks very well, and I know many people have done things for us that we will never know about. My purpose in doing this is to remind myself of the blessings God has lavished on us even in difficult times, but it is also to remind myself that all things done in the name of Jesus are a blessing to others and give glory to God for who He is. I encourage you to think about little ways to give God glory by serving others. I know I am thinking about it constantly now that I have been on the receiving end of such blessing.

So here goes: praying, calling, sending cards, making food, sneaking in our house to clean it while we were gone (this included our kids' friends cleaning our bathrooms!), mowing our lawn, writing phone numbers in cards so that we could easily call if we needed people, driving our kids to school, picking our kids up from school, out of town friends sending restaurant gift cards because they couldn't be here to make us a meal, feeding our dog, sending flowers and plants, sending cards two weeks after the accident to my mom to let her know she is not forgotten, teachers watching out for my kids and helping them remember things they should remember on their own but can't right now, principals giving my kids permission to come to their office anytime of the day if needed to get away, doing our laundry, coming to my mom's house to organize the large number of food dishes and making sure we were all eating (this sometimes got forgotten in the stress of the days after the accident) then cleaning up the kitchen and putting the food away, staying at mom's house and answering the phone while we were making funeral arrangements, watching children while their parents were preoccupied with arrangements, far away friends listening to our tears on long distance calls, blog posts about my dad, attending the visitation and the funeral, taking our car to fill it up with gas so that we would not have to stop to do that, coming to our home to get all the clothes we forgot to bring because we were so frazzled with the news, driving those clothes to us (2 hours away), sending a gift bag full of goodies for the grandkids, sending "letters from home" from our church family to encourage us (one for Ken and I and one for the boys from their youth group), sending memorial donations to great causes in the name of my father, sweet emails to encourage us, people who didn't know my dad allowing us to talk about him and share his life, people who knew my dad telling us things they loved about him, people at church stepping up to teach our classes, and the list could go on and on!

I am so encouraged after writing this. I hope I can overwhelm a few people with God's love today.

Dad's Last Public Prayer

My dad was a praying man. I don't remember his prayers being especially wordy. I don't remember them being flowery and formal. But I do remember them being straight from his heart. Not long after arriving at the hospital where my dad had been taken, my mom told me that Dad had said one of the prayers at church the day before. In that prayer he said a phrase that he spoke in almost every prayer he prayed publicly. It went something like this. "We long for the day we can worship you, our Creator and Savior, forever and ever." My daddy had no idea he would be doing that in just 36 hours. I am so happy for him!

Today I took a two mile walk and listened to some music and tried to process what was happening in our lives right now. On my MP3 a song that I have always loved came on and brought me tears of joy at the thought of my dad worshipping around God's throne right now. It is a Chris Rice song entitled "Circle Up." If you have never heard it, please find it and listen to it. It paints a beautiful picture of our future in Christ!

My Dad

I never thought I would be blogging this post, at least not now. Last week began with a terrible phone call telling us that my father had passed away in an accident. The week has been a total blur and my thoughts and feelings are still reeling from the shock. My mom, my brother, my sister and I and all our spouses and kids are grieving terribly, but we have hope!

My dad was a beautiful person full of God's love for others, willing to give of himself until there was nothing left. This was evident in the almost 300 visitors to the family visitation at the funeral home and the 444 people at the funeral (in a church that is full at 300!). We have heard so many stories of how people were touched by my dad's life in all kinds of ways. Some we knew about, but some are a total surprise. You see, my dad served others in a perpetually selfless way. There was nothing about him that wanted attention or recognition for his acts of service. That's just the way he was.

If you are a regular reader to my blog, you may get tired of hearing stories of my dad, but there are so many things I want to tell about him. I just wish everyone could have known him like I did. I am so blessed.

An Organizing Adventure!

The kids are away, the carpet man is here, and I am home all day. What's a girl to do? Well, organize, of course! I have already done a lot of organizing that is visible to no one but me, like paperwork, etc. My next organizing adventure will be in the boys' room. (Oh, they will be so thrilled when they get home!) Right now, their room is piled high with everything from Kendra's room since she is getting new carpet today. (I'm sure she would be thrilled if she only knew!) When it is ok to move everything back, I will begin the transfer of stuff from boy world to the land of pink! Then boy world will get a nice tidying up! It's so much easier to do it when they are gone! Shhhhh! Don't tell them... I want it to be a surprise!