He's back!

After a long and eventful 12 days Mark has returned! 

Here are the kids on the way to the airport to pick him up. Tad excited. Me too :)

Here's what we did while waiting for his arrival. 

Jack insisted on getting his picture taken with the bear. 

And here is their sweet reunion. 

Kate is already showing him her new shoes. I'm pretty sure the kids did not stop talking until they were sent to bed. They had so much to fill him in on! 

Mark had a great time in Texas and California. He said that the Texas retreat was life changing. It was wonderful hearing his stories of healing. 

Even California was great because God has given him a new perspective and enthusiasm for school. It's gonna be a tough year but God is working on us to improve life with school. He's challenged us to be more intentional.  Last year we sort of just existed. We did whatever came up whenever it came up. As a result we were exhausted and didn't feel like we'd accomplished much. So our approach this year is to have scheduled focused time on the things God is calling us to do and to greatly reduce and sometimes eliminate the things He isn't requiring us to do. 

For Mark it means family, pastoring, school and rest. Those 4 things need scheduled focus. Other things need to be scaled way back. Not always eliminated but certainly shouldn't be consuming his time. 

For me it's family/household, homeschooling, women's ministry and rest. Notice we have to be intentional about resting or, as we've discovered, it doesn't happen. I need to consolidate and really protect my focused times on these things. Right now it feels like everything is running through my mind all the time and nothing is getting done well. It's all just leaking out and consuming brain power and energy. So not good. 

This year we will be intentional about what God has for us and frankly I'm super excited to be more focused. I can see so much more being accomplished! 

And it starts this next week...August is on the crazy side. Grace for the moment! 

Boulder and back

Today we headed up to Boulder to visit Mark's family after the kids' sleep over. 

Real quick, the sleep over was deemed very successful. All the kids had a blast with each other watching Star Wars, eating pizza and telling stories. They also dressed up like Darth Vadar and another bad guy and had light saber sword fights. Seriously a slice of heaven to my children. 

After we rounded them up, I drove us up to Boulder to visit the Palmer side for Margie's birthday. It was great to be able to spend it with her! I'm sad I didn't get any posed pictures of the day. Just a few random ones. Didn't even include everyone! Oye! 

The picnic area. 

The birthday girl and Kieran. Kieran LOVES grandma. The rest of us are pretty much chopped liver :)

My view of the Flatirons from where I was sitting. It was a beautiful day! 

I did capture this sweet one of my niece Alannah. She's a seriously, curious, adventurous, adorable sweety. 

After Boulder we came back and recovered from the weekend. Saw my brother and his wife and baby and my sister and her husband and baby. My other sister is at Cheyenne Frontier days so we're helping watch Lilah and Ashlyn. My kids are again in heaven. 

I was able to speak with Mark briefly tonight in between coming back from his Quest and heading out to CA for school. He was hoarse from this week but in very good spirits. He said it was life changing and that it was an amazing time with The Lord. So happy he had a great time. Now I'm looking forward to more details! 

And he's off!

We spent the morning wrestling, hugging, laughing and snuggling daddy before his long trip. We will miss him tons! 

We look forward to his return and we pray for his refreshment! 

Tomorrow

Today was a great day. Church was beautiful (yes church can be beautiful), my prayerful meditation on the couch with my eyes closed (aka nap) this afternoon was fabulous ;) and our time spent with precious friends this evening at the annual Bastille Days celebration was marvelous.

 

Every year our French friends have a celebration for France's independence. Even though I'm not French I love this day. This party is fun because it involves fellowshipping with all kinda of wonderful people. It means eating some of the most delicious food you've ever tasted. And it's just having a good, relaxing time. And our kids are big enough to go off with their friends and play so Mark and I can eat and and talk and laugh and not worry. Love it! 

Tomorrow Mark will be leaving for 12 days. It's the longest we've been a part in our 13 years of marriage. I'm excited and sad at the same time. He will first be in Texas on a Quest. I did a HeartQuest back in March. You may remember me sharing that it was a life changing experience. I pray that Mark's heart is blessed by this time away with God. I'm so excited for that. After the Quest is done (it ends on Sunday evening) he hops on plane and heads to CA for a week of school. He did this last year to begin the year. So it's gonna be an interesting 2 weeks. 

The kids and I will be heading up to Denver and I will be having LASIK surgery this coming Thursday. I am 95% excited out of my mind to not be needing contacts or glasses anymore and 5% scared out of my mind to have a laser in/on my eyeball. Fun times!