a few of my favorite moments from the week

(Since I didn't participate in my usual Friday Favorites.)

On Wednesday, my sweet daddy called me and asked if I would bring Jonah and Noah out to his house the next day.  He also asked if I would let them start cutting his grass with his riding mower.  (I've only been offering the use of my kids for five years, but hey, better late than never!)  So I drove them out there, along with Graham, Drew, Ben and Alex who had all spent the night, and they played and ran around and hung out and picked up sticks for him while we were there.  Dad gave Jonah and Noah a training session and agreed that they would start working for him next week.

He was demonstrating on how to back the mower up.  I told him that they would just do this because he is family and you don't always do things for money, but he wasn't having that and is insisting on paying them at least a little bit each week.  In his mind, he's either going to pay someone else, or he can pay his grandsons.  Of course, the thought of earning a little money each week thrills them to no end.  I am really proud of my boys, and the work ethic they've learned from their dad.  He has always taught them the value of that, and I know that someday they will grow up and be wonderful husbands and fathers, who carry on that tradition.

That afternoon, all the boys were gone and Todd called me to ask me to come pick him up from Costco.  He was having new tires put on his truck and thought it would take about three hours.  I let Crash go along for the ride, and he was in doggy heaven.

He really loves Todd.  This was after my darling hubby put gas in the suburban for me.  :)  It turns out that I did not bring him home, though.  They took his truck back faster than they had said, so he knew it wouldn't be too long.

I came back home and for the first time since June 25th, I made a really yummy dinner.  We had grilled Teriyaki chicken, broccoli with cheese and pasta.  It was delicious!  Graham always grills for me, and he gets better and better at it each time.  It was perfect.

On Friday, Drew and his friend Andrew helped out at church all day.  It was for Camp Big Enough, and this is the third year he's helped.  It's one of his most favorite things to volunteer for.  Graham, Jonah and Noah went with the youth to play laser tag.  While they were all gone, my dad and I went and had lunch at one of my most favorite restaurants, The Silver Caboose, a cute little place here in The Ville, on the town square.  We came back home and talked after lunch.

For dinner last night, I invited us along with my in-love's to their favorite little place for dinner.

It was all the way out in Brunswick, at this cute little hole in the wall place called Brunswick Kitchen.  They have one entree on their menu: catfish.  It is delicious!  The breading is what makes it so yummy.  We were in great company.  We were back home by nine, or a little before, and I settled in with a good book.

This is the second book I have read by Melanie Shankle, and it is as great as the other one, Nobody's Cuter Than You.  I've been reading the Yada Yada Prayer Group books again and made it to book five of seven, but I needed to switch it up a little bit.  These books by her are lighthearted and easy to read and laugh out loud funny.  Seriously.

It's been a pretty good week.  I am looking forward to today and tomorrow and this week.  Tonight I am going with my friend Missy and some teenage girls to see the new minion movie.  And tomorrow, at about four o'clock, the boys and I leave to go help out at kids camp.  It's a little strange that they won't be participating, but it'll be fun to help out in a new way.  They're all doing that today, as well, they're going out in a little while to set things up.  I will be at home, cleaning, vacuuming and doing laundry.  And getting a new phone~the face of my phone is lifting and I need a replacement.

So that's been about it~my week in a nutshell, in the past couple of posts.  I hope you've had a great week.

Love to all!

Life Lately

I have had a very quiet and restful week.  On Sunday afternoon, I took Jonah and Noah to meet my dad-in-love, for the boys to spend a few nights with them for Mimi's boys camp.  The Nashville grands were there as well.  Graham and Drew didn't go over there until a bit later, after community group and after time spent with friends watching a movie.  (#teenagerproblems)

Todd rode with the sheriff's department Sunday night, and on Monday night he had a class until ten or so, so for those two nights, I was all by lonesome.  I say that like it's a complaint~trust me, it is so NOT.  I love being alone!

I would love to say that I did all kinds of productive things around the house and cleaned or organized...but I did not.  I sat.  I watched tv shows that I had DVR'd.  I watched a few movies.  I read a book.  I spent a good six hours doing Bible study homework and studying.

It was glorious.

And look how clean the downstairs has been!

Well, tidy, at least.  It could stand a good cleaning, but I didn't do that either!  I love being able to eat whatever I want and have it all cleaned up again right after.  I didn't do any major cooking, just some heating up of some things.

When Todd got home that night at around ten thirty, I told him I had talked to three people that day (four, with him there)~Jesus, my mom and Crash.

On Tuesday, my mom broke me out of my house and we went shopping.  Her goal was to find a dress for her to wear to my niece's wedding and we found the perfect one.  We had lunch at this sweet little place called Just For Lunch in the Chickasaw Gardens shopping center, then we went to the State beauty supply place.

You Are So Outta Lime.

:)  My newest bottle of OPI.  After that we headed home.  I polished my nails right away, then sat and watched Parenthood on Netflix for a bit.  I went to my in-love's house and Todd met me there.  We had a yummy breakfast for dinner, then we went to swim.  I came home right after that to shower and shortly after that, I went to bed.

Today I am staying home during the morning and I'm going to our church in a little while, to pray with my friend.  We haven't been meeting because summer has been so crazy.  I've missed it so much!  The boys will be home by about three, then we've got church tonight.

My boys are loud and a little wild every once in a while, and we have a revolving door here, with all the friends that come and go all the time, but I have missed them!  They're already plotting about who can spend the night tonight.  I quickly agreed to let them invite friends over.  I will be glad to have them back at home and for some noise again.  The quiet is nice for a short time, but too much of it makes me crazy.

I found this picture that I liked on the internet this morning.

So very, very true.  I love my teenage girls at church, but I wasn't cut out to be a girl mom.  I love my boys~I love their loudness, their rowdy, their fierce protectiveness over me and each other, and the way they love and care for me.  Their dad has done a stellar job of raising them, and I thank God for him and for that.  I've learned over the years that the dad is key in raising up young men.  These aren't just kids we're raising~they are future husbands and fathers.  I commend my husband.

Well.  I need to go be productive before they all come barging back up in here.  Love to all.

the weekend

After coming home from Street Reach on Friday, I was exhausted.  I took a three hour nap!  Well, after I started a giant load of laundry.  We ate a quick and easy dinner, after I cried for a bit, then met some friends at Powell Park, across the street from our neighborhood.  I love our little town!  And I love that in spite of all the rain we got on Friday, the fireworks were still happening.  This town spends a ton of money on them, apparently, and rain or not, the fireworks were on.

It felt amazing outside!  Because more rain was expected later, they started at about eight thirty.

The sky was beautiful on this night.  Our kids all ran around like crazy, while I sat glued to my chair.  (I was still tired.)  My friend Laurie and I attempted three pictures before being happy with one.  I love the photo bombers in the background.

The next day, I did a little bit of laundry and took about three naps.  Have I mentioned how draining Street Reach is?  I never realize it until I'm home.  We left our house at five and headed out to my mom's house for some ribs and fireworks.

It was delicious!

My nephew Tyler was there.  I love that picture of him and my mom.  He had put his hat on her head and I made them pose for me.  :)

It was a fun night.  Drew wanted to stop by his friend girl's house on the way home, so we stopped to say hi to them and came home and went to bed.

After church on Sunday, a lunch from Taco Bell and a quick nap, I drove the boys to meet my dad-in-love.  They're all spending a couple of nights over there this week, for Mimi's boy's camp.  I dropped them with him, and came home for community group.

It was a fun night, as usual!  I love these teenagers so much, it's a joy to spend each Sunday night with them.  I love our summer time community group, with the swimming.  It's fun watching how much they love one another.

It was a great, restful weekend.  I needed it, apparently.  Hope your week started off great!  Love to all.

Street Reach 2015

Last week was my second year of going to Street Reach.  In case you missed out somehow, this is a week when our youth go to the inner city of Memphis and give bible clubs for the kids in the neighboring areas.  Brinkley Heights Urban Academy is the school that targets high risk students and takes them in.  BHUA is where we stay through the entire week, and they own about fifteen different sites nearby, that we go and use for the bible clubs each morning.  Out of everything our youth does, this is my favorite.

Here is our week, in pictures.

This is the school.  When you stand where I took this picture, this building houses the cafeteria, school offices and classrooms.  To the right is the gym.

Our church had two sites again this year.  The one below is Club Que Que (pronounced Cway Cway).  The second site was at Treadwell, right behind the school.  We would have a morning send off from BHUA, then would meet at the site at ten.  The students then got their walking routes, and went to knock on doors to gather kids to bring to bible club.  We met at the site again, at around eleven, then we would have worship and the bible story.  The kids ate lunch after that, then would rotate to different stations.  The rotations were craft, bible reinforcement and recreation.  The worship team and Jonathan (who told the bible stories) traveled to each site every day.  I drove them.  So we would start here at Que Que, then go to Treadwell.

The bible clubs lasted from ten to twelve thirty.  The youth would take all the kids back home, we would break down our site equipment and head back to BHUA.  We ate lunch at one and at two, we would go do an afternoon service project each day, except for on Wednesday and Friday.  The picture below was at Urban Farms, where we cleaned up a greenhouse.

These were my sweet little friends.  Dominic is the one in my lap.  These sweet babies just wanted to be held constantly.  They don't get much of that at home, so we all were constantly swarmed with these angels.

These two little cuties are named Jennifer and D'Korian.  Jennifer and I decided that we were best friends forever, because our names are the same.  And D'Korian is one from last year.  They still have my heart.

Busted!  I caught Drew and Madison taking a selfie.  She was precious, and this was on Thursday.

Jennifer has a sister who is a year younger, named Selena.  They about tackled me when they saw me on Thursday.  I *might* have cried after the taking of this picture.  Jennifer told me that Thursday would be her last day, they had to go to the dentist the next day.  She begged me to go with her.

Here's the thing about Street Reach that I love.  Well, there are several things I love.  I love that it's in our city.  You don't even have to leave the city for a mission trip, folks!  I think it's great that people do, but it's not necessary.  The need is great within this city I live in.  These kids come from families with lots of kids, usually, so by the time Street Reach starts, they are craving love and affection.  They don't get that from home.  Even the ones who act out, they are craving the same thing, but they act out to receive that attention they want.  They long to be held.

My prayer for this week was that God would bring the kids, and boy, did He ever!  It was awesome.  I also prayed that our eyes would be fixed on Him.  There was ZERO DRAMA.  That did not happen last year.  I prayed that we would be totally spent at the end of each day, and we were.  God was so gracious to have moved in and through all of us, and we saw Him answer prayer after prayer.  It was an amazing week.  And we have some pretty amazing students.  I am so fortunate to have been even a tiny, tiny part in all of this.  I praise God for His goodness, and I thank Him for the opportunities He presents me with.  I love our youth so much and I love helping lead them.

Now for the other part of Street Reach that I love.

Our students.

They are so much fun!  I am reliving my childhood through them, and I am reminded, often, of how much I still love sleepovers!  It's the weirdest thing~after a whole five nights in a row with them, I miss them all when I come back home.  I mean, I love my family, don't get me wrong.  But I love being with teenage girls.  I feel so thankful to be a part of them.  We had an amazing week together.

If you were part of ones who prayed for us, thank you!  I can't say that enough.  If you made it all the way through this blog post, bless you.  It was long.

Love to all!