Halloween

Here are a few pictures that caputre our day today. We spent the afternoon raking leaves and jumping in them. We laughed a lot at the dog's first chance to play in the leaves. Then we had Spaghetti and eyeballs for dinner. And then our neighbors invited us to go trick or treating with them around the block and then had us over for a campfire and smores. It was a fun halloween day!

Profound and Beautiful

This morning our pastor prayed these words, "Lord, help us to rest in you who are both profound and beautiful." I have been reflecting on those words ever since he spoke them.

Here are some definitions:

• Rest: (a) Peace, ease, or refreshment resulting from sleep or the cessation of an activity (like worry). (b) Relief or freedom from disquiet or disturbance. (c) Mental or emotional tranquillity.
• Profound: (a) having intellectual depth and insight (b) difficult to fathom (c) characterized by intensity of feeling or quality (d) all encompassing, complete
• Beautiful: the quality or aggregate of qualities in a person or thing that gives pleasure to the senses or pleasurably exalts the mind or spirit:loveliness

So how would my day, the stress in my day, the worries that weigh me down look different if I truly rested in Him who was profound and beautiful? Why do I let worries and stress steal that sweet place of rest in Him who is both profound and beautiful and who calls me His child? I'm thankful he doesn't require perfection...He just asks for us to accept grace and to take a journey towards His heart to discover a sweet place of rest.

Ties That Bind Us

I like this quote I read on facebook. I know this is true in my life.

The ties that bind us are sometimes impossible to explain. They connect us even after it seems like the ties should be broken. Some bonds defy distance and time and logic; because some ties are simply...meant to be.

Long Day, but Perfect Evening

Today was a long day. Really long. Today, my parents should have been arriving, but due to Influenza A (also known as Swine Flu) that has hit our family, they have postponed their trip (can't blame them, it's still disappointing!). Morgan went back to school today, Sarah is still down with a fever. I had to go back to work today and Mike got to stay home with her...I wish I was the one with all the sick leave (not him!) because I want to be home with my kids when they are sick. And yet I know Sarah enjoyed her day spent with her daddy. And I am glad he is so willing to be home with them, it is a blessing that he does have the time and he is willing to take it! It has not stopped raining all day...the kind of rain you can hear on the roof top kinda rain. That meant indoor recess at school. Several kids went home with fever at school today. I easily could have come home from school depressed and yet I decided to put on my pjs, turn on the fireplace (Ok, gas fireplaces are growing on me...although I still miss the smell of real fire!), bake some chocolate chip cookies, make some chicken noodle soup, and cuddle up on the sofa and listen to the rain fall and fall and fall...and I guess 6 more inches are still coming our way...