Book recommendation

I picked up "1000 gifts" by Ann Voskamp from the library recently and have been enjoying it. The poetic writing can lose me unless I am paying close attention to what I am reading, but the challenges hidden there have changed my way of thinking.

Her main focus is being thankful in all things. Taking time to notice, to be thankful brings about joy. All nice and easy to say, altogether another story when we try to walk it out in the frustrations of the day, in the mundane of daily routine, in the difficult times we face.

I have been practicing thankfulness. I really have. And as life happens, I was challenged this weekend by the attitudes of teenage girls. This time, it was not my girl, although in hindsight, that would have been a LOT easier!! I had to correct the team captains on the soccer team and it was very difficult. However, the resulting backlash was much worse because the parents chose to stick up for their child's disrespect and bad attitude instead of supporting my authority in the situation. Thankfulness momentarily took a back seat.

I have recovered, things have been smoothed over and I am back to practicing thankfulness ... again.

I am considering starting a public list ... we will see if I get that far ...

Beach trip 2014

Thankful that we were able to get away to the beach this past weekend. Leading up to the weekend, the weather looked very iffy, but we decided to go ahead and risk it. So glad that we did, because we had 2 good days at the beach. The first day was nice and sunny. The second was cloudy, but still very nice.

I really like this shot - my family in the water with the beautiful clouds and sand.

Beach hair!! Ha!

This is a remake of a much earlier picture to compare how much the kids have grown.

We don't eat in the rogue, so John is enjoying his McD's fries outside. The rest of us don't eat McD's - he is the only holdout :)

I have been reading a very good book called "One thousand gifts" by Ann Voskamp. I highly recommend it!

Long overdue post ... hoping to get back at it ...

It has been a long while since I have updated the blog. The bad thing is - we miss it. This is a fairly easy way to document what has happened in our family, and it is fun to look back and reminisce. I am planning to attempt to get back into it - for our sake.

Brief update:

John: He recently switched software jobs and is enjoying the new challenges. He is now in a contract position for Alabama Power and enjoys his colleagues and his new work. He also continues improvement projects on the house. He has been teaching the kids (and me) how to play tennis. He and Hadden enjoy playing frequently while Savannah is at soccer practice.

Me: My time is divided between homeschooling, helping run a home school co-op, taxiing Savannah to soccer practice and working with clients. Occasionally, some house cleaning happens. I acquired my personal trainer certification earlier this year and love helping people become healthy. 

Savannah: She is a full-fledged teenager! She continues to play competitive level soccer, but is on a new team. She is working hard and becoming a better player. We went to a tournament in South Carolina over the past weekend and her team won all 4 of their games to bring home the medals! She had 2 assists in the last game. We made some fun memories and had a fun time together.

Hadden: He is growing up! He is enjoying helping John with projects around the house and enjoys playing tennis. He also still loves his legos. He is currently taking a break from baseball (fall ball) and I am not sure if he will play in the spring or not. He had a miserable all-star season a couple of years ago and hasn't really recovered his passion. Really stinks that adults can't just let kids play ball. (That could be a few blog posts, but I will spare you.)

Newest addition:

After almost 15 years of marriage, John and I ventured into new territory ... car shopping. He did an amazing job researching what we might consider. We test drove a couple and ended up settling on the Nissan Rogue. And, he was kind enough to let me choose the color I wanted - red!! I love it!

Dogs:
We have 6 now. Not sure where we left off last time. They continue to eat a lot, but bring a lot of joy. John and Hadden built a nice fenced area for me to park so that the dogs can't scratch the Rogue.