This Abundant Week - Learning, Hiking and Enjoying Family

SUNDAY

Sunday was a wonderful day. Sunday morning we went to church as usual. In Sunday School we watched the last lesson in the Andy Stanley Series "Follow." This has been an amazing series of lessons and I'm a bit sad to see them come to an end. One thought from the lesson that has really stuck with me is a verse from John. When Jesus teaching became controversial and hard to accept for many people, a lot of Jesus followers began to leave. Jesus turned to his disciples and asked them if they were planning to leave too. And Peter replied with this question. "Lord, to whom shall we go?" When we have questions that make us consider unfollowing Jesus we need to carefully ask ourselves "To whom shall we go. If not Jesus than who?"

The morning message was brought to us by Bruce Hankey and his main text was from Ezekial. You have not gone up to the breaches in the wall to repair it for the people of Israel so that it will stand firm in battle on the day of the Lord. Ezekial 13:5 The question to consider is where am I called to stand in the gap. Whether it's in prayer, in relationships, or any other area of life, where is God calling me to stand in the gap?

Sunday afternoon was lazy. We had lunch and then watched movies for a couple hours. Then Amanda wanted to go to my sister's house to get something she had left there. After we got there we all decided to go up on the mountain for a couple hours. It was an impromptu outing and so much fun.

MONDAY

Monday was a good day at work. My Little Buddy was happy and we were able to get a lot of academic work in. His favorite worksheet at the moment is a page with 50 squares arranged in rows of 10. He makes a little mark in each one as he counts to 50 and when he reaches 50 he is so excited. It's so much fun to see his face light up and hear him laugh and tell himself "Yay! Good job Buddy!"

Monday evening was just a very quiet evening at home.

TUESDAY 

Our fourth of July highlight was going hiking with my family and my sister and her family. We hiked a total of about 4 miles on the Otter Creek Trail. The Otter Creek trail is located at the lowest point of the Blue Ridge Parkway. It's a fairly easy hiking trail along otter creek with a nice variety of scenery. It stays close to the Blue Ridge Parkway most of the time but still provides a wonderful variety of experiences with nature. The kids had a wonderful time.

The trail crosses Otter Creek several times. Michael is always a little nervous about these crossings but he's getting better and better at it.

We stopped numerous times to enjoy various places along the creek. Michael decided he needed to cool off and stuck his head in the creek.

At times the trail leads through tunnels under the road. The kids loved this. They especially loved hearing their voices echo when they yelled.

We took a long break on this bridge to eat a snack and drink water. Michael was looking under the bridge and started laughing so some of his cousins had to check out what he was laughing at. Apparently their was a spider web with some dirt spinning in it and Michael found it hilarious! We didn't quite understand why is was so funny but his laughter was contagious and soon we were all laughing.

Climbing, climbing, climbing. This particular rock formation was wonderful for climbing.

My niece and nephew said they were fishing.

Here was another place the kids (big and little) really enjoyed.

We were tired and hot at the end of this hike and yet it was so refreshing to just be out enjoying nature. We ended our evening with pizza and breadsticks. We had intended to watch fireworks but the places we had chosen as options were not putting off fireworks this year and we were too far from Staunton at that point so we missed it this year. But that was ok. It was still a wonderful 4th of July full of family and fun.

WEDNESDAY

I had another good day with My Little Buddy. We're working hard on pre-writing skills as well as play skills.

Austin found four gray kittens under out back porch. It wasn't a surprise because we knew one of our cats had kittens somewhere recently. They seem very healthy and happy.

THURSDAY 

I don't write about her as often as I do my Little Buddy but this little ray of sunshine is also a big part of my day. Here she is working in her handwriting workbook. I love this picture of her.

FRIDAY

Somehow I didn't get any pictures today. It was a pretty typical Friday that ended with pizza, chips, and movies. I always look forward to movie night with my kids each week. We just crash and celebrate another successful week. On the way home from work this evening Amanda was saying how much she loves her work, and in general, her life, right now. She was feeling very content and blessed. It was interesting to hear her say that because the day before I had been thinking the very same thing. We are abundantly blessed with work we love, new opportunities, and family.

SATURDAY

Michael and I made banana bread Saturday morning and then we took a loaf to Grandmother Saturday afternoon. The bottom left picture is of my kids with Grandmother at her house. We had a nice visit topped off with ice cream.

Saturday evening Michael decided to put up his tent so we could sleep in it. He usually does this at least once each summer. At first he said I couldn't sleep in it but he didn't want me to sleep in the house either. He said I could sleep in some blankets on the grass beside the tent. But I told him I was either sleeping in the tent or in the house, he could choose which one. So he decided to let me sleep in the tent. The first part of the night I slept really well. I love going to sleep listening to the night sounds. But around 2:30 I woke up and couldn't get comfortable. Then I heard a dog sniffing around the tent. Then it seemed like the ground kept growing new rocks to try to get comfortable around. I finally came in the house around 5:30 to get a few good hours of sleep in a comfortable spot. Michael came in around 6:30.

And that is the story of another Abundant Week.