Thankful Thursday

I've really enjoyed all the back to school pictures popping up on Facebook and various blogs that I read......but I've got to say that I'm enjoying the fact even more that we don't start until September 3! So,
1. I'm thankful for the freedom I have to homeschool and that I get to set my schedule. Well, actually I could have started already but the PSP we joined officially starts September 3 and so we're going with that!

2. I'm also thankful that the Lord has given my mom 71 years of life! We celebrated her birthday this past Monday. It's amazing the energy and strength she has. 

This is my mom and I......she was about 33 here. I believe we're in the backyard of our home in Argentina.

3. And lastly, I'm so thankful for  the book I've been going through in a summer small group. Last week's chapter challenged us on getting out of our comfort zone and reaching out to others. It was quite an exhortation to me personally because we've been gone from our church for 7 1/2 years and I feel like we're still newbies! A lot of people know who we are since we were missionaries sent out by our church but we don't know them. It's no excuse for me though.......I still need to be looking out for the needs of others and searching out first time visitors and such.  Jerry Bridges says the following:

"Serving others usually requires no special talent or ability. But it does take a servant attitude to want to serve others, as well as an observant eye and mind to see what needs to be done. If we have a servant attitude, we can develop an observant eye. The reason most of us do not see opportunities to serve is that we are continually thinking about ourselves instead of others."

Island Birthday Party

One of my dearest friends celebrated her birthday last week and her husband and family threw her a little fiesta. It was an Island theme and we had so much fun. I have to say that her husband did an incredible job. My friend and her mother are also super creative.......I do not have one creative gene in my body so I am so thankful for ladies like them and Pinterest!

Since we were also watching Soul Surfer they made this big shark mouth. Before the photo - op the kids threw bean bags into it's mouth and afterwards we had a photo-booth session.

This table was set up with a bunch of sweet snacks for the movie viewing.

 

Her husband actually made this fruit display!!!

The kids getting ready to view the movie with their snacks and popcorn.

Her brother brought the equipment to set up a huge screen in the backyard with speakers and all. 

It was quite fun viewing the movie under the stars.

My dear friend and her sweet family. As you can see my boys 

have 4 lovely ladies to choose from when they're ready to 

get married.

Thankful Thursday

Psalm 150:6
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!

It's time again to be thankful!

1. I'm so thankful that the weather has been so pleasant lately! I can't believe how nice it's been considering it's August. In the evenings it even cools down a bit. This is totally unheard of here in California!

2. Lately I've been thinking about how grateful I am to have older and Godlier women in my life. When we lived in Russia that was one thing I missed the most. Every Tuesday for the last 6 weeks I've been getting together with a small group of ladies that I will be serving alongside with in the fall. And every time I drive home I think how blessed I am to be learning so much from these seasoned Christian women.  

3. I'm also thankful that the new school year is coming. I've been organizing a lot and I've even got all my curriculum ready! The boys are really looking forward to being a part of a homeschool group this year. They'll attend a class once a week and there will be a bunch of field trips and extra activities.

 

Approaching the End of Summer

We've had a real enjoyable summer even though it's been a summer of a lot of change!!! A lot has happened in the last 3 1/2 months but by God's grace I think we have learned so much from little trials here and there.

We are slowly plugging into ministry at church, we've found a homeschool group for the boys to be a part of this school year, we've visited some fun places, and we're making things work while we live at my mom's home.

One big goal we had this summer was for Josiah to learn how to swim. Every Saturday for about 10 weeks Jojo attended private swim lessons and lo and behold the kid is swimming! Last summer he was still too scared to stick his head underwater and this summer he is having us count to see how long he can keep his head under! I realize he's a little late in the game in learning how to swim but living overseas and having very limited time stateside made it impossible for him to learn.

Another big goal of course was for Jon to find a job. In 1998 Jon left his career as a certified financial planner (CFP) to attend the Master's Seminary. His main goal for attending was to learn how to correctly study and teach God's Word. After Seminary he really didn't have any plans to go into full time ministry. I guess you can say he took a bit of a rabbit trail and headed into missions. Our desire was to serve where there was a need and at the time there was a need in Novosibirsk,Russia and later in Samara, Russia. I got to say that last summer when he mentioned to me that he was considering to return to being a CFP, I was caught a bit off guard. I thought we would always be in full time ministry. Of course I knew our time as missionaries was coming to an end but I thought maybe he'd find an associates pastor position somewhere........when I was 12 I declared to myself that I would marry a pastor or missionary.......things weren't going according to my plans!

When I think about it though, I did marry a pastor and a missionary. Just because you have a "regular" or "secular" profession doesn't mean that ministry stops. Jon sees financial planning as a ministry in itself. Plus, he desires to continue teaching and serving any possible way he can. It's sort of humorous to see the expressions on people's faces when Jon tells them he's returning to financial planning. The expressions are ones of confusion.......it's probably the same expression I had on my face last year when Jon expressed his desires of returning to financial planning.

I'm thankful to say that I support Jon 100%! I trust him completely with the decisions he is making for our family. Actually, I'm so thankful that I'm not the one making all the decisions.......it's so nice to sit back and let my husband lead.

We have 3 weeks of summer left before we start school again. I see some beach days in the calendar, birthday celebrations, and lots of prepping for our coming school year! If you have some summer days left, I hope you enjoy them. I noticed on Facebook today lots of kids start school this week...lots of new backpacks, new school clothes, new teachers.......so fun!

X Games - Rally Car Racing

My oldest sister Alex is a huge Tanner Foust fan. Do you know who that is? He's a rally car racing driver. When we moved back from Russia at the end of April, one of the very first questions she asked was if I wanted to go to the X Games Rally Car Race with her and my sister Monica.

So, this past Sunday we went to the race. I wasn't quite sure what to expect but it was actually quite fun and quite an adrenaline rush watching some close calls on the track.

Lots of dirt getting kicked up. At first we sat a lot closer to the track but we didn't have such a great view plus we were getting so dirty!

 

 The winners lining up at the end. There's not a lot of people now but the place was packed. Most people leave as soon as the race finishes to go line up for the meet and greet with the racers.

I got to meet the winner. He was a real sweet guy......actually all of the racers that I met were really nice. Unfortunately, this is the last year that Los Angeles will host the X Games......next year it's in Texas and my sister is talking about us all going.