A Little Dab'll Do Ya...

Two things make this little text blog-worthy. One is that Heather Hanks should go into the 2 year old Sunday School teacher hall of awesomeness.  As much as I'm ready for Tess to potty train and move on to the 3 year old hall where she belongs, I will miss the encouraging notes I get from Heather about my girls Sunday morning. 

The second is the fact that I dabbed a little 'perfume' on my little lady as I was getting her ready for church- and don't ya know Tess the mess wasn't such a mess today!  Props to dōTERRA Wild Orange oil! 

and then... a little PS...  I got THIS one from one of Ty's teachers...  (and yes, I oil'd him too...) These people and these oils have blessed my morning! 

Firsts: First Grade and a First Born

Just like that, first AND second days of school have come and gone and I have yet to show the world my adorable and brilliant 1st grader on her first day.  Here we go now, ye shall wait no longer...

The staff at GCA will never possibly know how BLESSED we feel to be able to send her there each day.  This morning at dropoff it made my heart swell with gratitude to see a row of godly men lining the drop-off line, waving and smiling to welcome our kids to a new day.  Thankful to them for choosing to be part of a place where they would spend their next several hours (along with all of the other teachers busy inside their classrooms already) discipling and investing Jesus in them all in the same time they're investing in their education.  (I HAVE to add in here that she started CURSIVE on the FIRST DAY of 1st grade.  I geeked out a little about that one.  It was the lowercase e.  Which is doubly cool since there are three of those in her name.)  We are SO GRATEFUL for our school!

(a little timeline here... first days of Pre-K and Kindergarten.  It's such a gift to watch her grow...)

 

And on a completely different note, my new baby niece finally made her Facebook debut, which means I can finally show her off in my world too...

Truly there's never been a sweeter baby named Hadley Brooke brought in to this world!  Weighing in at a whopping 8 lbs and 22 inches long, she is the first born to my sister and her husband, and the 9th born Grandbaby to my Mom and late Dad.  In the words of her cousin Peyton... 'she gots WOTS a cussins'  (you got that, right?  say it JUST like it's spelled and you can get a hint of how adorable it was when she said it...)
 

 

There they are... Ages 8, almost 7, almost 6, 4, 4, 3, 1, 1, and 0.  And I'm just gonna keep it real here for a second...  9 kids under the age of 8 is sheer insanity.  Every time they're together.  It's. Just. Loud.  But it's LOTS of lovin' and sweetness too!  And we are taking suggestions for creative Christmas celebration options/venues.

Time to get my weekend on... 5 days to Hawaii, folks! 

It's Official- I'm a Songwriter.

It just came to me.  Like a sort of epiphany.  We walked in from the grocery today and it was nap time. The kids had beaten me in the house and were living it up in my living room.  That's when it hit me... so I sang.

'all my wag'ner babies, all my wag'ner babies... all my wag'ner babies, all my wag'ner babies...

get up to your rooms, let's head on up, get up those stairs right now.'

{begin cries, whines, and pleads for re-consideration. re-sing first part of song. at least i get a laugh out of Reese}

'if you're whinin' then i'm gonna put a spank on it, if you're whinin' then I'm gonna put a spank on it.  don't wanna hear it, i'll just have to put a spank on ya- whoa--oa-oa... oa-oa-oa... whoa-oa-oa... oa-oa-oa'

And just in case you need a visual... I have to imagine it all looked something like this.  Minus the leotards.  

http://33.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m2i6nekfLD1rtet8zo1_500.gif

(you may have to copy and paste the link to view it... but it's totally worth it, trust me.)

Busy-ness: you're fired.

Facebook is wearing me out.  I'm finding that, 'when my heart is overwhelmed...' not only do I need to be led to the Rock that is higher than I am, but I probably need to stop letting my brain be overcrowded with all of the shenanigans that is making up my newsfeed.  When that little red number pops up on the screen of my phone, it seems to intrude itself right onto my to-do list... completely uninvited.  Gotta figure out how to turn those notifications off...  start bossing my phone around instead of it being the boss of me.  

Gotta get back to the things I love.  Painting.  Man I haven't painted a picture or a piece of furniture in FOREVER.  And dedicated time with the love of my life and my sweet babies... Reese got the whole American Girl Samantha book collection for Christmas.  I can't wait to watch her dig into that now that she's starting first grade.  Samantha was my favorite when I was a girl...  probably because she was so close to her grandmother.  I'm still very close to my grandmother.  We had a great week when I stayed at her house with my kids last week...

With school starting back this week, I'm so burdened about being intentional to rule my schedule with things that matter this semester, instead of letting our schedule rule me.  I don't know how many of you find yourself feeling like this- but it seems as though I wake up with ridculous expectations for myself and for my day, and they're not just ruling my time, they're ruling my heart... ruling my mood and my emotions.  And here lately I look around at this AMAZING family God has blessed me with and... I feel like I'm easily grouchy, treating them at times like they're imposing instead of brightening my life like the jewels that they are... and I just want more of them.

I feel like I got it right today.  Wake up, eat breakfast, put cute clothes on my cute kids, and go BOWLING.  Celebrate their strikes thanks to bumpers and those awesome ramps that Ty and Tessa bowl with.  Target run for new arm-floaties, because IT'S STILL SUMMER and my boy loves to swim.  PB and J for lunch, and a momentarily quiet house while they nap.  Then thoughts race through my mind of a woman on the other side of the world who is desperately trying to protect her babies from those that want them all dead because of their faith.  And I'm humbled and I pray for her and I'm overwhelmed with the thought of how good life is today.  And I'm so grateful for it.

As far as 'summer' goes, I'm glad to see the busy-ness winding down.  The Lord has given me a lot of grace just as He's allowed a lot to be put on my plate over the past 3-4 months.  Between losing my dad, (I mean can we just get real for a second and ask HOW in the world he's already been gone nearly 3 months?!?) two camps, two mission trips, the amazing-ness that is VBS, baby-showering and baby-welcoming a new niece, all while still juggling work responsibilities and being wife and mama, my head has been spinning for weeks now...  The Lord has been so faithful to keep me in perfect peace throughout every step of it, when I've kept my mind on Him, but I think I'm ready for my mind to be allowed a little more of the being still for a bit!

So here I go.  Granting myself, (and you if you need it- ha) permission to close the book on and reject busy-ness at a time when it should seem like the opposite would be occurring.  Permission to embrace a new school year instead of dreading it.  Busy-ness is a state of mind.  I want to choose to be present instead... with the grace of God, I wanna drink in each opportunity that's put in front of me.

#CrossCampID2014 - Passing the Torch

In the eleven years I've been out to Camp Linden now, we've had some pretty great weeks of CrossCamp, but this week held a pretty special uniqueness to it.  The 'passing of a torch' in a sense from Pastor Eric to the (almost) Pastor Mark.

TSC, let me tell you that I've watched Pastor Eric, with the utmost grace and maturity, love kids and be present in their lives this week, while at the same time totally promote Mark and encourage kids to love him and be engaged with him this week in light of his upcoming role.  And I've watched "coach montgomery" (as so many of these kids have known him) step into it effortlessly. It has just been seamless and exciting to see. 

This weeks theme has been all about teaching these kids to know that their identity lies in Christ.  I don't know about you, but if you ask me who I am, I'm gonna tell you I'm a wife, mom, piano teacher, photographer, and 'hippie oil' seller... ;)  Pastor Eric's 'ID' for the past four years has been 'children's pastor' at TSC.  Don't get me wrong, there's no question that he knows WHO his identity lies in...  but anyone could agree it's gotta be an emotional and bittersweet thing to be handing over your job to someone else.
 
Things that are growing are always changing. (I mean, if you've ever watched me in 9 months of growing a Wagoner baby, you can definitely agree!)  ;)  I think in lots of settings a competitive vibe could easily show it's face and tension can arise when a change like this is taking place. I absolutely respect and admire the hearts I've seen in both of these men this week.  Mark respecting who Eric has been, and Eric respecting, encouraging, and believing in who Mark will be.  Their unity has brought about such a sweet, sweet spirit. It's very apparent that they know who their "ID's" lie in.  What an astounding example they've been to our kids.

So since we can't all come to camp, I thought I'd do my best to make sure the friendship, grace, unity, and excitement your kids have seen this week was hopefully somehow communicated in a small way back to you and had a chance of making an impact on the hearts of their parents too.  Get excited with them!  It's been a GREAT week!!!