Running about Like a Headless Chicken Never Felt So Good!

Don't let the serenity of the picture fool you.  I'm doing my best circus act, spinning more plates than I care to count, but hey!  I'm spinning them, not picking up jagged pieces from the floor. ;)

So to recap and share:

In July, we enjoyed a fantastic camping trip with our church family in the Sierra Mountains.  It convinced us five that we love to camp and hope to do much more of it next year!  Feeling utterly disconnected from the world, while connecting with your brothers and sisters in ways unable during a Sunday morning, is an experience unmatched thus far!  We loved it.  We rolled in it.  We came home covered in it.  And then we bathed.

Also in July, I started coaching an U-10 girls soccer team, when my kids' league nearly begged for more parent involvement, and now I'm totally hooked!  Not only are we as a family (because of my singleness, I have to bring all of them with me...) engaging our community, but I'm convinced we're making disciples.  A while back I read somewhere, I wish I could now remember where, that anyone in a position of authority over our children indeed disciples them, shaping them by his or her respective world-view.  Truly, it's one of the foundational reasons I home-school my fab four and now the reason I am completely and totally hooked on coaching!  

In the few weeks we've been involved, God has used us in the lives of more than a dozen children, I'm certain!  We are each intentionally investing in each and every life on the field, as friends and teachers and modelers of our faith.  A few sweet dears have already expressed their desire to be on my team next season and that's all God, because really, people, I'm just not that holy-cool.

So, I am uber-thankful to God for pushing us outside our home-school bubble--so easily justified with academic busyness, faithfulness to Bible study and church service, not to mention fellowship with its members, our friends--and into our community, where the hearts and, often, homes are broken and in desperate need of the Savior's merciful love--don't we of all peeps know that well??  And if we win---BONUS!

Another blessing I received last month was an offer to write for pay!  Although it's not a continual flow, it provided then and more recently for many needs that I otherwise would never have been able to meet.  How fab is God?!

Thereafter, I was asked to use my writing talents to serve the church as projects present themselves.  Often feeling on the outside because of my inability to partner financially in a greater way with the work that we do both inside and outside our membership, I am grateful to give how I can.  Who knew I already had this abundance?!  He did indeed.

So, yes, I've been super busy.  But it's a good busy, a fruitful busy, a busyness that's blessing not only my fab four, but many more and lastly me.  Oh! and I'm reading everything you write, too.  I may not always have the time to comment or respond to comments left here, but please know that you're ministering to me each and every day in real and tangible ways.  High five!!  You are dearly loved and appreciated.

Until the next time...GOOOOAAAALLLLLL!