Mother Daughter Retreat

May 6, 2018 | Stacy

In January, a friend from church shared information about the May Mother Daughter Retreat at Camp Hickory Hill in Varysburg, NY. We’d never gone on any such event, and it did not have a limit of one child per mom, so I decided I’d embrace my newly acquired camping gene and sign us up. I also told my friend Lindsay about the weekend and she signed up to join us.

It was pretty cold and rainy as we drove down, but we met our friends at Mark’s for dinner and continued on to our destination.

I didn’t take photos of our lodging, but our church had a large enough group that we were placed in a lovely building right next to the bathrooms! SCORE!

We headed to the game room for a while

As we were playing games, my girls rushed to the windows. They saw princesses walking by. It wasn’t long before we headed up to the fellowship hall to see what was going on.

The theme for the weekend was Princesses…. since we ARE daughters of the KING of KINGS.

We played a “who am I?” game where we had to ask questions to see if we could guess who we were tagged as.

We had singing, and some games, and ice cream!

It was maybe the worst night’s sleep ever…
Having JUST gotten over the bad back I had endured for about a week, the rock-hard bunk I slept in was enough to cause me to have spasms hour after hour through the night.

My little girls and I were awake bright and early, so I took them out and around to keep the cabin quiet.

We headed back as others were rising, and then we all enjoyed breakfast at the hall.

I realized why my purse was so heavy! Thank you, Stewart, for getting me the flashlight, etc., I may have needed.

Tab and Janessa are special buddies.

Our first assigned activity was archery. This was a lot of fun.

We then did kayaking and canoeing. And then Katriel met this “friend.” (She often embraces the scary to get ahead of it. Not a bad tactic, if it works.)

We had fun doing Nerf wars.

Katriel stayed on top of the ammo.

Lunch was excellent!

Finally it was time to zip line. This was TOO MUCH FUN!!

Why yes. Even my five year old tried it!

We did a few other things, including a few minutes of dress-up with friends.

I love this picture! The Butler and Nickels ladies.

Baptisms and Baskets

April 1, 2018 | Stacy

About two weeks ago our pastor left a message on our answering machine just asking us to give him a call back. When John talked with him, Tim had been calling to let us know they were having a baptism on Easter in case anyone in our family was interested. Tim was thinking maybe one of our teens was ready for that step. Weeellllll — it just so turns out that neither John nor I had ever been baptized (outside the infant baptism our parents had conferred upon us).

We quickly decided we both wanted to be baptized, and we mentioned it to the kids. Tabitha readily asked to join us, and Johanna asked if she, too, could be included. We ran it by the pastor and we agreed wholeheartedly with us that both girls were decidedly welcome. Over the next week or so, the Holy Spirit convicted each of the other three big kids, and on Easter Sunday we wore our bathing suits under our church clothes and headed to church.

We have it all on DVD, but I’m not sure how to just share the clips.
All in all there were 16 people baptized at PCC today, including my sister, Kelly. (Nan was baptized in 2001).

Pretty wonderful.

We had Easter activities before and after church, and enjoyed more sugar than we should have. Yum.

It was ridiculously cold. But we had a fast egg hunt after church.

Can you read Katriel’s card?

It says, “Happy Easter, Tabitha.”
HAPPE ESTR TABUSUH

A mountain top weekend.

March 26, 2018 | Stacy

Some seasons, we find ourselves in the valleys of life; we walk through hard places and experience painful refining.

Other times we are wholly on top of the mountain, just basking in all that is good and joy-filled and life-giving.

On Friday afternoon, it suddenly dawned on me as I dropped off my boys at the Charles Finney School that I was having a mountain-top weekend.

For starters, Marie, Tabitha and Johanna were performing in the church’s production, “Who Can He Be?” This is the same production our church did in 2012 and 2013. I was able to participate in 2012, and John participated in 2013. Marie and Tabitha were also in both of those shows, albeit as markedly younger performers. This time around, both are part of the adult ensemble and had much larger roles.

The boys and I were able to go to the dress rehearsal on Wednesday, March 21st, and I was able to watch a second time on Thursday, March 22nd.

I was blown away by the musical. Though I had been in it in 2012, I had never watched the entire production from start to finish. My sister, Kelly, also played the woman at the well.

My joy would have been complete if that was where it ended.

Oh boy – that’s only half the story.

Since December, Stewart and Nigel have been practicing at the Charles Finney School to be part of their production, “Acts – A City Rising,” a modern retelling of the book of Acts.

Stewart was cast as Saul of Tarsus/Paul, and Nigel was cast as Isaac, a zealous defender of God and persecutor of Christians.

As I dropped them off for their cast call on Friday and hurried home to get the girls ready for their performance and over to the church it dawned on me how this is the kind of joy-filled weekend I had to hang on to. Remembering just how abundantly we were blessed for this weekend should constantly remind me of how God loves us. My kids – my HOMESCHOOLED kids – get to be part of fabulous, Godly stage productions. How cool is that?

I could blow up the internet with images of the boys’ production. They put in almost 100 hours of rehearsal. Stewart met with Mr. Carl Wager many, many times as Mr. Wager helped him advance his singing abilities. I had no idea the treat I was in for as my son sang triumphantly as he conveyed Saul/Paul’s life.

As the boys and I left the production Friday evening, they asked if I had cried at the end. I confessed I had not and they were disappointed. Truth-be-told, I think I was in shock. I believe it wasn’t until after the third production that I truly grasped the full story; until that point I think I was just absorbing, “Those are my handsome boys! There are my handsome boys!”

I feel like I know the apostles so much better after this show. And I am in awe even more of how much God loves us and how He grew the church. I can barely express how moved I was by this musical. What is more, I can barely express how generous God is.

Soccer Smiles and Winning Miles

March 9, 2018 | Stacy

(Corny… I know.)

Mrs. Marshall organized some indoor mixed soccer for the varsity kids to get them some winter/spring play time.

Meanwhile, Johanna and Tab had cars racing in the Pinewood Derby at church.

I can’t find the photos of their cars anywhere!!!

But I think Johanna was happy with her trophy…

Proverbs 17:22
A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

Making music move

December 22, 2017 | Stacy

The oldest three sang with the adult choir for Christmas, and Tab and Johanna sang with the Children’s Choir. Both groups went to a local Senior Living facility tonight to share some musical Christmas joy.

Though you can’t see him… Nigel is there too.

I love it when a plan comes together

November 5, 2017 | Stacy

especially when God is in charge.

Let’s dial this day back to a day in mid-September.
I overheard the secretary of our Scarlet Knights soccer club, Aly, say they didn’t have a church venue set for the annual banquet. The church we normally use had experienced some changes and had some date conflicts.

I felt the Holy Spirit nudge me – “Suggest your church.”
I pushed back. “Aly is exceedingly capable. She has everything under control. She does NOT need suggestions from a peon like me.”
Again, “Suggest your church.”
Me, “Our church isn’t big enough.”
The push was palpable, my voice was small, “Excuse me, Aly? My church isn’t too far from here, and we have done some dinner programs in the past. Would you like me to see if it is available?”

She asked a few questions and I sent an email to the church from the field. Kim, the church secretary, got back to me in minutes.

And so it began.

Early on I got NO response from anyone from church on A/V support. This was going to be a key component. My nature is to WORRY and want every thing set. But I did not have a moment to work on it because Friends…. October was BUSY. So exceptionally busy. I had a heavy work schedule. Marie’s soccer team played all over the county. And there were the normal speech, Spanish, piano, guitar, orthodontist, co op, etc., etc., etc. I think I literally threw my hands in the air and said to God, “LORD, you need to take care of this for me. I just can’t.”

I squeezed in an appointment to meet with Kim, who was a real hero. When I was a little stressed out early on she was SO encouraging. When I shared with her that I was too busy to think straight, she reminded me it would work out.

A week before the banquet I had zero commitment from our church family. The back up plan was for a dad in the SK group to lug in all his sound equipment and another dad to bring in his projection stuff.

Then my friend Steve approached me. While he normally does video recording he was willing to do the mic piece for us. There – standing before me – grace. An answer to prayer. And even better, someone stepping out of his zone with a heart that wanted to help. That was more of a blessing than the audio!!! He even emailed me the following day saying he’d looked into some of the projection pieces, too.

But then things started unfolding, not BECAUSE of me, but WITHOUT ME. We had a ton of appointments this week and my brain was really thinking more about my family and uncle, and I just really couldn’t do ANYTHING unless it was send an email from some parking lot via my phone.

And – EVERYTHING fell into place. AND IT WAS SO AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So many lovely ladies… but even more so – THOSE SMILES!

I mostly played barista in the kitchen. (I’m not complaining! I’m not much of a sitter, anyway. I love to burn off my nervous energy by working.) But I snuck away for a few pictures and to watch the video for the modified team (amazing!).

I heard so many cool comments.
People sincerely appreciated the location being so much closer, and loved the lay-out; but even more than that:

“My older girls did Pioneer Girls here when they were little.”

”I haven’t been in this kitchen in YEARS,” from a former MOPS mom.

And my favorite, “I was married in this church in 1994.”

I love our homeschool community.
I love my church home.
I love that they could morph for a night.

So many connections. People who know people who know people. Worlds colliding. THIS is what heaven is going to look like.

And I having a front row seat to what God can do with our obedience.
It all started with a nudge, and I ended up blessed beyond measure.

Luke 18:27
But he said, “What is impossible with men is possible with God.”

Fall party at PCC

October 20, 2017 | Stacy

When my coworker asked me switch hours with her so she could take care of something, I JUMPED at the opportunity: it meant I could go to the fall party with my family.

Dinosaur Barbeque (was amazing).

Stewart guarding the door to the maze.

I couldn’t get nice photos of many of the activities. There was apple bobbing, face painting, pumpkin sling shot, pumpkin seed spitting (ewwwwww – I skipped that!).

But INDOORS there was a maze. The youth pastor and worship pastor created this maze with chairs and sheeting.