Family Time ...

Life has been running at a pretty hectic pace lately.  Church planting is challenging in that way.  So many hats to wear and a limited number of people to wear them.  Needless to say, this creates a whole new challenge of balancing family life with church life.  Sometimes we do that well and sometimes we fail miserably. 

This week has allowed some time for us to refresh, regroup and refocus before the summer starts in full blast.  It was a much needed time.  Doug had worked so hard for so long that he ended up sick with a cold that turned into a sinus infection.  I think that may have been God's little way of saying SLOW DOWN!  So we listened this week ...

This past Wednesday was the kids last day of school.  Doug and I took advantage of the last two full days of school and took those days off.  We did minimal work and just enjoyed doing nothing for a change!  I popped in on Adyson's end of the school year swimming party on Monday.  Yes -- they went swimming in 58 degree weather!  The pool is heated to 80 degrees, but as far as I'm concerned that's still CRAZY!  Then Benjamin's end of the year swimming party was Tuesday.  It was raining and in the low 50's and they STILL swam.  NUTS! 

Friday night we actually had family night!  We haven't had our traditional family night in quite a while.  It was nice to get away to Rapid City.  The kids have outgrown all of their summer stuff so we went on a quick shopping trip to Target to load up on shorts and casual summer dresses!

Saturday we caught up on chores around the house -  yard work for Doug and mounds of laundry for Dana!  The kids did a little sweep through the house helping to pick things up for Sunday!

A new favorite thing that we are doing is having our volunteer team over every Sunday for lunch.  It has been a fun way to regroup as a team and just enjoy each other.  It also allows us to learn about the new people we are meeting each week at Connection Church since each of us are having conversations with different people!  I enjoy cooking for and having a big house full of friends each week!

Today, Memorial Day, we enjoyed a hike through Spearfish Canyon.  Our intension was to hike to Devil's Bath Tub, but due to the heavy rains we've been having in this neck of the woods, the creek was too high to safely cross with two kids in tow and we opted to catch it another time.  It was still a BEAUTIFUL walk.  We packed a picnic lunch and decided to eat our lunch on big boulders along the creek!  It was a fun, much needed family day!  The kids enjoyed the hike very much.  Adyson did amazing.  Hiking is a lot more challenging for her with her vision limitations.  With her lack of depth perception, things that are easy for us are not so easy for her.  Some of the areas along the trail were a bit steep, slippery and hard to find your footing.  However, she happily goes along with us and never backs away from the challenge.  She amazes me and I am very proud of her! 

Here are some pics of the beauty of the Black Hills we experienced today!  It's still hard for me to believe that we live just a short 15 minute drive from all of this! 

A hiking magazine told us that this tree is called the Wedding Tree.  It is a pine tree and a birch tree that has grown together!

This was our dining room! 
The view where we stopped for lunch!

This is Spearfish Falls!  When we found that we could not get all the way to The Devil's Bath Tub, we hiked back to the car and went to Spearfish Falls!  Beautiful!

Life Lately ...

Did you think I disappeared?  Don't worry ... my family has made comments that I'm behind on my blog.  They are scolding me for you.  They love to encourage me like that!  I told them from the get go that I did not have time to blog!  So cope - and I mean that in the most loving way!!  :) 

So much has happened since the last post.  Let me start by telling you about the lady I wrote about in my last post who was so excited about Connection Church.  She has continued to come on a regular basis.  She has been bringing her teenage daughter as well.  Doug and I were able to sit down and chat with her last week and she accepted Christ as her Savior!  So exciting!  She will be among our first baptisms at Connection Church!  Even cooler is the fact that her teenage daughter has indicated that she prayed the prayer asking Jesus into her heart in a recent church service.  We will be meeting with her soon to follow up on that.  These two ladies are among five others who have also indicated they prayed the prayer of Salvation with Doug as he lays out the gospel each service.  We have quite a bit of follow up to do with these folks, but feel like we will have a great time baptizing them all soon!  We are so excited that many are already coming to Christ as a result of visiting Connection Church.  After all, that is why we moved our family here!  God is so faithful ...

As for our family ... Adyson has turned 8 year old!  I can hardly believe that the little squirt (okay, I guess not really "little" at 9lbs. 10oz.) is 8 years old already.  She has grown into such a beautiful, loving, compassionate, generous little lady.  She is my shy girl who takes quite a while to warm up to you, but if you ever win her over, she's your friend for life.  She is very aware of the needs of her friends and has often wept over the broken homes that many of her friends come from.  She often asks if her friends parents love Jesus and is heartbroken if we have to answer "no" or "we're not sure".  She also recognizes needs when she sees them and is generous with her own money.  She's empty her wallet and piggy bank on several occasions for missions offerings or just to give a gift to her brother.  I really feel like her spiritual gifts may be mercy and giving.  I'm anxious to see how that develops as she grows older.  I could not be more proud to be her Mom and could not imagine our life without her! PS:  Yes that is a "birthday pie" you see!  She wanted a Peanut Butter Chocolate Pie instead of cake for her party!

Benjamin has been busy with big school projects.  Let's just say that after many bumps along the way he's lucky to be around to live to see his next birthday.  Communication is not top on his 5th grade priority list which makes for very frustrated parents!  (Dear Lord, help me in Middle School next year...)  We did, however, get the project done, so I guess that counts as success.  The 5th graders in Spearfish have a business fair each year.  Since this was our first experience with this, we were on a huge learning curve.  Here's how it works ...  The kids make a business plan and decide what it is they will make and market, they meet with a real Wells Fargo loan officer and secure a loan for the project - yes REAL money (not exactly Dave Ramsey friendly), they shop for their supplies, pay employees, create their item to sell, rent booth space and market and sell their product.  The kids then take home REAL profit after paying off their loan and meeting all other financial obligations.  Benjamin decided to make squirrel feeders.  He did a great job sanding and staining his feeders and they looked great.  He had to pay his Dad to use the chop saw to cut the boards and screw all the parts together.  He paid me to help him sand the boards.  Unfortunately, he didn't sell too many which means he walks away still owing money.  This means that he now has to "work" for the school doing odd jobs to pay off his loan!  Although it would have been nice to see him walk away with profit, it allows him to see what being in debt is like and how hard you have to work to pay it off.  I hope that he will gain some positive insight on the benefits to saving and paying cash for things.  I must admit -- this was a most frustrating project and I'm glad it's over!  My parents never told me that when kids have homework -- so do parents!  Uggghhh ... I hate homework!

So ... that's a little bit of what's been going on with us.  Now we are gearing up to welcome mission teams all summer long!  It's going to be a crazy summer schedule, but we believe that God is going to bless our efforts to reach our city for Christ!