Invisible God

I give you praise, O Great Invisible God,

for the moon in the space of a dark night,

for the smile on a face in the sunlight.

I give you praise, O Great Invisible God,

for the sound of the storm on the window,

for the morning adorned with a new snow,

for the tears on the face of the old man

made clean by the grace of the good Lamb.

And oh, I long to see your face, Invisible God.

All the works that you have made are clearly seen

and plain as day, so mighty and tender.

O Lord, let me remember

that I see you everywhere, Invisible God,

your power eternal, your nature divine.

All creation tells the tale that Love is real and so alive.

I feel you, I hear you, Great God Unseen I see you

in the long, cold death that the winter brings

and the sweet resurrection spring.

Invisible God.

-Andrew Peterson

Sam felt like such a big boy yesterday. One of his friends from school got to ride home with us, so he and Sam could eat lunch and play together. They had a blast. Luke even got in on the fun while they were "racing". They started at the front door and ran circles around the house.

funny story, funny picture

we are outside often enough that we've developed nice little friendships with some of the the neighborhood walkers. ms. dot is an older lady who lives with her daughter just down the road. she walks their dog snowball around quite often. a few weeks ago she asked me if she could make a bonnet for laney. i quickly said yes and told her how special that would be. a few nights ago she and her granddaughter came to deliver laney's bonnet. i promised her i'd get a picture of her in it and send it to her...

when we went outside to play today, i took the camera and bonnet to get a picture for ms. dot. 2 of my neighbors were out and i filled them in on the hat's significance. one neighbor, who is quite a riot, said "you know, she kinda' looks like one of them holiness people".... oh my, that is funny!

Easter

I enjoyed a simple Easter. Spending time with my husband and kids realizing the impressive nature of our God.

One of the things I chose not to let define Easter: the kids' clothes. I bought a precious blue plaid material to make shorts for the boys and a dress for Laney. I realized I wasn't going to finish the dress and decided that was okay. It wasn't that important. My goal is to finish it by picture time in a few weeks. The boys dressed alike and looked adorable walking in to church holding hands.

Sam opened an egg with chocolate and squealed "I love chocolate". This is his happy egg dance...

Luke enjoyed eating the jellybeans

And wearing Laney's new sunglasses

Laney enjoyed eating a little of the Styrofoam plate.

After the egg hunt, we read the Easter story from the Jesus Storybook Bible.

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter!

saturday

today's sunday. i honestly can't remember what we did yesterday. i guess just a little of this and a little of that. ron and i went on a dinner date; i do remember that. it was nice getting out for a couple of hours alone.

yesterday brought a new boo boo for laney. she likes to sit up and play with this wooden toy i got at ikea. it's really for younger babies to lay under and play with the toys that hang down. well, she was playing with it, somehow lost her balance, and fell backwards. she kept holding on to it and it landed on her right between the eyes. she screamed bloody murder for a few minutes, but was back to having fun shortly after that.

lunch with friends

i went to a friend's house for lunch today. 5 friends from church were there with their kids. 6 moms and 13 kids! it was quite a party! laney enjoyed the sun, but not for long. her arms were so hot and red after a few minutes. i ended up letting her hang with me and the other girls under the covered porch.

ashley took a few pictures of our time together. i just love the picture of all the kids. sam is so tickled to be with his friends; he has the most genuine laugh and smile. and luke makes me laugh leaning in to the picture to say "cheese". and notice laney chewing on a branch from their tree. there were only 3 plastic eggs out there for the babies, so i gave her the branch. i enjoyed it; but i really loved that my kids enjoyed it!

so i know this picture is fuzzy; i took it using my inferior cell phone camera. i caught laney in the middle of her little squinty-eye look, so i couldn't pass it up.

best friends

the boys played together as if they were best friends for about 45 minutes yesterday. they giggled and sang together, ran around, hugged, and more. it was awesome! and laney just took it all in... ☺

luke came up with his own version of "tag". while sam was eating a snack, luke ran from his bedroom and said "i got you". instead of tagging, he would hug sam. he did this at least 10 times, taking turns starting from different rooms in the house then "seeking" sam. it ended the same way every time; sam was in the kitchen, and luke hugged him when he found him.

Spring Break 2010

Spring Break was very low-key for us. Ron worked Monday through Thursday for a few hours each day. We planned on going to Chattanooga Friday and Saturday to enjoy the Aquarium and Chattanooga Choo-Choo. My knee had other ideas. After a few rough days due to a minor setback, we decided to stay in town and go to the local museum instead. We played in one little room set aside for younger children then tried to walk through the museum. They didn't really appreciate it so it didn't last long; we were back in the car less than an hour after we parked.

Even though the museum didn't pan out, we had a great week of good family time. Eating dinners together and spending mornings together was precious!

if i've already posted a picture of this top, i'm sorry... i made this a month or so ago from a book i got at hobby lobby, but didn't have the "complete" outfit until just now. i had these little purple teva slip-ons previously, but the little tights just came my way this weekend thanks to hand-me-downs from a fellow MDO mom. laney, you are stylin'...