Monday, Monday

Whew...it's May 20th already! I knew the month of May would pass quickly, but here we are at the 20th of the month already.

It's been a full month....My husband had a couple getaways (men's retreat for church, work trip to CA). Then there was our family trip to central Oregon quickly followed by a trip to the coast (hubby was speaking at a conference and we tagged along!). Then we returned home and were busy with our big church banquet (raising money for the roof on our new building).

Let me just stop here and say....GOD IS GOOD. Our church family has been raising funds for the past 10 years for this new building - our intent is to build with as little debt as possible. After breaking ground 4 years ago, we are now ready to put the roof on. We are a small church and our members have limited income. Yet God has done great things including the outcome of this final building campaign. Like the boy who had 5 loaves and two fishes that ended up feeding a crowd of 5,000 people....God has taken our offerings and multiplied them for his glory and his mission.

And now the whirlwind of May is over and it's time to settle back down and get back to our routine. It's 8am right now and I haven't heard a peep from my girls - they might be a little worn out.

Monday's are big days for me - usually I am relaxed about housework and blogging and everything else on the weekends so I can fully enjoy my family. But that means I wake up on Monday with a long list of things that need attention. So I'll grab Monday by the horns and make the most of it!

Happy Monday! Have a good week.

{pretty, happy, funny, real}

I realize I've not been posting here much....for a while I just didn't feel like it, and then the past week I've been gone. I can't promise I'll get back on track, but hopefully I will.

In the meantime, here's another {pretty, happy, funny, real} post. I love this link-up because it's such a great way to summarize my life each week.

taking a moment to capture contentment and joy in every day life

{pretty} 

For Mother's Day, my family treated me to a 5 day getaway to one of our favorite places - central Oregon. We love driving around the Cascades and the lakes and exploring the volcanic remains.

{happy}

Me and my girls on Mother's Day...I never imagined I would be the mom to two beautiful, girls! After a delicious breakfast cooked by my girls, we spent much of the day riding bikes on the bike paths of Sunriver. Later in the day we went swimming, I went for a run and then the girls made a delicious dinner (steak and broccoli!)

During our stay we biked, walked, fished and relaxed. It was so hard to come back home.

We also got to walk through a 1 mile lava river tube (cave)....it was very cool (literally) and a little bit freaky to be 80 feet underground.

{funny}

We saw this horse on one of our bike rides. My husband thought he needed a helmet.

The house we stayed at had some bikes, but our littlest family member was just too big for this bike. We ended up having to rent one for her.

{real}

There is something wrong with my camera - really wrong. There seems to be specks of dust or something on the lens and despite all our efforts to clean it, it's not getting better. We have to take it in and have it cleaned. Hopefully it's an easy fix and doesn't require a new lens. In the pictures below you can see the spots and smears....seeing them depends on the settings and what you are shooting. The spots seem to show up best on blue skies. 

I'm linking up with Like Mother, Like Daughter

{pretty, happy, funny, real}

taking a moment to capture contentment and joy in every day life

{pretty} 

{happy}
My girls and I went for a little hike this week to the waterfall pictured above. 

We're having summer in May and have happily spent much time outdoors.

I got some FREE rocks for my garden! I've been wanting to add some interest to my otherwise boring garden and was so happy to score some free rocks.

{funny}
One of the rocks slightly resembles the continent of Africa.

At breakfast one morning I opened a new bag of bagels and pulled out this "8". My 8 year old want to pose with it.

{real}

This is the future home of our church congregation. After meeting in schools and rented spaces for more than 15 years, we will finally have our own place. We are so excited about being part of this building campaign, but the reality is that we still have a long way to go. Determined not to go into debt over this project means that this campaign has lasted about 10 years already. We are needing a roof and raising the funds for it is our current focus. My husband is the chair of the "raise the roof" campaign and it's been interesting. We are praying for a fruitful campaign - that we will, indeed, raise the funds to put a roof on this building. We've spent a lot of time at this site lately - tours, BBQs, prayer walks, kid's visit and making handprints, taping videos for the campaign, getting rocks for our garden....it's already feeling like home!

I'm linking up with Like Mother, Like Daughter

Just Don't Feel Like It...

Do you ever just feel like living life instead of writing about it?

Yeah... that's me right now. I just don't feel like blogging lately.

Life is good. The weather is great. I've taken lots of photos this week. But the creative juices just aren't flowing right now.

I'll likely get a {pretty, happy, funny, real} post up this week, but that might be the extent of it.

In the meantime, enjoy your day / week / month!

{pretty, happy, funny, real} - Mexico 2013

taking a moment to capture contentment and joy in every day life

This past week I had the opportunity to spend 6 days at Rancho de los Ninos in Mexico. This was my second visit, and this time I was accompanied by 9 others from my church and community. Rancho de los Ninos is home to 20 children, most of whom are mentally and/or physically handicapped. It is a wonderful, Christian home, and it was an honor to interact with the residents and the staff.

{pretty} 

Some members of our work team made new benches

{happy}

sharing God's word with the little ones

The kids at our church raised enough money to buy 40 Spanish Bibles. We gave one to each child at Rancho de los Ninos, and gave another 20 to the local church.

I had some seriously good help one day as I built a brick wall.

I love these boys - Juan and Juan

Beach day with 10+ kids from Rancho de los Ninos

And I just have to say....GOD IS SO GOOD! On Sunday morning we were able to witness the baptism of 4 of the kids from Rancho de los Ninos. One of them was Juan - the very boy I have sponsored since my trip down last year. I felt like one proud mama - my heart was bursting with joy as I witnessed these wonderful kids commit their lives to Christ. The tears flow even now when I think of it.

Juan Antonio - child of God

Juan Enrique - child of God

Kimberly - child of God

{funny}

On Friday we took a break from our work and headed to the beach (without kids). Being Americans, we were bombarded by locals trying to sell jewelry, henna tattoos, dresses, baskets, sunglasses and more. I decided to get my hair braided by a young girl....I just wanted one braid and thought she would braid beads and ribbons into it. Nope. I got one braid. Something I could have done myself. And I paid her $5.

You can kinda see my one braid. Doesn't look that great. And here I am by a giant frog - thought my girls would like this. They didn't seem to think it was all that great.

{real}

The bugs were pretty bad. Mosquitoes and no seeums were having a feast on my legs, arms and neck. At night we all slept under mosquito nets. I'm not sure it was completely necessary, but it did add a layer of security and protection. Especially when you know there are also scorpions about.

Speaking of scorpions....saw this fellow right outside our dorm.

But the even bigger reality is that several of the young men at Rancho de los Ninos need a new home. They are in their upper teens and low to mid twenties. Funds are being raise for Project Next Step. (I would love to put a link up to the website, but it's not working....) The next step for these boys is to purchase a home for them in Mazatlan, and also purchase a second home that would be a bed and breakfast - staffed by none other than the boys you see below (plus a couple more). How cool is that?

I'm linking up with Like Mother, Like Daughter