Go. Be. Do.

Tuesday, May 27th The gift today had for me came in the presence of an almost 5 year old and watching my boys play with him. So much preciousness!

Monday, May 26th Happy Memorial Day! Roadtripping it home this day.   Thankful for the gifts of safety, great traveling boys, and home! Got in my workout not too long after we unloaded the van (which was a workout in and of itself).

Sunday, May 25th This afternoon after church and the Indy 500, the fam went fishing together.  So. much. fun! These are some of the catches of the day... Today's gifts: family, fish, and fun!

My niece, Bethany, graduated today.  I am so proud of her! The gift of family is priceless and precious.

Friday, May 23rd Awoke early and hit the road headed North this morning...Indiana, here we come! A gift today was the motivation to keep up with my workout even on the road.  While it was difficult to balance at times, I got my workout in and felt better for doing it!  Yay for the spacious van with a dvd player! More gifts... My mom!  Love her so much! Strawberries!  Helped picked strawberries this afternoon at my sister's house.  So yummy! Rest!  Bedtime is always welcome after an 8 hour drive.

Thursday, May 22nd Some days a person just has to take a moment and sit down and breathe. That was my gift today. Time sitting, breathing, with my feet in the water... Pedi time! :)

Wednesday, May 21st Word pictures of today's gifts...

Tuesday, May 20th With these two final tests, the boys have completed coursework for 4th and 5th grades.  So proud of them! Today's gifts... Final day of school. Ice cream with Nana. Physical therapy ended and knee feels much better.

Monday, May 19th Today the gift is that this is the final Monday of school!  Yay for summer vacation that is so close now!  My boys deserve a blue ribbon of excellence for all their hard work this year!  With my appointments and down days, they persevered like the best students ever!  A huge thank you to everyone who helped them keep on going when I could not!   Love my boys' work effort!  They are the best!  A true gift from God, Himself!

May 18th When you have a supportive and very giving church, people are blessed. In order to help raise funds for our youth, we held a cake auction.  26 cakes were donated by our congregation to be sold on the auction block after the evening service.  Laughter and bids filled the room as each cake was auctioned off to the highest bidder. Although Scott made a valiant effort to bring home the cake I made, he had to let it go to the highest bidder of $225.  I will have to make another cake for him. :) This day's gift...the church raising over $1700 for our youth.

May 17th After Alex's baseball game and lunch at Johnny's Pizza, we went to Delta's Family Day. We had a lot of fun in the museum. Family is a wonderful gift.

I am so behind on my Birthday Season posts...sigh... May 16th Today's gift came as the closing awards program of our Upward football season were happening.  Seeing hundreds of people gathered to celebrate our children's efforts in both football and cheerleading was a blessing. These weeks...days...hours of coaching and mentoring children during any Upward season are difficult in one major respect:  Satan is at you 100% of the time while you are performing your duties as coach, on and off the field. How do I know? I have been there.  Experienced it.  Got the spiritual war wounds. This year I sought refuge in the concession stand.  It was a mighty wonderful break for me at a very fitting time in my life.  Still serving my church and my community; just on the back lines and not the front. Sometimes we have to take a back lines approach.  We need rest.  We need time to heal.  We need to allow others the opportunity to be stretched and taug...

You tell me. Six months ago today a "routine" mammogram found my otherwise undetectable cancer. Around a year ago as the boys were finishing school, we were in the midst of packing/moving/building, and I was preparing to be away for three weeks, I began to make phone calls.  It was time to get all sorts of routine appointments made...eye exam, physical, etc. One of those was for a mammogram. I had one when I was 38 and, although I had to have two then to rule out questionable areas, I was given the all clear and told to come back when I was 40. Do the math. I went back at 41. This is the awesome God part of my procrastination...I asked my surgeon her best expert guess at how long my cancer had been there at the time it was discovered. She said 6 months to a year, max. Do the math again. Had I gone at 40 there is a grand chance my cancer could have gone undetected then...or it may not have even existed depending upon the month of my appointment.  I could have gone fo...

“As we grow up, we realize it becomes less important to have more friends and more important to have real ones.” -Unknown There are times when I sit back and say, "God is so good to have given me ......" and fill in the blank with any number of things. This day it was for a friend who marked her calendar to have ice cream with me. It was celebratory ice cream; it just took a bit for us both to find a date that worked. The gift of today is friendship.   You are treasured, Heather, and I thank God for you!

“The cure for anything is salt water - tears, sweat, or the sea.”  ~  Isak Dinesen , Seven Gothic Tales Or a salt water pool. Today, the perfect way to end an afternoon workout (that drew sweat and tears from me) was my first plunge of the year into the pool. I so needed this. Today's gifts were indeed sweat, tears, and my concrete "sea".

“[A] quotation is a handy thing to have about, saving one the trouble of thinking for oneself, always a laborious business."  ~A.A. Milne I had to laugh.   Just the other day Alex comes to me and tells me the many interesting things he has learned about Romania.  Earlier today the boys were discussing facts about Tanzania.  I am always impressed with what they hold onto with their sponge-like brains.  They both love history and can remember dates and names so much better than I ever could.   So, why did I laugh? Tonight, as we were discussing different people's quotes, their favorite funny quote was from Daffy Duck . Looking at the bright side...Daffy's better than SpongeBob. Love the quirkiness of my boys!  One just never knows what they will come up with next. Other gifts of today include... More healing of my bum knee...PT is helping me tremendously. Dunkin Donuts coffee after physical therapy. Family game of Monopoly, ...

Today's gift may seem unusual to some, but there are days when the little things are huge! For example, dirty knees on a baseball uniform. Laundry does not always make me smile, but tonight it did. You see, this is no ordinary dirt. This is a reminder of my Alex's slide into home plate tonight. The story begins with his first base hit of the season.  #yay He stole second. Was advanced to third by a teammate's base hit. When on third, Alex ran toward home on a play being made at first base.  He slid in to the base as the ball was making its way to the catcher's glove. The umpire called him safe. It was our team's go-ahead run. The crowd went wild. You should have seen A's smile...and mine. Today's laundry holds more than dirt. Memories were made here.

I am blessed.

Between the innocence of babyhood and the dignity of manhood, we find a delightful creature of a boy. Author: - Unknown God has given me the greatest Mother's Day gift ever possible...two happy, healthy boys. They are a joy! Today's gifts in pictures... Alex's first catch of the day. a large mouth bass and the cricket was still alive for another cast #winwin boys riding their toys in the rain My thought as I was hosing off Alex and the go cart...This is better than Barbie Dolls any day!

Thursday evening Alex's ballgame ended 7-1 with us on the winning side!  We were all so excited for the boys.  It was the best they've played as a team yet. This birthday season just keeps on giving the best gifts for us all. Now, if I can only get on board with taking pictures at a game before the season ends...

Today my gifts came during time spent with my boys. Alex was my p90x workout buddy. Then Tim and I took to the kitchen to make Rice Krispie Treats for his football game tomorrow. Love my boys!

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. Colossians 3:1-4 There is a meme on facebook these days.  People update their status with their favorite Bible verse and then tag a few people to do the same.  Now, if you know anything about me, you could probably tell me back my favorite verses over time.  They were the same for years and years.  And, I still love to go back and read and remember what was going on in life when the Holy Spirit lifted those passages off the pages and straight into my heart. Passages such as John 3:16-17, Jeremiah 29:11-14, Psalm 40:5, Isaiah 48:17 (really, the entire book...spent years studying it in Sunday School, but that's a story in and of...

It may seem strange that today's gifts include a trip to physical therapy and homework from said therapist. But, they were great gifts to this gal who has been suffering for a week with a knee that thinks it's almost 42 years old. :) In addition to feeling better, the pool is warm enough to stick my feet in now. :) Of course, the boys have been swimming off and on for weeks. Another great day of Birthday Season...I am blessed!

My best gift this day was receiving a text out of the blue from a dear friend telling me that she was praying for me. Unknown to her, I was having a very rough day. My knee was hurting and still swollen (after a week), working out was a struggle, and I was just feeling down. Her text came at just the right time. I was reminded that prayer does not necessarily change my circumstances, but it changes my perspective on them. The support I felt at that moment helped me move on through my day with a renewed spirit. God is so good! Other gifts today... *Tim and I had breakfast together to begin our day. He "made" my breakfast by opening my favorite greek yogurt up for me and serving it to me on a tray. :) *Great check ups for both boys at the dentist! So thankful! *Encouragement from my own fitness coach. She's awesome!!! *Playing tennis in the driveway with my boys. I was moving slowly due to my knee issues, but we had tons of fun. *Alex's baseball game provide...

The gifts of this weekend were....family time, roadtripping to Alabama, and NASCAR.

"Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things." ~Robert Brault Today's gifts... sunshine roses my boys family time fishing and s'mores I am blessed in the little things.

The Lord is my strength and my song; He has become my salvation. There are shouts of joy and victory in the tents of the righteous: “The Lord’s right hand performs valiantly! The Lord’s right hand is raised. The Lord’s right hand performs valiantly!” Psalm 118:14-16 And, with May begins the wonderful 31 days of celebrating the little and big things in life. Birthday Season is a time to see the beauty in each day given.  I remember being new at this whole season of birthday idea; not sure of how to truly celebrate each day as it happened.  It was inspiring to see how even the rough and tough days held a little bit of joy.  If searched for, even the cloudy days indeed have a silver lining. So, even though I did not find time to sit and write about May 1 on May 1, it happened to be a great opening day. Beginning with making homemade waffles for the fam (while I enjoyed my favorite Greek yogurt) and ending with Mexican out with friends, I cannot imagine a b...