Labor Day 2020

 Labor Day weekend was quiet this year. Not that we usually have a huge celebration or anything, but this year we mostly stayed home to avoid large crowds even at outdoor venues. The weather was gorgeous all weekend and on Monday the boys headed out to get some produce at a local stand, drop some mail off at Julia's house, and then we headed up the blue ridge parkway a bit to have a picnic and go on a short hike.

It was one of those rare days where everyone was in a good mood, the hike was easy and fun, the weather of course was perfect and we all had a good time. I love days like that.

August Phone Dump

 

In late August we headed over to Lyle's and Melissa's house for a quick weekend trip to visit the cousins. We hadn't seen them since October! I hate going so long without a visit. Mom came up and we had a good time just hanging out and catching up. I can't believe how big all of these kids are getting :) Courtney's family, and Julia and Nathan were definitely missed. 

Lately Carson has been really loving smoothies. Which is not my favorite thing to make, but it makes him very happy! If he keeps this up I am going to have to invest in a decent blender. Ours was a wedding gift and just barely gets the job done. 

The other treat he likes (and I do too) are these yogurt parfaits. Strawberry Cheesecake Lite &Fit yogurt, layered with fruit, graham cracker crumbs, and reddi-whip on top. They are delicious.

A couple of months ago I started going for a morning walk every day with Bentley. Our walk is just under 2.5 miles and I almost look forward to it every morning. I'll probably talk more about this new habit later, but one perk is that some mornings gift me with a gorgeous sunrise. 

We've been working to finally clean out our mess of a basement. Our basement is huge, but a lot of wasted space because of how much stuff we have stored down there. We donated a ton of baby and toddler items (which almost broke my heart), but we also found this stroller. It was eventually donated, but Carver played with it for days before we took it to a local charity.

For school this year, our county had a couple of options. One was to be virtual only. The other was a hybrid model-- one week on campus and one week at home on a rotating schedule. This would reduce class size and enable better social distancing. For the start of this year, the county decided on one week on campus (two days-- either mon/wed or tues/thurs) to get everyone set up with their devices, etc., then they went to all virtual for at least the first five weeks. We are waiting to hear what they decide to do after that, but I am thankful that the boys got to have a first day of school of some sort.  

I was recently introduced to a new blogger (thanks Jenny!) and she wrote about how she does an annual back to school dinner the night before the first day of school. Y'all know I like any excuse to celebrate something with a theme, so this year I had our first annual back to school dinner! The theme was "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade." It was really fun to plan and all of the decorations were cheap and easy to find on amazon and etsy. We had chicken pillows, which is their current favorite dinner, and overall I think they enjoyed it! 

I have not missed packing school lunches. But at least I only had to do it two days so far...

We set up a small school area in our sunroom. Nothing fancy, but I like having a place for them to keep all of their school stuff and their computers. 

On August 13th Daniel and I had our 15th wedding anniversary. Which seems crazy. We didn't do much-- we don't really celebrate things like that very often. But we did go out to dinner and this was the only picture I took. Chocolate creme brulee from the French Broad Chocolate Lounge. It was amazing. 

Occasionally my daily walks happen in the evenings. On this particular day I got about a half mile from my house when it started raining. just minutes later it stopped (after I was soaked of course) and this incredible rainbow appeared. It is the prettiest rainbow I have ever seen. I took pictures and stood watching it for a long time. 

Our friendly neighborhood bear. Well, I don't know if he is friendly, but he seems nice. He's tiny-- not with his mama anymore, but still very young. We see him (her?) fairly regularly. 

The Very Best Day

 It is interesting, the whole parenting thing. It is exciting and terrifying and exhausting and confusing. It's a lot of fun too, of course. I have never prayed more in my entire life than I have in the last decade since Carver was born. Since the moment I found out I was pregnant actually. Each year (or hour, day, month...) brought different things to pray about for them. Sometimes it was questionable behaviors that made me fear I was raising a sociopath...or two. Sometimes it was medical or health stuff that kept me up at night. Sometimes I was worried about them making friends and learning to be kind to others. The prayers were often different, depending on the age or phase that each kid was in at the time. But only one prayer really remained constant. A repetitive prayer, deep in my soul. My very greatest wish for them. My biggest hope. That they know Jesus. Not because they know the Bible stories from reading them every night and being at church every Sunday and Wednesday. Not because they want to please us. But because they felt it in their souls too. The truth of God. The promises of the Bible. The hope in Jesus. The love. 

And after years of praying and teaching and (hopefully) modeling faith to the boys, each one made their own professions of faith. Carson in April, and Carver in July.

And as expected, Carson's moment of salvation was easy and not unexpected- he was happy and confident and sweet. Carver's was a wrestling of the soul. A tearful, emotional, question-filled night that can only be described as holy. Both were so special and unique to them and I was able to pray with each of them. I am so grateful to have been a part of those moments.

On August 18th they were both baptized in the lake at Camp Ridgecrest by the children's pastor at our church, Pastor Matt Sutton. I am thankful they were baptized by someone we consider a friend. Because of Covid, it was a small gathering, but it was a beautiful night. 

An answer to years of prayer. I will never forget a moment of it.