First Day of School!

Well, we survived the first week of school! It was exhausting for all of us. Everything went so well. I couldn't have planned it better myself! The teachers are doing a fantastic job! I am just amazed at the work that everyone has put in to make this week run so smoothly. I am also just totally amazed at the tremendous growth within the school. We ended the year with 81 students enrolled and began this year with 92 students! Of the 81, we lost a little over 40 of them to kindergarten and families moving. I am just thrilled by this! Plus, this is just the beginning of the third year that we have been open. We were looking back at the fire drill records and at this time in 2007 there were 33 students and 6 teachers that participated and this year we had 63 students and 11 teachers! Our program runs on a MWF, T/TH, or M-F basis, so that is why we have 92 enrolled and only 63 that particular day.

Andrew and Madelyn have enjoyed getting back to school- not that they really even left! They have some new friends in their classrooms and are really having a lot of fun...and sleeping great!

Our first day of school picture (on the second day)

This is about as good as it got for me, Madelyn was done!

She was ready to have breakfast!

This is her signature face anytime I come to the door of her classroom!

Andrew enjoyed getting to paint! He loves watercolors!

Watching his friends paint.

This is what Andrew does anytime I walk by and he is on the playground...depending on his mood. Some days I do get totally ignored!

Who's Missing an Appendix?

Not me! But, Jason is. Last Wednesday he had to have his appendix taken out. He started having really bad stomach pain that went from mild discomfort to blinding pain within a matter of a few hours. Thankfully, our doctor happens to be a close friend of ours and so Jason just called his cell phone and he met him at the hospital. After a very quick exam he admitted him for surgery. I was home with the kids and did not want to take them up to the hospital, so he was there by himself for a good while. Once we realized what all was going on I let a few people know and it was kind of late so I didn't expect to get up to the hospital that night. Our pastor had gone up to the hospital to see Jason and then called me and said he'd come stay with the kids so I could go before the surgery. I think he expected them to both be asleep, but Andrew was wide awake! He had a great time playing and showing him everything. I am very appreciative of him coming to keep the kids after a full day of working and Wednesday evening service. It means a lot to us that he truly cares for our family. He doesn't even complain when the kids have to come to our Wednesday staff meetings! I was able to see Jason before the surgery and ask the doctor any questions that I had. My main question was what exactly does his appendix do. The doctor's response was that it buys his daughter a new pair of shoes! I thought that was funny! As they were taking him back to surgery I went home. Our doctor had a good friend of his that is a surgeon do the appendectomy, but came back for the surgery and to be there while Jason was in recovery. He is truly a wonderful friend to us. I took the kids up to the hospital Thursday, because he had to stay another night, and we had a fun time actually! Andrew wondered the halls and asked a million questions to any nurse, doctor, or other hospital worker. We finally had to leave when he started taking apart Jason's IV. We picked Jason up on Friday and he had to stay home from work this week. He wasn't able to lift anything over 20 pounds or drive, and was just supposed to take it easy. I, on the other hand, had a school to get ready! As awful as it was for him, it really happened at a difficult time for me, but it ended up working out well, because he could stay home with Madelyn and I could take Andrew to work with me. It was nice to spend some time with just Andrew and Jason had a great time with Madelyn. So, that is what's been going on around our house.

Here are some pictures from the last couple of weeks.

Madelyn's wild bathtime hair!
Andrew wanted to clean his ears! Don't worry, they are the safety q-tips!

Andrew loves to pile everything in the center of his bedroom.

Madelyn finally outgrew the infant car seat and got a new big girl seat! Andrew thinks that he needs a new carseat too, because Madelyn got one.

We went swimming (the night before the appendectomy) with some friends. Andrew didn't want me to take his picture.

Andrew has started putting his hands on his hips- I think he gets that from me!

The pool was just perfect, it had a wading area that was excellent for him to play in and he loved it! Our neighborhood pool is supposed to be just like this pool. I'm looking forward to that for next summer with both kids. It should be a much easier summer since I did so much work to get things ready for the start of school this summer that I shouldn't have near the prep work next summer.

Andrew wanted to show Madelyn how to use her tea set.

She enjoyed her tea party!

Madelyn's new favorite place to play is her pack-n-play. I think that she feels safe in it, because Andrew can't tackle her or take her toys!

A potty time success!

He wanted to wear his houseshoes the other day. Just the houseshoes.

Madelyn has started following Gracey and wants to pet her. Gracey is such a good dog when it comes to the kids. She'll let them climb all over her and is never too rough with them.

Andrew wanted Gracey to lay with him the other night. He kept coming to me and telling me that Gracey was not being very still!

Andrew likes to pretend to shave with his toy razor. He also likes the crayola fingerpaint soap. Tonight he was using both and it looked really funny, because it was bright red soap and he had his razor...it looked like a shaving disaster!

Well, that's pretty much all we've been up to lately. I had inservice the last two days and we start school on Monday! I am anxious to get that going. I feel confident that it is going to be a great year!

The Book

I bought The Land Between on Saturday evening and finished it Saturday evening-techinically Sunday morning at 12:45am. I could not put it down. The words flowed from the pages and it was just as perfect as I hoped it would be! I feel like I have a much better understanding of what God means when he says "I know the plans I have for you....." because, he does. He has it all figured out! That's hard for me to grasp sometimes, because I think I have it all figured out and surprise, surprise- I don't! Which thank goodness, because life would be really boring if it followed all of my type A plans.

There were so many different parts of the book that I could share, but the one that stood out to me the most was in the part about complaint. There were 5 parts in the book and complaint (I believe...) was the first part. It was so funny hearing him describe the complaints that the Isrealites were making on their trek through the desert. They complained because they didn't have water (I'm going to say that is a justifiable complaint) then, they found water, but it was bitter. So God told Moses to put his staff in the water and it became clean. Praise God! or...continue to complain. That's what they did. The complained about food, so God provided manna from heaven. Somedays I wish God would provide manna from heaven for me. It would make the mealtime battles so much easier. They got sick of the manna (I get that, I probably would too) and that's when they started complaining about going back to Egypt where they had meat and fruit and vegetables all that they could want.

Here are a few interesting things I learned:
1. The Isrealites had been in bondage in Egypt since Joseph was sold into slavery in the book of Genesis. So, they knew of the story of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob and they knew that God had provided for them, but they also were immersed in the Egyptian culture. As we know, the Egyptions were idol worshipers. They didn't believe in the one true God. They had multiple Gods, so the Isrealites were influenced in many ways by the Egyptian culture. Trusting in God was difficult for them, because it wasn't all they knew. Good thing they got out of there!
2. This was not in the book, but totally relates. Walking from Egypt to Canaan would have only taken them 11 DAYS!!! Only 11 days (thank you Mel for this insight!). As it relates to the book, they were on their here to there journey and just couldn't get there. Most of the original slaves didn't ever even make it to the promised land, because they never did have faith in God like he wanted. What a waste!
3. This was one of my favorite parts. He quoted one of Moses' prayers after listening to all the complaints. He asked God why he had put him in charge of these people. He said they were not his children and he did not give birth to them. Why should he have to take care of them...and on and on. He was honest with God. He told him exactly what was bothering him. He didn't hide it from God and complain to other people. He clearly voiced his opinion to God and God appreciated his honesty. God then told him to find 70 elders and bring them to the tent of meeting and God would come and lay his Spirit among them to carry some of the burden so it wasn't all on Moses. I thought that was great! He went on to say that being honest with God is important (even though he already knows) we should still have enough faith in Him to give him our burdens when we don't think we can do it anymore. He also goes on to tell about Elijah doing the same. When Queen Jezebel decided that she would kill him he fled to the wilderness and cried out to God saying that he cursed the day he was born and wished that he would die. After that, an angel woke him up and God had prepared a meal for him. In the book he said that instead of God getting upset with him for being so angry, he thought, you must be really upset, here let me cook you some dinner and maybe you'll feel better. How nice!

So, where to go from here. Stop complaining. Easier said then done when you are a habitual complainer such as I. I can complain about anything and pretty much do. So, for the last couple of days I have not been complaining. I've expressed frustration, but not just sat down and complained. I feel better about it too!

Jason is now reading the book. He's reading a chapter a night and then we talk about it. That's fun to do. How he can only read one chapter and not keep going just blows my mind, but that's how he likes to do it. And I'm not complaining!

The Land Between

*This is not my typical blog post. It's not about the kids and the fun things that we do together, this is about life. Specifically my life. It is very rare for me to be open to many (and by many I mean the 12 people who read this blog! ha) about myself. I tend to be a little guarded in what I say and maybe that is why I don't say much about me. I'm sure you are all trembling at what I plan to say! Or clicking the exit button! But, here is a little openness from me and some things I've learned recently.

Our church staff attended the Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit via satelite location at Grace Point Church in Bentonville. The summit consists of two days of intense and uplifiting leadership advice from pastors, ceo's of high profile companies, and business thinkers based around Christian principles and how you can apply these things in your leadership where you are. I was initially excited about this opportunity, but unsure about what this would mean to me, a preschool director. I was excited to spend time with our church staff who, in my opinion, is made up of some of the strongest Christians that I have had the privledge of knowing. I feel a little unworthy of my role within the church standing next to people like them, but I know wholeheartedly that God has placed me in this role to carry out the plans he has for me.

The first speaker of the summit was Bill Hybels, who is the pastor of Willow Creek Community Church in South Barington, IL, where the summit was held. He has written many books, but was speaking from his latest book Whispers From God. He focused on the journey from "here" to "there". Your here and there and my here and there are all together different, but the journey is ultimately the same. You are fired up at the beginning, knowing that you've got great plans and excited to get started. When the finish is in sight you are inspired to follow through with what you started and cannot wait to complete your task. The difficulty is found in the middle. This is when you can lose your focus, stumble, and forget your goal. This is where setbacks occur and often times people give up. It is this middle that you need to truly focus on and celebrate the milestones on the journey from here to there. Throughout all the speakers the common thread was getting from here to there with your team of people, your congregation, or even within yourself.

I felt convicted almost instantly, because I am on a journey from here to there. My here and there is really irrelevant, but it is a difficult journey to say the least. The summit opened today with a pastor named Jeff Manion. I literally sat in my seat and felt that he was speaking directly to me...via satelite none the less! His talk was called The Land Between and he has written a book with that title (if they hadn't sold out at the summit, I would've bought one and been reading it instead of writing this! I guess a trip to Border's is on the agenda for tomorrow). He began by telling the story of Moses and the Israelites wondering in the desert. They were on a journey from here (Egypt) to there (Canaan) and were hanging out in The Land Between with only manna (which translates to "what is it?"...seriously that's what it means) and were complaining to Moses of how awful it was to only have manna when hey had meat and fish to eat in Egypt. They wanted to go back to Egypt, where they were slaves, because it seemed better to them then where they were. Seems like a crazy thought, but it rings true. It's easier to go back then forward sometimes when you see the same thing over and over again. He goes on to say that The Land Between is fertile ground for emotional meltdown and boy did they have one. Read Numbers chapter 11 for full detail on this. He goes on to say that The Land Between is fertile ground for God's provision and God's discipline, but ultimatly The Land Between is fertile ground for transformational growth. In The Land Between God is telling us, showing us, leading us to trust in him, depend on him, and pray to him. It is here where we have the choice to grow or to lose faith. WOW! Just think on that for a minute.....

God is leading us on a journey from "here to there" wherever your here to there may be. It could be within your job, your home, your family, relationships, etc. Wherever your journey is in your unique season of life, God is there to lead you and all you have to do is have faith in him. The Land Between is where God does some of his richest works. I'm reminded of Moses, Elijah, Joseph, David, Samuel, and the list goes on and on and on.

His closing remarks were this, "someone here today needed to hear this." I almost raised my hand that I did. I needed this. I am the one you're talking about. Then I realized it was via satelite and he couldn't see my hand! He also said that in our lives complaint resists eviction- it won't leave. If you continuously complain it will never go away, but trust in God can evict complaining. All you have to do is trust that God is with you as you journey through your Land Between and you will get "there" and be stronger from the ups and downs and highs and lows along the way.

I feel like I am changed from hearing this and from attending this conference. The moments that stood out to me and said things to me were many. There were phenominal speakers who gave insights that I never would have thought of and will truly benefit the way I lead, not just at work, but everywhere. When Pastor Alan asked if this was something I would like to do again I didn't hesitate to say yes! I have August 11-12 2011 marked on my calendar and in the meantime I will be exploring the digital resources that they have availiable. They have Jeff Manion's The Land Between series of sermons that he did at his church in Michigan on there and I cannot wait to hear them!

So, that is me speaking from a place that I don't normally speak from and who knows, maybe I'll do it again!

Summer Fun!

Here are a few pictures from the last few weeks. We had a police officer come visit the preschool and she let the kids climb all around her car! Andrew thought it was really great, until she turned the siren on. He did not like that at all!

Andrew decided that he needed to put on his Daddy's shoes and socks and get my bag, because he needed to go to work!

We let Madelyn try out the swing. The first time I let her try she cried, but this time she thought it was really fun and laughed out loud when I would push her!

We went to the Splash Park on Friday with some friends. This was the only picture of Andrew in the water. He got one good spray and was done! We stayed about 25 minutes. It was sooo hot!