Catching Up...

WARNING... This will be a long post. If you're not into that, then skip this one and come back next week. Life has been flying by once again, and I'm finding a little bit of quiet time today to catch my breath and catch up on some thoughts.

First of all, thank you all for praying for this friend who was seriously hurt recently. She wound up having a fractured skull, five broken ribs, two fractures in her spine, a dis-located shoulder, and a broken arm. The bleeding in her brain stopped and she is now home starting what will be a very long recovery process.

Our summer officially started almost two weeks ago. We went on our annual blueberry picking trip. The boys and I look forward to this every year. We have so much fun! It's a very beautiful place and you can't help but feel the presence of God. Each year the boys pick more and more and this year I actually had to stop them. Lucas picked almost FIVE pounds all by himself! We left with close to NINE pounds of blueberries. I am very sad to have to tell you that there are no pictures of our trip this year. The camera was M.I.A. the day of our trip. :0(

A couple of days after our blueberry trip, we took a trip down to the river. We had heard about a great spot to fish from some friends. We packed ourselves up and headed out the door in our trusty ol' mini-van with fishing poles in tow. WOW... were we in for a surprise when we arrived! It wasn't quite a hike down to the river... it was more like rock climbing. I've never done this before, and neither have the boys. We've been on some pretty long and often treacherous hikes, but NEVER anything like this one! There are so many details to share about this trip that my brain STILL feels a traffic jam when even thinking about it. The one thing I remember the most is sitting on a rock down IN the river. My husband and boys were out of sight and they had been for awhile. I had stayed back because we had spotted several snakes, and quite frankly, it had REALLY freaked me out! I sat there for awhile and took pictures. It was a beautiful place. It truly made me wonder if this is what the Garden of Eden had looked like. Anyhow, I sat and after awhile, I began to worry (yes, dad, I know). All kinds of images were going through my head.

What if someone had been bitten by a rattle snake?

What if someone had fallen down one of the many waterfalls?

What if one of the boys went too far ahead of Jason and now he can't find him?

I pulled my cell phone out... no signal... FABULOUS!

I knew then what to do. I started to pray. I prayed out loud. I prayed and prayed that everyone was okay and that they would return soon. I prayed for protection over my family and myself like I had never done before. I knew God heard me, and I knew it pleased Him that I didn't worry too long before deciding to go to Him. It never ceases to amaze me... the clever ways in which He decides to remind me to put my trust in Him.

They returned soon after that, and after climbing back up those rocks and trecking out of the forest, we drove to civilization and got pizza for dinner. Good times... great stories... memories of summer. Ahhhhh...

This weekend my mom surprised me with flying my sister out from Philly. It was a fantastic surprise, Mom. Sis and I had a great day of hanging out with the boys together yesterday. Last night we drove up to my dad's and surprised him. I honestly don't know what is better... being the surprisEE, or the surprisER. It was fun! She will be here for a couple of weeks, so I'm very excited about spending time with each other. I've promised myself not to think about the "good-byes" that will come later this month.

I've really been enjoying my boys. They are growing too fast. I look at them sometimes and just start to cry. I know that every moment we share is one that will soon be behind me and that someday I will look back on these days and long to have them back. I will crave the craziness in the car. I will WANT to be interrupted FIFTY times while trying to get one thought typed out. I will feel the NEED to call them up and ask them to go get ice cream with me on a lazy, hot summer day. These boys are precious to me and I'm so thankful to be sharing life with them.

The theme that has been resonating through my mind and heart lately is just 'Make it last'. Somehow, there's GOT to be a way to just make time slow down, right? Whether it be so that I can enjoy these next couple of weeks with my sister before she heads back East again, or so that my boys and I can sit and lick our ice creams longer... it can happen!

Make it last... enjoy the "right now", whatever it may be. Soak up the beauty of each moment and LET the world surprise YOU!