BE RARE....

I had the privilege to meet together with some wonderful friends who have all walked the adoption journey and all have a special needs kids who were featured on Reeces Rainbow. We get together at least once a year to share stories, laughs, woes, and our hearts. It was so nice to sit together and be an encouragement to each other. While the adoption journey has not been easy for all of us, it was part of God's plan for each of us, and what a wonderful plan it is. A big thank you to these godly ladies and thank you to Kristin who gave us our mantra which was taken from a Proverbs 31 devotion...... BE RARE!! I love this saying. A Proverbs 31 woman is rare to find and one to be treasured . It is what I aspire to be..... RARE!

Sometimes you just need to take your clothes off and dance in the rain..... then slide in the mud.... then get a REALLY long bath! It rained a lot last week and we made the most of it.

That time of year again...... Hunting

You have to get up early to get the birds!!

He's better than a retriever!~

Fall is here! Can you feel it??? I definately do. Football season is back (Mike is thrilled) and also Hunting season is back! Noah wanted to go with Mike dove hunting this year so they got up early and went. Don't worry, Noah is NOT carrying a real gun. He has a pretend shotgun that makes real shotgun noises so he's happy. They ended up shooting 7 birds. He helped Mike clean the birds and prepare them to eat. The rule at our house is that if you are going to shoot it you have to eat it, no waste here. So, we ate them and the kids loved them!!

Tonight we took the kids to the airport to watch the planes land and take off. I thought Noah would be the most interested but Laurel absolutely LOVED it. We may have a future pilot on our hands. As we were leaving, Noah told us he wanted to "be the one who sat in the big tower and told people to get out of the way because planes were landing." I can see the markings of a great Air Traffic Controller! :)

A Rant.....

Their eyes & ears are ALWAYS watching us!
Easy Access! REALLY????!!!!!!!
I'm warning you. This post is a bit different. You won't see pictures of my babies and hear of their latest "escapades". This post can definately be classified as a "rant". Now, usually I hate rants. I don't have enough time/energy to care enough about a subject to rant, BUT, not today. Since the weather has been a bit cooler, I have packed the babies up for picnics and we've found several new parks around to amuse ourselves in. Ooops..... I wasn't suppose to bring them into this but Oh well. Anyway, something that I have notice AT EVERY SINGLE PARK is the parents with the cell phone glued to their ear or hand. They all have it; that vacant, glassy eyed stare that one gets while looking up Google, Facebook, Blogger, Email or whatever else captures their attention. Their kid gets on the playground and immediately, without hesitation, like an addict to their drug of choice, the parent whips out that phone and begins to surf. Forget that their toddler has just learned to slide down the big slide or that their 5 yr. old just mastered the monkey bars for the first time. Forget that a bigger kid is throwing sand at their child and their child is screaming "Mommy!!" over and over to try to get the parent to look at them. Nope, none of it registers. What matters is what OTHER people are doing in their lives and can be found at the touch of a button. What matters is what so and so ate for breakfast today or who made who mad on Facebook.

It makes me so sad. I think our society is losing the ability to communicate face to face. We are losing the ability to carry on decent, real life conversations about something other than "other people's" lives. We miss so much of that critical one on one time with our kids that we can never get back. We don't look into their eyes and really listen when they are talking to them b/c we can be "Uh huhing" them and surfing our precious internet at the same time..... b/c you never know, God fobid that we miss what our old high school friend wore to her party last night.

So I've had to change some things. I don't carry my house phone or cell phone around with me constantly. If I miss a call then they'll call back or leave a message. I can't listen to everyone else's problems and miss helping my kids with theirs. I don't mind helping others or talking to other people for fun (heaven knows I can TALK) :) but I have realized that it is very easy to get wrapped up in others dramas and become not only physically unavailable for my kids/husband but emotionally unavailable as well b/c I'm so worried about someone else's problem that I can't fix and should just really pray about in the first place. I don't have the newest 4 G (whatever that is) phone that walks and talks. Why?? Because I'm ashamed to say it would tempt me. I would like to see what other "bloggers" or "friends" are doing and what I'm missing. Really??!!! Is that it? What I'm MISSING?? How about what I have right in front of me. I love my life, my husband, my family and my children. 20 yrs. from now I want to remember the look of joy that Laurel got when she learned to pump in the swing herself. I want to remember the squeals that Noah made when he was included in a game of tag with some other boys on the playground. THAT is what I want to remember. I don't want to live anyone else's life via internet. I like mine just fine thank you!
So here's to living a little bit more of an unplugged life.
End of Rant :)