the goodness of God and my babies are growing up!

I've been overwhelmed by the love of the Lord lately.  I love how He teaches me things, like about praying and showing me how to do that, through His word.  I've had some pretty amazing conversations with Him lately, and I have come to treasure the time I spend with Him each morning.  I so often sense His presence, because often, when I pray, I'm praying His word.

Have you ever tried that?  If not, then let me encourage you to try it.  It's so powerful, and even Jesus prayed Scripture.

I've been reading this book the past few days.

7.  By Jen Hatmaker.  It's so good!  I've been feeling the need to simplify our lives a bit more, and this book is verifying those feelings.

I came across this quote in the later part of this week that I love, from an Instagram account that I follow called Faith & Composition.

"Your greatest contribution to the Kingdom of God may not be something you do, but someone you raise."

A to the men.

Friday came and found us spending that day with my dad.  We ate.  We picked up paychecks, the first for this boy.

I voted and this one helped me.

Seriously, the ballot was crazy long.  Todd printed out a cheat sheet for me and I went down the list.  He even numbered the pages for me, y'all.  How sweet is that of him?  He knows I lose my place often.  Early voting is over now, but you can vote this Thursday, on August 7th!  Go vote.  I'm not even kidding.

My dad went home and I was left with the boys, and I cooked 5 pounds of ground chuck for Preview Weekend, which is the rising sixth graders' welcome into youth retreat.  It started at six last night, we ate and had a pool party and ice cream sundaes at someone's home, then they all went back to host homes.  There were forty-six kids that were there, who will all be moving up to youth tomorrow in promotion Sunday.  There were two girl host homes and two boy host homes.  We were one of the boys' host homes.

And I cannot believe that my "babies" are going to be in the youth group.  It's crazy how fast time flies~for those of you with little ones at home, the days are long, but the years are short.  I think that quote (from someone I can't remember) perfectly sums up motherhood.  I remember the days when I thought I would never get out of the phase we were in, and it was not fun.  But now that they're older, well...the years fly.  That's all I can say.

While at the pool party, my older boys soaked my poor friend Abbey.  Drew did this to make up for it.

Crazy boy.  He does love to give hugs.  He would just wrap his arms around her and hang on forever.  (He did the same thing to my sister tonight.)  So funny!  He was warm and she was freezing, poor thing.

When we got back to our house, Todd laid down the law and took up all these.

We had eleven boys, plus AJ the youth pastor and Graham, Drew, and Drew's friend Tom.  Plus Toddley and myself for a grand total of seventeen people under our roof.

Which may have something to do with the fact that I got a total of four hours of sleep.  No, not really...the kids were great.  For some reason I could not fall asleep, and I woke up at five fifteen this morning.

They had breakfast here, then they all left at nine thirty and headed to Skyzone.  I bowed out and stayed home.  And slept for the next three hours.  I fell asleep ten minutes after they left and woke up when Todd walked in yelling my name.  :/  Seriously.

We had dinner at my mom's and step dad's tonight.  While we were there and while Jonah was driving the tractor, he drove it under a soccer goal they made last week and the top two by four fell and hit Jonah on the head.  I'm so thankful that he was okay~it hit him in the head and then scraped down his back.  He's got a big knot where it hit him and his back is pretty scraped up, but thankfully he's okay.  He's just now about to go to bed, a good two hours later.

I didn't know my sister could run like she did tonight.  She might pay for it tomorrow.

Just because he's cute and he laid on my pillow after I got out of bed this morning.

And tonight while Drew pumped gas for me, I took this picture.  He's got a scratch near his eye that he acquired last night at the pool party.

(Isn't he handsome?  I think so.)

Well.  Believe it or not, I am still tired and am about to go to bed.  And read, then wake up early in the morning for church, then start over again.  :)  I love the ages of my boys right now, and I am so thankful for our church family and staff, who invest lots of time and effort into the lives of my boys.  I'm trying to just soak up this stage that they're in right now, because I know that these days, too, will pass quickly.

Thanks for reading.  Love to all.