Lia's Soccer Season

Lia played on the YMCA soccer 3rd-4th grade league again this year.  She likes to play defense in the games and put a lot of heart into playing this year.  I took these pics today from her last game! 

 Go Lia!!!

CP Band Spring Concert

We were "wowed" again by the caliber and talent of Emily's band at College Park.  It is a treat to listen to them play.  Emily is so talented in so many areas... what an amazing young lady she is growing into.

Concert I played 3 pieces of music.  They are lengthy and complex as you are promoted to the higher bands.  So impressed!  The clip below is "Sparks" by Brian Balmages

Lia's May Book Club

We were excited to learn that Rose chose the newly released and much talked about book, The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street for May's book club.  Lia pretty much inhaled this book the day it arrived... I am not terribly surprised to learn she is turning into an avid reader just like her sister.  The craft was to create these adorable brownstones on chunks of wood like those in Harlem where the story is set.  Oh, I love these girls!

That's my Emily Girl...

If anyone was wondering, yes, Emily still reads ALL the time.  In this case, it paid off with CHOCOLATE!  Score.

Thoughts on Motherhood

And a Happy Mother's Day to all the Mom's out there.  I always want to have pictures of me and my children but they don't really like to take them with me... they moan and groan and line themselves up for the torture... I still make them do it and will continue to get my Mother's Day pics as long as I am able!  Not too many are scowling here, so I'll call it a win.  ;-)

This Mother's Day finds me a little contemplative.  Yes, hold on, I'm going to put some big thoughts in writing.  Yes, a little more today than just cute pics of my kids and what they do.

I'm taking notice today that being here on this Earth is a gift and a privilege and that being Mom to my children is a vocation that I have to keep saying "Yes" to each and every day.  If your vocation is your calling and your life's work, I can take comfort in knowing that God has called me to be Mom to my four children.  When I put my heart, soul, and tons of energy into being better each day, my Father in Heaven sees this and is proud of me.  When I get frustrated and angry because my work goes unnoticed, isn't appreciated or even worse resented... my Father in Heaven sees this and I hear the gentle encouragement when I take the time to listen in prayer.  But what about my Mother in Heaven...?

Think about this:  When we were babies in our mother's womb, we had everything we needed.  We were warm, well fed, comfortable and happy.  I've seen the sonogram pics of my kids kicking back with their arms folded behind their heads, sucking their thumb, and I dare say smiling in my womb.  I know they were well fed as they all delivered quite plump.  ;-)  I'm fairly certain they were happy in there.  But then one day, they were told, I like to think by their angel, that the time had come for them to leave the womb and that their new world would be scary at first but that they didn't need to be afraid because they would soon be placed into the arms of their mother who would love them more than her own life.  In my case, it was surgery and they were literally ripped out of that warm comfortable place and thrust into an extremely bright room.  I can only imagine the terror during that process of leaving that comfortable warm and loving place to being in a new and utterly different world that was bright and cold and completely unknown.  Relatively quickly though, my babies made their way to my arms and I was blessed to be able to warm them and even feed them with my own body.  They already knew my voice and were happiest and most at peace when they were close to me.

So what happens when it is our turn to leave this world we are so comfortable in and to step out into eternity?  We don't know how or when our life will end but we do know for certain that it will.  We only walk this Earth for a limited number of days and make our mark for a finite time.  And then what?  Somehow, we will be ripped away from what we know.  It may be quick like how my babies came into this world through surgery.  It may be slow in the way that babies make their way into the world through hours and hours of their mother's hard labor and delivery.  But given what I know about being loved by my mother and what I know of the way I love my children more than my own life, I'm confident our heavenly mother will be there waiting for us.  She will wrap us into her warm and loving embrace and show us the new and completely different world we will step into... She will make sure we are comfortable, she will ease our fears, she will answer all our unending questions and explain what we don't understand and she will certainly ensure that we are well fed as all good mothers do.  Just you wait.

Is it summer yet?

Isaac enjoys splash pads so we are making the rounds so he can check out his options around town.  This is the Village Green Sprayground in Creekside.  It is relatively new and we had not checked it out yet.  Isaac gave it a thumbs up!

Congratulations Miranda and Tim Horton

Emily and I are so glad we could help celebrate this day!!!!

                               

                                   

 Does she have her Daddy's smile or what?

And The City Museum... what a fun venue!  We had a ball playing after the reception.  Can you see my Aunt Debbie climbing in the tube?

Isn't that wild?