Me and the Boys

...that's my life around here these days. :)

My brothers continually make me laugh. All the time.

 Even when I really don't want to.

My sister also makes me laugh. But she's gone.

Sad, I know. But she will be coming back. :)

But I'm so crazy excited with all that she is learning, and what God is going to do through her surrendered life. God writes beautiful stories. And I get to have a front seat in this one.

{I would say "more on this later", but I don't want to make promises that I might not keep, nor get your hopes up of hearing the wonderful path that God is leading my sister...so I won't say anything.}

And in other completely off-the-wall news, my little brother's gerbil had babies. Two hairless little things the size of a two-year olds pinky. They are diligently learning how to be cute, but they aren't quite there yet. 

"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, 

that we should be called the children of God!"

1 John 3:1

Beach!!!

How about you transport yourself back several months. Like about four months. It was in May. A chilly, cloudy day in May when we found ourselves at the beach. On our way home the vote was unanimous--yes to the beach! So we backtracked 4 hours out of our way to camp on Assateague Islands.

Best. decision. ever.

Family all together. Waves crashing into the soft sand. Zipped up in a warm sleeping--I didn't think life could get better. But than again, I'm a sucker for the ocean/beach/water.

Granted it wasn't perfect beachy-swim weather. (I don't think we saw the sun once and it remained breezy and cloudy.) But when you live in the midwest...it doesn't really matter, ya take what you can get. And we did. We pulled up a couple hours before dark, quickly set up our tents in the sand, slapped our swimsuit on and ran into the water.

Cold.cold.fun. it literally whipped the breath right out of you. But it was the perfect thing to do after riding in the car most of the day. We soon retreated back to our campsite (yards from the water itself), once mom couldn't see good enough to count heads.  Our only issue was the sand. The air was a mix between rain and mist and the result was that it made everything sticky.

These are the guys that push me to do more than I ever thought possible. Strength, determination and discipline. Can't wait to see what God does with those qualities. Not to mention the splash of humor that keeps me laughing.

The morning started with a walk along the water with my hoodie on. With the waves crashing in I marveled at my God. The sheer creativity and strength and power. Indescribable. 

The next several hours after breakfast were spent riding the waves. Mom bought two boogie-like boards at a little shop nearby. Way fun. It took a bit, but we finally got the hang of paddling out and than riding the wave all the way back to shore. Ahhh...good times. Nobody wanted to leave. However we could only be in the water for about 30 min before we had to come back to shore and warm up. So pushups and burpees came into effect here and soon it was back to the waves.

God is good.

There. Now you can return to September. Thanks for going back in time with me!