School begins in two weeks and we have two middle- schoolers. Wow.
Here is our summer 2013 recap (not in any sort of order, just how it popped into my head):
This summer Lisa ran in a track club. We all benefited from it, but it made for long weekdays. She had practice M-Th from 6-8 pm. I logged over 72 running (OK more like jogging) miles the month of July. Pretty good since I am not training for anything in particular. Mike is training for a rim2rim2rim (R2R2R) at the Grand Canyon in November with Brandon and some other guys. It is motivational to have something to work towards, or at least have somebody in the family working towards something :-)
Katie played basketball this summer. Her games were every Wednesday for 7 weeks at 8 pm usually. Thankfully, track practice was at a high school and BB was at a middle school 1 mile away.
It made for a busy but physically active summer. I am extremely thankful for our health and that God has given us the ability to run and walk. In my job, I review all of the mortality for the hospital system, so I am reminded everyday how precious our lives are and that health is a gift from God. We honor God not only in the food we choose to eat, but also in maintaining an active lifestyle. That is not to say we can control every disease or sickness that happens to us, but it really helps me keep food in perspective. With that being said, I am on day 8 of doing the whole 30 plan again. I did it back in January and it was awesome. I kept it up for February and then started eating more bread products. So back to lots of veggies, lean proteins and fruit. No sweets/white foods/processed food. I feel more energetic and headaches have pretty much disappeared (I had a really bad migraine a couple of weeks ago--so bad that it caused capillaries in my eye to burst--not fun). When I eat healthy, the whole family does too--imagine that!
Lisa got to sew at Threads of Love with our friend Sheila on Tuesdays throughout the summer. She made little outfits for the premature babies in the NICU's around San Antonio. She would hang out with all of these ladies with tons of sewing experience and learn from them the fine art of sewing. She is very creative and the ladies loved having her around. She also went on a mission trip with our church to an area of San Antonio where homes needed lots of work and people needed the love of Christ shown. Her experience was a good one and her pictures were hysterical--for example: stray cats and dogs, the food they ate, the showers they used...Oh the world through the eyes of a teenager.
Katie and Lisa both volunteered at VBS. This same week Evie, Lisa's best friend, came and stayed with us for the week. Her mom Beth, one of my closest friends, came down with Lawton and they stayed with us for a few days. It was so much fun and so uplifting.
Mike took the girls snorkeling at Canyon lake and Landa Park a few times this summer. They loved it. We are thinking about a Caribbean vacation next summer that would involve a beach and snorkeling.
We did go to the coast for a long weekend. We met Brandon, Lisa and their 4 girls and had a great time.
We have been having a wonderful summer with our small group. I have been leading the preteens/teens through a Bible study called Follow Me by David Platt. The adults are going through Ray Vanderlaan's "In the Dust of the Rabbi" and the little one's are being read "The Little Pilgrim's Progress" by one of the adults. It is awesome.
I also took both girls (individually) through Passport to Purity. It is a CD kit from Family Life that I highly recommend. It was a Friday evening and Saturday until about 3 pm (It is recommended for 6th graders, moms take daughters through it and dads take their sons). We listened to the CD's and had discussions and also had projects to complete and then I ended it at James Avery where they picked out a ring. Their first ring. I had it packaged and brought it home where Mike got the opportunity to talk to his daughter about how we are responsible to teach her and help her set boundaries in her relationships, how Christ should have preeminence in her life and how He wants her to remain pure until she is married. He then put the ring on her finger and said that the next man to put a ring on that finger will be her future husband.
Cue the tears.
Oh. My. Goodness. Wasn't it just yesterday we were rocking them to sleep?
