Introducing....

Clyde

You may be wondering why I would be introducing a horse, ridden in this picture by a complete stranger. As of yesterday, Clyde has a new name....Clyde Macchi! My mother-in-law, Pam, has had a lifelong dream of owning a horse. And now she is the thrilled owner of a 4 year old half paint/half quarter horse. He is beautiful! Welcome, Clyde. I think all of us have a special place in our hearts reserved just for you...

I want you to notice the people in the background of this particular picture. Yep, that's Seth and me! Our very good friends actually live here where Clyde lives. This ranch hosts horse shows periodically and our friends invited us out to watch this particular day. Little did I know that just a few months later, this horse that so obviously caught my attention would become part of the family.

Training

For the past months, Seth and I have been training. Lots and lots of running. Our lives have revolved around running. Can we go out and have dinner? Nooo, we have to go out and run. It's the weekend. Can we sleep in? Nooo, we need to get up and run.
It has been an interesting journey, this marathon training. It simply began for a half marathon but somewhere in there, it changed. The call to go higher, I guess you could say. Now 26.2 miles looms before me like a mountain I'm not sure I am able to climb. But inside I feel the challenge and say "Okay, let's do it."
Last night, Seth and I ran almost 18 miles together. It's a terrible process to go through. The breakdown of physical, mental, and emotional capabilities. Until all that is left is the resolve to get home. One foot down...good...next foot down...good. There are also the nice parts. The second and third and fourth winds that come unexpectedly and you think you can run forever. The moment of finish when you cannot believe you have run that far.
I will save you the plethora of spiritual analogies the Lord has shown me through this training. All I will say is that Paul spoke of "running the race" for a good reason. It makes total sense to me why he would use this as a picture of our lives in the Lord.
Seth and I will be running this race on October 2oth. Goal? To cross that finish line in whatever fashion seems fit, although I would like to stay away from the hands and knees crawl. Too dramatic for my taste...

Out of the Blue

"Mom, do you have a baby in your belly?"
"No."
"Well, when are you going to have one?"
"I don't know."
"I bet Heaven is just filled with babies."

I bet Elijah is right.

How Old Are You?

2
Dos
Deux
Zwei
Due
Two

Here it is...The Pout

Aaannd we are back to normal

First Day of School

It was not quite how I have envisioned it for the last five years. There were no tears, no moments of "my baaaby", no shuffling off to kindergarten bright and shiny with new school clothes and a brand new backpack. Instead, Elijah and I sat down at the table with a pile of workbooks and a pencil. We began kindergarten in our kitchen at 9am.
If I have not made it obvious enough, I am homeschooling Eli this year. For five years I took a pretty opinionated stance on this subject. I believed that it just would not happen. I could never have the patience for it. Elijah loves being around other kids. As he grew older, I became more and more convinced that traditional school was definitely the path we were going to take. And it all changed this summer.
We tried every door available to us. We took a tour of the brand new public elementary school 2 minutes from our house. As we walked through the school, the discernment that we had prayed for gave us a pretty solid "no". We checked into private schools in our area. We decided that $4900 was a bit too much for, um, kindergarten!
So we prayed and prayed and prayed. The Lord finally put me in a place where I said that if He wanted me to homeschool, I would do it. Truthfully, I didn't really mean it. But then no other doors opened up. So I said it again and this time, I kind of meant it. Which surprised me. Time was running out. August 16th (first day of school in our district) was quickly approaching and we had no game plan. My one last hang-up was Eli and how he felt about going to school. So I asked him what he thought about homeschooling. Within five minutes of not much convincing on my part, he told me he "decided" he wanted to homeschool. Not to uber-spiritualize it all, but when he said this, I totally felt a peace. I knew that this year, we were going to do this thing. And it was cool.
Yesterday we began. And it was fun. The best part was the reminder of what an amazing kid Elijah is. Despite the stubborn-ness (I can't EVEN imagine where he got that from!) that rears its head on a pretty regular basis, there are so many layers the Lord designed in my son. What a privilege to be able to spend concentrated time this year, gently opening these layers up, revealing the beauty of Elijah's personality and giftings.
Yes, it's going to be a good year.

Ya Think So?

Yeah, he's pretty cute.