A Joyful Blue Monday

Kay Warren

This past weekend we had visitors! Sara and Barrett, along with Brady and Noah, came for the weekend bringing other visitors with them. It was a full house, but it was a good weekend and my thoughts about these extra visitors was they would always be welcome. Such sweet boys! Well-behaved, polite kids and I hope Sara will be sure to let their parents know.

Brady with two of his teammates getting ready

for the first game of the tournament.

Alex is the older brother of Kevin, the goalie.

Kevin's parents would not let Kevin travel alone

and so his brother Alex came along for the ride!

The team was thankful their goalie could be there.

Grandpa enjoying the game. The sun was

absolutely brilliant all weekend.

After the first game, Grandpa and I took Noah to see the movie Pete's Dragon and have lunch. Noah declared it was the best movie he had ever seen, beating out even the Jungle Book! I was glad we got to experience that with him and agree that it was a wonderful movie. I may go see it again myself! After the movie we went to Wal-Mart and picked up a Lego set for him to build. 

Ta-da!

Noah wanted to play Farkel again! He loves that game and more than that, he loves to win! He did the happy dance a few times and yes, he beat me every time!

Sleeping arrangements worked out just fine for everybody!

Noah plays soccer too, but this weekend he is just

resting during the games. (Maybe a little bored!)

Each year on Labor Day weekend, our senior pastor's wife, Miss Geni, holds a ladies conference called Rejuvenate. Everybody take a deep breath as we switch over from summer vacation to the start of a new school year, head into the holidays, and then another new year. This past Saturday I invited Sara to come along with me, which she did, and because the soccer team was involved elsewhere, we took Noah along with us! The topic of the conference was "joy" and it was rich with ideas about choosing joy each day and sprinkling joy on others. Sara and I both had a chance to talk about things that bring joy, and the takeaway for us from the conference was good. In addition to what we heard, a gift to us from our Pastor and his wife was a book by Kay Warren, Choose Joy, which is pictured above.

But our joy was much greater later when we learned that while we were in "joying" the conference, Noah was in Gracekids and he asked Jesus to come into his heart! What a joy filled moment for us it was to hear him tell us about what he had learned in Gracekids. 

The kids are all growing up! The above items are no longer needed. Feeling a little blue about that only because I love babies, but it is truly a joy to watch them as they mature and excel each step along the way. My prayer is that they will each grow in the grace and the knowledge of Jesus Christ and know how deep, how wide, how long, and how high is the Father's love for each of them.