a pouring out of blessings

Have you ever read the Nancy Drew mystery The Secret of Shadow Ranch? In it, the treasure that Nancy and her friends find a treasure box full of heart shaped gold. That is such a great symbol for what God has been doing for me/us. I feel like God has us standing under a waterfall of little gold shaped hearts (i.e; the blessings of my life).

Some of the gold hearts that He has poured out for us:

1) Jeff's job--the fact that he was hired in the first place was a huge blessing, the fact that he was signed on a second time during a budget crisis was ginormous.

2) Free Trip to Magic Mountain--sign me up to chaperon next year! The day was perfect, Jeff and I had the morning to ourselves. After a free lunch at an all-you-can-eat buffet, we enjoyed the rest of the afternoon bonding with a few of his students.

3) Jeff and I enjoyed a free night at the Apple Farm in SLO, with a free dinner for two. That was a room with a king size bed, cable television, and no children. And the dinner? ANYTHING on the menu. It was a great night!

4) Sunday at church, someone approached me about a family trip we've been wanting to take to Disneyland. We finally set a date and have been praying for God to provide the funds. Lo and behold, the person who approached me let me know that they felt God was telling them to match us dollar for dollar for the trip!

5) I have had the privilege of opening my home to about 10 wonderful women every Monday night for a fun small group. And I love it!

Lots of gold hearts, being showered on us! God is so awesome!

Duck...Duck...GOOSE!

Okay, so I have to confess that it was sooo much fun playing Duck, Duck, Goose at church, with a bunch of grown ups, to kick off our Summer Small Group meeting. I have not played in years (by the way, I am apparently the only one who knows how to play school yard style--tagging without standing up would have totally qualified on the school yard), and it was just so fun! There were a few crashes, a few burns, almost some dropped pants-what better way is there to see 30 grown adults make fools of themselves? That was my Sunday night. Loved it.

So, Jeff came home from school really early tonight. Yeah! Extra daddy/hubby time! So we told the boys we would play a game with them. What do they pick? You guessed it: Duck, Duck, Goose (hey, you're really smart!). Jeff, Caleb and I sat in a circle (Evan was already in bed-he loves sleep) while Michael started off as the "ducker". Now, when you play DDG with Michael and Caleb, duck and goose are not necessarily the animal of choice. It could be crocodile. Or crocodile head. And you do not get "goosed" unless you are making sure to yell, "Pick me! Pick me!"

Two totally different nights of playing DDG, two totally different styles, and both of them were so much FUN!