My Joy, My delight...My all.

I will exalt you, my God and my King, and praise your Name forever and ever.

I will praise you everyday, yes I will praise you forever. Great is the LORD! He is most worthy of Praise! No man can measure His GREATNESS.

Let each generation tell its children of your mighty acts;

Let them proclaim Your power.

I will meditate on Your majestic, glorious splendor and your wonderful miracles.

{Like that of a precious smile. Created uniquely by YOU.}





Everyone will share the story of your wonderful goodness,


they will sing with joy about Your righteousness.

The Lord is merciful and compassionate,

slow to anger and filled with unfailing love.

The Lord is good to everyone. He showers compassion on all of His creation....

His Kingdom is an everlasting kingdom.

He rules through all generations.

The Lord always keep His promises and

He is faithful in all that He does.

The Lord helps the fallen

and lifts those bent beneath their loads...

{There are many days that I feel "bent" :-) }

The Lord is righteous in EVERYTHING that He does;

He is filled with kindness.

I will praise the Lord,

and may everyone on earth bless His holy Name

Forever

and Ever.


{Psalm 145}

I have a stack of books to finish for my summer reading. I also have a few verses to meditate on. One goal that I have been working on is staying Joyful in all times.

This is hard.

Simply because I have three very emotional girls that communicate by screaming and crying....

and there are days that I feel as if I cannot handle it.

Then there are days that I put everything aside to capture the smiles of my kiddos and simply just be with them. Without focusing on the house or what "needs" to be done.

SO, I captured most of these pictures yesterday when we spent the evening outside.

We got so hot jumping and all that we decided to all jump in the pool with our clothes on!

It was Dakota's idea.

:-)



Caitlyn is definitely venturing into a new stage in life.

With it, comes new challenges for me as a parent.

AS a girl, I believe she is noticing many things around her...about what society views as beautiful.

It breaks my heart to think about the pressure that is on little girls today...

I try to talk to her often, and some of the best advice that I ever read was always be encouraging. Tell you kids several times ever day:

" You are a beautiful, amazing child of God!"

I can tell that she is entering into a new stage because she responds with a shy giggle.

The little ones still respond with an exciting,

"I know!"

So, this is her trying to hide from my camera...also something that she has never done before.

I will be praying for specific words to say to her. Greg is an amazing Dad, which is so key...

He spent the entire day on Saturday with her as she wrapped up her swimming season.

I am so glad that he is able to spend time with her.

I believe that it is so vital in a little girls life.

She is beautiful.

And wonderful.

A a very gifted child of God.

And, of course, Micah is in love with all kinds of boy things...

He spends a good amount of time with His Daddy.

And here is little sister coming to get a peek at what Micah is doing:

Ok, these next few are a little old...from the 4th,

but I thought they were fun...

Well, as I have been meditating on 2 Corinthians 10:5,

I had no idea that I was preparing for war.

The thoughts have been many,

and often a moment by moment battle.

It is actually kind of amusing.

But nevertheless,

I do this, in order to learn

"how to take every thought captive."

There is power in my thoughts.

And I don't know about you, but often my thoughts are disgusting.

Only through Him will I find the power to overcome.

And only because of Him and what He has done for me,

am I blessed.

I do realize that this last picture looks a bit strange, but I wanted to capture something that I see many times a day...

when I look down at my feet.

Addie pulling up on my shirt.

And, something that I hear many times a day is: "MOM! You better come see what Addie is doing!"

May I learn to find Joy, delight and peace in Him...

Even in a state of screaming kiddos,

dirty dishes,

and {12!} dirty diapers today.

Most of all, may He give me grace in knowing how to love on my kids.

Almost everything that I do will be

imperfect. Marked with a stain of some sort.

Thankfully, He is not looking for adequacy,

but a humble and trusting heart.

May He grant me humility and faith in Him

to serve and love my husband and these kids

for His glory.