Winter Break

Mitchell and Amelia had this past Friday and today (Monday) out of school for their winter break so we did the responsible parent thing and took them out of school for an extra day (Thursday) and went on a short vacation! We first drove up to West Virginia to the Resort at Glade Springs which is a great resort near Winterplace ski slopes. We checked in and spent the rest of the day just playing at the resort... we went bowling, played basketball, arcade games, went swimming and enjoyed the hot tub, and Amelia and I even enjoyed the steam room! After dinner we got to bed early to prepare for the next day. We spent ALL DAY Friday on the ski slopes at Winterplace. It was sunny and got up to 50 degrees which made it really great skiing weather! All 28 slopes were open and in great condition, so we all had a blast skiing together! Mitchell and Amelia get better every year! After skiing we drove 2 hours to Winston Salem, NC and spent the night there. We spent all day Saturday with Dave's parents celebrating Valentine's Day. We treated Ann to a take out lunch from a deli... she wanted chili dogs for lunch (something she doesn't get that often)! It was a fairly short trip but you can see from the pictures that we all had a blast together! We are already looking forward to future ski vacations!

70's Day at OCES!

Amelia's school had a 70's Day this past Friday. They all dressed up for the day and even had a 70's dance after school. As you can see Amelia looked really cute, and she had a really great time at the dance! She had a couple of pictures made there with some of her friends which I will post when she gets them back this week.

Girl's Night Away

I had the opportunity to go with some friends to a Christian Women's "retreat" this past weekend that featured Priscilla Shirer. We all had so much fun and learned a lot from her! We all spent Friday night at a hotel in Roswell and had a good old fashioned slumber party that night... hanging out in our PJ's, eating way too much junk food, and we even made a craft! You can see us making, then holding our new cross necklaces in the pictures.

Priscilla Shirer was an amazing speaker... we all felt like we could relate to much of what she said because we are in or near the same stage of life (mothers of young children, and a really busy life). She mostly focused on a wonderful topic for all of us: The Interrupted Life. The four points that she made on this subject are worth sharing!

1) The interrupted life is the privileged life

--when God asks us to do something, we often back off even though we appear ready to

receive

--God gives us the opportunity to participate in our lives

2) The interrupted life is the significant life

--our search for significance ends here

--God doesn't cal you because you are equipped... he equips you because you have

been called

3) The interrupted life is the challenging life

--just when you are settled God calls you to go

--the challenging life will most often be more difficult than the one that you have

planned for yourself

--the grass that is tended to is always greener

4) The interrupted life is an accountable life

--God knows our heart and knows if we are being completely obedient

--disobedience will always cost you more than obedience

We can all relate to these things and many other things that Priscilla had to say because we have all been there! Usually these interruptions (no matter how large or small) will end up being a blessing!

I hope that every day is a blessing for you!