sunday song

Can You take me by the hand?
Can You use me as I am?
Break me into who You want me to be

When the time is finally right
Will You open up my eyes
And show me everything You want me to see?
This life is not my own

I know its Monday but I don't care...

To God Alone

To God alone be the glory
To God alone be the praise
Everything I say and do
Let it be all for You
The glory is Yours alone
Yours alone

Take the offering I bring
You want more than what I sing
Can I give You every part of me?

Turn these pennies into gold
Take this life I call my own
Until I'm running after Your heart
I'm needing to let go

To God alone be the glory
To God alone be the praise
Everything I say and do
Let it be all for You
The glory is Yours alone

We will rise and we will fall
But You remain after all
You're glorious and beautiful
You're beautiful

To God alone be the glory
To God alone be the praise
Everything I say and do
Let it be all for You
The glory is Yours alone

The glory is Yours alone
Yours alone
Yours alone

Read more: Aaron Shust - To God Alone Lyrics | MetroLyrics 

aiken, sc

Zach and I got away for a much needed and loved weekend together.  My parents came up Friday night with our oldest niece Haley to hang with the boys and Zach and I got on the road around 9:30 that night to drive to Aiken, SC.  I think I'd seen it in a Southern Living magazine a long time ago and he had heard about it from somewhere as well.  Either way we've been wanting to go for awhile and this weekend we got our chance.

Aiken is a really small southern town with old charm and cute shops :)  We stayed at the Carriage Inn right in the middle of downtown, distance from pretty much everywhere we wanted to go.  Our room reminded me of Mrs. Vickey's house which just made my heart that much happier.  

We spent our short time talking pretty much non stop,  driving and listening to music,  digging into some scripture, going in almost every store in downtown, finding some cute clothes for me, getting some old baseball cards for the boys/Zach and eating yummy food.   We even saw our first polo match as Aiken is apparently the center of the polo world.  The rules can get pretty complicated but if you just focus on the fact that it's basically a bunch of people riding horses hitting a ball with a super long croquet stick and trying to get it in between two poles than you can follow pretty well.  

It was a time of refreshing and I cherish it's memories.

I <3 honey="" nbsp="" td="">

Farmer's Market baguette

chatting up the locals

He found the camera he has been "patiently" waiting to upgrade to.  I have a feeling the waiting won't last much longer!

One of the 40 polo clubs in the Aiken area

I just love a gorgeous staircase

sunday song

God our father, the maker of the heavens and the Earth, loves us so infinitely much that He sent His son Jesus Christ to the Earth as a baby to grow up in this world and live a life that we in no way could have ever hoped to live.  He was perfect.  Then He after living that perfect life we had no hope to live he died the death we so surely deserved thus making a way for us to commune with the heavenly father who loved us so infinitely much.  Death could not defeat Him because three days later he arose.  He went to sit at the right hand of the father but did not leave us to live this life alone.  He sent His Spirit to live inside us and guide us in our everyday life.  Oh what a gift all of this is.  

To me this is the most simplistic yet the most complicated story ever told.  It seems like it should be so easy to think about and accept whole heartedly.  Who wouldn't want to know and live in the fact that we don't have to live a perfect life, we don't have to die for our sins and we don't have to do any of it alone because all of it was done for us.  But all of us, everyday, do not live this out.  

So often, we as Christians do not let it impact every core of our being.  We do not submit to the wonderful gracious authority of our Father in Heaven and our Lord and Savior and to His Spirit living within us.  Instead we continually try to do it on our own.  Try to earn what is not needed to be earned with works that could not make a dent in what we would owe if it had not all been taken care of for us.  It all might manifest in different ways whether you're the "good" girl or the screw up, the workaholic or the lazy, the pious or the loner but rest assured that it does, whether it appears socially acceptable or not, if it's not in Christ it means nothing.   

My prayer for me, for my family, for my friends, and for those believers I don't even know, is that I, we, remember this simple yet complicated story and let it impact us to the center of our very being until the only thing living out in our lives is the gospel in every situation.  

Give me one pure and holy passion

Give me one magnificent obsession

Give me one glorious ambition for my life

To know and follow hard after You

Give me one pure and holy passion

Give me on magnificent obsession

Give me one glorious ambition for my life

To know and follow hard after You

To know and follow hard after you

To grow as your dicsiple in your truth

This world is empty, pale, and poor

Compared to knowing you, my Lord

Lead me on and I will run after you

Lead me on and I will run after you

Give me one pure and holy passion

Give me one magnificent obsession

Give me one glorious ambition for my life

To know and follow hard after you

To know and follow hard after you

To grow as your disciple in the truth

This world is empty, pale, and poor

Compared to knowing you my Lord

Lead me on and I will run after you

Lord to know and follow hard after you

And to grow as your disciple in your truth

This world is empty, pale, and poor

Compared to knowing you my Lord

Lead me on and I will run after you

Lead me on and I will run after you

Lead me on and I will run after you

Read more: http://artists.letssingit.com/passion-lyrics-one-pure-and-holy-passion-xcnh2s9#ixzz2fg3o8oq8 
LetsSingIt - Your favorite Music Community 

just to make you smile

sunday song

Long Way Home
Bebo Norman

It's a long way home, and the fists have flown 
In the silence, there's nowhere left to run 
It's the battle of our pending love 
In the shadow of another smoking gun 

When we dreamed this dream for the first it seemed 
We could live this love for a lifetime....you and me 

CHORUS: 
I will not give up this fight 
I will not lay down and die 
I will not carry this heart of stone 
I may not be your place to run 
I may not be your kingdom come 
I may stumble through this great unknown 
But I will be all that is true 
I will not give up on you 
I was made to be with you alone 

Cause you and me, we're gonna see...the long way home 

It's a long way home, and crying is done 
But the sorrow is still wet upon your face 
Our colliding hearts sometimes break apart 
But now the pieces are gathered up in grace 

When we dream this dream for the last time we'll see 
That we lived this love for a lifetime....just you and me 

CHORUS 

Cause you and I, we're gonna fly..the long way home

weekend o' fun

Zach was gone this weekend on a YoungLife leader retreat so my parents came up for the weekend so I wouldn't be by myself.  We had a great weekend with the boys!

Friday night we had our movie night and then Micah and Connor stayed up until Mimi and Papa got there.  They always bring little treats and this time it was mint m&ms for Connor and baseball cards for Micah along with hats from a restaurant they went to in Chicago.

My parents "collect" rocks from places they visit.  Some National Parks might call it stealing but collecting is what I'm going to go with.  They just built a dry creek bed in their backyard using some of the acquired rocks and wanted to get one from Turner Lake Park because they go their with the boys a lot when they visit.  We found a huge mama rock in the woods and carted it back to the car.

On our way back to the playground Micah decided he wanted to check which team was playing at the football field to see if it was his friend Griffin.  He decided we needed to take a short cut through the woods.  I started complaining about it and he said "it'll be ok just follow me"  In that moment I might have followed him anywhere.  He was so sweet, protective and encouraging in one simple statement!

It wasn't Griffins team but it was still a nice adventure with my boy.  Next it was duck feeding and clam shell collecting before we hit the playground.

That night Micah's school was having a movie on the lawn.  I missed it last year because Zach was out of town and I didn't want to take less than a year old Logan plus the other two by myself.  Mimi and Papa stayed with Logi while I had a date night out with M & C.  The minute we showed up one boy yelled for Micah and then a few came up and said Yay Micah's here.  That boy is loved!  He is such a great leader and encouraging friend and I can't wait to see how God continues to use that throughout his life.

Micah ran around with his friends while we were waiting for it to get dark enough for the movie while Connor tried out his future playground.  He ran into one of his friends from his Pre K class which made him super excited!

I laid on a blanket under the stars watching a movie with two of my boys and it was awesome!  They showed Epic which was pretty good.  Not meant to have a gospel message, but it would preach.  I love when you can see Truth everywhere because God is in everything.  

Except for the Braves losing and missing my husband it was a fabulous weekend!

sunday song

This is one of my FAVORITE songs written by our friend Mike.  We haven't sung it at church in a long time and I couldn't remember all the words and it was driving me crazy so he came to the rescue and emailed me the lyrics.  He also linked a download for the song so I'll be happy to share if you'd like to hear it!

Psalm 27

The Lord is my light and my salvation;

Whom shall I fear, whom shall I fear?

The Lord is the stronghold of my life; 

Of whom shall I be afraid?

When evil men advance against my life,

When my enemies and foes attack my soul,

Though an army raise against me,

Though a war rage within me,

Even then will I be confident in Him.

One thing I ask of the Lord,

This is what I seek, This is what I need;

That I may dwell in the house of the Lord,

All of the days of my life.

To gaze upon the beauty of the Lord,

And to see him in the place his glory dwells;

For in the day of trouble, I am safe in his dwelling;

He will hide me in the shelter of his arms.

zoo day

After expiring a couple months ago, I finally renewed our ZooAtlanta membership and headed there with Connor and Logan yesterday.  I am so thankful for Connor's preschool schedule because he has every Friday off which means I have every Friday with my middle man before Kindergarten starts next year.

There were LOTS of napping animals today but we still had a great time.  We saw the Rhino up close close close and saw the Black Mamba trying to climb the wall so those were both big winners with the boys.  No zoo trip is complete without the train ride so of course we hit that up as well.  

We also finally tried out the splash fountain they put in this summer and it was great.  Logan ran through with no abandon and shoved his face right into the water.  Connor counted how many he ran straight through and got up to 39 in the short ten minutes that we played.

Getting a Zoo membership is one of my favorite things we purchase and one of my favorite things to take people to so if you want a zoo day let me know!!

playing park ball

Spent a couple of hot hours at the park under a BEAUTIFUL blue sky riding bikes, practicing baseball and playing on the playground.  A most wonderful Labor Day.