Scavenger Hunt Sunday

This week's scavenger hunt items were

• Stripes
• Dots
• Sweet
• Motion
• Tools

STRIPES

This Bible verse immediately came to mind when I took this first photo:

Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. (1 Peter 2:24 KJV)

And the same verse in a modern translation:

This is the kind of life you've been invited into, the kind of life Christ lived.  He suffered everything that came his way so you would know that it could be done, and also know how to do it, step-by-step.

       He never did one thing wrong,
       Not once said anything amiss.

They called him every name in the book and he said nothing back.  He suffered in silence, content to let God set things right.  He used his servant body to carry our sins to the Cross so we could be rid of sin, free to live the right way.  His wounds became your healing.  You were lost sheep with no idea who you were or where you were going.  Now you're named and kept for good by the Shepherd of your souls. (1 Peter 2:21-25 The Message)


DOTS

Can I call the droplets of water "dots"?  'Cause this is a cute shot of 7 year old Grace with one of her friends at his 7th birthday party.  :)

SWEET

Here's our own birthday boy, Josiah, celebrating his 11th birthday with a bunch of sweet stuff.

See that huge plate he placed in front of him?  Wishful thinking...

And he is a sweet kid!


MOTION

I caught these bees' motion as they were busy checking out each of my friend's flowers.

TOOLS

Our oldest son, Robert, got an important tool this week...his learner's permit!

Click on the link below to see others' photographs or to join in on the fun!  

Wordless Wednesday: Greenville, SC

Downtown Greenville, SC--March 2012

This post is linked to 5 Minutes for Mom and Sarah Halstead at The Naptime Momtog for Wordless Wednesday.

Flashback: St. Simons Island

Since it's summer and we have no vacation in sight (we typically go off-season), I thought I'd reminisce about the trip to St. Simons Island we took last July with my dad and stepmom.

We stayed at Epworth By the Sea

My dad and Miss Kathleen while we were all waiting for the dolphin tour to begin...

Our family climbed to the top of the St. Simons lighthouse with my dad.  

The view from the top of the lighthouse

Incidentally, the pier in the above photo was where we found the old pelican that is dubbed "the most photographed thing on St. Simons Island."  

These were my "hold my camera over my head to get the shot and pray I don't drop it" photos.  :)

A slight peek into the lantern room

Just beyond the lighthouse, this was as close as you could get to the water without falling in...which almost happened, according to my dad.  The stairs at the very bottom were, of course, slippery.

We almost got Robert to smile for a photo.  Almost.

Robert (15), Grace (6) and Josiah (10) in July 2012

At least he smiled ever-so-slightly for Miss Kathleen's photo.  :)

We ventured into the downtown area...

Grace the bookworm found a reading nook

Each evening, we visited Bono, who was staying at a local kennel...

The kids kinda missed Bono!

and stopped to see Christ Church, too.  Here's a tip:  don't go at dusk if you hope to get any good photos.  ;)  This was my best shot, looking at an entrance to the property.  

Once we got on the property, the trees and Spanish moss made the photos dark, which worked well enough for a silhouette.

Here's my dad with the only non-Hawaiian shirt I've seen him in in a while.  The t-shirt says, "Just be happy I'm not your kid"...

because, as he says, "then you'd be older than dirt."

Click on the links in this post to see more photos, like ones about the beach, our trip in general, quirky things (including something about a velociraptor), and Spanish moss...lots of Spanish moss.

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

It's time for Scavenger Hunt Sunday again!  These are my interpretations for this week:

Fun and Arts and crafts

I'm combining these two--my kids have had a lot of fun at VBS this summer, and have gone to more than a couple of them already this summer.  (They go to ours, of course, as well as ones where they have friends who go to church there...and others, well, just because they enjoy it!)

I think this is Grace's favorite kind of arts and crafts:  the kind she can wear...at least until bath time.

Grace (7) with a bit of sparkly face paint on her cheeks and wet chalk rubbed on her hair.

Messy

These are some messy baby birds.  Don't worry--I won't show you how they are messy.  Nobody wants to see that.  ;)   My porch and I will be glad to see them leave the nest.

Effort

...or lack of effort, in this case of this next photo.  I just liked this shot, so I thought I'd include it.

Blessing 

With this prompt, I'm reminded of the song by Laura Story, "Blessings":

What if Your blessings come through raindrops?

What if Your healing comes through tears?

What if a thousand sleepless nights 

Are what it takes to know You're near?
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise?

When tears and pain blur the world around us...

and the world distorts our view of who God really is and blurs what truth really is...

may we intently focus on what is Truth.

Jesus said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  

No one comes to the Father except through Me."

John 14:6 (NIV)

Click on the link below to see others' photographs or to join in on the fun!  

Wordless Wednesday: Going on Bono's Walk

Every afternoon (weather permitting), I hear Grace's singsong voice, "I'm going on Bono's walk!"  If you talk to her at all without acknowledging what she said (for instance, if you remind her to change her shoes before going), she will repeat it until she is out the door with Josiah and Bono.  She just likes saying it, I guess.

These are my delightfully kooky kids one afternoon in January...going on Bono's walk.  They look like they are prepared for just about anything...

Bono (10 mos.), Josiah (10), and Grace (6)

This post is linked to 5 Minutes for Mom and Sarah Halstead at The Naptime Momtog for Wordless Wednesday, and to Ashley Sisk  for Wittle People Wednesday.

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

Happy Father's Day!

This week's scavenger hunt items were

1. Summer
2. Dance
3. Laughter
4. Helper
5. Water

Summer

Although it's not technically summer yet, we've already had a few summer storms...

Fortunately, the storms did not coincide with our church's VBS activities, such as the obstacle course.

The balance beam was Grace's (age 7) favorite part!

Dance

Did I mention it was VBS week at our church?  There was the music portion, where the children learned sign language (for the most part) to help them learn the songs.

Josiah (10) with one of his friends.

Laughter

There was a lot of laughter and squeals and cheering and generally a whole lot of noise as kids cheered on their teammates.

Grace (7)

Helper

Robert (16) has been playing guitar for the VBS music classes for a few years now...so he makes my helper shot.

On Family Night, the children sang some of the songs they had been learning during the week at VBS.

Robert and Grace

Water

OK...I'm going into the archives for these photos.  A couple of months ago, the kids spotted some local firemen testing out some equipment.  You can see the water falling at the back of the open bay window. It kept us entertained for a few minutes.  :)

This is a bonus archive photo for water, and is one of my favorites of Grace.  She's 5 here.

Want another bonus photo?  Here's Robert's guitar that he's playing in the photos above--he bought it last month, and this was the day it arrived.

Click on the link below to see others' photographs or to join in on the fun!  

Wordless Wednesday: Splash

A friend of Josiah and Grace

This post is linked to 5 Minutes for Mom and Sarah Halstead at The Naptime Momtog for Wordless Wednesday.

Wordless Wednesday: The one in which Bono wants to play Monopoly

Bono is chewing on his bone...and interrupting the start of a game.

This post is linked to 5 Minutes for Mom and Sarah Halstead at The Naptime Momtog for Wordless Wednesday.

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

This week's scavenger hunt theme is Photographer's Choice--we pick our 5 favorite photos we took over the last week.  

Hmmm...Our week in pictures...Only I didn't take any pictures when we finished our school year on Wednesday (we were all too tired).  And I only took a few pictures at the VBS we went to last week (which would help explain why we were so tired), but they didn't turn out well enough to share here.  

However, I can tell you that Josiah (10) needs to get plugged in to local theater after seeing his performance in his class' dramatic skit on family night!   

Here are my choices:

7 year old Grace

Our church steeple

A nearby farm

Beautiful sunset from my backyard

Have I mentioned another of Josiah's talents?  Here he is walking on water.  ;)

Click on the link below to see others' photographs or to join in on the fun!