So it seems that once God gave me a peace about finding Hubert a home, all approved parties that were interested seemed to have other plans. So we have come down to posting an ad on the ever so daunting Craigs list. This worries me for many reasons. I still have a responsibility to this dog- I have to make sure he isn’t going to be chained to some tree in a hot yard and never be played with, taken on walks or not given the care he needs. So I am enlisting YOU all in my search. Whether it be that one of you knows of someone that wants a BIG, loving, slobbery hound to have and to hold till death to they part, or if it is in prayer (don’t laugh, God answers prayers about dogs-he cares for the sparrows) for the perfect new owner to arise through his classified. He comes with his earned PetSmart diploma ;), his large collapsible crate and bed, and food to get you started! I really am sad to see him go, but want him to be loved and cared for. Click here to see his ad.
Remembering the brave
Yesterday was a day to remember fallen heroes that fought for our freedom. I am so thankful for the blessings that we get to take advantage of because of the sacrifice that they put forth. I am so thankful for those in active duty right now and are currently in harms way for us as well! Especially my brother in law Kenneth Keith-thank you for all you do-we love you and pray for you daily to come home safe.
Today we were able to relax with our kids (I got Jack back from his amazing time with my Mom and sister) and have some fun. Here are some highlights of our Memorial Day at the river:
Ben wants to be a scuba diver when he grows up
Jack was cannon-balling in-my camera was too slow to catch him-I got some great pictures of his splash though! 
Sam off the "bouncy board" And of course it wouldn’t be a holiday without a few games of corn-hole! Jason had his own cheering section
All in all a gorgeous day out on the river. Had a much needed day of relaxation and great time with friends!
‘Everybody OK?”
This is my husband’s favorite question to ask a congregation. He asks this question sometimes to make certain that the congregation is getting the great word that he has been given to present, other times it is just the personality that was genetically passed down from his mother Tania. She had the gift of compassion and of hospitality. The two go hand in hand. She cared for everyone, usually with providing a listening ear, an insightful word, and the Burgbacher favorite: FOOD. Jason has definitely inherited this trait from her. He is a feeder! When dad is home our kids are being offered things to eat all day. I have to hide the candy-not so we won’t eat it…but because he will give it out to our adorable boys. Any student that visits our house WILL eat, regardless of whether or not they just had dinner with their family. He loves to feed. This could not be any more evident than it was this morning at the Summerville Campus of Faith Assembly of God. As well as being the youth pastor and now the pastor over our new young adult ministry: Momentum, he is on the preaching team. He was able to bring the message today for the 11:00 service while his dad, the senior pastor, fed the Remount Campus for their service. I have to say, he is my favorite! Not many women can have what I do, a husband that is a godly priest of his home and has a passion for feeding the church. I know first hand that he is what he preaches. What you see is what he is. Even when I am acting out of my flesh (which is too often) he is counseling me in the ways of the word. I have been guilty of just asking him to be Jason instead of Pastor Jason so that I can wallow in my self pity at times. But the truth is they are one in the same. So many times he is speaking right to me, I can see the anointing on his life, I always leave one of his messages totally full of what God is doing. He is always willing to do whatever the Lord asks him to. I have a lot to learn from my wonderful partner in this Kingdom work. Our boys have the BEST example of how to live for the Lord-I can’t wait to see what beautiful woman of God they will bless many, many, many years down the road! 🙂
Party Marathon!!
Wowza! What a day!! From the turn of the tassles to pulling Ben and Sam out of the pool at the last party it equaled around 10 hours of Celebrations for some wonderful young ladies of the class of 2011. Jack (driven by my mom) is visiting my sister and his favorite stateside cousin-Tiegan. They are, I’m assured by picture texts, having a blast. So it was just the four of us today (really strange). Adam, Laura and sweet Baby Ruth joined us on our journey through the lowcountry. Food was great at every location, yet still I find myself snacking on a small cheese tray left over from last night.
There were similarities in all of these parties….joy and pride. All of these girls love the Lord with all their heart. I just know that we will see great things from them. They are ready and willing to do whatever God has for them. We ourselves were beaming with pride. And there are so many more that either didn’t have a party or we just couldn’t get there today. We still have a few students awaiting their big monumental day. We have really been blessed with an amazing student body at Kinetic. We wish them all the best!
Cheese!!
Getting ready for a cheese night with some amazing young women
Food is meant to be fun
It was the last day of preschool today for my amazingly creative and imaginative boys at Metro North Preschool. We were set to go play in the sprinklers at Wannamaker Park. Poor Jack got 3 vaccines yesterday and was not feeling so great so he stayed at home with daddy who also needed some rest from this crazy week. But before I headed out with Sam and Ben a fun breakfast was needed to commemorate this special day.
I made PB banana smoothies (recipe here) And cut cinnamon toast to look like a busy bees and a tiny turtle. So cute. The way food was meant to be. And well received my my hungry soon to be K5 twins and my cuddly cub.
Pomp and Circumstance
Starting this weekend and going into the next, our Kinetic Seniors, adorned in cheap fabric that has been tailored to fit like 1970 maternity clothes and matching hats with a cardboard inlay, will cross a stage, shake some hands, earn a diploma and start the next chapter of their lives. This time is always bittersweet for Jason and I. Sweet because we are overcome with pride and honor to have been a part of these kids High School lives. We have gotten to see them grow and mature into students who love the Lord and want to honor him in all they do. They have made wise choices of colleges and majors as they have sought after God’s will and purpose for their lives. We have been able to make some great memories as we watch them learn to serve out of God’s love rather than self gratification. Bitter because we now have to watch them move on. Although some will stay, many will move away to college. They will meet new friends and get involved with other ministries. There will be new mentors that will be moved into their lives that will (we pray) help them keep with the momentum of what God is currently doing in them. We were able to have most of them together last night in the Collision Center for a Grad Dinner. Jason spoke to them on 1 Corinthians 13: 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. Then we jumped in jump castles and pummeled each other with foam jousts :). He talked to them about the importance of every decision and then made an example out of Samson. His loss of spiritual discernment was lost little by little, with small compromises until he no longer noticed that the presence of God had left him. It was great to be able to pray over them as we launched them out into a new phase. We have been blessed with some great students over the years, and it never gets any easier to say goodbye. Be proud for this generation. Be in prayer for our next leaders. They have their priorities in line, and I can’t wait to see and hear the great things that they are going to be able to accomplish for the Kingdom if they keep their focus right. So here’s to a great group of young adults…we love you and are so proud of you! Keep being ready and willing for whatever he has for you!
99° and climbing
Gotta love May in South Carolina. We are officially in Summer with heat indexes of 100+, while my father in law had snow in Colorado this week while he was away for a family wedding. (Congrats Timmy and Tina-amazing couple). I am not complaining by any means. It is what it is, we just have to be prepared with kids in this heat. Water, sunscreen, seek shade! This is only the beginning of the scorching heat. I love to look for neat easy snacks to make for our afternoons. Today we got our idea from a yogurt commercial: easy yogurt pops. You just put a kids spoon right through the top of a yogurt cup, (I took this pic AFTER freezing and taking off the foil top)
place in the freezer and viola, the next afternoon, you have a lovely cold treat!
Today we enjoyed some time in the sun and sprinkler while I got to lounge on the chaise reading (Jack Stack was napping). Soaking up the little bit of down time that this week has for us!!
The after holiday sale that gives all year long…
I love post holiday shopping. Finding things for 1/4 of the regular price that you can pack away and use a year later is just too fun! That next holiday roles around and you feel like you are opening a present BEFORE the actually date of celebration. Valentine’s cards to send out, Easter egg decorations, and the all time favorite: Christmas decor!! I love to buy the little paper plates and such to go along with these holidays for next year’s parties too! However, today one post “holiday” shopping find proved to have use multiple times throughout the year. Halloween Costumes! We don’t go crazy for halloween, no need for 75% off spiders or bats in this house…but the $3-5 costumes are gold! Jason went out a couple days after Halloween and bought a bunch of great ones including Captain America some knights and Pirates!! My amazing sister bought them some additional ones for Christmas…if you have seen the family Christmas photo from my mother’s house you will notice we have a Buzz Lightyear and a Cars Pit Crew member in the photo. They LOVE these costumes. Really great for weeks like this when Jason and I have something every night including launching a new ministry and when new and creative things seem to be a daunting task for a Mom of 3 and a ministers wife!! Ha! But leave it up to my amazing sons’ imaginations to completely entertain me and them.
Thanks NICK
So as if it wasn’t hard enough to find knock-off pillow pets for Christmas to ease the desires of my children’s hearts, now the act of giving my children a few minutes of “quiet time” while watching some diego has them coveting yet another plush creature:
Obviously my children don’t get all they ask for…but I just wish I had come up with these brilliant money makers that have children begging…$20 a pop.
P.S. Ben wants the Dragon, Sam wants the Penguin and Jack wants the Puppy….$$$geesh. Someone let me know if they find a cheap knock-off for the next gift season!
DIY
So I love projects…I see my future as someone who will have a craft room and an etsy account. I love browsing through all the lovely craft blogs. Some of my favorites right now are Little Birdie Secrets and Plaid kids crafts Right now my life isn’t so conducive to this dream lifestyle…but every now and then I can sneak a DIY craft in. This time I chose to refinish a table. Jason and I have had this solid wood round kitchenette table our entire marriage.
Before - Before
We had many card nights and game nights on this table in our child-less years-Mike Denny and his ‘forearms’ meant the demise of the glass overlay at one said dominoes game night…Our children had their first meals at this table, made their first cookies at this table and finger painted at this table.
We with being a family of 5, have now outgrown this table as a frequently sat at table. It is very hard to fit 5 chairs around a round table and have everyone happy. But with that kind of sentimental value it couldn’t be put on craig’s list or donated….I was shocked that Jason was the biggest fan of this piece of furniture. So I decided to make it our new playroom table-since our growing boys had outgrown their little square table that they used for coloring, homework and crafts. But the black/brown did not go with the decor upstairs. We have a bunch of the ikea white (which isn’t a real bright white) up there and blacks and reds. So I decided to strip the table and paint it white…I think it will fit in the playroom nicely! What do you think??
Now all that is needed is to get more chairs for our new ikea stainless steel table in the dinette so I can move 4 of the current chairs up to accompany it!!
Hard decisions.
Life is full of them…decisions that you wish someone else would make for you with no consequences, no guilt, or second guessing. But life is not that easy-we have things to learn, and hard decisions are one way to do this. I am at this time talking about a decision that we are trying to make with Hubert Mumford: He is such a smart dog. He is a beginner obedience graduate and is so in love with all in our house…including the cat James and our Cavalier Marla. Neither one of them have yet to return the favor. As James curls up with me tonight, my laptop in his way, I pat him on the head to find it crusty from Hubert “love”. The dog uses him as his most favorite chew toy. James is 13 years old! He just lays there looking at me-sometimes screaming- like what did I do to deserve this. I don’t know how much of this he can handle! Marla (6yrs) is not so passive. The rambunctiousness of Hubert is not tolerated by her in the least. I have never heard Marla growl or seen her retaliate as she has since January 1st…the day Hubert arrived. I’m not really worried about her, but I hate seeing her hiding out in her kennel and acting in a way that she never has before. She has always been a Mrs. Priss…but he turns her into a crazy alpha dog! This along with his elephant style playtimes with the kids, and no regards to personal space or his size (he goes under or through things, verses around them) to where he slings his shoestrings of drool has brought up some worry of if we (I) made the right decision (persuasion) to bring Hubert in as the newest Burgbacher. I have always believed that you make a decision to get a dog, you had better do the research and be ready to live with or adapt to that dog’s personality. And I did the research, read all about bloodhounds and their quirks, and being the ‘super over achiever’ that I dream in my head to be, I just knew I could handle him. Look at this face….how could I not:
Sam and I are the only BFF’s with Hubert, and to be honest, it’s conditional. There are days where I’m ready to ship him “back to the farm” as Ben calls it…but I tell Ben-“you boys are sometimes so disobedient and crazy, but I don’t send you back to the farm”. To which my witty Ben replies: “you can’t send us back to your tummy mommy” (He was channeling Nicodemus that day). Sam has days when cuddling with Hubert on the floor he is met with a paw to the face and crying ensues. With the two a for mentioned in Hubert’s corner, that leaves 3 not so fond members of the household. The little ones get sad for a moment when speaking of finding Hubert another loving home, the older guy-says quote PTL. I agree with my husband when we discuss the fact that the timing wasn’t the best for me to give him Hubert sized sad eyes when I begged to bring him home…but he is home none the less….the choice to make, is it his permanent one? So as my second blog entry on ‘lessons from Hubert’, he is teaching me something new…hope I learn.
Oak and Pines 