"Blessings" - by Laura Story

We pray for blessings

We pray for peace

Comfort for family, protection while we sleep

We pray for healing, for prosperity

We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering

All the while, You hear each spoken need

Yet love is way too much to give us lesser things

'Cause 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

We pray for wisdom

Your voice to hear

We cry in anger when we cannot feel You near

We doubt your goodness, we doubt your love

As if every promise from Your Word is not enough

All the while, You hear each desperate plea

And long we'd have faith to believe

'Cause 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 friends betray us

When darkness seems to win

We know that pain reminds this heart

That this is not our home

It's not our home

'Cause 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

What if my greatest disappointments

Or the aching of this life

Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can't satisfy

What if trials of this life

The rain, the storms, the hardest nights

Are your mercies in disguise

A Little Help for the Victims of the Joplin Tornado

I took the girls and 2 of their friends shopping at Dollar Tree today to buy needed items for the victims of the Joplin tornado. They each had $10 to spend and they got to pick out the items they wanted to buy. They had their own shopping cart & really thought through their purchases. They were so cute & had so much fun buying for those in need.

We are deeply saddened for those affected by the tornado but are so thankful that good is coming from it from all over the States. Thank you to Shelly Waters with Waterstone Cleaners and Liz & Travis Winsby for taking donations and delivering them to Joplin! You are a blessing to our community and to theirs :-)

Happy Early 19 :-)

As mentioned in a previous posting, my sweet husband surprised me recently with tickets to see my all-time favorite band, U2. Well, the concert was this past weekend & we had a great time! We flew to Denver and stayed at the Inverness Hotel. (Steve was able to get a great rate for the weekend on hotwire.com. Score!)

We were only there for a few days so we had to make the most of our time. Would have loved to stay there longer & do some sight seeing and see my family in Ft. Collins - but will have to save that for another trip. Friday night, we ate dinner at the Grand Lux which was located at the Park Meadows Mall. That was just the coolest mall ever! It had kind of a southwest feel because most the interior was practically covered in wood. It also had HUGE fireplaces that reached up several stories high. It had a lot of neat, unique stores that we don't have in Oklahoma. I could have easily spent a LOT more time there - next trip ;-)

Saturday morning, we woke up and worked out at the hotel's fitness center. It was pretty nice & had all the equipment we needed. Then we ate a late breakfast at Einstein Bros. Bagels. Loooove their bagels - wish there was a location close to our house! Orrrr... maybe that wouldn't be such a great thing ;-)

Later that day, we went to see some old friends we knew from our OSU days. We hadn't seen them in years so it was great to catch up! We also enjoyed meeting their two sons for the first time. Such a sweet family - again, wish we lived closer!

After that, it was time to go to the U2 concert! Ahhhh - mountains! Scenery with a view...

And here's a billboard we passed along the way...

The concert was held at the Invesco Field in Denver. As you can imagine, tons of people were there...

Pre-concert pics. As you can see, the stage was AmAzInG!!!

First up was The Fray...

Intermission pics...

Then - the moment I had waited 27 years to see!

You HAVE to check out this site my friend, Jarae, told me about. Can you find me? You can scroll in and out and you can "hide the tags" to see people's faces. That is just the coolest thing eva! ;-)

Here's some articles & videos about the concert in Denver...

Radically Different

Louder Than Any Rock Band

The concert was super high energy and of course, flashy, with all the lights. Totally amazing! The best concert we have ever seen! I loved every minute of it and loved spending the weekend away with my sweet hubby. Happy early 19th Anniversary to us ;-)

Full Moon Run Pics

My sweet, yet conniving (J.K.) friend, Nicole, recently talked me into doing the Full Moon Run with her. Actually, I've been wanting to do that run for years now so I'm glad we did it together. We signed up to run with a team from Fit for Her and even though we didn't have much time to train, we made decent time and had great fun running with the "Fitness Runnin' Chicks". Here's a few pics from the run of some of my buddies taken by Kylie Gittleman...

Looking forward to having time to run and work out more as soon as school is finished! Woo to the hoo as my friend, Jess, says :-D

Field Trip to Turkey Creek School

Some kids from our homeschool co-op went to Turkey Creek School in Enid, OK today for a field trip. Turkey Creek is a one-room school house built around 1896. Children wear pioneer clothing and actually get to participate in a day of school like is was back in the early 1900's. This was by far my girl's favorite field trip - perhaps ever. It's right up their alley because they loooove Little House on the Prairie. I highly recommend this trip to anyone considering going.

They started out their day practicing handwriting with an ink and nib pen. They moved on to other subjects including orthography (spelling), mental math, history, reading and geography. The children had to bring a lunch that would have been eaten back in the day, minus any "luxuries" such as Lunchables or using sandwich baggies. Recess included playing period games and they had a super fun merry-go-round. The school day ended with a Spelling Bee and all the kids were awarded participation certificates.

Before we left, we toured the museum on their grounds. It was a really neat museum that told of Oklahoma's unique and rich history.

Here's pics from our fun day...

Video of the reading lesson...

Video taken at recess...

Video of the Spelling Bee...

Field Trip to See the Llamas

This has been the month of field trips, I tell ya! That's one of the great things about homeschooling, I suppose. We get to experience life outside of our homes whenever we want ;-)

This morning we took a fun field trip to see some llamas that are owned by a couple living in Oologah. The llamas weren't real fond of the kids trying to pet or feed them so they mostly just ran circles around their fenced in yard. They had fun trying to keep up with them, though ;-)

After that, the kids got to make felt from the llamas wool. It was such a neat process and the kids had a lot of fun creating something from hair...

Field Trip to Grogg's Green Barn

We recently took a field trip with the Tulsa Area Homeschoolers to a new garden center in Tulsa called Grogg's Green Barn. It is an "organically focused and native plant garden center". It was neat to hear how they built their building using "low impact building construction" which reduces their energy and water bills dramatically. Grogg's is also a really neat place to purchase unique gifts for anyone you may be shopping for. Here's some pics from our fun and informative field trip...

Field Trip to News Channel 6

We recently took a field trip to News Channel 6 in Tulsa. One of the news reporters, Lori Fullbright, took us on the tour. We had so much fun seeing everything behind the scenes and learning about different professions offered in the field of journalism. This was definitely one of our favorite field trips of the year!

Homeschool Wrap-Up

I recently attended the Tulsa Homeschool Convention at the Spirit Bank Event Center. They had a ton of vendors there selling curriculum and lots of great workshops were offered. My favorite speaker was Todd Wilson, a.k.a. "The Family Man". He's witty, yet tells it how it is.

My girls entered the Art & Photo Contest at the Convention and even placed, too. I was very proud of their efforts and creativity...

There were hundreds of entries from kids all around the Tulsa area. I was totally blown away by their talent. Here's some of the art work that was submitted by some of our friends...

Our Co-Op also recently attended a Driller's game...

And last Friday was our Field Day. (Some of these photos were taken by my friend, Jennifer.) So much fun...

After Field Day, we went to Central Park in Skiatook for a picnic & more fun...

Who are those C-R-A-Z-Y grown adult women teeter tottering?!?!

Counting down to the fun days of summer! :=D