Well, almost another month has flown by... I think it really is true that the older you get, the faster life passes you by. You know, summer really isn't like it was when I was a kid - for one thing, its about 4 weeks shorter than it used to be!! But I remember having time to be BORED. I don't really think my kids have had any time like that this summer - or will have. I know *I* haven't had that yet! But I guess I'm enjoying the "different kind of busy" that the summer brings. The schedule is more loose, there's no homework or school projects (woohoo!!), and the daylight lasts longer... :)

So, to recap June... we started out with a trip with the teens to Six Flags and an Atlanta Braves game - fun times. I think I had the most fun talking Belle into riding roller coasters and seeing the look of dread on her face just before she got on - and then the joy that was there when it was all over! ha (It looked just like Mackenzie's face below before her first ride on Goliath!!)

The day after we got back from that trip, Anna went with her friend Natalie and their family up to North Carolina for a little vacation. She had her first experience with white water rafting and zip lines and loved it all.


As Anna was returning from her vacation, Mackenzie left for New Orleans with the teens to continue their efforts to help with Katrina Relief. She had a great week and was excited to get to do some 'demolition' again on this trip. Something about taking a baseball bat to sheetrock that just gets kids excited! But this poor woman's house that they were working on had been waiting since 2005 for help to get her house gutted and rebuilt!! Crazy...
This last weekend, Anna and I headed up to Lipscomb University for IMPACT! That's always a highlight of the year and this year was no different. The theme was "Buried. Alive" and was all about what 'treasure' we are seeking in life. Great lessons, entertainment, activities and most of all (at least for me) great times of singing and worship. I hope that's just a little glimpse of what heaven will be like - it was awesome. :) Now Mackenzie is there this week and having a great time... when Anna and I got back, my sister was here visiting with her kids. So I've had fun with her this week.


Speaking of Impact and singing and worship, I have to share this thought that I came across today as I was reading the blog journal on Tenth Avenue North's website...

"And on a night like tonight this chorus seems easy. “I give you all of me, for all you are, here I am, take me apart. Take me apart.” But it’s only easy, because the most glorious thing happened tonight. I forgot about myself. I know, totally crazy. But I did. I think it might have just been for a few minutes or seconds or so, but it really did happen. For one brief shining moment, God took up my thoughts and affections and freed me from the prison of myself.

And that’s kind of what makes this prayer work. So many of us try so hard to get better, do more, change the world, and all we ever seem to do is fall flat on our back. And its sad because I feel like no one ever told us that we’ll never make it that way. It’s just not possible. The only true path to freedom is adoration. The forgetting of oneself in the awe of another is the only place we can be changed, for to change into something that we are not, we must see what it is to what we must aspire."

That's what the singing and worship times were like for me - a moment to forget myself and focus on God - on all that He is and all there is to adore in Him. I just love those times...

So that's been the month of June and summer's well on its way to halfway over! Well, not quite yet, thankfully. :) Next week Mackenzie's wisdom teeth come out (any of you reading, say a prayer for her on Monday morning!) and then it's July. Whew.....