Bike Riding Boys!

Well, I have never posted twice in one day, but I had to! Tonight was a big night. Grady learned to ride his bike with no training wheels and Davis finally got the hang of pedaling on a tricycle!
Enjoy!

    Grady showing off his new skills!                                      Davis was very proud of himself too!

Thank you, thank you, thank you...

For helping me to teach my sons to BE the hands of Christ today.

In the Casting Crowns song "If We are the Body" it says:
"But if we are the Body
Why aren't His arms reaching
Why aren't His hands healing
Why aren't His words teaching
And if we are the Body
Why aren't His feet going
Why is His love not showing them there is a way
There is a way."

Today, by gathering all the cans that were donated, letting the boys pack them in bags, take them to the car, and unload them at the food bank, they were able to experience being the "body of Christ." That means so much to me and I thank you from the bottom of my heart. You all made a big difference in the lives of our community today. Look what happens when we all pull together!

462 pounds of food!!!!!!!

Luke 12:48
"From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked."

Brothers

Brothers are FANTASTIC!

Full of energy
Amazing playmates
Never ending fun
Totally crazy
Aggravating as all get out to each other
Silly little monkeys
Tremendous blessings
Irresistible cuties
Constantly getting dirty

The list could go on and on, but you get the idea! Over the past few months, Grady and Davis are really starting to play together a lot more. Davis mimics everything Grady does which can be hilarious or insane depending on what it may be! I feel like most days I should just wear a black and white striped shirt because pretty much I am a professional referee at this point. These two little hams can sure duke it out. Davis is unfortunately in a biting and pinching phase and Grady is in an antagonize the crap out of Davis stage so as you can imagine, it makes for hours of wild and wacky fun! Can anyone tell here why I am soooo excited for preschool to start???? Truthfully though, I thank God for their relationship. I was an only child for 13 years and I prayed and prayed and prayed for a sibling. I look at them playing and pretending and driving their power wheels together and it really does bring a smile to my face. It is something I never got to experience first hand until now. I am praying that in this crazy world we live in, they will choose each day to be a light for God. Here is a real quick dance video from this morning. Dancing is one of their absolute favorite past times!
Hope everyone has a great week!

And to all you Savannah, Pooler, Rincon readers PLEASE don't be shy about asking me to come by and pickup some stuff from you for the Second Harvest Food Bank. I know everyone is so busy with work and school but I still have two more weeks before carpool begins so I would love to pick them up from your porch any time. I talked to the food bank today and they said they really need protein items; ie peanut butter, canned meats and "meals in a can" (ravioli, beef stew, etc)
My email is elizhope19@yahoo.com. They were so thankful that we are all doing this. Thanks to all those who have already dropped off goods. We are getting so excited about delivery on Monday!

FYI, This isn't some kind of crazy endorsement for Diego :) We just really love the song! Then of course at the end, Davis remembers he really just wants his juice. Hilarious as always.

God is there!

So, where to begin? Well how about "What's the Point?" I titled my blog this months ago because I figured this would be my positive outlet to ramble on about my journey to find God's point for my life. I truly  think it will be a life-long journey, but over the summer, I have definitely gotten some feedback from the Big Guy Upstairs! I mentioned about a month ago that I felt God was pointing out the Mary and Martha scripture to me. Well, since then it has been in Grady's devotional not once but twice, used as an example in the book Weird that I'm reading, and used as an illustration on His Radio while I was tuned in. Now if that's not red lights flashing, what is!!!!!
So... I have been trying to "sit and listen" at the feet of the Lord more and have found out a few things. God truly does have a plan for all of us. I would have never thought that God would use my precious little Davis to bring me to my knees, humble myself and draw closer to Him. I was reading a recent post on Femina Girls blog. The title was God Will Never Give you More... and here is what caught my eye, "I know that God has promised to never leave us or forsake us; He has promised no temptation will ever be so bad that we can’t escape. But He never promised not to give us more than we could handle. In fact, He gives us more than we can handle all the time. If He didn’t, then we would not need to lean on Him for grace and strength." Well, these days, I definitely feel like I've been given a little more than I can handle, but I am truly learning to lean on God like I never have before.
Some of you know that Davis began speech therapy back in May and at that time, the "evaluator" told me that he seemed to be sensory seeking and wanted him to be evaluated by an occupational therapist. I wasn't exactly surprised by this, but felt very overwhelmed not knowing really what that even meant. I had been concerned about Davis for a while but you always get the:
   "Oh, he is just a rambunctious little boy!"
   "He is two. Gotta love those terrible twos!"
   And even from doctors, "Oh, don't worry. He'll outgrow it all. Toddlers are a handful."
I started to notice though that Davis has one of the sweetest hearts I've ever known, yet was coming across as aggressive at times with his peers. Anyway, LONG story short, the OT came and said that he does have some type of sensory integration problems. I felt relieved to not be crazy and sad all at once. I HATE labels, and thank goodness, she did NOT give him one, but for those who are curious, it falls under the umbrella term, Sensory Processing Disorder. He is HypO sensitive which basically just means that it takes a boom, pow, explosion to be noticed on his radar. This has been one big slice of humble pie for me and I have lots to learn, which of course I wish I did not, BUT I know and have been calling out to God James 1:17, "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." I have cried tears of joy over having answers and tears of sadness about having to overcome this. It is a huge blessing to understand that Davis isn't just unpredictable for no good reason, but that there is science behind all this and that we can learn how and what makes him "tick" and help him conquer these issues. I look forward to sharing about things we learn on this wild ride that we have been tossed onto called "SPD", but as a mother, my hope and prayer for Davis is that people would be able to see past the big boy who is not so gentle and see that he is a sweet, precious little man created by God to bless our family. He had his last speech session on Thursday and is speaking in 6 and 7 word sentences now even though he won't even be 2 1/2 till October 2nd so what a praise that is. I am praying daily for patience and gratitude and looking forward to long days of relaxation when college comes, because just like the sensory therapist told me Monday, "That's just not in the cards for right now." :)
I don't think it was just an accident that Sarah captured this picture when Davis was just one...

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Ephesians 4:2 "Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love."

Summer Blues

Boy oh boy am I ready for Fall. I am experiencing some major writer's block these days! Haven't forgotten about the blog just can't seem to get my brain to focus long enough to write. :) I have realized that I love the first month of Summer and then slowly I start getting a little blue. I thrive on routine and Summer is the opposite of routine. Now don't get me wrong, I love vacations, lunches a the pool, backyard fun with my boys, but for whatever reason, it seems that I function much better with a set routine. The boys start back to school the week of Labor Day. Grady will go every day 9-12 and Davis will just go Wednesday and Friday mornings. Bible Study Fellowship starts in the middle of September and our Wednesday night church activities kickoff next week. Lots and lots of fun "routine" things ahead! Yay!!
Here are a few pics I took of the boys yesterday. We had "Dirt Day" as Grady called it and it was precious to watch them just enjoy being dirty little boys.

Also, I emailed a lot of people but wanted to get this on my blog too for all you readers who live in Savannah, GA.

I received an email last night and it was a press release from Savannah’s Second Harvest Food Bank. Here is an excerpt:

“Currently the food bank is operating with 85% less in food donations and the shelves are bare. According to Mary Jane Crouch, executive director of America's Second Harvest, “We are truly worried that we will not have enough food to support our initiatives to relieve childhood hunger as we go into the new school year. Our community is always amazing in responding to the needs of others and we really need help right now to stock the shelves.””

I will be making a delivery of canned goods to Second Harvest on Monday August 29^th. I know everyone is extremely busy with school starting but if you want to help out, you can just email me (elizhope19@yahoo.com) and I will be more than happy to pick them up from your house or you can contact me for my address and drop them off at my house. I assure you they will get delivered.

Thanks so much for your help on this!

The food bank needs donations of non-perishable foods: (especially)

    peanut butter

    beef stew

    canned soups

    canned meat such as tuna, salmon, chicken, ham

    canned beef-a-roni and ravioli

    canned veggies such as corn, beans, and peas

I am really hoping to be able to post some more soon. I have almost completed my Summer reading which quite honestly is mind boggling because I do NOT read! I have already read 4 books and am in the middle of 2 more. Craziness I tell ya! (at least for me it is) God is really showing me a lot about myself this Summer, a lot of which I do NOT like, but hopefully it will all come together in my mind soon and I can share. 

Hope everyone has a great rest of the week!

Don't forget to email me if you would like to participate in the food drive.

Love in Christ,

Running to the finish line!

I totally forgot that I hadn't posted about what we decided to do for our training for the Rock-N-Roll half marathon. So far, its been a lot of fun. I have 4 really good friends who are doing it too and we have tried to coordinate a couple of the long runs to do them as a group which makes it WAY more enjoyable. If anyone ever wants to tag along, just let me know! This is the schedule I'm planning to follow. I got it from Hal Higdon's website. It is the intermediate half marathon training schedule and then I just tweaked it a little to meet my needs. I am shocked to be training for my 3rd half marathon yet very proud too. I can honestly say I never thought I would be doing this. I truly believe God has given me this drive for running as an outlet to help channel my crazy need to "perform." Wish I could say it was helping with the "crazies" but so far not so much! :)

Week	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Fri	Sat	Sun
1	3 mi + weights	45 min Xtrain	5 x 400       5-K pace	3 mi or Xtrain     + Weights	3 mi run	5 mi	Rest Day!
2	3 mi + weights	45 min Xtrain	30 min      tempo run	3 mi or Xtrain     + Weights	3 mi pace	6 mi	Rest Day!
3	3.5 mi + weights	45 min Xtrain	6 x 400       5-K pace	3 mi or Xtrain     + Weights	Rest	5K race!	Rest Day!
4	3.5 mi + weights	45 min Xtrain	35 min      tempo run	3 mi or Xtrain     + Weights	3 mi run	7 mi	Rest Day!
5	4 mi + weights	45 min Xtrain	7 x 400       5-K pace	3 mi or Xtrain     + Weights	3 mi pace	8 mi	Rest Day!
6	4 mi + weights	45 min Xtrain	40 min      tempo run	3 mi or Xtrain     + Weights	Rest	10k race!	Rest Day!
7	4.5 mi + weights	45 min Xtrain	8 x 400       5-K pace	3 mi or Xtrain     + Weights	4 mi pace	9 mi	Rest Day!
8	4.5 mi + weights	45 min Xtrain	40 min      tempo run	3 mi or Xtrain     + Weights	5 mi pace	10 mi	Rest Day!
9	5 mi + weights	45 min Xtrain	9 x 400       5-K pace	3 mi or Xtrain     + Weights	Rest	15K race!	Rest Day!
10	5 mi + weights	45 min Xtrain	45 min      tempo run	3 mi or Xtrain     + Weights	5 mi pace	11 mi	Rest Day!
11	5 mi + weights	45 min Xtrain	10 x 400       5-K pace	3 mi or Xtrain     + Weights	3 mi pace	12 mi	Rest Day!
12	4 mi + weights	45 min Xtrain	30 min      tempo run	3 mi or Xtrain     + Weights	Rest	Race Day!!

Hay is for Horses

On Wednesday I took the boys out to Effingham to visit Aunt Ava. They got to ride horses, which pretty much made their entire week. They took turns back and forth and Grady actually trotted on his own holding the reins. Pretty crazy! Today is Aunt Ava's birthday so Happy Birthday Auntie Ava! We love you! Thank you for being such a ray of sunshine to my boys. They truly adore you!

Trotting all by himself!

Hilarious! He said he was "backwards riding" just like Mater would from Cars!

Hope you all have a great week!!