"Explorer Spirit…Servant Heart…"
Sep 14th, 2014 by leigharev2
Celebrating our girlfriend Shanti! A night out at Paul Martin Bistro. Beautiful night with my precious friends!
We kind of have a tradition where we like to have cafe affogato(vanilla gelato with decaf espresso poured over it…) for dessert. Paul Martin’s did not have it on their menu, but they made it for us anyway!!
Sep 14th, 2014 by leigharev2
We love our Family Camp. We love connecting with old friends, and making new friends. We love disconnecting from the internet and catching up on summer reads. We love the words of wisdom spoken by the pastors. We love the break in the hot weather that the redwood forest provides. We love listening to the childrens’ laughter. We love the delicious ice cream. We love creating space to hear from God. We love doing things (and not doing things) together as a family. We love it all…
This year, our friends, The Romines, attended the same week we did. They live in southern California and we never get to see them, so this was a huge blessing.
A double blessing was that our friends, John and Ann Jenks, were also there! John was our pastor in Washington state. We were there when he got the confirmation that he was hired on to be pastoral staff AT MT. HERMON!
Dinner with the Jenks, and their son Brian, in Santa Cruz
A day trip in Santa Cruz…we went into a pizza place and ran into the father of my friend Toni! His name is also Tony. He joined us for lunch. It was a sweet visit.
Before heading home, we stopped for coffee in a little coffee shop. They had this cool coffee maker, so I had them make it for us in this manner. It took much longer, but the process was so interesting, it did not matter.
‘A” and Dad decided to sleep in while ‘R’ and I took a hike up to Pancake Ridge for a big pancake breakfast. Concluded with the kids doing a pancake toss!
Celebratory dinner with the Jenks! (where are my pics with John???)
Dirty foortprints in the tub. That’s life at family camp! 
Nightly ice cream with the Jenks. Their son Brian, and nephew, were there as well.
Sep 8th, 2014 by leigharev2
Two of the moms in our homeschool group are moving. Lori is moving to Idaho, and Kelly is moving to Japan. We decided to host a big family picnic and enjoy the friendship, fellowship, food, and fun all together one more time…
The next evening, it was just the mamas. Our final get together that finished in prayer. We love you, Lori and Kelly, and will miss you tons!
Aug 30th, 2014 by leigharev2
Visiting the Bird Aviation Museum…
The iron lung…
Heading to Chelan…we stopped for lunch at a charming mom-n-pop diner in
(I think) Brewster, WA. ‘R’ was excited to see the seahawks poster…
Hello Lake Chelan!
Incredible sunset…
Our newest addition to the family, ‘M’ and the boys…
Our theme this year was ‘Kentucky’! David is ‘Bowling Green’, I am ‘Bluegrass’, ‘A’ is a Hopkinsville Hopper, and ‘R’ is a Kentucky Derby jockey….
We spent one night at our friends, Jeff and Sheila’s house, on the river near Lake Chelan. This is the view from their home.
Headed home the next day, with one more night in Bend, OR.
Aug 30th, 2014 by leigharev2
Our annual road trip to visit family! We missed visiting our western WA fam, but hope to head up again in the autumn.
First night was a stopover in Bend, OR. What a lovely place to spend time. We spent the nights at the quirky, funky, oh-so-charming property, McMenamin’s St. Francis. As with all McMenamin’s hotels, this has historical value. Used to be a Catholic school. The folk artist team that McMenamin’s employs, decorated the property with paintings that captured the past.
Our room
Cool art
The property has a beautiful soaking pool. The roof is open, so there is fresh air. These pictures do not do it justice.
The movie theater was playing the World Cup. You can enjoy food and refreshements as well.
A lovely piece of art at the property…
Getting the squirmies out with a hike through the park and neighborhood…
Some of the Bend neighborhoods have these little libraries. Take a book…leave a book…
Back on the road…
Made it to Grandma’s house! Luke is patiently waiting for the boys to play ball…
We went to the Bird Aviation Museum and Invention Center, founded by Dr. Forrest Bird, an aviator and inventor. The property is full of aviation history, as well as exhibits of many different inventions, including items by Thomas Edison.
This page is giving me grief in trying to post items to. I am going to start a new page and see if it helps…
Aug 20th, 2014 by leigharev2
Hi moms! How is life right now? As the schools are ramping up, is yours as well? Or, are you the sane traditionalist that holds out until after Labor Day? We started ours a couple of weeks ago. Actually, we kind of did a light schedule through summer, with it increasing recently.
Yesterday was a really rough day. I was agitated the whole day. There was absolutely no obvious reason for it. The boys were so gracious and said they thought I was just tired.
I don’t know. I’m not ruling out spiritual warfare.
We begin our school day with the Bible. Currently studying the book of Mark, with all the incredible interactions and miracles of Jesus. As a part of our curriculum, we are memorizing Psalm 90…”Lord you have been a dwelling place in all generations…before the mountains were born and you gave birth to the earth and the world…even from everlasting to everlasting…you are GOD…”
Immersing ourselves in the Word, the Holy Word of our Lord, reading, discussing, praying over…there’s power in that! And I am reminded that we have a real enemy. An enemy who will do whatever he can to kill, steal, and destroy our faith in our Creator. He tries to dismantle everything that’s good in our lives.
He will do whatever he can to keep us from focusing on Jesus, or listen to the prompting of the Holy Spirit. The little things that become blown up throughout our homeschool day.
What did I not do yesterday? I did not pray through each test/trial. Prayer is a weapon. A WEAPON! Equip yourselves, friends, as you go into your day. Know that there is a thief lurking to steal your joy. And there is such joy in the time we spend with our children!
With the horrible actions and thought processes through the world right now, I am humbled and privileged to be able to pray and trust in God’s promises.
“Submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you” (James 4:7-8).
We limped through our school day, (ugh, don’t even ask about my attempt to do an experiment on cohesion…), and managed to get through it.
This morning, I decided not to “do school” today. I prayed for the Holy Spirit to minister to my heart and to help me overcome Satan’s attempts at disrupting our home. I prayed for strength and for God to go before us throughout our day. I kept prayer on my lips all morning.
We went to see a movie matinee, and while sitting in the theater with my boys on each side, an overwhelming sense of gratitude ran through my whole being. Gratitude for being chosen as mom to these two precious boys; gratitude for being able to stay at home with them; gratitude for TOO MANY THINGS TO MENTION. I was a blubbering mess. The rest of the day was spent in the glow of the Holy Spirit who clearly was going before us through our day. Rarely have I felt His presence as tangible as today. I kept a prayer of praise and petition on my lips, thanking Him for victory past, present, and future. In Him we have V.I.C.T.O.R.Y! This includes in our homeschool!
Keep those prayers on your lips! Keep pressing in to His Holy presence! Thank Him for things yet to come. Trust Him in the hard times. They will come, but Jesus has overcome this world!
Breathe, and enjoy your children, for they are a JOY!
I look forward to our school day tomorrow. I am full to overflowing with love for my Lord, love for my children, love for my husband, and love for this life. I know what I am doing first thing tomorrow….praying…second thing tomorrow…praying….third thing….coffee…fourth thing…praying…
Aug 16th, 2014 by leigharev2
Aug 16th, 2014 by leigharev2
This is the boys’ annual vacation Bible school. The theme was ‘Big Adventure’. Everything was super big! Very clever…
Aug 16th, 2014 by leigharev2
As I look over the pictures I took for this night, I am embarrassed to realize that all I took was food shots, and not one of the guest of honor, the love of my life, the father of my children, and all around groovy dude. I guess I was just hungry…
we took DH to Aioli Bodega, a Spanish restaurant in midtown Sactamento. It was delicious, service was fantastic.
Gazpacho
Aug 16th, 2014 by leigharev2
We went to McCormick and Schmicks for dinner. This is our gourmet-boy. He loves trying new foods, and pretty much likes everything. We had raw oysters for our appetizer, We were only going to split the creme brulee dessert, but the server brought us an additional dessert to enjoy. ‘A’ was also thrilled in having a decaf cappucino. He felt so grown up…
