December 2nd–was a lot

We celebrated my birthday a day early because 12/2/23 had a LOT going on.

We started our day early, with Tabitha, John and I heading up to One Life Institute in Marietta, SC.  Tabitha has applied and has been accepted to their Gap Year Program for 2024-2025.  We had a lot of fun seeing the campus with our favorite tour guide Daniel showing us most of the highlights.   I should have taken some photos, but we were on the move a lot.  It is pretty clear to us all that this was where God was pointing Tabitha for her first year out of high school and she is super excited.

We finished there around 11:30AM and we booked it home where I quickly changed clothes, grabbed Johanna and headed to pick up much of her AHG squad to head to Charlotte to the Operation Christmas Child processing plant.   We filled the big van and headed into our 2 hour drive in the rain.

 

We spent almost 5 hour inspecting boxes.  It was exhausting.

 

 We made it home after midnight.

A birthday for mom

We celebrated my birthday a day early with an amazing Hummingbird Cake (no bones)

and pizza and games. 

Some holes for her head!

We went to the mall so that Katriel could get her ears pierced. 

 

 

She was a champ!  She chose some February birthstones.

 

SC vs SC

We celebrated the Big Chickens and the Giant Paw Print (annual Palmetto Bowl) with our dear friends and neighbors again this year.

The paw prints won – boo.
But we had a blast with some of our favorite people.

Thanksgiving 2023

The girls did some homework today so that they wouldn’t get behind. 

It was just the seven of us.  Two days of cooking for 15 minutes of eating, and 45 minutes of clean up.  Sounds about right.

 

 

 

Noelle’s first South Carolina Birthday

We are so glad she is here!  We cheated and celebrated a few days early bc she and Stewart are traveling to NY.

 

We had a little cake to go with our frosting!

Festival of Trees -

It was our third year to head to the Hyatt downtown to help decorate for the Festival of Trees with AHG.

It was Johanna’s squad again, and it is more than double in size from last year.

 

Afterwards we did our annual visit to Kilwin’s Ice Cream.  It costs more than Culvers… but it is special.

 

It was a wee bit chilly, but otherwise a gorgeous night. 

I love living in a place where I am not afraid to be downtown at night. 

She’s plucky!

Johanna and I NEEDED to be somewhere.
Tab finished her work and wanted the car, which was in the parking lot at Hobby Lobby where Marie was working.  The plan was I would drop Tabitha there for the vehicle so she could go do things.

But TRafFiC!

And it would have taken me 10-12 minutes that I did NOT have to get through the intersection, into the parking lot, out of the parking lot, and through the intersection AGAIN.

So – I half-joked, “Could you just hop out and walk the rest of the way?  We are going to be late as it is.”

And she did. 

 

 

She made a

mess sailboat!

Soccer–FEVER 2023

The girls were able to play Upward soccer again this year.  It was Johanna’s last year.  She hopes to help coach next year.

 

 

CBS efforts

Not really sure what to name this post, to be honest.

I am part of the servant’s team this year at CBS.  I am the teacher for the Baby Class, that means kids under 18 months old.  I watch the babies while their moms are in their core groups and teaching time.  I certainly dropped off my kids for hundreds and hundreds of hours at CBS from 2002 through 2021, and I am glad to be on the volunteer side of things in this way.

However.

That means I have to arrive at 8:30AM so that we leaders can have our core group and praying time.  And by default, that means Johanna and Katriel have to also go at 8:30AM.

We leave our house by 8AM.  They bring a LOT of school work to do from 8:30AM to 10:15AM.  Then they go to their class.  I pick them up around 12:15PM after all the babies have been picked up and my room is clean.  And then we head home.  And if we are really lucky, we start OUR school by 1:45PM, after we have eaten and unwound a smidge.

It is really hard.
We are tired.
We are behind in our lessons.  Too many Thursdays we don’t have the wherewithal to start looking for split infinitives and quadradic equations at 2:45PM.

But if it was easy, it wouldn’t be an offering.  It seems really hard to imagine doing this for another 20 weeks.  So we just focus on one week at a time and trust that God will help us to sow good things.

A Southern Reception

We had ourselves a little party out at the New Butler Place…

 

We were able to introduce Noelle to some of our local friends and co-workers,

and also give them a glimpse of their new home.

 

 

 

Beyond blessed to have our NY church family meet our SC church family.

 

And who doesn’t love an outdoor party on 10/28?

Photos for a senior

My friend Catalina met us in Greer early in the morning to take senior pictures for Tabitha.  It was a lot of fun.  I can’t wait to see what she comes up with!