In the Storm

tearing down bethlehem.

Last Saturday Jeff, John and Jarrod served all day at church. They have servant hearts. They are hard workers. This is their passion I think: serving where the work is, where it's hard, where it takes effort.

I love this about all three of them. They just don't shy away from the hard, from the work, from what will take time. Instead, they meet it head on. This day was not a wasteful day to them. They accomplished so much.

They tore down Bethlehem.

It was supposed to be a one-day project and they (along with the other servant-hearted, like minded people) made it happen. Bethlehem was the set, a mini-town fashioned in the likes of the actually Bethlehem of old that our church created (and in fact Jeff helped build) for our annual, bi-annual sometimes, production of the Journey that our church puts on about the birth of Christ. This set is old. It was built in 2003 for the first production of the Journey in our churches' new building, on our churches' new property. And like I said, Jeff was there to help build Bethlehem. It is very fitting that he was there to help tear it down and the boys by his side.

But, the Journey isn't over.

As Herod's palace is torn down.

As Bethlehem is loaded up into dumpsters piece by piece.

And as the ground is cleared of what was once Bethlehem, where 89,000 + people walked over the years, and heard the story of the birth of Jesus, even then...

Plans are being made for a new Bethlehem to be built. And for the Journey to continue.

boy scouts l a little update

1. the georgia boys are both life scouts - at 15

2. presently, they have not considered an eagle project. which is so ok.

3. scouting has afforded them so many opportunities i really don't think they would have had without it. major community service endeavors, sea kayaking, white water rafting, building fires, chopping wood, learning to swim and being awarded for their efforts, and the opportunities are endless

4. they are of the few senior scouts in their troop and they are amazing leaders

5. for the most part they 'live out' the scout life. i'm proud of them

6. in august they received their merit badges from camp rainey mountain. each came home with 5 of 6.

7. fall picks up the pace with boy scouts. i think they are looking forward to camp outs and other activities and opportunities.

8. made this digital page for their boy scout album of a recent event they participated in.

fixin' the van l digital layout

our van is fixed again. yippee! our poor, dilapitated 1996 van has held strong over the years. it has gotten us where we need to go, with a few hiccups along the way. this passed hiccup had us stumped for awhile but hoosier man figured it out and decided he could fix it himself. and he did. with the assistance of his handyman son, john. hoosier man directed, instructed, and trained and john did most of the work. he even had to fix a mistake before he could proceed. great lessons learned.

our back side doors are fixed also. hoosier man ordered some parts to fix it but he ended up having to jerry-rig a fix on top of the new parts. another success! our side door is fixed. it now opens, opens from the outside and from the inside.

new glasses

we all had eye appointments this fall. slight changes to my eyes. no discernable difference to john's eyes but some big changes for jarrod. he now needs to where his glasses all the time. do we think he was broken up? crying? throwing a fit?

not in the least.

in fact.

jarrod getting new glasses means

people will have a hard time telling them apart.

and he is right.

they have been milking it for all it's worth too! they even got one of two pairs to look very similar and have chosen to wear them together. at the same time.

everywhere they go that people know them individually they ask, 'who am i?'

many have been struck with the stumbling phrases that come out all wanky and end up just saying 'one of the bowers' boys'

there.

that's easy.

and right, of course.

and i too, get them wrong. they love it!

jewish food festival

the georgia boys will be attending merit badge university this year next weekend. they will be taking citizenship of the world and environmental science. both classes are eagle scout merit badges. it will be the two merit badges they need for their next rank advancement to life scout (right now they are star scout); after life scout is eagle. at 14 the georgia boys are doing great, moving right along for them to complete eagle well before their 18th birthday.

in preparation for the two classes next weekend we attended the jewish food festival downtown in forsythe park, an international event that fulfills a difficult requirement - perfect timing. we spent the time around lunch time checking out the jewish food booths, purchased tickets and enjoyed an awesome lunch of sandwiches and strudel. hoosier man and i had corned beef on rye and the georgia boys had smoked pastrami on rye - both were yummo!

we saw several people we knew and stopped to chat with them along the way. and we enjoyed strolling in the park.

it was such a beautiful morning to spend time in the park

feed our souls - i mean face - i mean stomachs

share some family time on a brisk, fall sunday

made sure i did a mini-photo walk too. checking out intriguing photo opportunities like the iron fence posts

the park bench...hi mom!

different perspectives

and yummy food...oh, i already said that didn't i. but i really meant it. memorable lunch.

i was talking to someone this past week about what boy scouts has afforded our family. we check out events like this. gain another perspective. see more sights. forge more memories worthy of keeping. experience things we would never have done, or do otherwise- most likely. so good.

 

this weekend...

 
kevin and amanda

i'm making this dessert for small group on sunday. i know it's decadent. it's insane. am i serious? Yes! A rich layer of chocolate chip cookie dough topped with a layer of everyone-loves-an-oreo topped with a gooey layer of brownie, baked and then topped with ice cream and chocolate sauce.

the georgia boys have a boy scout camp out this weekend.

hoosier man and i will be alone.

we are heading out tomorrow o'dark thirty for a volunteer gig at the wounded warrior unity bike ride. i'm sure we'll do something in the afternoon. my vote is a movie. then church. then dinner out somewhere.

today we're off to homeschool co-op before the boys head out this evening to camp.

christmas list

not mine.

yet.

but, theirs.

the Georgia Boys.

 
it's an interesting and eclectic list.

i was intrigued by their selection of wants.

for instance, jarrod included a rolling chair for his room. i asked him what he meant by a rolling chair. he went to the den and got one of the three 'rolling' chairs in the den. lightbulb on!

overalls. they are their dad's sons. jarrod was the first to have overalls on his list. i'd already decided that was my present to jarrod. he had made a comment in passing weeks ago that he liked dad's overalls. he even held them up to his body and showed me, 'how do they look?'

now, what size do i get?

oh, by the way my georgia boys are 14. i love that they still have legos and nerf guns at the top of their list. innocence. it's a good thing.

laptop.

where did that come from?

verbally they added, 'you can put controls on it so we don't go where we're not supposed to." i think that was added in the hopes that it would help in our decision to get laptops. they have a point. but controls would go on anyway.

john's paintball gun and gear. yeah, right!

interesting that it was jarrod and not john that added a drawing book. jarrod has come into his own with drawing. they do so much of it.

the length of the list helps. but they also know that our gift giving is one gift from each person - only.

several years ago now we decided to curb our christmas spending frenzy and move towards a more 'remembering the meaning of christmas' and why we celebrate. we came up with one gift (instead of removing gifts altogether). we like this. it makes selecting a gift more 'personal'.

guess i need to make my christmas list next.

100 Days of Summer - Go to the Movies

 
John and Jarrod have been itching to go to the movies. We've just been busy and haven't been able to coordinate a time. Since the boys are off to camp this week I figured we needed to hit at least one item off of our 100 Days of Summer - things to do list before camp. So I surprised them with tickets to the newest Transformers 3 - 3D movie at the Regal cinemas. Their first words getting in the van after the movie, "Awesome movie," followed by a thumbs up.

I haven't been scrapping much lately so I thought I would with some of our activities as we go. Did this one Saturday morning. Quick and fun!

Homeschool 101 - Curriculum arrived!

 
Growing up I always loved school supplies. I loved having all new pencils and folders and packs of paper. And I loved getting all my textbooks (even thought by the second week of school I was hating those textbooks - he he).

Nothing has changed. We got the box of curriculum supplies from Christian Book distributors the other day and I got all giddy. And the books aren't even mine. We will be able to dig into the Spelling Power workbooks probably this week (because we ran out), the Vocabulary not until August I'm sure, and some of the other curriculum is for Co-op classes the Georgia Boys will be taking the end of August. But we are definitely going to dig into the DIVE DVD for their Saxon Math curricula that they currently have and won't be finished with until late fall, early winter time frame.

Interrupting the Bahamas Tour

I'm interrupting the Bahamas Tour to bring several pages that I did one morning recently when I was flipping through my picture folders and realized I had some two-for pictures of the boys in various settings and activities that I really wanted to joint down some journaling for to preserve the memories.

 
I love it when I catch the boys pulling out the memory books that I've made over the years.

 
LEGOS are definitely the Georgia Boys 'go to' toys for an afternoon (or day) of fun play.

 
An advantage of homeschooling: We can begin school in our pajamas.

 
Another simple page with a couple pictures from May 7. We went to a wedding in the evening - our neighbors had a wedding ceremony and invited us. It was lovely. Glad we all dressed up (even though there were a few not) because most people had come out nicely dressed.