August

August has been a very full month. I spent the first week in Columbus with my mom while Joel went to a seminary class in Sacramento. I'm pretty sure that he had more fun than studied after going to San Fran for a day and Lake Tahoe for a day. I made a visit up to my Dad's house, where the kids had fun driving the boat and playing in the water. Click on the picture below if you want to see more from Papa Doc's house.

The next week was our Lancaster Family beach trip that was NOT at the beach. Instead, we had a staycation in Columbus. My Grandparents, cousins, and aunt came over and we had fun going to the aquarium, Butts Mill Farm, swimming with the kids, and watching old home videos from our beach trips. I love this picture of my Grandparents. By looking at it, you'd never guess that they spend most of their time nagging each other! Click on the picture to see more from our staycation.

I turned 30 this month. I don't like it for lots of reasons...1. I don't like change and going from twentysomething to thirtysomething just seems like a BIG change to me. 2. I feel like having anything 3 and above at the beginning of your age makes you a hard core adult, one that has it all figured out, one that always makes mature, wise, responsible decisions, and one that has more responsibility than fun. 3. I feel like thirtysomethings are put into a box, like we're all in the same phase of life now. Personally, I like being in box - I know my boundaries there - but it's making me feel a little claustrophobic. 4. I think what really bothers me is that I feel like whoever "I" am at this moment is who I'll be forever, like my time for "finding" myself is a lot more limited now. I don't have as much room to grow and change...and there are lots of areas that I want to grown in and lots of things that I want to see change. Okay, now for the truth...I know I'll never have it all figured out, nor do I have to. I know that there's way more fun to be had. I know I'm not in a box and I know that there's still plenty of opportunity to grow and change and become who God created me to be. "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." Ephesians 2:10

So, I'm thankful to my mom for giving me this pink cowboy hat to remind me that I can still be a kid. As a child, I had a similar pink hat that I wore a lot. I have fond memories of wearing this hat and sitting with Miss Tiny (a family friend) singing Alabama's If You're Gonna Play in Texas. So, hats off to being 30. Joel gave me the first season of Thirtysomething...how appropriate. We've had fun watching it, laughing at the 80's fashions, but I also love how honest this show is. It's evoked some good conversations about marriage, parenthood, and friendships. There's a few more birthday pics in here.

We had a great Young Life Committee Weekend at Sharp Top Cove last weekend. Joel and I are so thankful for a loving, praying, hard-working, supportive committee. Thanks for making Young Life Macon happen.

The kids had their first day of Parent's Morning Out this week. They're going for a few hours on Tuesdays, which gives me a morning to myself and a quieter prayer time at the YL house with committee.