(Once again, I cannot figure out how to center photos in the post.  Arg.)

A couple Fridays ago, I noticed on Katy’s Facebook page that she was thinking of taking her boys, Eli and Walker on a field trip to Krispy Kreme.  Of course, Josiah and I needed to meet them for the fun, only because KK is ust 5 minutes from our house.  Nothing to do with the fact that there would be donuts involved, and I had a coupon for free coffee, but purely for the educational benefit of seeing how donuts are made 🙂

Mesmerized by the process... or more likely, the rows and rows of donuts going under the waterfall of glaze.

Donuts with sprinkles, free coffee for moms, and complimentary hats complete the fun.

Eli obliging me for a photo before he digs in.

Walker was pleased with the chocolate and sprinkles.

My happy little guy. Believe me, the hat didn't stay on more than a few seconds after the photo.

Donut making is a complicated process, you know.  I’m sure we’ll do this highly educational field trip often!

From last weekend’s bike race in Guntersville. Both kids rode and rode and rode while we cheered Brian on to his 2nd place finish.

My little speed princess!

Josiah likes to say "speed!" when he's riding. He's so funny to watch!

So concentrated!

Look at that serious face!

One of my all-time favorite photos...

Brian attacking the break ahead of the field early in the race.

Wonder where Josiah gets his concentrated look from?

Brian leading the break as it's been trimmed down to just three.

The rest of the field, a couple minutes behind Brian's lead breakaway.

Brian's teammate, Sammy, winning the field sprint for 3rd place.

I regularly read a site called Holy Experience, and it continually shines a beautiful God-centered light on life, faith and parenting.  Today’s post is a wonderful model for parenting… Click on over and enjoy it for yourself!

Epic parenting is storytelling around our togetherness – about what God wrote during this morning’s errands, during our vacation last year, from our own childhoods. No curriculum, classes or other paraphernalia necessary. Just a willingness to listen to our lives and tell the whole of God’s epic — parchment and personal.

So we’ve finally made some space on my computer so I can work on photos, and the kids are happily riding circles in th driveway, so I’m going to try to get caught up 🙂  Three weeks ago we had 70+ degrees on Thursday, tornados and severe weather on Friday, flash floods on Saturday, and a beautiful 3 inches of snow on Sunday.  It was so pretty!  We went to early church and came home to play in it.  Good thing we made the most of it because after our lunch break, we looked back outside at 1pm to find the snow nearly gone.  We threw snowballs, made a snow woman and snow angels, splashed in the snowy puddles from the rain of the day before, and brought a big bowl of snow inside and had snow ice cream.  Gotta make the most of snow here because it might be a few years before we get enough snow to play!

Bundling up to play a bit before church.

All Josiah wanted to do was eat snow!

After lunch the snow day was nearly over!

What a great trip this was!  Brian rode up to Gadsden, while the kids and I picked up donuts for our hour-long drive to meet him at Noccalula Falls Park.  It was a wonderful family adventure!

At dry points during the summer, there might not actually be a falls. But we've had TONS of rain, and the water was impressive!

This tree was from the bottom of the gorge, growing all the way up to tower above the high viewing area.

Not the best picture of us, but it was fun to be under the waterfall!

We hiked down a steep set of stairs and a short trail to see the view under the falls.

Brian's cool photo of the water coming over the cliff.

This was a rocky area where you could climb down in and climb between the rocks. Some tight squeezes...

Rocks to climb on, trains to ride, animals to see... what more could the kids want?

Josiah waving to the train going by us.

A little help from sister...

I can’t even tell you how happy this sweet photo makes me.   More tomorrow, hopefully… I’ve finally made space on my laptop so I can work on photos from our snow-day (more like snow-hours!) 2 weeks ago, beautiful spring blooms, and the serious bike racers from today.  But I’m as tired as my little ones from the sun, fresh air and chasing them around, not to mention cheering Brian to a 2nd place finish.  Whew!

(Try as I might, I cannot seem to get photos centered.  They’re centered on my “edit” page, but no matter what I do, they move left when I post… sorry!)

I’m glad to have Brian home, but now he’s sick in bed with a stomach bug.  Poor, poor guy.  And just 3 weeks ago, he had a terrible bout with food poisoning (lost 7lbs in 24 hours!).  In the past month, both kids had 24 hour stomach bugs and drippy colds.  Thursday/Friday of last week, Josiah had a random fever with an episode of throwing up.  And everywhere around us at church and school people have the flu.  What a mess.  It looks like spring outside, but the germs are still as rampant as the dead of winter.

Back to my Clorox wipes.  And keeping my fingers crossed that I can dodge yet another bullet and stay healthy.

Nothing like a weekend (two in a row, actually!) of solo parenting to make you appreciate your spouse!  The racing season is just getting started and last weekend, Brian left early Saturday to race in Georgia.  This weekend, he left Friday evening and just got back tonight.  Whew!  I think we’ve done pretty well keeping ourselves entertained without him, but I’m glad there’s no more of those on the radar soon!

I was going to write more, but my sweet hubby just came up to go to bed, so I’m going to go join him.  I did sleep really well with the bed to myself, but it will be nice to have his arm around me tonight.

I’ve just started a great new bible study, Living Beyond Yourself by Beth Moore about the Fruit of the Spirit.  The first week is an overview of the book of Galatians, and I was just struck by some thoughts this morning in Galatians 1.

Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ. –Galatians 1:10

I am a people-pleaser.  I always have been, and it’s been a struggle to turn that part of me towards Christ and seek His approval.  Mothering is an amazing job, but I’ve found that it lacks the opportunity to hear the “people approval” that a people-pleaser needs.  My kiddos don’t effuse thankfulness and graciousness for my laundry skills, playing with trains, and crafty projects.  So I might pour some effort into making dinner, hoping that my healthy delicious meal will garner some “approval” from Brian.  And as the “again-ness” of my days continue with dishes, laundry, preschool, cleaning up, and more mundane tasks, I feel more and more invisible.

But one thing Beth points out is that in the verse above, Paul starts out talking about approval but ends by talking about servanthood.

Approval and servanthood are connected because we become immediate slaves to the person(s) from whom we seek approval. Only One holds the future in His hands and knows your part in that future.  Only One cares for you with a perfect and unconditional love.  Only One can make “all things work together for good” (Romans 8:28). Only One can safely, yes, glorioiusly enslave you!

If I keep my heart focused on God and his glorious invisible approval, my heart will be filled.  But if I continue seeking my kids, Brian, and those around me to warm my heart with their accolades, I’m sure to be let down.  And in the end, Revelation 22:12 reminds us that He will reward us according to what we have done.  He sees, He knows, and He is blessed.

Ok, humor me as I share one more giveaway with y’all!  This one is for a beautiful necklace from one of my very favorite Etsy shops, The Vintage Pearl.  I have had a necklace from her shop on my “wish list” for a long time, and I’ve got my fingers crossed for my upcoming birthday (hint, hint, honey!).  It sure would be fun to win one, though!  The one I’d love is actually not available right now, but you can see it on the right sidebar of her shop, the diamond shape with names on it and a pearl in the middle.  But these dainty hearts with initials would be nice, too…  I could make a long list!  (Oh and honey… the names I’d like on it are “Analise” and “Josiah”, hehe:) )

dainty hearts on a chain from The Vintage Pearl