Life as a Lewis

Starting . . . a Kelly Minter Bible study on Friday mornings with gals from church. Reading . . .  almost everything recently has been a win! Night by Elie Wiesel - how have I never heard of this book before? A definite 5 stars. What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman - I stayed up until midnight finishing this one. Here's to Us by Elin Hilderbrand - unbelievably depressing with unlikable characters Falling Free: Rescued from the Life I Always Wanted by Shannan Martin - absolute 5 stars and a book I will be recommending for a long time The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson - a fun, quick YA read The Expats by Chris Pavone - meh Love and Gelato by Jenna Evans Welch - fun Last Ride to Graceland by Kim Wright - whimsical Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple - quirky and excellent Listening . . . lots of good things here too, although heavy on one particular topic. Completely representative of what's occupying my mind these days. Tom Skinner: The U.S. Ra...

Just like Alexander, we have had a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad day . . . all week long. The good news is that those terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad days are completely redeemable so we are happily leaving this week behind. 1. Brian and Rory had the opportunity to attend a Titans pre-season game. Camden was a little bummed to be left behind (welcome to Rory's world, C), but we logged in some solid Olympic viewing while they were gone. 2. Rory's baseball career started and ended within the space of 4 days. She wanted to play (because Camden plays) so we signed her up for fall ball. When we found out it was co-ed, she was less than thrilled. Later in the week, she received an invitation to go to American Heritage Girls with a friend from church. As soon as we walked into that meeting, I knew she had found her thing. It is very Southern precious (and I am not Southern or precious), but it is absolutely Rory's style and I'm happy for her to h...

Brian and I started off the school year by setting a few goals for ourselves and the family. Nothing huge, but the adults resolved to spend less time on Facebook. I want to finish my study in Galatians before I begin teaching my Friday morning Bible Study in September, a little more character-building around the supper table, etc. We attempted multiple times to get the kids involved, but goal setting is apparently not a kid thing. For instance, the only thing Rory could come up with was to exercise every day. Of course, she has PE every day at school so that "goal" is accomplished without any effort on her part. Camden took the idea of setting goals as a criticism of his personhood and after a week's deliberation begrudgingly landed on "focus more on school." When the lowest grade on your report card is a 97, I'm just not sure that more focus on school is exactly necessary. So, clearly, goal setting wasn't a big win from the kid's perspectiv...

Camden has been taking guitar lessons for about 8 months, and he's definitely got a knack for it. I know I'm his mom so it's possible I'm looking at things through rose-colored glasses, but I don't think so! Sunday was Youth Sunday at church, and he played for both services. After hearing him play, a friend gifted him with a Taylor guitar . Do you know anything about Taylors? Me neither until Sunday. They are kind of the gold standard, and this guitar is better than anything we could have ever afforded for him. As in, he'll seriously never need to upgrade. That's how awesome it is. Isn't it crazy when God uses someone to just bless you in an unexpected way? I am so thankful and humbled for Camden.

1. Camden logged in a solid 8 hours of Olympic viewing in a row last Saturday and I can't decide if I should be proud or embarrassed by that fact. I cannot even make myself add up the number of hours we've spent in front of the TV this week. We have loved Michael Phelps and the gymnasts. Any time not spent watching the Olympics has been spent recreating Olympic events. 2. Camden has broken his glasses 3 times in the last 10 days doing typical 13-year old boy activities. I think we've possibly convinced him to give contacts a try because those poor glasses are not going to survive. 3. Over the past several months, I've had increasingly severe stomach pain that led to a scan this week. The good news is that the pain does not seem to be caused by cancer growth (scan showed cancer is stable with exception of a tiny growth on my liver); the bad news is that we still don't know what's causing the pain, but I see a GI specialist next week and am hopeful he c...

Because of an overabundance of rain this summer, our grass is still spring green and growing inches overnight. This kid has mowed 2 yards every single week this summer (in nearly 100-degree temps). And while he might hate it, he still does it (sometimes with a whole bunch of complaining and always with a break every 10 minutes). He got paid for 1 yard, but ours is all free labor. It often feels like more trouble than it's worth to make him mow the yard. Seriously, it often takes a superhuman effort to show empathy and support in the midst of the complaining, but let's be honest - I complain my way through hard things just as often.  It's good for him to know he can do hard things, and when he finishes, the sense of accomplishment just emanates from him. Along with the sweat. (I have never, ever, ever sweated this much.)

Well, here are these big kids on their first day (together) of 4th and 7th grade this past Friday. It was raining on their individual first days of school, and I am old enough to know better than to attempt pictures under those conditions. We all had a much better morning because of it. Camden is wearing man's size 8.5 shoe and 16 slim pants (which are going to be too short for him any day now). Rory is wearing size 7/8 shirts and size 7 slim pants/shorts. She desperately wants to grow! Rory is most excited that 4th graders have a fitness test every Monday in P.E. while Camden is happy to get back to choir and his favorite science teacher. (notice the Sonic cups in hand - Sonic Happy Hour on the first Friday of the school year always) Today marks our first day (kids and Brian) of the first full week of school. Transition is rough. We're staying up way too late watching the Olympics and suffering for it every morning, but it's worth it. I think.

1. I delivered both kids to school this morning (they've each been one day this week already, but separately) and breathed a sigh of relief. Anyone else feel like they've accomplished something when the summer is complete and kids are safely back in the hands of the professionals? (yes, I hear you teacher friends - including my husband and 2 sisters - silently protesting this). We stayed up all the nights, ate all the ice cream, talked all the talks, played all the games, read all the books, watched all the Food Network and now it's back to reality. I will admit that a 5:15 wake time felt  very  early this week. As usual, I didn't  quite  appreciate the slightly later alarm while it was available. Ice cream on the last night of the summer (Brian also returned to school this week) 2. Rory and I went to NCT to see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat Sunday afternoon. Everything NCT is quality and Joseph was no exception (although this is kind of an oddb...