Last Friday of September Randoms

I planned to do this last year, but just put it off & forgot until mid-November: make a month of gratitude calendar or display for the kids to add to each day. (It certainly doesn't have to be as elaborate as this disgustingly-overpriced-as-usual-from Pottery Barn version, but I'm hoping by posting this, I'll get my creative rear in gear. One month and counting...)

I just love this graphic. I added the hearts for our GA homes. :-)

“A stillness before God invites the setting aside of achieving — to allow the simple grace of receiving.” ~Ann Voskamp

“The remarkable thing about God is that when you fear God, you fear nothing else, whereas if you do not fear God, you fear everything else.” ~Oswald Chambers

From Ann Voskamp's post when longing to choose joy:
Sara would dance if she could go. Sara would laugh at the grace of going. Sara wouldn’t contort this blessing into a burden.
Why in the world make blessings into burdens? Why choose fear instead of joy?
When I surrender to stress; don’t I advertise the unreliability of God?
Sara told me: “I had to choose fear–or completely trust Him. One cannot exist if the other is true.”

This opinion article that a friend shared reinforces the Montessori philosophy that the younger children learn best from the older: Delay Kindergarten at Your Child’s Peril.

Another opinion article another friend shared that really resonated with me: Stupid voters enable broken government.

Courageous opens in movie theatres across the country today! I never thought in a zillion years we'd end up going to the church that made Fireproof and revitalized our marriage through The Love Dare, much less be in a Sunday School class now with the writer/producer/star! The whole town is really excited for the release, since all their movies are shot right here and use all local people. (Kirk Cameron is the only professional actor they've ever used.) We're going *next* Friday night, b/c...

Tonight is "Parks & Rec Night" at our local high school football game! The kids get to wear their jerseys & cheer uniforms and have their names announced in front of the whole county at game as they walk across the field before welcoming in the LCHS football team. We're excited! :-D

I placed my first eBay bid in...years on these Zumba instructor pants:

Most Zumba pants look like crazy cargos. I don't know if I'll "win" (no "Buy it Now" option; auction ends in 4 days) but even if I don't score them, I have documentation that some kind of discontinued design looks like this! :-D

I did *not* get a pumpkin spice chai latte for the first time in over a year when it's been available in favor of trying the highly touted Salted Caramel Mocha Frappuccino. Oh.My.Heavenly.Divinity. "Mocha sauce and toffee nut syrup blended with coffee, milk and ice. Topped with sweetened whipped cream, caramel sauce and a mixture of turbinado sugar and sea salt." It sooo lived up to the hype and really does taste different than just a regular caramel frap, (my pre-chai fave; what I was drinking when my water broke & I went into labor with Will at the Mall of Georgia. :-D)