blessed beyond measure

The joy of field trips. Ahem. Aden's preschool class went on a very educational field trip to a creamery and dairy farm where the boys and girls got to learn about the origins, safe handling, processing, and economics of milk products and eat some ice cream. No, truly it was interesting, especially since these products are local and over-the-top delicious. Good to know where they come from. Anyway, we began with a tour of the processing facility where we all got to embrace our inner fashionistas with some classy hair nets. Classy , I tell you. Hair nets take a lot of flack, but they truly are one of life's great blessings. Nothing would ruin a nice bowl of Moose Tracks like a piece of hair. Let's not go further with that discussion. Our guide explained how milk gets pasteurized and then maybe separated to produce whole, 2%, and skim milks. He showed us the ginormous steam-cleaning machine for the glass bottles, which I admit to coveting. Then we got to see the...

And I mean that in the best possible way. But I really don't think we could have stuffed more life into two and a half days if we tried. On Friday night, Brandon's Christian improv comedy group O3M performed for a DNow event. This was the boys' first time to see the group, as their heyday of performing occupied our pre-parenthood years. They were highly entertained at the antics of their Daddy and his friends. Especially Aden, whose laughter occasionally made the crowd turn and laugh at him. The first Saturday event was the Awana Grand Prix, a pinewood derby race for our Awana kids. This was the first year that Trey was willing to participate, and by willing, I mean he anxiously signed up months ago, worked hard on his car with Poppop, and gradually grew so nervous that he regretted ever signing up. But this became an opportunity for courage and trust, with many prayers to God for Trey's strength and peace of mind. Boy is God ever working on this kid. Trey w...

Oh the change from one post to another. Which tends to happen when one skips two weeks. But I digress. Winter went out with a bang, coating us with ice and causing yet more school cancellations. And yet more time for all of us to be inside. Together. Soaking it up. What did our days off look like? One big, yummy pot of potato soup, a half-dozen rounds of the game of Life (thanks, Nene!), utter brain cell obliteration from hours spent with Mario and Luigi, and a whole heap of this: Please forgive the blurry phone pics. And the color of my kitchen. Ugh. Speaking of basketball, a very effective studying technique has been found for Trey. We were having a bit of trouble with his retention. Odd for a kid who can recall the halftime score of some of UVA's non-conference games from two years ago. But if it's not numbers, it doesn't stick. I wrote questions from his study guides on post-it notes and placed them around the kitchen. He must shoot from each spot and ...