Find Us Faithful

     Fall has arrived...but just in name only around here!  Even though it is still hot, I am ready to start celebrating fall!  it is my favorite season, and my feelings can be summed up in a quote from one of my favorite books, "I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers!"

     Of course, fall does kick off a busy season around here!  We have several events filling up the calendar for the next few weeks.  School, Scouts, church, and family activities keep up moving around here for sure.

     One of those activities I have been taking part in for about 25 years.  That event is our tent revival meeting with the Stewarts.  I first met them when I was about 13 or so, and they have been a part of my fall season every year since then.  We first had them for a tent revival when my Dad was pastoring in Pennsylvania. (Just FYI, Octobers in PA are a lot different than Octobers in AL... it was freezing our first meeting!)  They began doing them here at church before we moved down here when my grandfather was pastoring here.

    This year, as I was watching my boys help set up the tent, I was thinking about faithfulness.  I did the same jobs 20 years ago that they are doing now.  I can pass on this tradition to my kids, and that makes me happy.  But that wouldn't be possible without faithfulness.  The simple faithfulness of two humble servants of God who just simply serve each day to the best of their ability.  Since I was the age my kids are now, they have steadily served in this ministry.  (I think their official count is 30 years with the tent.)  This is such a rare thing now.

     People just aren't content to do the same thing steadily for any length of time.  We are always looking for the next big thing, or content to think we just don't have time or energy to be faithful.  We struggle with just getting up and meeting with God every day, much less putting our whole life to the same task.  Have we lost the importance of simple faithfulness in the hustle and bustle of this crazy life?

    As I see the Stewarts slowing down just a little more each year, I pray that I can carry on their legacy.  Not necessarily as a tent evangelist, but just the faithfulness to the minstry God has called me to.  I think the legacy of faithfulness is growing ever more rare.  I want to pass it on to my kids.  I want them to be able to look around and see those who are steadily faithful on a daily basis.  Just doing the right thing each day because it is the right thing.

     I hope this encourages you to determine to be faithful....even in the busy times of life.  Because those who come behind us need to see our faithfulness so they can be faithful.  It is a legacy we can't afford to neglect.  :)

Making Miles and Memories

     Well, I didn't make the July blog post, but it is still officially August, so I made this month's at least!!  July was a really busy month for the Lipskoch family!  Between summer school prep, family get-togethers, and cross-country road trips, there wasn't much time for blogging! 

     We managed to pull off another road trip for two weeks in the middle of July.  It had been three years since our last trip out West to see Daddy's family, so we decided it was about time to pull out the suitcases and get packed up.  And it takes a lot of suitcases for 6 people to take a two week road trip!!  But finally we got it all together and got on the road!

     One of the main purposes of the road trip was to visit family we don't get to see very often.  The kids enjoyed spending lots of fun time with cousins they don't get to see very often.  Good times were had by all!

    Travel is an important thing for you to do with your kids, as much as you are able.  There is so much of the world to see, and you'll never see it if you never leave your own back yard.  Observation, planning, flexibility, and confidence are just a few of the things kids develop when they are exposed to new places and things.  Not to mention the sense of reality it brings when they can compare their experience to the things they may learn about in school.  Those covered wagon journeys don't seem so far removed when you driven across the country for a thousand miles!  "Big" takes on a whole new meaning when you stand under the shadow of a mountain.  "Wild" seems a whole lot more real when you're looking at the claw marks of a bear in a tree on a trail you are on!   And prairie dogs are really cute up close and personal!

     We ate sandwiches on paper towels as we drove down the interstate.  Daddy and First Born stopped in the middle of the night in the middle of nowhere to see the Milky Way.  Middle Biscuit and Stitch taught Little Sister to play 21 in the back seat.  I got flattened pennies where ever we could find them.  (The best souveniers!)  Miles were traveled, memories were made, and that was the whole point.  It wasn't a resort Disney vacation.  We didn't stay in five star hotels with pools and wi-fi.  (We didn't even have cell signal most of the time!)  But I hope they remember it as one of their best times.  We know we don't have much time left with all of them together.  Soon enough we won't be able to coordinate everyone's schedules to take the time to go somewhere together.  But until then, we'll keep traveling and talking and laughing and arguing and being a family.  Because that's what's important.  :)

   

Summer Days!

    I can't believe we are halfway through the summer already!  It's been one thing after another around here lately...and I'm sure y'all can relate!  For not having our normal schedule, it sure does seem like we are just as busy around here.  Not sure how that happens...

     We had a couple of firsts this summer.  The two older boys went to a local church camp for the first time this summer.  They had a great time, and are looking forward to heading there again!  You might be thinking that 14 and 13 is a little late for the "first summer camp" experience.  Confession: I am paranoid about who my kids spend time with when I'm not there.  It amazes me that some people can just drop their kids off at a day camp, or zoo camp, or ball practice or whatever and not even bother getting to know the people who are in charge of their kid!  I want to know and I want the people in charge to know that I want to know.  I don't think that this is "helicopter parenting"...just intentional parenting.  Thankfully, we are good friends with the people who work at this camp, and so the boys were able to enjoy this experience. 

     They went to Scout camp this year too.  (Not by themselves, though!)  Spent lots of time learning and growing in new experiences.  Came back with bruises, bumps, bug bites and a bit of sunburn, but also with memories and confidence in new skills.  The first was that First-Born filled out his first job application to work there next summer!  Side note: how do I already have a kid who is old enough to fill out JOB APPLICATIONS?! 

     Stitch has been growing and learning how to be a big kid.  He is in that middle stage of childhood where he feels too big for some things, but is too little for other things.  But he is weathering it fairly well... he is our hands on kid and has been learning how to use the grinder to make wooden swords.  He also spends a lot of time climbing trees and "adventuring" outside.

     Little Sister has had a couple of firsts this summer too.  She started taking piano lessons, which she was excited about.  And I don't have to nag her to practice!  (Yet...)  She enjoys doing something "big" like the boys.  She also learned how to paddle and steer the kayak all by herself.  I was really impressed that she was able to manage it on her own!  This week she will get to do one first she is really excited about....her first library card!  She is really looking forward to this important day! 

    As I think about these milestones I am reminded of that saying about how the "days are long but the years are short."  Seems so true as I look back.  What happened to all those days that I thought would never end?  Where did they go?  Now, my kids are big enough for another first...one I though would never get here.  They can stay home by themselves.  I can leave them to run to the store, or even go out for a lunch date with Hubby.  Y'all... I remember thinking that time would NEVER come!  And now that it's here, I wonder where the time went. 

    So, my thought for today is even if you're stuck in the middle of something stressful (potty-training, juggling toddlers and babies, working on a specific "attitude adjustment"), take heart.  Even though it seems like it will last forever, it won't.  I'm not going to tell you to "enjoy every minute" because really...that's a little silly.  I'm never going to enjoy cleaning up bodily fluids or stepping on toys I've said to pick up a MILLLION times or reminding someone (not so nicely) to do the chore I've already told them to finish 25 times today.  But I will tell you to take that 5 minutes at the end of the day (when they are all in bed!) and sit and think about the day you just had.  To remember that it is done, and tomorrow is a new day.  For new starts and new mistakes and new grace.  And it's one day closer to not having those little people under your roof every minute of every day.  Which, frankly, sounds amazing most days...but one day it will be reality, and you'll be busy in different ways, and you'll long for those days when they were little enough to pick up and hold...even if it was just for a few seconds.  Enjoy those moments while you look forward to the new ones that seem so far away.  And when those bigger "firsts" start happening, enjoy those too!  :)