Rain Camping - I Don't Recommend It.

I've just returned from four days of camping...in the rain. Once your sleeping bag and pillow are a cold, wet, blob, you might as well pack it up and head home, except I couldn't. Twenty of us parents were in this for the long haul.


I plastered a smile on my face, helped to dig trenches around flooded tents, hugged children who were missing parents, and used my blow dryer on the coldest little ones.


Around the parents I broke my complaint-fast, and I haven't laughed so hard. Their sarcastic wit had me rolling. By the time the thunder and lightening began, we'd all become fast friends - comrades in battle.


Before I share the adorable pictures of my daughter and her friends with you this weekend, I thought I'd share a few lessons learned.

• I learned how to sleep in the back of a car like a transient (minus the dog).
• I learned a body can live for days on Doritos Ranch chips and flat Shasta soda.
• I learned just how close is "too close" to put your shoe by a campfire.
• I learned that $5.99 for one gallon of milk is the sale price in Point Reyes.
• I learned that campfire songs stay in your head FOREVER.

Boom-Chicka-Rocka-Chicka-Rocka-Chickaboom!

• I learned that husbands laugh when wives call home while rain-camping.
• I learned that an eleven-year-old daughter is the elixir for a cold-wet-mom.

Do You Have Any Idea?

Grace,
You made me cry today. Your father interrupted my cleaning-frenzy (which you know doesn't happen often.) and made me sit down. I just had to hear you sing, he told me.

Standing there, all elbows and knees, timidly singing into an office stapler, you stole my heart. Do you have any idea how precious you are to me?

I remember being in 5th grade. It wasn't the most pleasant of school years. So close to junior high, but not yet there. I understand all you are going through, and look forward to walking through each moment with you. Thank you for being a young lady with a tender heart. Thank you for not being afraid to wear green stockings with an orange shirt. I love you for that.

With your big sister now on her own, I know it's not always fun being the only "girl" in the house. Remember, you still have me. And between the both of us, we can keep all the boys around here in line!

I cried today. Not because you did anything wrong, because you represent everything that is "right" in my life - a miraculous blossom, unfolding before my eyes.

Do you know how beautiful you are to me, and to God?

Do you have any idea?

What's Your Story?

set me free
Originally uploaded by Rock Star2005

And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. 1John 5:11

What's your story? Everybody has one. What's yours?

Have you ever shared your testimony with anyone? If someone were to ask you how you came to know Christ, what would you tell them?

I plan on sharing my testimony here on Blessed... and would love for you to share yours too. When you post your story, make sure to link back to my post here so we can all share in the glory of what Jesus has done in our lives.

Testimonies are beautiful things. Tools in God's hands to show the world how He can set the captive free and make a broken person whole again.

Until the moment He takes us home our story continues...

So, what's yours?