Camping Work

* Last day to enter our Gotcha Day Giveaway! *

Josie's learning all about camping for our Extra this month.  

We have our Second Annual Kumbaya Night coming up that she is SO excited for.  

I didn't get pictures of a lot of activities.  Lots of sticks and rocks and reading in the tent.

Here's a peek at what we did with links at the bottom.

Disclaimer - please ignore my messy table, messy chairs, and messy child

Camping Preschool Pack

Paper Plate Banjo

S'More Cookies

Pretend Fire

New Camping Toys!

I'm Not Sure

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but I think 

Josie likes playing with her Daddy!

Fall has settled in for it's, usually way to short, stay.

We've been taking in as much of it as we can.

Eating every meal outside, taking lots of family walks, and getting in some awesome playtime in the yard.

Josie's soccer team is so stinking cute, but they've gotten their hineys kicked in every game.  

Poor kids just can't figure the game out.

Josie wants to score one goal SO bad.

So Andrew's been giving Josie some private lessons.

Although, from the sideline I'm not sure how accurate his teachings are.

But if the laughs and squeals and dirty feet are any indicator, she should be on an Olympic Team in no time.

He even taught her to head bump.

And just because it's hilarious that it's legal to throw a ball at your child's head...

These pictures look remarkably like THIS POST.

Which makes me shed a few tears that Josie's hair seems to be growing back into her head instead of longer since I chopped it off.

Someone hide my scissors from me.

Hands & Feet

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I want God to use me.

I want to feel like I'm making a difference, that my actions have meaning.

I want to be the one who jumps up and yells, "Here I am Lord!  Send ME!"

And yet I find myself shying away from encounters with people, seeing a need and proclaiming to get to it later.

And we all know when later comes right?

Four and a half years ago, Andrew and I were leading an amazingly wonderful group of kids.  

Our ministry was called Cross Culture and it was our life.

Heck, we even tattooed it on our bodies.

Andrew spent nearly every waking hour at the church working on things to improve Cross Culture.

He went to school lunches and ate disgusting tater tots.  We attended football games and choir concerts and every other high school event imaginable.

Andrew lived, breathed, and loved every aspect of Cross Culture.

It was different for me though.

Andrew's a natural with high schoolers.  

I had to work at it.

At first, I was there because it was Andrew's passion and I wanted to support that.

High school was an awkward and rough time for me.  I never really fit in or felt like I belonged.

Sitting in a room the night we took over with 8 equally awkward teenagers staring at me wasn't exactly my cup of tea.

But while Andrew started to build what would become one of the greatest youth groups I've ever seen (I know I'm a bit biased) I slowly began to find my groove.

It wasn't love at first sight, but more of a slow courtship.

I didn't connect with all the girls, but the ones I did became mine.

I prayed ferociously for them.

I worried about decisions they had to make.

We had inside jokes and went on trips.

I taught lessons and they actually remembered them.

I loved them like they were my own.

Maybe even more since I didn't have to nag them to clean their rooms or take out the trash.

And then the day came that our time over Cross Culture came to an end.

It came as a shock, although it shouldn't have (God had told us it was time months before, we just chose to ignore Him).  

Andrew was heartbroken.  Crushed.  Devastated.  

He was angry and emotional and felt a profound loss.

I hurt for him.

But somehow, I convinced myself that I wouldn't miss it.

Cross Culture was his ministry.  I was just along for the ride.

I was excited to get a chance to focus on building our family.

A new stage of life.

It's been four years since I have set foot inside of a youth group room.

I haven't reached out to any teen girls.

No rallies.  No themed nights.  No strange and borderline illegal games.

Not one lock in or camp or slightly off pitch praise team practices.

And for four years, I haven't missed it.

But a couple months ago, smack in the middle of an old school Hillsong song, God told me it was time.

Time to stop being afraid of losing again.  

Time to dust off the old purity devotionals and teacup analogies and, once again, become someone's Burning Flame.

And I realized that Cross Culture wasn't Andrew's ministry.

It was our ministry.

I was just as invested as he was. 

And all of the sudden I was dying to be surrounded by stinky teenage boys and over dramatic teenage girls.

So I told Andrew what God was saying.

And, in not so many words, he said I must be hearing things.

Not time.  Not ready.  Not happening.

So I sat back and waited.

I learned long ago that God deals with Andrew in His own way.  

So I wasn't all that surprised when Andrew informed me last week that he thought we should start checking out VTTN's youth group.

Last Wednesday was my first meeting.

And to say I'm in love would be an understatement.

It's not the same style as Cross Culture was and being on the sidelines will take some getting used to, but the electricity flowing from those kids was the exact same feeling I got every Wednesday Night at Cross Culture.

I sat next to some Freshman Girls who might as well have been my Pitstop McGee and Little Christina.  

We joked together and talked just a little.

I watched Andrew slowly slide back in to Youth Pastor Andrew and couldn't help but smile at the memories it brought up.

It's his environment.

Where he shines the brightest.

After the service I went to get Batman and Gabriel and was caught completely off guard when the girl I had sat next to ran up and gave me a huge hug.

I want so bad to be God's hands and feet.

So even though it's awkward and scary and has the potential to tear my heart out again, 

Here Am I Lord.  Send me.

Sight Word Work

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We are dabbling in the topic that gives me hives.

Reading.

It's the one thing about homeschooling that I'm a nervous wreck about.

I've honestly considered sending her to school until she can read and then pulling her!

I feel like once she can read, the entire World is our school.  Any topic she can dream to question, we can read about it and learn all there is to know.

But the girl is ready for the basics and I'm finally ready to step up to the plate.

I still have no clue what I'm doing so I turned to Pintrest for some ideas.

This one was a huge hit and we played for a long time.

I just printed out a bunch of sight words and gave her one at a time.  We practiced the word then she used her See & Spell letters to spell out the word.  

I started with 5 and quizzed her randomly and she did pretty well.

I'll wait until we have these ones down before I introduce the next 5.

I'll take any tips on teaching reading!

Personally, I'm praying she teaches herself just like she did with potty training!

She's Mine, This Is Yours

Next week will mark four years since the day a little red car pulled in our driveway and changed our lives forever.

Four Years.

How can it be that four years have gone by?

It feels like I held Josie for the first time yesterday, yet it feels like I've known her forever.

Josie's Gotcha Day is like my Christmas, Birthday, and Girls Night Out all rolled into one.

My absolute favorite day of the entire year.

I spend all day, every day with my Josie Kat.  I listen to her voice over and over.  We have routines and I can anticipate her next move flawlessly.

And in all that, sometimes I forget the unbelievable miracle of our two worlds colliding.

A life destined for poverty and neglect.

Abandoned, unloved.

Parents with an empty crib.

Aching hearts and countless tears.

Then God stepped in and turned both of our tragedies into a fairy tale.

And since I got such an amazing gift four years ago, I thought I'd pass one along to you!

Of course I can't giveaway a chubby cheeked, curly headed baby.

So I came up with something else we love around here.

Organic Bloom Frames!

Fun, Funky, Bright, and Unexpected.

Just like my Josie Kat!

Of course, she chose Purple People Eater.

They can only be purchased through an authorized seller and I've got your hook up!

Tate (Taken By Tate) is one of the coolest people I know and she is selling these beauties.

Her photos look crazy awesome in them.  I cannot wait to get the kids Christmas Pictures hung up in our frames.

But this one is for one of you!

8x10 Mary Ann in Purple People Eater - $70 Value

Two Ways To Enter

   1 - Follow Journey To Josie (required)
  2 - Follow Taken By Tate on Facebook

Leave a comment for each one you do!

We will pull a winner on October 2nd, Josie's Official Gotcha Day!

Tate is also offering a 25% discount from now until 2012!  These would be an awesome gift for any photo lovers on your list!

Good Luck and thank you for loving my Josie Girl!

Co-op

I signed Josie up for a Homeschool Co-op a couple months ago.

We've been counting down the days until the first day.

She gets to do PE and Math and Science and Art. 

My child is as social as they come, but we'll go ahead and throw socialization in there as another plus.

She was pretty excited.

I packed up her backpack the night before with her new crayons and folders and fancy new snack pack and hung it on a chair.

Then I stared at it for awhile.

Seeing it hanging there gave me a snippet of what non-homeschooling moms must feel before the first day of school.

Totally excited for this fun new adventure your baby is about to go on, but a little freaked out that your sweet, tiny baby is old enough to go to any kind of school.

Sure, I'll technically be in the same building as her all day (I'm teaching a class) and it's only one day a week, but for us, this is the closest to "real school" we'll be getting for awhile.

So here are the obligatory "first day of school" pictures.

For the record, I had a super cute new outfit picked out but the Batman thing is serious business for her.  It was the shirt or the full blown costume so this was our compromise!

She had a blast at "Real School".

And yes, I am slightly offended that she doesn't consider the hours I school her as "real school".

I loved the group of moms (and one dad) that taught the other classes and Josie was brave and did a great job in her classes.

I am very excited for the rest of the year and all the fun we will have at co-op!

It's what I missed

Tucked down a dirt road in Northern Minnesota, along the bank of the Rum River, is my family's Ranch.

Acres of wide open spaces.  Golden fields.  Barns full of treasures.

It's been a part of my family since before I was born.

Some of my best and earliest memories are from weekends at the Ranch.

Snowmobiling, Christmases, Nearly Drowning in the Jacuzzi.

It's where my Grandpa lived and the entire place is swimming with his spirit.

I have memories of times with him and the ranch up until about age 12.

And then something seemed to happen.

I know what that something is.

I became a self absorbed teenager who thought I was too good to spend time with my family.

The beauty of this place and the people it represents was lost on the 13 year old version of myself.

And then I went from spoiled, bratty me to self destructive, drug addicted me.

If my family wasn't important to me before, they were even further from my mind in my late teens. 

My darkest days.

My parents saved my life by shipping me off to Georgia for a fresh start.  Far away from the friends (and I use that term loosely) who were quickly killing me.

And in that last ditch effort to save my life, I found myself 1200 miles south of the Ranch.

Most of you know that my amazing Grandpa, or Papa Moose as he's known to my kids, passed away a couple of months ago.

The kids and I spent most of August in Minnesota.

Surrounded by family, mourning our loss.

I miss him terribly.

I know I will for the rest of my life.

But while I walked around The Ranch, it wasn't so much his dying that I was sad about.

After all, I knew where he was and Heaven was surely celebrating.

It was the realization of all I had missed, the things that would no longer be possible, that made me weep.

How many trips Up North did I pass over?

Can I count the card games I missed?

The laughs, the memories, the stories that I am not a part of?

I learned that my Grandpa had been a Marine at his 80th birthday party.

I'm certain I was the only Grandchild that didn't know that.

He was amazing and I only realized it a few years ago.

Josie knew.

She knew the second she laid eyes on him.  I'm grateful that whatever bond I missed out on seemed to have been double portioned between the two of them.

I hope he knows how much I love him.

That if I could go back, I would in an instant.

I'd drive Up North every weekend and let him drive me around on the pontoon boat.

I'd even learn to play Smear if he wanted me to.

God, Please let the value of family not be lost on my children.  Help me to instill a deep love for each and every one of their adoring grandparents.  Don't let Josie and Gabriel break their hearts with bad decisions.  Don't let them find themselves looking back on all they missed.  And God, please tell my Grandpa I'm sorry.  And the last 4 years, making real memories with him, will be my most cherished memories.

So Close To 2!

Gabriel is 21 months old now!

Almost time to start planning a party!

The kid is one of the funniest babies I've ever seen.

I'm hoping he keeps his silly ways.

Even if it does make it difficult to discipline him!

He started walking about a month ago and hasn't looked back.

In fact, just the other night he mastered walking backwards and entertained us with that trick for quite awhile.

He's such a showoff!

He is talking more, but still prefers to screech like a pterodactyl.

It's loud.

I guess that's what we get for naming him "The Mouthpiece of God."

He says Dada, Mama, "Dodie" (Josie), Nana, Plane, Boo Boos (Boomer), Bobbie (balloon), and Ball.

Gabe is turning out to be very tender hearted.

Any firm words result is some serious hurt feelings.  Andrew and I are both trying to get used to that and be a little more sensitive to him.

He LOVES to give hugs and kisses and snuggle.

Again, we are trying our best to give him all the loving he needs.  The rest of us Pope's just aren't quite as mushy as he is!

Speaking of becoming a Pope...

No word on when that will be official.

In fact, we haven't heard a word from the case worker since the TPR Hearing.

I know everything is done on our end so we are just waiting.  I've sent a bunch of emails to her but am still waiting on a response.  I promise to share as soon as we have a date.  I'm still hoping it'll be before Christmas.

One thing I do know is I am totally in love with having a little boy.

I never really thought I'd like having a boy, but he brings out a mother in me that's so different then the one Josie pulls out.

I'm not sure how to explain it, it's just, different.

He is my Little Man and I could not be more in love with him!

My Caped Crusader

Griffin Has A New Super Hero.

Josie is obsessed with Batman.

I'm not even sure how she knows who Batman is, but someone filled her in and the girl is hooked.

She has been telling me for a month that she HAS to be Batman for Halloween and her Aunt Ambo saved the day when she found this little number at Walmart.

The Crafty Mother in me cringed a little when I purchased this plastic wear for my sweet girl who has worn only handmade Halloween costumes.

But it's been glued to her body since I brought it home and seeing a Caped Crusader screaming, 

"Da Da Da Da Da Da Da Da BATMAN" 

in the yard washed all my guilt away.

Do NOT call her BatGIRL though.

She is BatMAN.  She just wears a skirt.

We can all sleep soundly knowing Josie, err I mean Batman, is on the scene!

Josie Kathryn - 4 1/2 Years Old

Loves Twirly Dresses

Soccer

Barbies

Driving her Jeep 

& 

Batman

I love a well rounded girl!