Laura Herr Photography

I’ve been doing some reflecting lately.  And I realized that last year, Jeremy and I were in Belgium.  Traveling together is one of our favorite things to do as a couple and last year’s trip was one of our all-time favorites.

For Jeremy, it was the biking and for me, it was the waffles.  Just being honest.

Last year and the year before we also spent Memorial Day at our favorite end of the year  volleyball tournament in Virginia.  We listed to John Denver’s Country Roads 100 times and found lots of fun treats to enjoy throughout the weekend.

I have to admit, I really, really miss the volleyball.  Spring would usually mean Acad Club practices, tournaments, high school Spring League and volleyball at the church as well.  Watching Christian and his team play has been one of our favorite things to do because there’s something to say about the beauty of loving and supporting what your kids love.

Last year, Ellee graduated from 6th Grade and it was so fun to celebrate her and all of her classmates as well.  We love our community and love the people in and being together is also something that we love and have passion for.

Last year, we gathered for our Church Picnic

And enjoyed some nice days with my parents who always visit late Spring.

And there is definitely a little sadness that comes when I reflect on last year and that’s probably pretty normal.  Because this year, we are almost at 75 days of quarantining at home.  This year, everything was cancelled and some days, I really feel those losses.

But this morning I read Isaiah 43:19 which says, “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.  See, I am doing a new thing!  Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?  I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.”  

It’s okay to miss things but for me, if I’m too focused on the past, I will miss the great things that God is doing now.  And I don’t want to miss those things, because I know God is good and I know His plans are even better than I could ever imagine.

There are still many unknowns.  These days, it seems like all that is certain is that there will be unknowns.  But hopefully you can be encouraged as I was today, to know that God is making new things, and new possibilities to come.

Technically it’s over, but it was a good one and worth remembering so that would be the purpose for this post.  But before I reflect, we just officially finished our 58th day in quarantine.  Which seems a bit hard to wrap my mind around.  In the past two months, we’ve sheltered in place as a family, schooled at home and ran dangerously low on hand sanitizer, but thankfully not toilet paper.  Most days were good, but the hard ones were hard and made me more sad that I’m used to.  I learned how to sew some pretty comfortable masks and also did equivalent to 6,000 pieces of puzzles.  I spent both my birthday and today which was Mother’s Day under quarantine, which made them different but special at the same time.  And speaking of the latter, let’s get to this post…

You’d think they could give you a manual to somewhat prepare you for one of the best and hardest and most confusing but most wonderful jobs of your life.  But they don’t.  They just hand you those new babies and send you on your way, and what follows is kind of just a best effort in figuring it all out, little by little along the way.

The early years are precious.  But you don’t always see it at the time.  At the time, it’s just tiring and repetitive and silly and sweet and really all you know.

You’re given these small and wonderful and inquisitive little ones and the while days seem slow, but the years really do pass by quite quickly.

Then come the middle years and they are mostly fun with a little bit of hard in between.

It’s mostly easy and simple to love them

And they mostly easily and simply love you right back.

And all along the way, you stop ever so often and realize just how truly blessed you are, just because you’re a mom and just because you’re their mom.

I’ve always loved having two kids.  I love that we got a son to admire and a daughter to adore.  And like all moms, I didn’t always get it right, but thankfully I learned and they learned and God gave us lots of love and grace in it all.

And then you’re in a whole new stage.  With two teens who are trying to get through those hard and awkward teenage years.  And then there’s you, just trying to get through them as well.  And just when things seem like they are starting to come together a pandemic hits and life as you know it completely comes to a stop.

(Pretty dramatic, I know).  But overall, it’s been a good and growing time to be a mom.  Quarantining with two teens in your home gives you plenty of time and opportunities that we wouldn’t have normally had to just focus on our family.  And while most days it’s not my favorite, I am glad to be with my favorite people and in many ways I know this is precious time to appreciate and soak in.

And so I remember, today was a good one.  I enjoyed beautiful food and special times with our family.  And I received two incredible letters from both of our kids with words of affirmation that encouraged my heart in the most wonderful ways.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the amazing moms out there.  We might be in one of the most unique times of our lives, but I pray it’s a time full of blessings that will appear along side of the challenges and that we will all grow and learn and thrive as we continue to do the best and hardest and most confusing and most wonderful jobs we could ever have.

Today, was the strangest, best birthday I’ve ever had.  It started out late, because I think one of my coping mechanisms from this whole quarantine thing is to stay up really late (hence this post being written at 2am) so I can then sleep in really late.  However, when I did finally awaken to my 39th birthday, it started out pretty sweet.

This kid made me a delicious fruit and Nutella filled crepe.  And I do have to give a shoutout to our kids throughout this whole thing.  Overall, they’ve done pretty well.  Granted, we did just finish up week one, but thus far, they are learning a new balance and I’m really proud of them.

Since we are following pretty strict quarantine rules these days (set by our county and the governor), we stayed home for the most part, with the exception of a beautiful evening walk.

We even got to enjoy a little wildlife which you can see below if you look closely.

In some ways, life seems lonely with the whole social distancing, but at the same time, it’s also not and especially when it comes to family time.  And that is definitely a blessing in all of this.

The Bay was pretty beautiful tonight.  So was celebrating 39 years of life.

Shoutout to this sweet girl who made sure that her Dad got everything that her Mom loves for her birthday.  She’s truly growing to be such an incredible young woman and I love her so very much.

And shoutout to this man, whom I love so much.  He’s been so incredible this week, with our family and with the adjustments that we are all learning to make.  He truly made me feel so special today and I am so thankful for him.  In addition to some very sweet gifts, he cooked me a delicious steak dinner tonight and helped me feel very celebrated and very loved.

We finished our night playing cards as a family and then watching a movie and I believe to date that this was the strangest birthday I’ve ever had, but in so many ways it was also the best, because I’m thankful for this past year and am looking forward to another year full of blessings and challenges.  Thank you too for all of the birthday wishes, it was a fantastic day.

Oh, Hey Friends.

It’s Day 4 (I started counting Monday since that was the first day off from school) and like most of us, I’ve been riding the waves of this “pandemic” as best as I can.  Personally, for the hard parts, I’ve been mentally moving through the various stages… denial, a bit of anger, bargaining/reasoning, some sadness and finally acceptance because there is literally nothing that I can do to change these circumstances.  Well, nothing with the exception of changing my perspectives in it all.

So, the one thing that has ALWAYS helped me, in difficult times is to list what I am thankful for.  I started a Gratitude journal on January 1st and officially have over 800 things so far for this year.  It’s not an original idea.  1 Thessalonians 5:16-17 says, “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in ALL circumstances for this is God’s will for you.”  And I have to be honest, giving thanks and for me, writing it down really does help.  So, in honor of wanting to encourage, today I came up with seven things that I’m thankful for and would love for you to share seven things that you’re thankful for.  You can do it on Facebook, or if you want, feel free to text or email them as well.  Here goes mine…

1. Puzzles.  I actually really enjoy doing them and have conquered quite a few 1,000 piece ones (always ones by Charles Wysocki because my mom told me they are the best).  But because they are time consuming, I cannot remember the last time I had time to do one.  That being said, I had this one saved for a rainy day, and so Ellee and I opened it up and got to work.

2. Plants.  I’m actually pretty bad at plants.  But I picked up these ones at the grocery store and now I have these cute plants that make me happy.  Left to right, I have mint, thyme (or maybe rosemary, now that I think of it, I’m not sure) and basil.  The basil might look rough because it fell out and spilled all over our van, but it is slowly coming back to life.  I have no idea what you’re supposed to do with the mint, but it smells amazing and if anyone knows anything, feel free to share.

3.  Sanitizers.  I’ve spent years telling Ellee that she didn’t need the cute little sanitizers from Bath and Body Works.  But then because they were cheap, I usually let her pick out some anyways.  Well, I have to admit I was thrilled today when Ellee searched around her room and came up with a gold mine of sanitizers.  I had one in our van that I’ve been using, but it’s nice to know we have backups if needed.

4.  Homemade Cookies.  We might have limited access to certain groceries during this time, but I’m happy to share that I can still bake cookies and that makes me happy.

5.  Laundry.  Or no laundry.  This bin has been overflowing with laundry, pretty much as long as I can remember because honestly, household things are my least favorite.  But thanks to being at home pretty much always, I have time to do all the laundry and that has given me a great sense of accomplishment.

6.  Things to do.  Being honest, every day this week has felt like Saturday.  And I know it’s going to get old soon.  But thankfully, there are always things to do.  I have quite a few closets in our house that could use a deep cleaning, that those are next on my list of ways to keep busy.  Also, the pictures to the left are ones from one of our trips to Rome.  Last year, Jeremy and I had talked about traveling to Europe this past month, and THANK GOD we didn’t go because we could have ended up stuck there and unable to get back home.

7.  Faith.  And finally, I’m most thankful during this time for the ways it’s strengthening my faith.  Like much of the world, it’s easy to fall into fear these days.  Easy to dwell in anxiety and stress.  But I know that God really is with us and that no matter what, we don’t have to to worry and we don’t have to fear.  Reading my Bible (or using the Bible app plans) has helped to keep my focus where it needs to be.  And next to my bible is my journal of 800+ things that I can choose to be thankful for, no matter these circumstances.

So those are my seven things from today.  I would love to hear yours and love to encourage you to keep a list or make it a daily goal to track all that you can be thankful for during this time.  I believe with all my heart that it helps and helps to change our views of everything going on around us.

I’d been secretly dreading the call that finally came today.  Even though, deep down I knew in my heart it was inevitable, with the ways that things have been going on our Island and all over our country.  But it finally came, first through a text from a friend, then from scrolling through Facebook and finally from an email and phone call from our school sharing that they would indeed be shutdown for the next two weeks.  And I sighed, and felt all the emotions at once.

And then we played Yahtzee.

It was just Ellee and I.  Christian went to play basketball with a friend and Jeremy to ride in the woods.  And while we played and she giggled, I marveled at the joy that could come from a simple game with dice.  I can’t even remember the last time I felt I had time to sit and play games.  And overall it was pretty awesome.  But while we were playing, these thoughts started to swirl around in the back of my mind.

How do you do nothing for two weeks?  At this point, our usual incredibly full schedule of school and sports and ministry and friends and groups will basically be non-existent.

And throughout the day that tension just built upon itself, because it seems like there are just a whole lot of unknowns at this point.  And in a life where most everything has been usually known, it’s just a pretty unsettling feeling.

And this part is just personal.  But if you know anything about me, you know I’m an extreme extrovert.  I thrive off of being around people and I love it and I love them.  And to be honest, with all of the cancellations, the mere thought of not being able to be around people just made me sad.

After Yahtzee, we went for a walk.  I’ve mentioned before, I don’t like the news and try to avoid most of it, and especially these days because so much of it is negative and it just stresses me out.  But what doesn’t stress me out is nature and the Bay and exercise and walks with this awesome girl.  So we walked and it really did feel just a little better.

And all the while, I found that I need to accept that I’m in a season of processing.  I need to take time to process the uncertainty.  To accept what I can’t change.  I need to choose not to worry or fear.  Fear is a big one for me.  I’m kind of afraid of how we get through the next few weeks, and then in reality, really how we get through this coming chapter of life.  But living in fear is the worst, so I need to work on that a lot.  In some ways, especially with the “social distancing” I feel alone in this and that also adds to everything else.  And then I wonder, am I the only one who feels this way?

Friends, I don’t have the answers.  But tonight I remind myself that I know the One who does.  I know that God loves us and I know that He’s still in control.  None of this is worrying Him.  And chances are, He’s got a lot He wants to do in and through us, throughout these current challenges of life and the more we are connected to Him, the more we can be connected to the bigger picture of what is going on.

The world seems pretty uncertain these days.  But my goal is to find and share the good because no matter what, it’s always there.  Feel free to check in with me on this journey and let’s also share as much encouragement as we can.  Because these are the things that will help us continue to join together in community and to keep moving forward, no matter the changes that may come.

“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God.  I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

Isaiah 41:10

This past week has been strange, to say the least.  And personally, it’s brought an odd compilation of many negative feelings… worry, doubt, fear, sadness.  Like many of us, I’ve become a fan of hand sanitizer and have also wandered the busy store aisles marveling at the empty shelves and wondering where all the toilet paper has gone.

I’ve experienced disappointment at the cancellations of events and have also pre-stressed about the potential for the cancellations to come.  At this point I’m thinking it’s inevitable for our kids’ school to be cancelled which then brings worry about what in the world we’re going to do with, well, nothing to do.

And finally, I’m playing this game of trying to avoid the news (because it’s just endless talk about the same thing) but then scrolling through Facebook to then try to figure out what I’m missing because I refuse to watch the real news.  And to be honest, most of it is pretty bleak and dreary with a touch of panic and a lot of negativity.

And with all that being said, I have to remind myself, that no matter how much bad is going on in the world, there is always the choice to look for the good.  To focus on the good.  And to do good.  So today, I’m going to start by sharing as many good things as I can think with and they will accompany a few of our Breakaway 2020 pics.  Here goes.

1.  Breakaway 2020 was awesome.

2.  That being said, the nice thing with everything getting cancelled is more time to do things like share about our incredible weekend.

3.  Our theme for Breakway 2020 was Olympics which means that we had a pretty patriotic weekend that was filled with games that we made up like human curling.

4.  It turned out to be pretty awesome and it actually somewhat worked.

5.  These teens are also part of the good these days.  At Breakway, we gave them the option to start their day out with student led prayer for our weekend, which meant they had to be up before breakfast.  And to our surprise, all of them showed up.

6.  The good thing thing about starting to want to avoid being in stores is that nature is pretty awesome.

7.  So maybe we all take advantage of enjoying the great outdoors a little more these days.

8.  This family?  They are awesome and they are good and we loved seeing them over our weekend.  Zach was one of our former Youth Group students and he and his wife and their two babies came to Breakaway and it was just fantastic.

9.  So yes, while there seems to be endless videos of all of the crazy people in the world these days (I saw a video of a woman fighting with an elderly woman over toilet paper and it was disheartening to say the least), there are always good people doing good things.

10.  If you’re like me, and you’re afraid of schools getting cancelled, we can still look for ways to get our kids together.  At least that is going to be a goal for our family.  It helps them, and it helps us and it helps them help each other because life was never meant to be lived alone.

11.  We can just pick good things to choose to be thankful for.  I’ll be honest, this past week especially was pretty much thing to thing to thing and by the end, my mind was throbbing.  Maybe it will be good to settle down a bit.  To take a break.  And to realize that there really is great value in rest.

12.  We can choose to continue to worship and trust God.  For the record, Eastport Bible Church will be open tomorrow, 11am-12 noon.  My awesome husband will be preaching a great message of encouragement for these times and even if you aren’t comfortable with joining our service, you can always check it out online after Monday at our church website: www.eastportbiblechurch.com.

13.  Another good thing is to reach out to our family and friends during this time.  Chances are, we are all feeling the same things and sharing really is caring.  When you say things out loud, they seem to have a little less power and a little less hold on our hearts.

14.  Also, maybe we can all reach out to just help and love everyone.  I was relieved when I was able to get toilet paper (there seems to be stores that still have it that aren’t on everyone else’s radar).  But what about those who aren’t able to get needed things?  What if we all looked for others who might need help?  Then maybe suddenly, the negatives start to produce positives and the world really does become a better and not worse place.

15.  If this post was a little scattered, my apologies.  It’s always been my therapy to write and share my heart.  Life seems to be encouraging us all to take a bit of a break these days, so what if we choose to take a break for good.  To look for the good and to be the good that we and our world needs these days.  Thanks for checking in and love to you all!

Parents of teens… Do you need a break?  Let’s be honest.  Raising teenagers is hard, really hard these days (and probably always).  And sometimes it helps to take a break… to breathe a little, to clear our minds, to strengthen our hearts.

And now let me ask this… Parents of teens, does your TEEN need a break?  A break from the busyness, from the drama, from the pressure, from the schoolwork and from the never ending phone and social media connections that seem to be their lives these days?

Well, do I have great news for you.

January 31st-February 2nd, we are taking our annual Youth Group Winter Retreat, which is actually named Breakaway.  The goals of Breakaway are simple.  We want to provide teens the chance to set down their phones and interact.

Throughout the weekend, we provide lots of opportunities for them to play games and hang out

And under the care of some pretty awesome leaders.

We go outdoors and enjoy the beauty that a Pennsylvanian winter brings.

And no worries about the sporadic winter weather…

Because the tubing hill always has snow (they make their own if needed).

Our teens are never bored because there are always people to hang out with and always fun things to do.

Breakaway is a retreat that has been going on for years and years and it’s ability to connect and strengthen relationships is outstanding.

Also, we have a Talent show.

Our teens need this break.  Because as hard as it is for us, it’s equally hard for them.  And sometimes breaking away brings the peace and clarity and joy that they all truly need.

As well as the opportunity for them to know just how loved and awesome they are.

Breakaway also provides opportunities for our teens to grow in their faith and to learn more about Jesus.  And in my opinion, there is nothing greatest that we can teach our teens than these incredible things.

EBCYG (Eastport Bible Church Youth Group) would absolutely love to have your teen come and Breakaway with us this year.  If you are looking for more information, we have a parent meeting tonight at Eastport Bible Church (January 16th) at 6:00pm where we would love to share more about the weekend and how it can help your teen.  The cost for the weekend is $159, but if that is an issue, we have scholarships available from people who care about our teens and value this incredible weekend.

Send your teenager to Breakaway.  You won’t regret it and they won’t either.  We would absolutely love to have them join us for this incredible weekend together.  Feel free to email or message me any questions you might have (lauraherr8@gmail.com).

Hello Parents.  It’s January and it’s Winter.  Which can be a tricky time for your Kindergarten through 6th Grader, because it’s a new season and it’s cold and also harder to do outdoor activities.  So I have the perfect solution for you.  It’s called Hangtime and it’s an after school program that has been active in Eastport for the past 6 years.

Hangtime is for elementary-aged students and it meets on Wednesdays at Eastport Bible Church from 3:30pm-5:30pm.  If your child attends Eastport Elementary or Tuttle Avenue School, we will even pick them up each week.  We have a snack and homework time.

One of my favorite parts of Hangtime is having so many amazing teenagers from our community that come to serve each week.  They help the Hangtime kids with homework and in the various workshops and they do an amazing job!

Hangtime in the Winter is awesome, because we provide lots of opportunities for your child to be active with friends.

Each week, we also do a Bible lesson and the goal is to encourage your child to know that they are loved by God, created for a purpose and that they can do great things to help others.

At Hangtime, we also offer 45 minutes of specialized workshops.  We have cooking,

Crafts and Legos

And Sports and Games too.  When the weather is nice, we play outdoors, and when it’s not, the kids load the bus and go to the Tuttle Avenue gym.

Hangtime is a Screen-Free program, which means that we don’t use tablets or phones to keep our kids entertained and honestly, they do just fine.  We are also a completely FREE 2 hour program, and you don’t have to pay anything for your child to attend.  Finally, Hangtime is open to all K-6th Students.  Registration is quick and easy and can be done at www.eastportbiblechurch.com by clicking on the Hangtime link on the home page.  If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me, Laura Herr by emailing: lauraherr8@gmail.com.  I’ve had the honor of directing this program for the past 6 years and it is my favorite part of each week.

December is always a blur… because from start to finish, there are so many awesome things going on.  And I’m not sure if this is 100% true, but it feels like today is the first day I’ve had some down time to sit and process it all so this would be my big December post with just a few pictures of the many things we did.

1.  Children’s Christmas Program…  strangely, this is the first one in forever that our own kids weren’t a part of because they have finally aged out.  That being said, Ellee helped out with our littlest ones so that was sweet and despite all of the work it is each year, it’s always my favorite to see our children telling the story of Jesus’ birth.

2.  Nana came to visit.  And we loved having her here.  She and Ellee spent a good amount of time watching Christmas movies and she also helped us set up our first Christmas decorations.

3.  Serving the City.  We do it each year.  This year was an awesome conglomeration of teens handing out food and warm winter clothing and we were so proud of them.

It’s hard to believe, but he is in his fourth year of officially being in our youth group and what makes me most happy these days are that he and his friends are still as connected and committed as they were in Jr. High.  The teen years are basically full of ups and downs, but we could not be prouder of these awesome kids and thankful for all that they do.

Also, this is a rare picture of me with my amazing friend Victoria that I thought I’d throw in there because it’s nice to acknowledge life in front of the lens at times as well.

4.  My Photography Business… it’s thrived this year and I am so very thankful.  I haven’t been great about sharing about it online but God has continued to bless it in so many ways, with so many wonderful clients and friends.  December was nice and full and I’m so thankful to everyone who reached out and let me capture their beautiful families.

5.  Our Family Christmas Photo.  It was blood, sweat and tears to get one this year.  Okay so maybe not the blood part, but trying to convince two teens so freeze in the snow for the sake of their mom sending out a Christmas card wasn’t the easiest, despite what the picture may show.

*Our picture caption was “Family is always worth Snowball Fighting For.”  It was a cute way to show the challenging stage we find ourselves in, trying to parent two teens well.  It’s often not easy, but always worth working towards so that was the message we embraced this year.

And I have to admit, there are many times I am so NOT gracious about this stage of my life.  I want our kids to be perfect and happy all the time, but that is ridiculous and lately, I’m working on trying to accept and appreciate the hard times as well as the good times.  I’m overall thankful that we eventually got our picture, and the cards mostly got sent out.

6.  EBCYG Christmas Party.  One of my favorite nights of the year.

We had an awesome turnout of leaders and students and we really, truly love them all.

7.  Fake Jingle Bowl.  I got to hang out with this ridiculously sweet puppy.

It’s definitely the flag football time of year and a few weekends ago we met up with these brave souls to play football with our friend John Caprari, who was our former EBCYG student and is now a missionary in Tanzania with his awesome wife and  THREE baby girls.

8.  Living Room Christmas Party.  I have no idea why this picture is sideways, but I’m too far in to writing this post to worry about it too much.  This was also another favorite night.  We invited our teen small group for a meal together and it made my heart so happy.  There is something beautiful to breaking bread together and this night was no exception.

9.  Real Jingle Bowl.  Every Christmas Eve morning, we play flag football together and this year it was awesome.  I even set the camera down to “play” with the teens, but mostly I ran around and prayed no one would throw the ball to me or run me over.

We had a great group and it was a great morning.

10.  Christmas Eve Candlelight Service.  Probably my favorite one of the year.  Because at the end, we light real candles and sing Christmas songs and it’s so beautiful.

11.  And finally, Christmas at the Herrs.  After the craziness of the Christmas season, we always spend Christmas day, low key and home and together.  And sure, while is this little part of me that miss the days of our kids being little for Christmas, there is also this growing part of me that loves exactly where we are at.  Because in the past, I felt like it was more about what I could do to make Christmas special for our family but these days, it’s growing more into what we can all do together.  So today, Ellee helped me make our traditional Christmas morning Swedish pancakes.

I maybe should mention that we’ve never been early morning Christmas people.  By time time we opened stocking presents and had “breakfast” it was one in the afternoon.  We opened and enjoyed the presents sent by extended family.

And as mentioned before, this year was extra awesome because for our kids, it wasn’t as much about the getting of presents.

Instead, I saw so much more joy in them during their giving of presents.  And that was really fun to see.  I have to note here too, that one of my favorite gifts was from this kid and so reflective of one of the things that we are loving these days.  This past fall, our entire family got memberships at East End Fitness and it’s been our favorite pastime to go to the gym together, multiple times throughout the week.  If you are parenting teens, you know the ups and downs, but the gym helps us SO much.  We are all happier after going to the gym together.  And while this might not be a big deal for some, for Christmas  this year, Christian promised to try one of the many gym classes I love with me and I could not have been happier with his gift.  Because really, what beats spending time together while sweating out all of your stress and anxiety :).

It was a Merry Christmas for our family and I’m so thankful.  We all enjoyed gifts and clothes and Starbucks and fun foods.  Her favorite was getting a new desk (with mint accessories) as well as being spoiled by Grandma with a pair of Uggs.  And we could not be prouder of Christian and his heart to help others and just overall being pretty awesome these days.  Jeremy surprised our family with a few days getaway (hooray) and spoiled me with many fun things as well.

And finally, in a closing to our incredible month, full of so many merry and bright moments, was this… Christian gifting his dad with the most glorious wall art imaginable.  They were both delighted and it was the Christmas icing on the cake of this wonderful and full month.  Thank you for enduring this long post of fun Christmas moments and I just want to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year as well.

Every Thanksgiving, our tradition is the same.  We gather up a group of amazing friends who come and play flag football at 8:00am for our annual Turkey Bowl.

This year, was not quite as cold as past years.

But it was still pretty cold.

Nonetheless, it didn’t stop these awesome people from getting in a few good games of football.

We prayed at the end to thank Jesus for a fun and injury-free morning.

And then I gathered some friends for a few quick pictures, because that is what I love to do.

In a fun turn of events, this year we played not one, but two Turkey Bowls.  Our Pastor’s family is in town and so we set up to play another few rounds of football with them and it was pretty awesome.

This picture made me smile because our pastor’s son did an awesome job playing with everyone…

And it reminded me that not that long ago, our son was about his age and playing in his first Turkey Bowls as well.  Time really does fly.

I didn’t get the chance to get as many pictures of the second game because I got to hang out with some of the little ones whose parents were playing but nonetheless, I made sure to get a group picture of most everyone who played in that game too.

And that was how we celebrated our Thanksgiving morning.  I hope you all had an awesome Thanksgiving!  This day is always one of my favorites because gratitude is a huge part of what brings me so much joy in life.  This year, as in years past, I really do have so much to be thankful for and I want to always remember that gratitude comes in the big things and in the little things as well.  That being said, a huge thanks to everyone who joined us for our two Turkey Bowls and I hope you all had a safe and awesome Thanksgiving!