My Sisters are the Best!!

Sisters are the greatest gift that God could ever give a girl!  I am so thankful for my two sisters, especially because they are a miracle of God.  My parents were divorced when I was six and my sisters became a result of this terrible situation. My life verse quickly became Romans 8:28 as I was growing up.  It says "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."  Divorce is never God's idea, but in our family He truly worked ALL things for the good of us who love him, because I would have never had sisters if it wasn't for the divorce of my parents! 

A week ago we celebrated my older sister Wendy's 50th birthday.  I still can't get over the fact that she is 50 - she doesn't look a day over 30!  I spent the whole week before gathering pictures of her to make a memory board and an album to celebrate her last 50 years.  As I was looking through all my old albums of pictures of us growing up, I was reminded of how blessed I am to have an older sister.

Here we are at her party!  Doesn't look 50 at all, huh?

Wendy came into my life when I was seven and she was fourteen.   I thought she was incredibly beautiful and sweet!  That's what I thought of her at seven and I NEVER changed my opinion of her - she is STILL beautiful and sweet.  She was ALWAYS so kind to me even though she was a teenager. She never got irritated with me even though I was probably annoying because I wanted to do everything that she did.  I always felt special when we were together - she did my hair, taught me how to wear makeup, and played with me!  

Here we are on our first trip as a family  - of course I'm holding a cat "just like her"!

When I heard the news that she was going to be my "big" sister, I was estatic!  She became the sister I always wanted.    As the years went on and we grew closer and closer, I realized that she was not only beautiful on the outside, but amazingly beautiful on the inside.  Her faith in God shined through her face and in everything she did.   She was genuine, kind, encouraging, and special to everyone who knew her - and I strived to be just like her in every way.   And everything about her is the same today as it was back them!!!

Unfortunately, we were never able to live together, but when she spent time with her dad and us, she treated me like a princess and I adored her.  It was the quality times and family vacations that allowed us to bond as sisters forever.  Wonderfully, the best part of not being together all the time is that we never fought about anything.  I would watch her with her grace and beauty and joy even though her parents weren't together anymore, and she would NEVER say a negative word about anything.  She was my mentor and role model growing up, and in many ways she still is.  She is a beautiful woman who has devoted her life to the Lord, and she probably had no idea of the impact that she has made on my life, especially spiritually.  I am so proud that she is my sister!!

THEN, two years after Wendy came into my life, I received another GREAT gift - my little sister Amy was born to my dad and my step mom a month after I turned nine!  I now not only had a big sister, but I had a little sister!  WOW!  How blessed am I!!!  I could not believe that I would ever have a little sister, and here she was, a special, adorable little baby that I could play with. 

Amy and I grew up also in different households and even though I adored her we never really got a chance to bond until I moved in with them in college.  Amy was eleven and in the prime of becoming a teenager.   Even though she was young, I spent as much time with her as a college student possible can, to get to know her.  My role had reversed from me looking constantly to an older sister for guidance, to becoming the older sister to guide.  I taught her how to put on her makeup and many others things.  We had many times of laughing, talking, playing games, watching movies, and shopping.  I become her Junior High leader at the youth group at our church, and was involved in many of the activites of she an her friends.  I tried to encourage her constantly, especially in spiritual matters, and I hope that I became a mentor to her as much as Wendy was to me!  

I am so thankful for that quality time that God allowed for us to bond before I moved away from home.  It  became the foundation of the relationship that we have now. 

My sisters have meant everything to me then and still do now!  When I got married I couldn't imagine anyone else next to me besides my sisters.  Wendy was my Matron of Honor and Amy was my Maid of Honor. 

Amy has become a beautiful young woman inside and out.  She is sweet, thoughtful, encouraging, and a spiritual rock!  I actually call her now when I'm having a bad day, just to be listened to and encouraged.  She has been an amazing aunt to my kids, and I  now have the privillege to be an aunt to her children who I adore. 

My sisters are trully the greatest gift that God has given me - besides my husband and children of course!!!  Thank you Wendy and Amy for being my sisters! 

Glorious Getaways!

I'm so thankful for my family, but I'm also so thankful for the privillege of getting away at times!  Last year at this time I was able to join several of my friends out at Bodega Bay for the start of many glorious getaways!  This weekend we all went out again and it marked my one year anniversary.

We named ourselves the "Fabulous 5" because there are 5 of us that regularly go out to a house at Bodega Bay and we are FABULOUS!  Our main objective is to scrapbook, but with that comes fabulous fellowship, amazing food, relaxation, sleep, walks on the beach, and beautiful sunsets!  We set up our scrapbook tables with all of our pictures and accersories to create beautiful memories of life with our families and friends, and as we scrapbook we look out a huge window overlooking the golf course and the beach.   We talk, listen to music, watch "girlie" movies, eat, read, watch the golfers and the sunset, and this last weekend we even had a lady come out to give us massages!    What could be better?? 

We are all so sad to leave because it is such a treat, but I LOVE coming home refreshed to my family that I missed.  I think it is so good to get a break now and then, especially when we are together most of the time, as we are homeschooling!  Mom needs to recharge her battery, and what an amazing way to do it!  As I walked on the beach this weekend with the sun beaming down on the water, I was reminded of what a gracious God I have to bless me with this privillege, espcially when I need it the most after "battling" teenagers day in and day out!  I'm praying that the affect of the weekend will last in my spirit at least this week, as I jump full force back into my daily routine tomorrow morning, and that I can stay relaxed from that amazing massage!

Here's the "Faboulous 5"

Charlies Angels!

One of us is missing but we are having fun!

And this is the sunset looking out from the house!  Amazingly beautiful!

My word for today is "Grateful" for the times of "Glorious Getaways"!

My Boy's Becoming a Man

Every day that I look at my growing son this last year, I can't believe how amazingly big he is!  I've watched him play Varsity football this past fall and now JV basketball and he is so strong, fast, and tough.  He is becoming a man!

It seems like yesterday that he started sports - "peanuts" baseball, 8 year old basketball , under 8 soccer.  He would run back and forth on the basketball court following the ball, but not quite sure what to do next.  During his soccer games he would play defense and pick grass until the ball came back towards the goal.   In "peanuts" baseball he would sit in the outfield and daydream because no one ever hit the ball out that far.  He was so adorable!

He's always had the natural ability for sports, but a little lacking in the focus area.  There were many moments of glory when he was little because of his natural abilites, but there were just as many "Oh, what was he thinking" moments or yelling "Brandon, get your head in the game" moments too.  After all the sporting events that we've attended for Brandon and the hours put in for practice, it's such a joy to see him finally really working hard to better himself and be the best he can be at each sport.  He has really enjoyed working hard during all the practices and games, and has fully understood the meaning of "teamwork"!  He is using his natural ability and his mind which is allowing him to truly be successful!  We are thrilled and he's feeling so good about himself.  Praise God! 

Here he is looking amazing in these sports!

My little boy!  Amazing how time flies!  It's a bitter-sweet feeling - missing the adorable little one, but feeling so thankful to see how God is growing him into a man! 

 

God's Little Blessings

It seems that when we are discouraged God will give us little blessings along the way to encourage us. That is what happened to me yesterday at speech class for Brandon and Brittany. I walked into the class feeling very defeated and discouraged with several things, and God's amazing grace was given to me during the first half hour.

There have been a few areas in my life right now that at times really discourage me, and just when I'm overwhelmed and seem like I can't take it anymore, God makes His presence known. Our business has been really struggling in the last year and a half, but God has been incredibly faithful and has continued to provide for our business and us personally. I do the books for our business so I watch God every two weeks provide exactly what we need for our payroll which has been awesome. It is our only source of income which has been really trying for us this last year because as part owners we’ve had to cut our pay in half to make ends meet. But again He has been faithful in providing which is awesome. This last month we’ve had to again cut our pay in half because business is slow. So Tuesday night as I was trying to make payroll and pay our personal bills, I was a wreck. I truly don’t know what’s going to happen because it’s winter, which is a hard time anyways for contractors, but there is still not a lot of work out there for contractors. So I came to speech class on Wed. feeling very defeated about our economic situation.

Then, I’ve been really struggling with Brandon and Brittany with school issues and the fact that they struggle with EVERYTHING! I have to help them with all of their subjects because they have a hard time with them all, especially language – reading, writing, spelling, etc. They really both need tutoring but again we can’t afford it because of our economic situation. I’ve been feeling very discouraged specifically with speech because it is so language orientated that even though Brandon is very animated and enthusiastic, I feel like all the weight is on me because they are not capable of researching, writing, or even really putting their thoughts together well when they do impromptu – which at home is not the real impromptu because I give them more time to try to organize their thoughts. They really haven’t been able to read a large amount of literature because of their dyslexia, and their memories are not very good, so examples for impromptu are extremely hard. Then I tend to get into a rut of comparing my kids with all the other intelligent and talented kids they’re around constantly, which I know is not right because they do have their gifts in areas. I know it all takes time and practice, and but when I don’t see much growth it’s all very discouraging.

So Wed. I came to class really wondering if speech is truly where God wanted me with them right now. I was ready to say that I didn’t think so because I’m just tired – mentally tired of trying to figure out all our finances and mentally tired of battling my kids school issues day in and day out. BUT then I stood outside the door while Holly finished her speech with the precious "Young at Heart" men and women (they are older, but yes, truly young at heart) who said they were going to pray. We were whispering so I thought they said that they were going to pray for Holly and I thought “how sweet”! Then as I watched them surround the classroom and Mrs. W asked all the Touche students to stand I was in awe! The blessing of them taking their time to come pray over our kids was amazing and powerful! I honestly couldn’t stop crying I was so touched from the power of their words and their impact on these kids lives. I had an incredible peace come over me as they were praying and the thoughts came to my mind “this is what it’s all about – the process, the mentoring, the support, the encouragement, and the challenge to learn to communicate to others effectively.” It’s not about how well they do, how good they are, and it’s definitely not about me or them – it’s about the their growth and God’s plans. And in the end if all they learn is the confidence to gather around others to pray out load for them like the “Young at Heart” did, I will be thankful! I am thankful for their example of Godly men and women, and hope and pray they touched my children's hearts as much as they touched mine by their example. I know that they probably don't see the preciousness of the older mentoring the younger, but hopefully some day they will look back and remember what a blessing that was for all of us! Thank you God for your little blessings along the path of life!

MONDAYS!!!

MONDAYS! Blessed MONDAYS!! And the first MONDAY of a New Year! MONDAYS are already hard enough, but the first MONDAY after a fabulous holiday break, has got to be the hardest!! Today wasn't awful by any means, but none of us wanted to get back to our regular routine.

My saving grace today is that I had no expectations of what would be accomplished for school so I was genuinely patient. Of course we didn't get much done because prying them out of bed after being able to sleep in during vacation was the first challenge. Then they played the guitar and piano for a very LONG time (because that's fun), then they grabbed their blankets (because it's cold of course) and lied snugly on the couches to read, all the while trying to avoid the math!! My neighbor came over at one point and asked Brooke "are you sick?" No that's just how we do school regularly! These kids have no idea how good they've got it!!

So after working on a just a few things, and of course having our daily half hour "conversation" with Brandon it was lunchtime. To catch up on time as usual I read to them during lunch, and before we knew it our afternoon of craziness was about to begin.

Our typical MONDAYS this school year of 09-10 consists of: Starting the day slowly getting out of bed because everyone is tired from "playing" so much on the weekend, but of course Mom is up and walking early at 6:30 am, because if I don't do it then I would never have time to exercise. Then they slowly get dressed, or maybe not yet, and drag themselves to breakfast and devotions with dad! I'm so thankful that Dave has taken over doing devotion time with them because that's about all the time he has to be a part of school. Then I step in and push them along to start their regular daily school work and then frantically try to finish all of the campus day school work that we haven't finished yet (Campus Days are on Tuesday's) before we have to leave the house at 2:00pm for piano. After piano, I rush to girls across town to ballet, while at the same time Brandon walks to the school for basketball practice (football in the fall and tennis in the spring). I'm so thankful that we live so close to the school. During ballet I try to get as many errands done that I can in a day and then I pick the girls up from ballet and rush home to eat dinner quickly before basketball practice for both girls. Brandon has two hours of his team practice and then helps Dave as assistant coach for both the girls practices. I stay home, catch a moment of silence as I unload groceries, do laundry, open mail, and go through our business paperwork. Everyone files in at about 8:45 for showers, food, clean-up their mess from the day, finishing any homework and bed!!

Sometimes I wonder how life can be so busy and what would I do if I didn't have any kids to fill my day completely, and then I realize that even though this is the busiest time of our lives, that I will look back one day and miss it terribly! So I'm trying to learn to be content, patient, thankful, and positive!! Many MONDAYS I fail in these characteristics because I'm tired and have many other pressing situations to take care of, but "God's mercies are new every morning:" Praise God!!

My phrase for today is "Praise God for MONDAYS even when we don't feel like it!!"

This exemplifies how we all feel at the end of a MONDAY, ready to go to bed to wake up to TUESDAY!!!

First Day of a New Adventure

It's hard to believe that it's January 2, 2010! It seems like yesterday it was 1/1/2001. It feels like a decade has gone by in a moment and our lives have drastically changed. I've been journaling along the way but because my kids have had milestones in growth this last year, and in reading my sisters blog about her days with my nephew and niece, I've been inspired to start this blog to document our families growth, changes, challenges, excitement and adventures.

Our family started on May 18, 1991 when David Reed Douglas married me, Pamela Marie Wollmer, at Menlo Park Presbyterian Church. We had our reception at Peninsula Golf and Country Club where my grandparents were members and I spent many of my childhood years there on holiday's and special occasions. After one of my son's football games this last fall that was played in Hillsborough, where my grandparents lived for 40 some years, we went to the Peninsula Golf and Country Club to show them where we got married.

This is driving up to the clubhouse!

This is the entryway where we greeted all of our guests at our wedding. We had 225 people attend and it was the perfect wedding in every way!

This is the ballroom which was completely decorated with white tables and chairs, gorgeous flowers, balloons, and our beautiful cake. We danced our first dance to "Can I have this dance for the rest of my life" (I can't remember who wrote it). This is the front entrance to the club, eighteen years after the day we walked down those steps as Mr. and Mrs. David Douglas. As you can see God has done amazing and wonderful things in our family since and I am so thankful.

Our adventures started on that day and we have documented most of them through pictures, journaling, and scrapbooking, but this is a new adventure in the world of blogging that will enable us to write more of a family heritage for our kids and hopefully our grand kids so they can know the many wonderful adventures God has given our family. I pray that this will be a blessing to them and others who read it.

On July 31, 1994, God blessed us with our first born son, Brandon David Douglas, and a whole new world of raising kids started for us. Then came Brittany Rose Douglas on April, 9th, 1996, and last but not least Brooke Ashley Douglas on April 27th, 1999. In 2009 they all had milestone birthdays which I still can't quite swallow that they are as old as they are. The hardest one for me was my baby, Brooke, turning 10. Brandon turned 15 and Brittany turned 13 and it is so hard for me to believe that that many years have gone by since they were born. It has been an amazing, challenging, exciting, exhilarating, and awesome adventure that I am so thankful for, and I'm really thankful that I'm not done yet!!

So for day one on 1/2/2010 of this new blogging adventure my word is "Thankful" to God for everything and I'm looking forward to writing about many past, present, and maybe future adventures of the Douglas Family!!