Our March Break

It's back-to-school Monday... 

Another March Break has come and gone. It started with Spring-forward Sunday, when we had to get up extra early to drive across the city to our church's main site so that my girl can meet up with the youth compassion team for their week-long compassion trip to UrbanPromise Wilmington.

We woke up at 5:30am, which felt like 4:30am with the time change! Lots of coffee kept me awake that day for sure! :-) I am, however, loving the fact that it is still bright at 6pm nowadays. Yes, Spring is finally coming!!!

My girl had an awesome week! She was assigned to update the youth group's blog with a couple of posts about their week. 

When we picked her up last night, she told us story after story about her week... talking non-stop through dinner and on the drive, all the way home! Yes, our chatterbox girl is definitely back! :-)

Seriously though, I see evidence of God opening her eyes even more to the things that break His heart, as evidenced by her Facebook status update upon returning home...

my heart is so unbelievably full. Jesus is doing amazing, wonderful, beautiful things through UrbanPromise Wilmington and i am so blessed to have been a tiny part of it. i don't even know if i'll be able to put it all into words but i'll try over the next few weeks and months.

God is just so good and that's all.

So, back to the start of our March Break, it was pretty quiet around here {with our Miss Chatterbox being away :-)}... it just wasn't the same without her! But, we had a good week nevertheless... mostly, my boy and me, as hubby was mostly working.

This is why I love the flexibility that my job offers. I was able to work less {I'll have to catch up a bit this week} in order to spend some time with my boy. The highlight of his week was definitely getting to meet Eric Limeback, one of Canada's top speed cubers at a cubing demo event at our local shopping mall.

Another highlight of his week would definitely be the fact that hubby drove him literally all over the city to find a special lubricant for his cubes. A lubricant that has managed to trim off a few seconds of his cubing time --- this is huge for speed cubers! ;-)

While at the speed cubing demo, my boy caught the attention of a local news reporter which resulted in a video of him posted on their Facebook page, yet another highlight of his March Break! Here's that video:

I also had the opportunity to bake over the March Break! Baking is one of those things that I love doing but don't often find the time to do so therefore this was such a treat for me. Having an actual reason and purpose to bake helps, too.

My sister had a fundraising event for her upcoming July missions trip to the Philippines and I'd organized a bake sale at church for Sunday in support of our AIDS Care Campaign. Three cheers for reasons to bake!!!

And, can I just add that the bake sale was overwhelmingly successful? I had a goal of raising $300, but was secretly hoping for $500, which I thought was hard to achieve. Well, at last count, we had raised $600! I am still waiting for the final count which should come sometime this week. God is just so amazing and so awesome like that!!! 

As I continue to count grace-gifts, with unending thanks... to The One who is so amazing and so awesome... these are the things I am thankful for this week... #2876 - #2883:

:: An awesome week for my girl, being Jesus' hands and feet at UrbanPromise Wilmington {Delaware} with our church's youth compassion team.

:: The stories that she has been telling us of her experiences this past week, ones that I suspect have been etched into her heart for eternity.

:: A quiet and beautiful and fun week spent with my boy.

:: Sharing dinner with our Home Church peeps.

:: Some time off work.

:: Baking, baking and more baking!

:: Overwhelming response to the bake sale at church in support of our AIDS Care Campaign... I am blown away by God's goodness! 

:: Seeing the Body of Christ come together to make "portable church" happen this past Sunday {the regional site that we attend meets in a movie theatre inside a shopping mall} despite the late arrival of all our equipment due to the truck and storage trailer being stuck and frozen in mud! What a Sunday! So humbled to be part of such an amazing faith community!

Hello back-to-school, back-to-work Monday!

There is a way to live the big of giving thanks in all things. It is this: to give thanks in this one small thing. The moments will add up.

~ Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts.

Choosing to live a surrendered life... because Christ's love compels me... and giving thanks for everything that my good God so freely bestows, so lavishly gives and so extravagantly showers!

Compassion is a command, an act of worship, a song of thanks to Him.

Do justice. Love mercy. Walk humbly with God!