Gracie's Dress

Hello to anyone who still stops by the blog. LOL!  I'm working on a brand new website and blog and will start posting again soon!  In the meantime, you can follow me on Twitter or Facebook to keep up with the Chronicles of my life.  Lots unfolding in the next few months!

I've come out of "hiding" to share a quick look into the life of my oldest daughter Gracie...

I recently shared a message in a breakout session @ dotMOM (Lifeway's Mommy Conference) and in that message shared a story about my oldest daughter and her wonderful seamstress abilities :)  I promised the ladies in attendance that I would show a picture of Gracie's handiwork.

This is the dress that she made for her prom - the one from the story I told :)  It's the one that had the zipper malfunction - and the one that her mother had to sew her in!  As you can see...she was still very stunning and deserved to be flanked by her Dad and her date :)

This is another beautiful creation by the young fashionista.  See all that handiwork on the bodice? Gracie hand sewed each of those little rolls on the top of the dress and hand-sewed the beading as well.  

Amazing!

Very proud of Gracie and glad to share her recent work.


Looking forward to blogging again soon!

It's Official...

I'm on the move again. Literally. I opened my big mouth and invited women from my church to join me in training for a 5k.

I'm now realizing that I have no choice but to actually do it. :/

So, true to form, I've found a new quest and I'm dutifully checking off one workout after another. Only one week in, eight weeks to go. Since I'm bound by my word and committed to the task, anybody care to join me?

Check out this webpage for all the details.

Unplugged

This post was typed in Word one day last week when I had no internet/no electricity and couldn't upload to my blog.

I’m sitting here in a VERY quiet house. Quiet time for my littles is normally from 2 to 4 and most days I’m insistent that they participate in it. So yes, my littles are having quiet time at just this moment but, my house is exceptionally quiet for another reason.

My electricity is off.

Not only are my children quiet but my house has no “hum”. There is no hum from the refrigerator or the air conditioner. The fan on the computer is not steadily puttering away in the background and the clock’s tick-tock is silent. There are no ceiling fans turning and the phone is in a comatose state as well.

My house is super quiet.

It’s so quiet that I notice it. The silence is almost deafening. And isn’t that sad?...

Is this how we live? So used to noise that we are surprised by the absence of it? So accustomed to a steady hum of busyness that we don’t notice it until it’s gone?

Today, for awhile, my house is unplugged. My bill is paid (I did call to check :) and the weather is good today, so it appears that we are just benefitting from a plain ‘ole outage for no-good-reason.

There is good in this though. I can hear the bird outside my window. I can hear my son clear his throat in his sleep. I can hear the faint sound of an airplane passing by miles above the earth. I can hear myself think. I can hear Jesus.

Oh how I know that I must make time to unplug from the daily grind and busyness of life so that I can sense that I am truly here, truly alive, truly and completely aware of what I am feeling and thinking, truly in the present.

The electricity will eventually come back on. The question is will I purposely do the work of “unplugging” on a regular basis so that I never get accustomed to the “hum” of a life lived lacking intention, purpose, or clarity.

Thank you Lord for a lesson today in rest, quiet, and a sense of peace. Never let me forget that even when you walked this earth, you regularly “unplugged” and made time for rest, time alone, and communion with the Father.

In Rehab Mode...

For anybody who is listening. I've been doing some rehab on my blog. I miss blogging. I love Facebook, Twitter, texting, & email, but there is nothing like a blog. I have missed exploring my emotions and thoughts and taking the time to flesh them out with words in order to make some kind of sense of all of it.

Anyway, I've missed being here and it's time to come back. Now...to figure out how to make all of this social networking stuff work together... If you have any tips, I'm open!

Celebrating the first day of "school"

with a kiddie hot chocolate from Starbucks!

Last top of road trip! - Little Rock (Pt 2)

That last series of photos was from our stop in Little Rock.  We stopped at Peabody Park...complete with a playground filled with tunnels and hideaways and all made from recycled materials I'm told (all of the hideaways were a nightmare for us chasing the boys but they had fun while we got exercise). And one of those great tunnels led to...the SPLASH FOUNTAIN!  We hung out...tired the boys out and then got on the road for home! (And...we are now officially home btw - thanks for following along on the journey!)

Re: The Memphis Stop (Pt 2)

Sent from my iPhone

On Aug 18, 2009, at 1:02 PM, Chrystal Hurst <chrystalhurst@gmail.com>
wrote:

> We took a stroll on Mud River Island - a five block model of the
> lower Mississippi River. The kids waded in it and enjoyed a great
> view while tolerating a short geography lesson from Mom. We even ran
> into a fox! Not sure why he's made a tourist attraction his home.
> Can u tell from looking at the pics who was the least interested in
> this little excursion?... Now on to Little Rock...
>
> <photo.jpg>
>
>
>
> <photo 2.jpg>
>
>
>
> <photo 3.jpg>
>
>
>
> <photo 4.jpg>
>
>
>
> <photo 5.jpg>
>
>
>
> Sent from my iPhone

The Memphis Stop (Pt 2)

We took a stroll on Mud River Island - a five block model of the lower
Mississippi River. The kids waded in it and enjoyed a great view while
tolerating a short geography lesson from Mom. We even ran into a fox!
Not sure why he's made a tourist attraction his home. Can u tell from
looking at the pics who was the least interested in this little
excursion?... Now on to Little Rock...

The Memphis Stop

These pics are actually in reverse order of what I'd like them to be
but it's the best I can do via iPhone blogging :). We stopped in
Memphis and walked across this walkway to get to... (more pics to come
in a bit...)

On Our Way Back Home

Spent the day driving and headed back into Nashville where we enjoyed more of beautiful Tennesee and hanging with Uncle Nee :)

"The good thing about principles is that they make life easy . . . when someone bases his life on principle, 99 percent of his decisions are already made." - Dave Ramsey

Chrystal Hurst