Memorial Day Weekend

We drove to my sister and brother-in-law's house in Iowa for Memorial Day weekend. We had fun visiting with family and, most of all, watching the cousins play together.

Last Day of School

Today was the boys' last day of school. They've had a great year at school, but we're ready for summer vacation.

America's Favorite Pastime

J's first baseball game of the season was tonight. This is his fifth year and he did great catching, throwing, pitching and hitting.

Motherhood

Happy Mother's Day!

Even though I'm not living the life I expected, it's God's good and perfect plan for me. At times, I still get tired, overwhelmed and frustrated by my lot in life, but I'm still blessed. I'm especially thankful for the blessing of my sons. It's amazing to observe glimpses of me and flashes of Kent in each of them. They encourage me to persevere through life while making it interesting and fun. They truly are gifts from God!

Bailey is 15!

Bailey is 15-years-old today! He's old, can't see or hear very well and tends to be crabby, but Belle tries to keep him young. They're more foes than friends, but, every once in awhile, they'll lie together. They can be ornery, but they're definitely a blessing to our family.

Field Day

It was Field Day at the boys' school today. A lot of parents gathered on the football field to watch their children participate in four events. J, E and N did well in their events. In fact, I continue to be pleasantly surprised at their athletic ability. J placed 2nd in two events, E placed 1st in three events and 2nd in one event and N placed 1st in two events and 2nd in one event. I'm so proud of them!

Spring Music Concert

The spring music concert at the boys' school was tonight. This quote was at the bottom of the program:

GE hires a lot of engineers. We want young people who can do more than add a string of numbers and write a coherent sentence. They must be able to solve problems, communicate ideas and be sensitive to the world around them. Participation in the arts is one of the best ways to develop these abilities.
- Clifford Smith, President of the GE Foundation

Isn't this a great quote?! In an economy where school districts have consistently lost funding over the last few years and have had to make budget cuts that include the arts, I'm very thankful my boys are at a school that values them.

The boys and their classmates sang well and E even sang a solo. One of the highlights of the evening was the 4th grade class playing harmonicas. They played five songs including Amazing Grace. It's such a blessing to hear Christian songs in a public school!

What a great evening!

Easter

He is risen! 

On the first Easter morning many years ago, Christ defeated death through His resurrection and ascension into Heaven to the right hand of God. Through this, we're reconciled with God and offered the gift of eternal life. What a gift! I cannot grasp the enormity of God's love for the world in sending His Son to Earth to die for us and Christ obediently surrendering to God's will by suffering a torturous death on the Cross for our sins, but I'm forever thankful.

We had a wonderful Easter celebration that included Handel's Messiah, Good Friday Service, coloring Easter eggs, watching It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown, Easter baskets full of goodies, Easter morning breakfast and service, an Easter egg hunt and egg salad on croissants. It was a blessed day!

Happy Easter!

E the Artist

E's artwork, Who is nocturnal?, is on display at the Museum of Nebraska Art's Student Art Show this week.

Huskers' Red-White Spring Game

J and N went to the University of Nebraska's Memorial Stadium for the first time today for the Huskers' annual red-white spring scrimmage game. They even went on the field during half-time! It was a beautiful spring day to be outside with over 60,000 other Husker fans.

NovoTTF-100A FDA Approved

The FDA approved the NovoTTF-100A today. This is Novocure's head device that uses alternating electric fields that enter the brain through electrodes to kill cancer cells. Kent was one of the 237 patients in the pivotal clinical trial for this treatment. It didn't work for him but it has worked for a lot of other GBM IV patients, so this is great news in the brain tumor community.

Grandparents' Day

Today was Grandparents' Day at the boys' school. The hallways were busy with grandparents accompanying their grandchildren to their classrooms, the lunch room and the playground. What a fun day!

The Brevity of Life

Today would've been Kent's 41st birthday, so we went to the cemetery where we reminisced about his life. His head marker is always a good place to start, because the pictures on it capture his life so well. I'm always amazed at what the boys remember about him. Some memories even made us laugh!

We also talked about James 4:14. It says we are mists that appear for a little while and then vanish. This is so true! We sure do miss him, but we're thankful for the time he was here. He was a great husband, father, son, brother and friend!

A Life Interrupted

Sometimes, I feel like my life has been interrupted, so I went to Priscilla Shirer's Life Interrupted Simulcast this weekend. Her message is based on the Prophet Jonah, because she says, like him, we tend to run - maybe mentally and emotionally instead of physically - when our lives are interrupted with something unexpected. If this simulcast comes to your area, you should go to it. It's so encouraging! There's also a book, Life Interrupted: Navigating the Unexpected, and even a Bible study, Jonah: Navigating a Life Interrupted. Check them out!

Leave it all with Him!

Leave it all quietly with Him: failures, fears, foes and future!

This quote from today's entry in LB Cowman's Springs in the Valley says it all, doesn't it? How encouraging!

Golden Dragon Acrobats

We saw the Golden Dragon Acrobats tonight which is China's premiere acrobatic touring company. Their performance also includes contortionists and jugglers.



It was an amazing show!

Riverdance

We enjoyed the traditional Irish stepdancing of Riverdance tonight. I saw it at the Auditorium Theater in Chicago in February 1999 and it was just as good last night as it was back then.

The Sentimental Swing Set

The swing set that Kent built (the weekend before our trial with cancer started) traveled well from Indiana to Nebraska and the boys are still getting a lot of use out of it.

Spring is here!

The first day of spring brought weather nice enough for the boys to shoot hoops in our driveway.

After baseball, basketball is the boys' favorite sport. J was a starter for his school's 3rd and 4th grade team this year and is looking forward to camp this summer. 

E and N have been learning the fundamentals of the game through a six week program at our local YMCA and are looking forward to playing on the same 1st and 2nd grade team next year through a league hosted by a local church.

N was goofing around here and actually made the shot!

What a great first day of spring!

Building Project

I'm God's building project! I heard this in reference to Ephesians 2:10 at church this morning and it really hit home. God isn't remodeling. He's still building from the blueprint. His handiwork just takes time. How encouraging!

Wrestling

I was surprised when all three of the boys wanted to wrestle this year. I didn't know anything about the sport and was apprehensive about it but let them try it anyway. N excelled at it, E had fun with it and J, who competed against boys with three or four years more experience than him, will probably just be playing basketball next year. At first, I resisted liking it, but it was a lot of fun!

N lost his first tooth!

N lost his first tooth at school this morning! He lost his first tooth sooner than both of his brothers.

The Boys & Their Fort

The boys have been working on this fort for awhile now. A few of the logs were already there. Now that J can drive the Ranger, they used the bed of it to move some of the logs there and they pulled, pushed and carried the rest of them. They've spent hours working on it and, of course, playing in and around it!

Valentine's Day

I keep this note in my Bible. A close friend of many years mailed it to me last year in remembrance of Kent. It was postmarked February 13th, the day he died the prior year, but was received on February 14th, Valentine's Day.

If you can't read it, it says:

Dear Bridgett,

Thank you for being you. Kent loved you immensely.  You made him extremely happy. You gave him three wonderful sons who made him even happier. God bless you.

Sincerely, with love,

Name Withheld

Valentine's Day will always be the day after Kent was called to his eternal home which compounds the reminder of my loss. It was a blessing to receive this note on a day of really missing him!

Remembering Kent

Even though it's been two years since Kent went to his eternal home in Heaven, my heart is still grieving. In remembering him, this partial entry by Lettie Cowman, a widow herself, in her classic devotional Consolation speaks to my heart:

[H]eart stricken mourner, He knows the grief and anguish you feel; He knows the desolations of your spirit and its yearnings after a solace the world cannot give!

Go the grave of your beloved one; but as you go let not your tears so blind you, neither so hang down your head that you may not see that Jesus has come to sustain you. Hear His gracious voice from beside the tomb, "I am the resurrection and the life."

Your husband is not dead. His believing soul lived with Christ here, now lives with Christ in Heaven and his Christian dust is sleeping sweetly until He shall rise, immortal, glorious and incorruptible at the resurrection of the last day. All your love, watching and anxious nursing could not save him from [sickness, suffering] and the tomb; but the love of Jesus has delivered him from all and taken him up to that sinless home where there "shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things have passed away".

Here you were united in a better than an earthly love, the love of Christ, and in that love you are and shall be united forever. Look, then, beyond the scene of your mortal grief to the home of your perpetual bliss. Christ has lain in the tomb and sweetened it for the sleep of His beloved and yours; but as you stoop to see within the sepulchre see not that it is broken and that the uprising Master has opened a way through it, up through the rent veil, up through the everlasting doors to the paradise of God! There seek to follow and when you draw near the celestial band you will find waiting to welcome you one more radiant than an angel in whose transfigured countenance you will recognize him you have not lost but who has gone before you to our Father's house.

I miss my husband and my sons miss their father, but it's an incredible comfort to know we'll be reunited with him in Heaven. In the meantime, though, God is continuing to sustain and bless us as we continue to heal from our loss.

More Good Reports

I went to parent-teacher conferences tonight and all three of the boys are continuing to do well in school. Like other boys, their favorite part of school is PE, lunch and, of course, recess!

February Birthdays

Happy birthday to N and Belle! N is six today and Belle will be one tomorrow. 

N had fun celebrating the day with one of his brothers and some of his classmates at the Big Apple's Ballocity.

One Thousand Gifts

When we were going through our trial with cancer, I was challenged by Ann Voskamp at A Holy Experience to record One Thousand Gifts by cultivating a heart of gratitude with the intentional counting of my daily blessings - or gifts - from God.  This challenge opened the eyes of my heart to the simple but profound blessings in everyday life which encouraged me to persevere through my husband's cancer and death and even now through widowhood and single parenting. 

The title of her gift list is now the title of a highly acclaimed and best selling book that released today. If you're seeking contentment and joy in the midst of the mundane of everyday life or even in the heartache of a trial, One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are is a great book. It's about Ann's life and how contentment and joy in it started with gratitude. Check it out!

J & Basketball

J's first basketball game of the season was this morning. It's his first year playing and he did great!

First Snow

Even though it has snowed three times so far this winter, our first big snow storm arrived last night. The boys are always eager to shovel the porch, deck and sidewalks while I plow the driveway.

It's a lot of work for them but helps me quite a bit. They have fun too, though, especially when they pile enough snow up to build igloos and tunnels.

Of course, Belle, like most Labs, likes to play in the snow too.

J turns 9!

My oldest son, J, turned nine today! He had fun celebrating this weekend with some of his classmates and a neighbor at the Big Apple. Afterward, they ate pizza as well as cake and ice cream, played Wii and watched a movie at our house.