grace upon grace

I just have to share about how I have seen God's hand of grace exhibited in my husband this semester. He has had a huge load on his shoulders these past few months, but God has continually given him grace and strength to keep on keeping on. He has stayed up until after midnight and gotten up between 4 & 5 AM almost every day for 3 months and that in itself is a testament to God's grace. I would have fallen down in a heap if it were me! Yet, he doesn't complain, just says those dreaded phrases..."I have reading to do...I have Hebrew vocab to study...I have a project due..." Anyone who is a seminary wife can probably tell a similiar story of how God has sustained their husbands as well. I am just amazed at how they balance school, work, family, church responsibilities, and everyday life.
This past Sunday our Pastor was out of town, so Andrew was asked to preach in our Sunday service. Then, due to an unforeseen circumstance, ended up having to speak in the PM service as well. Praise God for allowing the time to prepare for these in the midst of finals week. Anyone interested in hearing his message on the book of Ecclesiastes can listen to it here.

My new favorite song comes from the new Sovereign Grace CD Come Weary Saints. These words resonate with me and I think they speak well of how a seminary student or anyone can continue on in the midst of a crazy semester, great trial, or just difficult day.

You have ordained every breath we take

In pleasure or pain, there is no mistake

Gladness and grief, both are in Your hand

And sufferings brief carry out Your plan

And our fleeting sorrows will yield an endless prize

When some bright tomorrow we’ll see You with our eyes,

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Grace upon grace flows down, flows down

Grace upon grace flows down, flows down

Through the precious blood of Christ.

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Father of lights, Giver of all grace

Your mercies crown our lives all our days.

River of Life, quench our thirsty souls

For no true delight does Your love withhold.

And in every season we are satisfied

For just one reason Christ was crucified,

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Grace upon grace flows down, flows down
Grace upon grace flows down, flows down
Through the precious blood of Christ.

© 2008 Sovereign Grace Praise (BMI)

And then we sat..

Saturday felt like a soccer mom on steriods day!
We began with the Walk for Life at 9 am.
It was a gorgeous sunny day and just perfect for walking...and softball...and tennis.
Thank you to all who sponsored me with a donation!

with our friends Seth & Bethany

from the Walk we went to softball practice for our church team. very intense. :)

Then for our Saturday night date we played tennis!

On Sunday as I was playing the piano for church I was feeling the burn.

Apparently I have not used my "wicked tennis slamdown" in a few months!

or maybe it was because Andrew was making me run all over the court.

neighbors

our building

This past Saturday we had several of our neighbors over. Out of 8 apartments in our building, besides us and one other seminary couple, all of our neighbors are single moms with young children.

So Andrew ended up playing with the kids while I visited with the ladies. Bless his heart, he played Uno with several of the boys for what ended up being 3 hours! He was such a good sport about it, but to hear one of the boys say "this was the best party ever!" seemed to make it all worth it!

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intense competition

the little guy with the open back was wearing a full spider-man suit.

you gotta love little boys!

So it's been a while...

These past few weeks have been extremely busy with...just life, I guess!

And since Andrew is in crunch time, I rarely get a chance to take over the computer and our laptop wasn't picking up the internet for a while. Thankfully, that is fixed now & I am back in connection with the world!

Spring break was wonderful! Though it definitely passed way too quickly! I got my spring cleaning done, tried a couple of new recipes (maybe will post those later), and spent a fun day at the outlets with my friend Becca. I still had to work at some of my jobs, but was thankful to have a couple of free days!

homemade mac & cheese, very good!

A nice little perk of fedex...twice in the last 2 weeks Andrew has come home with fresh flowers from a shipment that was rejected! Yeah for free flowers! A guy that works with Andrew saw the flowers and said, "oh, yeah, just what I needed"!! (he probably didn't mention they were free to his lady!)

I know they look almost the same, but one was tulips (my fav!) & one was...I'm not sure.


So excited that we are only 18 days away from the end of Andrew's semester! We are busy planning out the details of our NYC trip!
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A strange thing happened this past Sunday... 2 days before, the school that our church meets at called to say the building would not be available due to a power shut-off. It was too late of notice to find something else, so our church ended up being canceled for the day. It felt very strange to have a "2nd saturday"! It turned into an extremely busy day though...our Pastor asked us to meet in small groups and fellowship with our church family in some way. We had a brunch with our fellow "southside" church friends. Andrew played golf with a bunch of guys while I went to a recital that I had to attend for work, and then we had a coffee date with some other church friends. So we definitely got in our fellowship time and it ended up being a very good day!

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Question for fellow bloggers...
I have been getting comments posted by people I do not know asking me to clink on links, etc...Has anyone else has this problem?