Small miracles

Today at church we talked with the primary children about miracles.  It's easy to read and talk about miracles written about in the scriptures, but we wanted to emphasize how miracles happen today, whether big or small.

I was impressed to share how important it is to record our personal miracles, to write them down and then share them often in our family.  The days just zip by and it's easy to forget the small miracles that God grants us.  In that spirit, I wanted to record a little miracle we experienced last week.

At camp last week, we had 10 moms and 45 kids, and a forecast that included rain.  While none of us minded rain while we swam, there is nothing worse than setting up or taking down tents, and packing up, in the pouring rain.  And Wednesday night, as we sat around the fire near midnight, that's exactly what we were facing the next day.  The local forecast called for heavy rain starting at 3 in the morning and not letting up all night or all the next day.  There was part of us that steeled ourselves against the possibility of climbing into vans sopping wet, but we weren't going to just resign ourselves to that fact.

Instead, ten moms raised their voices to heaven and prayed for the rain to hold off long enough to get the entire camp packed up.  Our children heard our desire to pray, and we prayed that they might have a chance to witness the power of prayer.

I was awaked at 3 am to the sound of rain tapping on the tent.  I fell asleep once again in prayer.

I woke again at 6 am to the sound of moms hauling gear to their vans.  When I unzipped my tent and stepped out, blue sky stretched above me.  The rain from the night had dried and left our tents ready to pack up.  For three hours all 55 of us worked hard, packing up, sweeping, cleaning, tidying, feeding hungry children.  Strange wispy grey clouds would occasionally gather above but when I looked back up they were gone within seconds.  Finally, as we all gathered under the pavilion at nine am, the last mother was just coming up from the beach area as the heavens opened and thunderous rain poured down in a torrential storm.

It was small, but so meaningful.  Someone commented about how the prayers of 10 righteous mothers cannot be ignored.  I just love that my children were able to see the tender mercies of God, even in the small things.

As the summer flies by

For the first summer, we are nap free and diaper free.  This has opened up so many wonderful possibilities!

I've already packed in two camping trips in August (just me and the kids), plus many swims at a friend's pond, rollerblading at the outdoor rink, geocaching and hiking, kayaking (even Juliette!) meet ups at parks and friend's houses, and soccer, soccer and soccer!  We've had late nights and lazy mornings, but mostly we've been going from sun-up until well past sun down.  I've tried to say "yes" as often as I can.

Our reading challenge went more amazingly than I could imagine.  Colin took things to a whole new level by reading and entire children's bible (350+ pages that includes almost every chapter of the bible) in three days, and then also an entire section of the Book of Mormon (1 Nephi) in one day.  His understanding of the overarching events grew leaps and bounds through this challenge.  Caleb tried to keep up, but I kept having to remind myself that he is two years younger and perhaps needs a bit of an easier challenge than his older brother.  Even Ben was inspired, and so disappointed in himself that he can't read chapter books yet (but he did get in many, many, many first reader books.)

There are two and a half weeks left, and we still have one more epic weekend camping trip, plus one last soccer tournament and two more games.  The weeks have flown by, but there will be no regrets as the temperatures cool and school starts up again.  What a blast we have had.