The Intentional Life

I've said it before , and this year has been no different:   I love Autumn. Especially October Autumn. The perfect blue of the sky. The crisp smell and feel of the air. The sound of rustling leaves. Sweet taste of apple cider and everything pumpkin. It gets me in all 5 senses and I LOVE IT. Since I don't follow the Halloween crowd, there is no holiday to get all up in a frenzy about.  Kinda the last month before that all begins.  Just beautiful, pure, fall. One of my most anticipated, and favorite projects in our new house was this chalkboard wall.  This month I've decked it out in all the words that describe our favorite parts of fall. Can you guess who's is who's? Print from Lindsey's Letters And our maple tree has been putting on quite a show, so I had to bring a bit of it inside. Seriously, if there was a part of the world that had this year round?  May need to consider moving there.

I have been hesitant on what to write for this month's Romans 12 study. You see, Romans 12:14 was up. Bless those who persecute you.   Pray for them, do not curse them. It's not because it isn't a great verse, because it really is. No, I just don't feel like I am an expert on the subject. Middle class American.  Hardly been off U.S. soil. Certainly have not felt the pain of persecution. Who am I to tell you about praying for those that persecute you like it's no big deal? No, I just am afraid anything I will say will belittle the true pain, suffering, perseverance that is going on right now . My fellow brothers and sisters, beat, jailed, ridiculed, killed.  All because they love Jesus.  It's hard for me to wrap my mind around since I have had no experience in it.  I can have conversations in open public, can freely go to church, drive with a fish emblem on my back bumper. Without a second thought of any repercussion fr

We're getting packed up, eating up some carbs, heading out in the morning for Columbus! There is still time to donate to our pages, all proceeds go to help the little ones (and their families) still fighting their battles at Nationwide Children's Hospital. Here's the links again: Nichole's page Paul's page This year we are both feeling fatigue like we haven't felt in years before.  Not sure why that is, but the one thing that keeps us going is knowing we aren't running this one for ourselves .  This race has turned into something more than that. We are running in memory of Bryer , and his short, powerful life. We are running in support of his parents, Justin and Carey, a testament of faith and courage in difficult times. We are running for all those little legs that want to run and can't. And we are running for all those little ones who have beat us to the finish line, who are already receiving their racing medal, hun

There is a lot of fear floating out there today.  One just needs to scroll through a Facebook feed to find the fear that the Ebola outbreak is bringing to many.  I don't want to downplay the seriousness of the situation, because it is a big, deadly deal. But I also feel it is very easy to get caught up in it and let the fear reign in our hearts. At least I know it can do it to me. So, if not for anyone else, but for my own assurance, I turn to the Promise. The Promise is not that we will never have pain, or even that we would be safe from deadly diseases. The Promise is that if we call on the Name of One Who Saves, our souls will be delivered.  It may be a painful, awful journey, but if we claim Jesus as our Saviour, we have no need to fear what will happen in the end. Psalm 91 sums it all up, so I will leave it at that:   Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High      will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord , “He i

 Tonight I sit in this chair and cry. I have this funny ache that I've had before, it comes and goes. And tonight it is coming back again. You see, I just downloaded this picture off my camera. A picture that I took yesterday and didn't have a chance to look at until just now as it popped up on my computer screen:   This boy. It happened so fast. It wasn't too long ago that I was cuddling this: And now here we are 8 years later. For some reason 8 just seems like the cusp of something different. Feels like we are taking a step away from little boy into big boy into young man. I may be jumping the gun.  I know I (hopefully) still have a decade left of him being here at home. But if the first 8 year went this fast, what will the remaining 10 be like? Owen.  As your dad and I looked back over your newborn pictures tonight, we commented that we just want you to LOVE JESUS. You're going to mess up.  That's not to get you down. 

Ah, September, you begin to whisper of the Autumn that is coming and I love it.  You toss in a few hot, humid days to throw me off, but I know that fall is right around the corner. I love your routine, September.  School has started and we start to find our groove. You give us a nice mix of sunrises and sunsets that are stop-and-stare worthy. We are thankful for the ups and downs you brought us this month.  Every day can't be stellar, we know that. Because if we didn't have those dreary days, we sure wouldn't appreciate those sunshiny days quite as much. I stand a bit shell-shocked at how fast you went.  Here we are beginning our first full week of October!  Perhaps because we filled you with lesson plans, a new teaching job, grading tests, baseball, races, campouts, and family-filled evenings. And no doubt your friend October is going to come and go just as quick (well, he at least gives us one more day than you...) At any rate, September, you were a good o

This past weekend had been in the works for awhile.  Last year Paul and his two brothers and I ran the Fort 4 Fitness 10K race.  It turned into a great family weekend so we planned on doing it again this year.  Well, many things began to come together and pretty soon the weekend was filled with Little League, The 10K Stache Dache (or Fort 4 Fitness for everyone else), a Northern Indiana Dodgeball Tournament, a local Art Festival, campfire, and birthday celebrations. All the Suvars converged on our domain Friday night, hanging out and relaxing, and shooting a few defenseless LEGO men as well. Saturday morning before sun came up we headed downtown for our personally name Stache Dache.  The 3 Suvar boys grew mustaches and I threw on a wax one for a picture(thanks, Kat!) before the race.  Unfortunately, Ben is fighting some injuries so he had to sit this one out.  But the 'stache made its appearance anyway! After the race we headed over to cheer on Sam, Paul, and