On our little trip to Washington D.C., I have officially decided to get my blog up and running again.  I have lots to say and lots to post.  Not only is this going to be a blog about family, but a place where I can post opinions, thoughts about life, and what I'm learning in this season of life.  For quite some time, I have refrained from posting for lots of reasons...but not anymore.  I'm coming out of my black hole!  I'm learning that I have a voice and I can express myself with gentleness and love and yet, have a steadfast opinion.  So I'm getting bolder in my old age and I feel good about it.  Lets just say that it might take awhile to get the pictures and format the way I want it, but it won't take me anytime to start typing what I'm feeling and thinking. Yep, you might be offended if we differ in opinion, but don't worry I won't think less of you and I might understand why you have the opinion that you do.  For so long I have let others tell me that to engage culture I have to just keep the "gray" areas to myself.  To some degree, I agree with that.  But on the other hand I see the negative results of keeping the "gray" areas to yourself...living on a college campus recently reinforced those negative results.  O.K., now I'm getting off on a tangent.  Anyways, I hope you will enjoy my new blogging adventure!

I have to record this story somewhere because I definitely want to remember it.  On Fridays, both my kids take an art class with several other kids.  The teacher, Mrs. Jordan, was talking about shapes in drawing.  To practice what they learned she had them listen to Tchaikovski's Swan Dance.  She told them about the song and what was happening in the song.  They were to create a picture to the music.  In order to appreciate this story you have to know a few things about my kids.  First, Ella LOVES art and she can't get enough of it.  She even loves art history and appreciation.  Her favorite type of music is classical.  So to say the least this class is a dream come true for her.  By the way, Ella has interests that Seth and I have never had and sometimes we just have to laugh that God gave us a child that in a lot of ways isn't a bit like us.  Isn't God cool like that sometimes?  Anyways, Ella ended up drawing two swans with this detailed background (I even caught her swaying to the music as she was drawing...I just laughed to myself and thought how much I love this girl) that was quite beautiful. 

Luke on the other hand is not into art at all.  He could care less and he cares less about classical music.  Ella and Luke have frequent arguments about what music we are going to listen to in the car.  I was concerned about Luke even taking the class and thought he would throw a fit.  I was surprised that he seemed to be enjoying it, and he was actually drawing while the music was playing.  Later, after the class, I asked him what he drew.  He said, "I drew Indians fighting and cutting off each others heads."  How the heck do you get a picture about Indians fighting listening to the swan dance?  I know it may be one of those stories where you had to be there to really find it funny, but I just want to remember it because I found it hilarious.  My kids are so polar opposite of each other, it's just not even funny. 

Ok, I've been putting off blogging because my mind has been on other things...like moving.  We are getting to where somewhat of a routine has started.  My life feels really foreign right now.  One would think that since this is the place I moved from that I would be able to jump back into the same old routine as before.  The problem is that I'm not the same person.  I've had different experiences since I've been gone, have different visions for my life, and even had changes on my viewpoints that I once held so strongly.  I'm different and for the better.  Everyone thinks that we moved to Blacksburg for Seth to go to school and I since God laughing and saying, "if they only knew".  I think God had us move to Blacksburg for me.  I have never met with God like I did in Blacksburg.  I since him directing my life in ways I have never experienced before.  I have learned to sit still before him and allow him to speak to me through His Word, people, and the Holy Spirit.  God also sent so many older Titus 2 women in my life.  I can't tell you how they encouraged me in my walk with the Lord.  Personally, there is nothing like sitting at an older (or one with more experiences than you) woman's feet that is completely in-love with Jesus and listening to her experiences and wisdom on life.  I now understand why God put Titus chapter 2 in his Word...because it is vital to one in their pursuit of God. 

Here is another question we get..."aren't you glad to be back in a house with a backyard?"  The answer is no...I loved my 1100 square foot apartment.  Mainly because we had the best neighbors in the world.  My Korean neighbor would just randomly make me food and we would have our kids play together.  There was the sweetest special needs girl named Katia and my kids would hug her almost everyday as she would get off the bus from school.  There was Ms. Liz who made yarn at the library out of sheep's wool.  She had four boys of her own (all grown up) and had a special heart towards Luke.  Luke would sell her lemonade and tell her about his special projects he had going on in his sandbox.  There was also Yazahn and Akmahn from the Middle East who loved to play with Luke.  Eric who lived around the corner and Anthony that lived at another complex...they would both seek out Luke to play with.  There were Shirley and Penelope who Ella loved to play with.  Soha, who befriended Ella.  And Judy and Chance (her dog).  My kids loved that dog and so did Fonzi.  We loved the diversity of people that Blacksburg had and all the exposure our kids had while there.  I could literally go one day at my apartment complex and rarely hear English.  I would go on walks and just listen to all the foreign languages being spoken and just since that God was drawing people across all boundaries to himself.  It really made the verses that spoke about nations in the Bible real to me. 

I could go on about all the different people God brought in our lives while there, but I've rambled to long.  I miss Blacksburg terribly.  It was a great fit for us.  Who knows, maybe we will end up in Blacksburg again at some point.  So here is another question we hear a great deal, "are you guys back to stay forever?", and the answer is no.  Moving to Blacksburg has given us the courage to pursue what we really have known all along...that God wants us somewhere else eventually.  We are not for sure where, even though we have a couple of ideas, and we are not for sure when.  We do know that he has us here for now and he has things for us to learn.  I was talking to a friend this past weekend, who has moved around a ton, and some of her words to me were life giving.  She said that maybe moving to Blacksburg and moving back are all just preparation for where God is going to put us next.  As we look forward to the future with great anticipation, we are also very much committed to living fully in WV while God has us here for however long.  Not only does he have things for us to learn, but also people to influence.  We are excited to see who God brings into our lives not only to teach us but for us to love and influence as well. 

I am so far behind on blogging that it is not even funny. I promise to catch you up because we have had some adventures in the Lyle family that I would love to share. Plus blogging is now my scrap booking and they are memories I want to remember. For today though I have to share what happened yesterday. We had a busy morning yesterday and our evening was going to be crazy. In my mind, however, I had planned to be "productive" during the middle of the day as well...meaning BUSY. At Luke's swim practice in the morning I read an article discussing multitasking for moms vs. being able to think in a linear path. It just hit me that I have a problem with judging whether I have a good day or not based upon being "productive" vs. being "relational". It stopped me in my tracks at that particular moment and I made a conscious decision that we were not going to be productive (aka...busy) during the middle of the day. By the way, this is not to say that there are tasks in our lives that don't need to get done. I'm just one of those people that, unfortunately, have it way out of proportion. Anyways, our middle of the day was very relational and I thought I had checked the relational part of my day off and now it was time to get "productive" (busy). So I had to take Ella to her charm bracelet course and then I was going to come home, cook dinner, clean apartment for company coming over, pick up Ella, feed her dinner in the van, drop her off at swim team practice, and somehow show up at a meeting between all of that. Here is the funny thing that happened when I got home. Luke, got his baseball bat, baseball, and home plate out and asked if I would play baseball with him. He also wanted to bring his truck blanket and lots of water for breaks. I could tell that he had been thinking about this for awhile, because he had every detail planned for us. Honestly, I didn't want to because I just had to get all of these other things done, but something told me to do it. We played two rounds of "baseball" and then he wanted to take a break. We sat down on his truck blanket in the shade, drank water, and he just started talking about things that have been bothering him. I couldn't believe that this was my risk taker, strong willed, donnie determined son who was opening up to me about some serious things for a 4 year old. Trust me moments like these do not happen very often with Luke. At one point in the conversation, he sat up against me and said "it sure is nice to relax." I just about cried. I realized that maybe we don't have very many moments like this because we don't relax and allow God to lead us by the green pastures and still waters. I never fixed dinner or cleaned the apartment (we had $5 Domino's pizza). But for yesterday, I think I was more "productive" in God's eyes.

A couple of weeks ago, we had to get our apartment fumigated due to fleas (that's another story). Anyways, we had to spend several hours out of the apartment so we decided to make a day at the Cascades. It's a two mile hike to the waterfall and then two miles back. The water was freezing, but Seth couldn't resist getting in...even Fonzie jumped in. We had a great time!