The Gift of Family

"Good families-even great families- are off track 90 percent of the time! The key is that they have a sense of destination. They know what the "track" looks like. And they keep coming back to it time and time again." Stephen Covey

"Life is just what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." John Lennon from the song, "Beautiful boy"

Recently I discovered an envelope of pictures, sitting under a stack of cooking magazines. In it there were photographs from last years trip to Florida along with other random images sprinkled in. When I had finished looking at each one, I found a half empty photo album and carefully loosening each sleeve, inserted them one by one. When I'd finished, I placed the album on the book case alongside the others. It struck me that in ten years of marriage, eight of them as parent's, Allison and I had a shelf full of photo albums, every one representing hundreds of memories we've had as a family.

We do try to be intentional as a family. We have a value of eating meals together, being involved in our church, spending time with close friends and relatives, volunteering in Austin and Kylie's school (alongside our neighbors), and traveling. However, life gets so busy. I'm struck by how much energy it takes just to get the day to day responsibilites done. Buying groceries, paying the bills, doing yard work, washing dishes, cleaning bathrooms. These projects seem to dominate our week. (I imagine you can relate!)

As we update our blog, we look forward to not only giving updates on soccer games, family trips and the like. We also hope to share the unscheduled, unplanned surprises that God brings along the way. Those moments in particular tend to be some of the most memorable and precious times as a family and we don't want to miss them!