Leading By Example

This is Payton painting at "movement".

A finished product at "movement".

This is Clay and I with our paintings from "movement" a.k.a. art night. BTW our four year old Payton took this photo, that's right the acorn is not falling far from the tree!

"Hello, this is (insert name)," is something you will commonly hear around my house these days when someone is answering the phone and nine times out of ten it is Payton, our four year old daughter. I am continually having friends laugh at me because we are answering the phone in such a proper manner. Well when Payton began to discover the novelty of answering the telephone she perpetually picked it up with a "Yeah" or a "Hey", which neither one was typically how anyone in our home answers the phone. So we began asking her to answer the phone with a "hello, this is Payton speaking". However we (the adults, Clay, Holly & Kaytie Jo) continued to answer the phone as usual around here, "Hello". Well Payton asked me one day why I didn't have to answer the phone the same way she did? So now we do.

Look at that sweet little monkey hanging on her momma!

We attended our first annual (many more to come) used book fair at Holland Hall school. OH MY GOODNESS!!! It was a book lovers dream and we are a family full of book lovers. Neither Clay or I were avid readers as young people, however in our early marriage (it has been 10 years this July) we discovered reading as one of our passions. There are some days that I worry that I am overcompensating for not reading much as a child by drowning my children in stories and books, but it doesn't seem to be hurting them.

Payton asleep with a book in the car after the book sale.

This week was OK Food Coop delivery week! Okay so I am a huge dork because I LOVE delivery day. It is like Christmas once a month! AND I get to be an adult with all adults! This is rare moment in my month where I am without both children. I just had to post a photo of our eggs, we think they are beautiful, such a rainbow of colors and sizes. Hopefully my children will value where and how their food is raised because their mom and dad educated them in this area. I can remember being so angry with my mom because she wanted me to go and weed the garden with her. Well 20 something years later here I am an avid gardener.

Clay and I are raving fans of Rob Bell, a minister at Mars Hill Church in Grand Rapids Michigan. Any road trip more than 20 minutes down the road is an excuse to listen to a podcast of his teachings. A couple of weekends ago when we were going to the dairy we listened to one of his teachings about Grace and Peace. It really stepped on our toes in several ways. So what if we were a world of Grace and Peace just oozing out of us was kind of the point. So Clay and I began discussing thoughts on this subject and suggesting to others the idea of having grace and peace in areas that are hard to have grace and peace and people that it is hard to extend grace and peace to... And then one evening in the car this past week I hear Payton "reading" to her imaginary friend and discussing the ramifications of extending grace and peace.

I am not sure who is leading who around here but we are definitely leading by example.

Grace and Peace to you,

Holly

Sorry about the sideways photo. This is our chalkboard wall in the kitchen and Clay always leaves us sweet notes to find in the mornings.