Sara Groves: Fireflies and Songs

We stayed with Sara and Troy when we were home for Papa's funeral. Man do I love family sleepovers. This might be the biggest perk of moving out of state. I miss my family so much, but coming home and getting to stay at one of their houses is the greatest. Eating cereal together in pajama's is just one of the lovely perks of family sleepovers...that sweet time when everyone is still yawning and rubbing eyes and talking through the day ahead.

All this to say, we soaked up our niece and nephew time, played hard and were very, very sad to have to leave. Sara and Troy live their life so fully, and have taught us so much about marriage and the gift of following God as a married couple. They are so honest and open and teach quite vulnerably through their personal experiences. This new album is fantastic...a less produced sounding album, a bit more like what you hear in concert. The songs are, as always, thoughtful and so fearless leaving me to wonder quite a few times on the first listen, "did she just say that?!! I hope she just said that!!!" The following pictures are from their website. They're doing a prerelease sale right now, and I would recommend getting in on it.

Ivar Anton Frick

When I was home for the reunion, I got to stop in to see Rory's grandpa, Papa. He died the next day and I am so thankful to have had this last visit with him. Papa loved me so well, and so much. I love that I knew that. Papa was a great preacher, ministering all over the world and presiding over the Assemblies of God churches in Michigan. He had a great booming voice that spoke with conviction and belief, whether he was talking about his love for Jesus or his love of Perkins. He had a big sense of humor and stories to tell that seemed larger than life. His funeral was fantastic. And I really mean that. His life was so well lived, so full of friends and purpose, and so obviously concluded with a "well done good and faithful one." The funeral left me inspired more than anything... to live big and bold, to believe with my whole heart and to love with all my might. I am going to miss this man...and the way he so clearly loved his family and his savior.

My first retreat...

This Sunday I have 16 people coming out to camp for a retreat called, "Love to Tell the Story." The focus is on passing on our faith stories to the next generation, and providing ideas and tools for preserving our faith experiences and beliefs and being sure we communicate those beliefs to the next generation.

I am so proud of this retreat already. And I'm so excited for how God will show up in the stories that I will get to hear of ways he has moved in the lives of the people gathered together.

The best part is that my folks, grandma and aunt annie are all coming. Honestly, the gift of family support and unconditional love and encouragement is just overwhelming to me lately. I feel so ready and able because of my cheerleaders. Dad is going to be the morning teacher, teaching about Jesus' stories and I can't wait. He's my favorite preacher/teacher and to get to lead an event with him is just about the coolest thing I could ever dream of.

So keep us in your prayers. I'm hopeful to do more of these things in the future.

4 years!

Rory and I are celebrating four adventurous, nomadic, creative years of marriage today! I think the thing that has surprised me the most about these first years of our marriage is how fun it would be each other's cheerleaders in terms of work and career. Not that I thought this would be not fun. But these first years have been filled with so much dreaming and visioning and believing in each other. I remember this from dating, but it's so great when it's your very own husband saying, "then let's do it. I'm with you."

Actually, I think those seven words sum up our marriage the best so far. We said them when we decided to rent out Minneapolis house out so we could live in Montana while I wrote my thesis and he programmed Weather Defender. We said them when we moved back to Minnesota to try out my dream of camp directing, and said them again when we hopped in the jeep for a 6600 mile road trip last fall, and again when we moved to Nebraska. Those words fit lots of lesser decisions too...like going to a late night movie last Sunday, trying to squeeze out the last moments of weekend before Monday morning.

The picture below is one of my favorites from the big day. After the reception, my head filled with a horrible cold and we had to stop at a gas station for sudafed. I just remember giggling and laughing with Rory as we wandered the aisles in our wedding attire saying things like, "I kind of want some mike and ike's." We still say those eight words a lot too.

Beautiful Weddings.

I went to three weddings in August, all beautiful and so fun to be a part of. These pictures are from Betsy's wedding, my next door neighbor for 17 years. The Anderson's have always been as family to us, and this wedding was a true celebration of this friendship. Dad performed the ceremony, mom did the flowers and Rory and I did our part by eating lots of Coldstone wedding cake (brilliant. every wedding should have ice cream cake.)

Betsy's older sister, Jennifer, was my best friend all growing up and basically we tormented Betsy as the little sister. When I was scanning family photos a few weeks ago, I came across this picture of me and Jennifer having a sleepover. It is amazing how life flies by.

Chapter Two: Us.

I am so excited about this week of scrapbooking. All of the assignments have to do with family.

A quick trip to the farm

On my way to the wedding, I stopped by our family farm and got to see Sarah and Brooks, my cousins who have been in New Zealand for the last two years. I am so excited to have them back in the states and can't wait to see them a whole lot more now. Kathy and Mark came from Minneapolis for the evening and we played with super sweet and wonderful baby Ida (Sarah and Brooks') and husked corn for the cows and we ate clams that Mark brought. And by " we ate clams" I mean, I watched other people eat them.

Vintage Baby.

I am taking a Photo Editing class right now and just learned how to vintage hand-tint my pictures. I'll tell you what...not all pictures should be vintage hand-tinted! Rory and I do not look very good washed out with rosie cheeks! But Sonna does. So I'll share this picture from two winters ago.

Another Auction Surprise...

I wrote LaVonne (the generous friend who purchased the quilt for me) a thank you today and told her the following story as a part of my thank you. It was fun to write out this memory.

When I was in 5th grade we had a huge family reunion out in Colorado. One of my great uncles built a special building for this family reunion, complete with a stage and sound system, sleeping quarters and a kitchen with three ovens to feed all of us.

As a part of raising funds for the next family reunion, everyone brought collected items of my great grandma Anderson’s to be auctioned off to other family members. My mom had put an old, paper-thin apron of great grandma’s in the auction without my knowledge. I was playing Vanna White and when they handed me the apron to display for the bidders and I was horrified. I didn’t want the apron to be auctioned off. I loved that apron.

So from that stage I was silently lipping to my mom that I wanted the apron. She could see I was sad, but sort of communicated that it was too late and she was sorry. When the bidding started my mom tried to keep up with the bids, but her cousin Chuck kept increasing the bid so that she had to drop out. The apron was sold and cousin Chuck spent A LOT of money on that thing.

I walked the apron to him and when I got there he pushed it back into my hands and told me he bought it for me. And I absolutely fell apart. I actually remember this moment as pretty awkward because I couldn’t even tell him thank you. I was just overwhelmingly humbled and grateful and relieved.

There is something about a free gift that is so hard to comprehend. Our nature wants to earn it, to be sure we've contributed something, to repay them later. But truly accepting a free gift...it might just take me an eternity to figure out what this is really all about.

Sonna Talk

My neice, Sonna, has been feeling under the weather this week. A few days ago she told her dad, "My tummy has a bad, bad cold."

Here she is to sing you a special version of "Twinkle, Twinkle."



And to be fair to sister, Mara, and mostly for my mom's viewing pleasure, here is Mara singing "Lemon Drops and Gum Drops." Notice Sonna trying to be just like her big sister.

Presenting The Incredible Flying LISA!!!

I am beginning to play with all of my pictures from our Groves reunion in Estes Park and just came across this gem. This is my hard-core, graceful, who-cares-if-you-can't-do-a-cart-wheel-now, sister-in-law Lisa. She is diving from a platform that is 30-40 feet in the air and made it look easy. My jumps were not this photogenic.

Groves Family Reunion

We spent a glorious week out in Estes Park with the Groves family last week. This year for the reunion we enjoyed our first annual GFR Talent Show. The entire day before the actual talent show Rory spent some good quality time with our nephew Jack as they created the following clips to be shown throughout the talent show. It was hysterical and more fun than the clips was watching Rory and Jack play so hard all day long. I kept catching glimpses of them at various moments laughing hard and talking excitedly about where their next scene should take place. Enjoy!

Familysick...

You know those good weekends spent with family that leave you wanting more? We had one of those this weekend when my grandma, aunt Annie, uncle Ed and uncle Carl came to Omaha to celebrate my mom's cousin's daughter's wedding. It was so special to have such individual time with these four, and when they left instead of feeling homesick, I was familysick. Here are some pics of our time together...

Honest prayer.

I just got an email from my sister telling me that last night Mara prayed, "thank you God that I am funny."

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to my MOM! You have three children who love and adore you for your love for children (for us and many, many others) your love for people (for us and many, many others) and your time and love that you generously give away (to us, and to many, many others). Today we celebrate YOU!

When we were home in Minnesota over Easter, I spent a morning at Macy's flower show with my mom, my grandma and my mother-in-law and I felt like the luckiest girl in the world. To have these three strong, faithful and kind women together for a day of girl time was such a blessing to me. We ate in the skyroom and told stories and laughed and Grandma commented on how fortunate I am to be a part of two families who love and serve the Lord. Because that is how God intended families to love and to live.

And I'm back!

Lost some momentum there for a while, but blog world, I'm back.

We drove to Kansas City for a quick trip on Saturday to see Sara and Troy in concert on Sunday. They were giving a concert for a church that was celebrating their 20th anniversary. The event was called Party in the Park and it was a true party. This church was so creative, so thoughtful and the celebration was so fun to get to peek in on.

We sat on the hillside for their outdoor Sunday morning service and we sang the song "God of this City." I have sang this song in Oregon, Minnesota, Nebraska and now in Kansas and it created the most concrete visual of the kingdom as I thought about each one of these churches proclaiming boldly: GREATER THINGS ARE YET TO COME, GREATER THINGS ARE STILL TO BE DONE IN THIS CITY. WE BELIEVE IN YOU, GOD.

The thing about the kingdom, to me, is that it's just not that huge. It's one church faithfully loving and caring for the community God has placed them in. It's one person straining to hear the plans God has for them, filled with purpose and hope. It's one people, loving God and thanking Jesus for the life he has given each one of us. Okay, so it is huge. But I love that it's small enough that God uses us little people to help with his good work.

Macy’s 8th floor Spring Flower Show

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On Saturday, my mom, my mother-in-law, my grandma and I went to Macy’s downtown to see their spring flower display. It was pretty, though not quite in full bloom. But the four of us shared lunch in the Skyroom after we saw the flowers and I just can’t get over how fortunate I am to have these women as my greatest role models and loudest supporters. It was a treasured morning for me.

PYSANKI Easter Eggs!

Oh man, do I have a favorite Easter tradition joining my world of traditions. I already cannot wait for next year. Last year Lisa had Sara and I over for a ladies afternoon of Ukrainian Egg dying, known as Pysanki. Lisa is Polish and Ukrainian so to learn from her is really incredible. So this year I wrote her an email that said, “I’d like to invite myself over for more egg dying (as well as my mom and my grandma)” She wasn’t going to get all the gear out this year, but I am so THANKFUL that she did:

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When we showed up, we each had a station (Rory took Grandma’s place) and 14 colors of dye to choose from.

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We began by drawing with pencil on our blown eggs, then adding bee’s wax with a special tool to draw on our eggs, and would dye the egg in the next color. This is horribly hard to explain (I’ve tried all weekend) but something you MUST try to experience one day.

Lisa got us babushka’s for our hair! Don’t we fit the part?!! She is the master teacher…honestly, I think she could offer this for the month before Easter and make some money next year! It’s a hard art form to teach, but she was so patient and made a killer lunch with aged provolone! :)

It was a phenomenal morning and afternoon. And we left evidence that we had been there…

I always say there are three words that describe Lisa Groves: Above and Beyond.

I love being her sister.

Kyle+Sushi=happiness.

Rory’s brother Kyle came to Omaha on business last week! This was very exciting for us. Other than Minnesotans who drive through Nebraska on their way to Colorado, we are thinking it will be rare for family and friends to actually make it to Omaha. But Kyle came on business and we were so excited to have family in town!

I remember thinking often while on our fall road trip, how nice it was to spend time with just one family or relatives, or just one relative. It felt like we got to know a lot of family and friends much better in the smaller numbers. I thought this when Kyle was here too. To have uninterrupted conversation was really, really nice (no offense to noisy nieces and nephews and loud family gatherings).

He and Rory shared a brother-laugh that left them both in tears for a good chunk of the time we were at Maggie Moos. Priceless.

Kyle took us out for Sushi and I shall never be the same. I used to be leery, but I am now a believer. And I can’t wait to go back for more.

Sara and Troy's trip to Rwanda

Rory's brother Troy, and his wife Sara have begun an incredible partnership with one village in Rwanda. While on tour, they asked their audiences if they would be willing to sponsor a child through Food for the Hungry in the village of Gisanga. The vision is that Sara and Troy will return to this village annually bringing men and women from their American team of sponsors to build lasting relationships with this community in Africa.

Sara is just beginning to blog about their experiences, and it is worth adding to your favorites.

Be sure to keep tabs on this kingdom story as it continues to unfold.

http://www.saragrovesofficial.blogspot.com/