New opportunities and princesses

Spring is blooming here in beautiful southwest Virginia, and we are enjoying the warmer days and new opportunities in front of us.  Mike is staying incredibly busy as our little league president.  It has been a ton of work for him but we believe in volunteering in our community and we are believers in little league due to Challenger baseball for David and the opportunity for softball and baseball here locally in our community.  He has been almost as busy with Little League as he was in his old superintendent job!


Jackie Wilson at church captured this precious picture of our three at church,  Kyle has been running the projector at church for several years now and he is trying to teach his siblings:) This picture melts my heart.
 
Kyle played a crazy amount of basketball this past weekend.  He played in a local tournament with his old JV team, had pratice with two different travel teams, and then had a cool opportunity to scrimmage King College.  He was amazed how fast and physical those college boys played!  Ha!  He was definitely sore and tired after all that basketball.

 
We have had to divide and conquer a lot to help Kyle get to all of his basketball practices.  Basketball is teaching him hard work and discipline.

Another cool and new opportunity for Kyle is to be on the boys tennis team.  He is playing #2 and so far is undefeated.  He still has a lot of work to do on his serve and backhand but he is loving every minute of it and loves his teammates.  Thanks to Sarah Martin for this awesome picture!

Tennis is a great, laid back sport and he is really enjoying it.  Here he is with his Coach strategizing how to overcome a broken string during warmups.  The last shot before the match began he heard a funny noise and realized his string broke on his racquet.  Blessedly it is already restrung due to a good friend.  Right now we are working with Kyle on how to balance his life with his busy schedule, I preach to him and actually our entire youth group on putting God at the top of their totem pole and then aligning their priorities from there.  Kyle still has a lot of work to do in time management with his passion for sports, but he is a work in progress, I guess we all are :)


Hope had a wonderful Saturday having a royal day with some princeses for a special birthday party for a friend.  They started the day with chocolate chip pancakes and hot chocolate at IHOP then watched Beauty and the Beast movie.  It is soooo amazing!!!
 

Last weekend we spent the day in Radford catching up with the patients! Ha!  My grandmother is out of rehab and is at home on a trial basis at her apartment.  My Mom is still in physical therapy and is able to get out for short bursts at a time.  We did drag her into Belk to help us pick out a dress for Hope to wear.  She is slowly on the mend.  It has been a rough 2017 thus far for GG.

We are so thankful for new opportunities that God has put in our path.  I really do not like baseball at all, so I find it ironic that we are knee deep into Little League at this house!  Mike has given it his all so far and of course Challenger season is about to begin.  It is hard to believe spring is here but we are thankful for all the experiences God has put in our path.

Robinson happenings ❤

I got a sweet nudge today at Walmart from a sweet sweet blog reader who reminded me it was time to update the blog:)  Yes m'am it is and here I am. (Great to see you today at Walmart-you were an encourager to me today).  Amazingly Kyle and his sweet girlfriend Maggie have also taken to reading old blog posts from years ago on here so I owe it to my kiddos to keep this up.  I honestly felt like I had to take some time away from it due to some folks in our life that were trying to create drama and be ugly.  Thankfully due to Mike's new job (praise you Lord) some of those unkind folks have moved on to newer targets.

I never want to abandon this sacred space because it is not only our life but it is my love letter not only to my children, but also to Jesus.  I know that my children do not always listen carefully to my words when we talk (or more accurately I talk and they nod) but I want them to know for real that my life is what it is because of Jesus.  Not material possessions, no status symbol jobs or cars, no name brand clothing, no fancy vacation home will EVER compare to the faithfulness of our God.  Never, nada, I want them to read these words either in a few hours or in a few years or decades and know that their parents were not always perfect but good grief we loved them and loved our Jesus.

So this blog space will never be betrayed even if we had to take a few steps away for a while to keep some lurkers away.  This blog space is not only a sacred place to share our love for Jesus but it also is a safe place to share family memories that will always be here.  So here goes on some family updates...


Basketball seems to be how we spend our time these days-all three of our kids are basketball nuts.  Some of our kiddos have more talent than others, but that does not matter.  Basketball keeps them fit, teaches them life lessons of being on a team, and it teaches discipline.  You cannot get better at basketball sitting ont the couch.  Thankfully our gym is close by and we are frequentl flyers there so they can all get better.  Hope Madeline loves her some basketball even if there are entire games she does. not. touch. the. ball.  Totally hilarious!!!!!!!


Thankful also that this guy has had some new experiences playing with two new teams.  We have prayed for a long time that God would put the right people (including teachers and coaches) into his life that will help him be the Godly man that God has planned for Him.  We are thankful for new opportunities even if we will be traveling A LOT over the coming months.



We also recently had a princess team party at church for the little girls in the community.  It was a fundraiser for our mission trip, but it also provided a fun night at church for the little girls to learn about Godly beauty. Hope has not gotten to see her friend Sydney for a while so these girls had a fun reunion.  Hope is growing right before our eyes and she blesses us with her sweet heart, competitive spirit, and beautiful music she makes on the piano.

Several weeks ago we went as a family to Grandfather Mountain with the youth group on a retreat.  The retreat was amazing, our cabins were gorgeous, the views were inspiring, and the time away with our church kiddos was so much fun.

 
Youth ministry is NOT for the faint of heart, but I feel so thankful that God called me (and therefore Mike and my family) into youth ministry.  It is exhausting emotionally and physically but there is nothing like it.  I never ever ever dreamed I would be doing this in my forties, but I love these youth and I love pointing them to Christ.  I am sometimes over whelmed in attempting to teach them about God and point them to Christ in this day and age where so many temptations surround them daily or more accurately, hourly, but I know God is bigger than anything they face.  I am not a perfect youth leader at all, but I do love me some Jesus and want them to build a strong biblical foundation.  Here is Kyle with his girlfriend Maggie on the retreat.

If you have never been to Grandfather Mountain pick a non windy day (ha!) and go.  The views were gorgeous!  It was inspiring (yet a little scary) to take so many brave teenagers to the top of the mountain.

Saturday night we had a big group devotional in the girls cabin (because ours was nicer-ha!)  and Mike talked to all the youth about doing the right thing.  His devotional was great and aftewards we had prayer stations set up around the cabin.  Meeting God in such a beautiful location surounded by so many youth there to strengthen their relationship with God was AMAZING!!


The Robinson family in the mountains of North Carolina!  Every picture that we take while on youth group outings I always look terrible, but even through the tired, sleep-deprived eyes know that I am happy doing what God has called us to do.  After all I want to introduce these youth and help them get to know my BFF, God better.  Good friends do not care if you show up without makeup-my best friend Jesus cares more about what my heart looks like than my tired eyes:)