{"id":910,"date":"2011-05-01T20:43:51","date_gmt":"2011-05-02T01:43:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/?p=910"},"modified":"2011-05-02T09:39:05","modified_gmt":"2011-05-02T14:39:05","slug":"musings-on-the-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/?p=910","title":{"rendered":"Musings on the Weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear Lord; Good evening Father!<\/p>\n

I know it\u2019s not usual for me to write on Sundays Lord, but so much has happened over the last few days that I wanted to share with You while the events were still fresh in my mind.\u00a0 It\u2019s been an awesome weekend, and I\u2019m very thankful for all You\u2019ve Blessed me with.<\/p>\n

It all began Friday night with the launching of our \u201cDinner and Drinks on the Deck\u201d<\/em> evening get-togethers.\u00a0 This is something we started last year, and ended up having around 15 of them over the course of the spring and summer. \u00a0They\u2019re informal cookouts attended by family and friends on Friday evenings where everyone brings something to share, and we provide the grilled food and snacks.\u00a0 The adults get to relax, sit around the fire pit and wind down from the work week while the kids all get to burn off some steam together.\u00a0 It\u2019s a wonderful way to kick off the weekend, and this past Friday went extremely well.\u00a0 In fact, we\u2019ve already had quite a few inquiries about next weekend.\u00a0 \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Saturday morning, Shannon went and taught violin lessons in town and with the help of a good friend I did some heavy-duty scrubbing of our master bathroom.\u00a0 It had been far too long since I\u2019d had the opportunity to clean and disinfect it thoroughly, and it was satisfying to see it all sparkling clean and smelling fresh.\u00a0 My words to You from Thankful Thursday<\/a> came immediately back to mind!<\/p>\n

Saturday evening I dropped the kids off at one of their friends\u2019 house for a sleepover visit, while Shannon and I got to enjoy a \u201cdate night\u201d<\/em> out.\u00a0 We met up with some good friends for a fun dinner, then headed out to a local party for some dancing and socializing.\u00a0 While we love our children dearly, the opportunity to get out as a couple now and again helps us to \u201crecharge our batteries\u201d<\/em> and focus on the intimate bond we\u2019re Blessed to have between us.\u00a0 Saturday night was a great time, and we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly.<\/p>\n

Early Sunday, Shannon headed off to play viola at a wedding with the other ladies in her quartet while I got an unheard-of morning to sleep in a bit, and have some \u201cquiet time\u201d<\/em> relaxing and communing with You.\u00a0 The boys went to church with the family they had stayed with, and had a wonderful time at Sunday School and participating in the worship service.\u00a0 I picked them up shortly afterwards, and we headed out to have lunch and spend the day hiking and shooting photos nearby.\u00a0 It was a bit overcast today, but the temperature was perfect and we managed to get time to walk both out at Blackbird State Forest and then about a half-hour away on the sands of Woodland Beach.\u00a0 I love spending these moments with them, and each new excursion we take together brings us closer to each other, and to You.<\/p>\n

Here are some of the photos I shot today that made me smile Father:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The boys paused for this shot while we were walking down one of the many nature trails in Blackbird Forest.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n


\n<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Always the adventurer, Aidan forges ahead of us, setting the pace.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n


\n<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Jonathan\u2019s photography skills have improved markedly over the last year.\u00a0 I\u2019ve really enjoyed teaching him about lighting and composition, and he\u2019s really having fun seeing what he can do with the camera.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n


\n<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>This little fellow was being harassed by a group of other ducks and was just frazzled beyond words.\u00a0 I loved the expression and attitude he was exuding and was Blessed to catch this shot.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

All in all Father, it was the best weekend we\u2019ve had in a long time and I thank You from the bottom of my heart.\u00a0 You Bless my family and I in so many ways Lord, and I am very deeply grateful for Your Presence and Guidance in our lives.<\/p>\n

Heavenly Father, once again I thank You for a wonderful, relaxing weekend with family and friends.\u00a0 Please guide my decisions and actions in the coming week to best serve Your Will, and to share Your Light with those around me.\u00a0 Amen.<\/p>\n

~Phather Phil<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Lord; Good evening Father! I know it\u2019s not usual for me to write on Sundays Lord, but so much has happened over the last few days that I wanted to share with You while the events were still fresh in my mind.\u00a0 It\u2019s been an awesome weekend, and I\u2019m very thankful for all You\u2019ve […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[724,181,326,810,168,256,372,1113,182,286,132,219,1194,701,1200,625,807,915,154,1201,4,939,173,871,42,160,277,1198,628,228,110,427,21,686,593,916,804,976,401,1196,116,222,879,190,104,880,133,422,1170,141,203,506,77,416,776,41,69,1080,585,613,729,727,629,1169,174,227,187,73,1199,117,469,817,986,631,476,544,362,114,40,1197,346,481,49,504,378,379,348,723,138,604],"class_list":["post-910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-emails-to-god","tag-actions","tag-aidan","tag-attitude","tag-batteries","tag-bless","tag-blessed","tag-bond","tag-bottom-of-my-heart","tag-boys","tag-child","tag-children","tag-church","tag-clean","tag-communing","tag-cookouts","tag-date-night","tag-days","tag-dear-lord","tag-decisions","tag-dinner-and-drinks-on-the-deck","tag-family","tag-family-and-friends","tag-father","tag-fire","tag-focus","tag-food","tag-frazzled","tag-fresh-in-my-mind","tag-friday","tag-friend","tag-fun","tag-grateful","tag-guidance","tag-guide","tag-heavenly","tag-heavenly-father","tag-help","tag-house","tag-improve","tag-intimate-bond","tag-jonathan","tag-joy","tag-just","tag-kids","tag-light","tag-long","tag-love","tag-loved","tag-mark","tag-mind","tag-moments","tag-morning","tag-nature","tag-party","tag-plea","tag-presence","tag-quiet","tag-quiet-time","tag-read","tag-real","tag-recharge","tag-rest","tag-saturday","tag-saturday-morning","tag-school","tag-shannon","tag-sleep","tag-smile","tag-something-to-share","tag-son","tag-sons","tag-start","tag-state-forest","tag-sunday","tag-teach","tag-teaching","tag-temper","tag-thank-you","tag-thankful","tag-violin-lessons","tag-wedding","tag-week","tag-weekend","tag-will","tag-wonder","tag-wonderful","tag-word","tag-words","tag-work","tag-worship"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p18mMc-eG","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=910"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":917,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910\/revisions\/917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}