31 Days of Saying, "Yes!"...Day 3

31 Days Challenge

Saying, "Yes!" to a Starbucks coffee with my daughter.

Saying, "No" to extra get-ready time before church.

It's about time that I say "Yes" to Carrie.

She asks me almost every week if she can buy me a Starbucks on the way to church, but every week, I tell her 

"No. There's just not enough time."

This week, because of this challenge, I thought twice.

And here's what's funny.

I thought that I really needed those extra 

"coffee minutes" to get ready for church.

But I don't.

I realized something that I think I already knew.  

I'm a procrastinator.  

Big time.

Another coin with two sides...I think that I don't have time for something, but in reality, I am deciding to give that time to something else.

It's all about choices.

Why is this just now making sense to me?

Here's my pretty girl with her Pumpkin Spice Latte. 

And here's a picture of my pretty Salted Caramel Mocha.

Yummy!

And this has nothing to do with saying "Yes" except that I stopped in the middle of the road to take this picture on the way home from dropping Carrie off at church.

I'm a sucker for farm scenery.

Breathtaking...

Saying, "Yes!" to driving the speed limit and paying attention to my gas light.

Saying, "No" to getting pulled over for speeding and running out of gas.

Not only did I have time to stop for a coffee with my daughter, but I also had time to drive the speed limit and stop for gas!  

AND...I even had time to clean up 

a couple of card tables that I had forgotten that I had promised to take to church later that morning.

Saying, "Yes!" to eating out with Grandma and Grandpa.

Saying, "No" to our budget.

What's a budget?

I don't know.

Normally, we don't go out to eat after church because of the expense, but today we all decided that it would be a good thing.

And it was.

Matthew practiced his snapping while we waited for our drinks.

 Josh caught us up on what he learned in Sunday School.

And on what hand Luke Skywalker lost in the fifth Star Wars.

We all enjoyed our time out together.

I even got to enjoy watching the littles share their dinners.

I have been realizing these past few days just how many "Yes" and "No" moments there are in a day.

Hundreds!

Enjoying more intentional living,

31 Days of Saying, "Yes!"...Day 2

31 Days Challenge

Saying, "Yes!" to an afternoon of go-karts at the park.

Saying, "No" to an afternoon of yard work...namely picking up sticks.

The go-kart races come our town's park every October, but we have never, ever gone to watch them.

You can even hear the engines roaring all the way across town.

On Saturday afternoon, when Paul got home from work, we all packed up into the truck and headed for the park.  One of the really neat blessings from that day was seeing Alex.

Alex was just a little boy when we moved into our home.  He lived right next door and was just about Matthew's age.  

Life stuff happened, and he moved away.  

He is now 19 years old! 

It has been years since we have seen him.

Had we said yes to stick-picking-upping, we would not have seen Alex.

And we would not have enjoyed a really fun day at the park!

Matthew and Josh enjoyed playing, "Kick the Can."

Isn't it fun to watch little guys make their own fun?

Because of the sun's brilliance, 

the shadows were absolutely sharp.

So defined.

Another example of a little guy making his own fun...

The kids decided that they want to drive go-karts.

I decided that I want to be the flag guy.

What a cool position!

Notice the glove below.

Something else that I finally said "Yes" to on this day was getting out the hats and gloves box from the garage so that Josh could find my black gloves.

Can you guess why?

He wanted to be Luke Skywalker.

He realized later that Luke actually lost his right hand...so he has retired the left-hand glove 

to his Lucky Drawer and is now wearing the right-hand glove.

My man.

Because he is my man and I know him so well, 

I know that he is secretly wishing he were racing 

one of those go-karts around the track too.

And here's my swirling, whirling, Joshua Skywalker playing "chase" with his shadow.

I am so happy that we didn't spend the afternoon 

picking up sticks.

Enjoying the "yeses" of life,