Who's Listening?

Imagine yourself in a situation...you're discussing a topic and in the midst of the conversation with the other person they say something you either disagree with completely, something hurtful, or full of strong opinion.  What do you do?  How do you respond?

An article I just read mentioned how sometimes the things we respond with and say are because: "You need to hear me, you need to understand why I'm hurt, you need to understand why I reacted the way I reacted, you need to see I'm right, I need to convince you that I'm justified in the things I've said and the things I've done?

We want to desperately show the other person our opinions, our hurt, and our reasons.  Is this what we want? Is this the way we should respond?  Proverbs 18:2 says "Fools care nothing for thoughtful discourse; all they do is run off at the mouth".  Wow, I've definitely been a fool many times throughout my life.

We (I) must learn to listen and understand. Once we listen we must learn to also say I'm sorry.  Not "I heard what you said and I'm sorry (you're a moron)"; but "I hear what you're saying and I'm sorry".  Hard to offer apologies sometimes, but I don't want to be a fool anymore.

He who answers before listening - that is his folly and his shame (Proverbs 18:13)

Week in Review

Another week = lots of activities!  Katelyn had gymnastics practice every day this past week in prep for her State competition tomorrow in VA Beach.  Emma had volleyball practice Tue/Thu and has a 2-day tournament this weekend in Williamsburg area.  Angie & I had Community Group on Monday night...good discussion on making decisions on your own vs. decisions with God's will.  Emma had her student group on Wednesday night.  All 3 of the kids had their standardized testing this week at school, so I'm pretty sure all 3 of them were happy for Friday to be here. Angie had a Cooking for Life meeting one night this week...it's kind of blurring together now so I'm not sure what night it was!

Hope everyone has a great weekend.  Any special plans?

End of the Week

We finished the week off with
- me being sick/food poisoning on Thursday (ugh!)
- Katelyn spending Fri night at one of the older gymnast's house; she invited alot of the younger girls over for the night...sort of a mentoring deal...pretty cool
- Emma & Katelyn with 2 soccer games this week; they both played great
- mid 80's yesterday and high 50s tomorrow!  Crazy VA weather
- I think Nicholas is getting his sisters back for all the fairy's and "girly" shows he watched when he was younger...I know see them watching Power Rangers, X-Men, Transformers, Spider-Man, and Ben10 with Nicholas!

Pix of Week

Another Week

Life remains busy in the KenneyKrewe household
- Emma had a volleyball tournament on Sunday...her team played well and continues to improve.  Emma had a great "kill" I hear!

a moment during practice

- Katelyn continues to get ready for State competition in a couple weeks...she's been fighting some foot pain as of late
- The fall of the yellow dust has arrived!  Yellow dust (pollen) is everywhere.  Everyone is reacting in some way or another...either with skin rash, red/itchy eyes, sneezing, and constant covering in yellow dust!

Looks pretty...but part of  the yellow dust?

- Fixing A/C units original to the house is getting expensive! Time to
replace the unit I do believe...
- Warm weather = more grill time and iced tea!

This & That

VA weather...so finicky.  Sunday morning I had frost on the truck windshield at 6:45a.m. Today it was in the 60's at 6:45 and was in the 80's this afternoon!  Soon we'll be covered in the yellow pollen dust we get every spring.

Some random things from the week:
 - Back to school for the kids (& Ang)
 - 2 front teeth lost for Nicholas!

 - Emma and the 13 year old she is...do you get this:




or do you get this:

 - Work after a couple days off is really hard!
 - I can't stand being hot!
 - Dandelions drive me crazy!
 - Safe travels to Doug as he drives/drove from Seattle to Hamilton, Il
 - Furlough days have dropped from 22 to 14...that's awesome!  Now maybe it will drop even more before they start in June.

Spring Break

Spring break is in full swing.  We've gone to the movies, gone out for lunch, had some sleepovers (Emma had a friend over Mon night and spent the night at another friends last night; Katelyn is having a friend over tonight), played outside with the neighbors, and watched Redbox movies.

The weather was nice on Monday (about 70), but only in the 50's since then.  About 10 degrees cooler than normal for this area.  The kids play outside just fine though!

Do you have a favorite Spring Break memory?