with ice cream and playgrounds

Children love ice cream….and playgrounds….and I love seeing them happy, so earlier this summer, my younger siblings and I all took advantage of a spare evening and went to a nearby ice cream shop!! Being only about 8 country miles away was a big plus, too, for us country folk. 🙂

By the way, the proper way to eat an ice cream cone is upside down….can’t you see how efficient that is? 😉

Ohhh, those eyes……and that adorable little chocolate-smeared chin!!

Ella and I shared a cone! The literal, non-germophobe way….

Or at least we tried.

Peanut butter sundaes are the best, right, Joy??

Beth is so pretty!! And her character reflects her love for the Lord…so glad she’s my sister.

Cara!! That girl is growing up too fast…

Wade’s just keepin’ to McIntosh Ice Cream Outing Traditions!

As soon as the ice cream was finished off, we headed a couple of miles down the road to a local school playground – one of our favorites. The evening was so enjoyable! We even made friends with a few other kids who were hanging out there, and watched their jaws drop as we told them that we were ALL siblings, not a day care. 🙂

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Staticky slide hair!

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Wade and Ella have fun!

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money can't buy ice cream, but...

Okaaaayyyy, not quite. Here’s the truth, though!

“If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.”

John 15:10-11, NKJV

What did you do this summer that you especially enjoyed? What do you wish you would have done? I’d love to hear about it down below!

Family Updates | Photography

activities, children, family, fun, joy, siblings

5 Comments

201506/16

Out of the Mouth of Babes…

…some of the funniest things will come! We have a house full of littles, so we are always laughing at the things that roll off their tongues. Here are some of the recent ones!

“Mommy, are you babysitting?” -Wade (5 years old)

As many of you know, Wade has almost the whole collection of Thomas trains and some of the tracks, courtesy of Grandma, and loves them to death. He and the twins can rattle off the name of any train in a split second. Once Wade was expecting to receive yet another train in the mail from Grandma, and went around the house singing Polly Wolly Doodle All The Day, but with a little twist on the words: “I come from Louisiana for to see the trains from Grandma, singing Polly Wolly Doodle all the way!”

One April evening Susannah came up to me with a water gun and we had the following discussion:

Susannah: “Hannah, I’m going to KILL YOU! BOOM! YOU’RE DEAD!” (she literally shouted this in as firm of a voice as she could muster)

Me: “But I don’t really like being dead…”

Susannah: “Well, you HAVE to.”

Me: “Why?”

Susannah: “‘Cause you’re old.”

Me: “Oh yeah? What tells you when a person old?”

Susannah: “My gun.”

Me: “Oh dear…”

haha – what has this place come to?

So we got into a mealtime discussion a couple of days later when just Dad and I were home with all the littles, and somehow we started on this thing about when I will get married. Haha…those discussions are some of the funniest EVER! Kate (7 years old) told us that “one thing sad about when Hannah moves out is that I won’t be able to get on her shoulders anymore.” I assured her that she could still do that when she came over to visit!

Then Wade spoke up with his two cents: “When she moves out and doesn’t have any kids, just a husband, she would have to clean her floor up herself…like sweeping or clean up the clothes on the floor…Hannah, you’re not big enough to get married.” Somehow children always get to thinking that the only purpose they have in life is to do all their mother’s work…sooooo not true, though I do remember having that mindset myself! 🙂

Laughing on the inside, I asked him, “How big do you have to be to get married?” He must have changed his mind mid-thought, because he told me, “Well, I know some people who are mommies and daddies when they’re 17!” (I actually can’t think of any…but oh well. At least I have his permission if I needed it. 😉 )

I overheard a conversation between Wade and one of the twins just the other day. Wade was answering his sister’s question of what game he and Susannah were playing, saying “We’re taking turns accidentally falling off.”

What funny things have you heard children say recently? I’m looking forward to hearing them! 🙂

Just For Fun

children, fun, humor, our family, siblings, smile

9 Comments

201504/05

Happy Easter // celebrating Jesus’ resurrection McIntosh style

Happy Resurrection Day to you all! I hope you all had a wonderful day today as you celebrated the rising of our Savior! We certainly enjoyed our family day today. We went to a sunrise service at 7:00 this morning with some of our church family, and enjoyed a delicious breakfast afterwards with some awesome discussions and fellowship! Though we unfortunately didn’t actually see the sun rise, we did enjoy the beautiful sky and the not-too-cold weather during our service.

During our regular service later this morning, the children performed a play of the Easter story. They did a great job! It was so fun to see the little ones like Susannah up there as well, walking around in the crowd scenes like they were supposed to! We did get a video (albeit an iPhone video), so if y’all want to see, it, let me know, and I’ll post it. 🙂

Now, McIntosh tradition is to hunt for Easter baskets sometime on Easter Sunday, so Mom and Dad’s room was off-limits last night. (I may or may not have trespassed to get Ella’s pajamas…) 🙂 Back in the old days, when I was little, we would always do the basket hunt as soon as we woke up or right after church, but somehow everything gets pushed later and later as kids get older! Charles hid the baskets this year, and though several people found their baskets during the day, the search officially began immediately following supper.

But before I get into pictures of that, I want to encourage you to watch this short video about the cross from a medical perspective. It’s very powerful, and I am awed at the depth of Jesus’ love, willing enough to go through all that just for wretches like me!

Here are my favorite shots. Even Ella got a basket! She was thrilled to see that she got animal crackers…

Mom usually uses food items that she got on sale to fill our baskets, whether it be crackers, m&m’s, Easter bunnies from last year’s discounts, or diet pop and fruit cups from the discount grocery store! It’s tons of fun. 🙂So Charles always has an extremely hard time finding his own basket, since Dad takes pleasure in hiding his basket really good every year. 🙂 Charles loves the challenge, though, and he was determined to find it. He brought up this bag (below) and was beginning to proclaim his victory when he realized that the bag was actually full of some of our lost tools! 😀 Oops… but maybe he should spend more time searching the house. Who knows what we might find! 😉 (He did end up finding his basket in Grace’s van, for those of you concerned about his psychological and emotional well-being!)

I was a little bit lazy this year at basket-hunting, but I did end up finding it (after a certain sister gave me several unauthorized clues)! 🙂

What did you do to celebrate Easter? Did you gain any new perspectives this year? I certainly did! It was definitely a blessing to hear and read things about Jesus’ resurrection that I’d never thought about before!

P.S. Verse-image credit (1 Peter 1:3) does not belong to me.

Family Updates

children, easter, family, holidays, our family, smile

10 Comments

201502/25

My Trip To Jamaica, Part I

Hey, y’all!

As many of you know, Jamaica has been on my mind a lot lately. I went on a two week mission trip in June-July 2013 (I was fifteen), and it changed my life. I could go on and on about what went on in my mind and heart before, during, and after my Jamaica trip – God used it mightily and is still working in me through that experience. For now, though, I want to share the summary I wrote shortly after returning home. This is the raw report – no changes, edits, or additions. 🙂 Enjoy your raw taste of Jamaica!

Our mission team was pretty small. Dave and Louise Street organized this trip, and Mr. Street has been there 8 times. Neena Wilson is a VBS teacher and has been to Jamaica 9 times. I, the youngest member of the team, am your friend (hopefully) and have now been to Jamaica once.

We stayed for two weeks, doing mission work in various schools, Vacation Bible School, churches, and wherever we got the opportunity. It was definitely a new experience for me, traveling without any other family members and living primitively for two weeks. But we could all sense God’s guidance the whole stay there, which was a real blessing.

Sister Street and I giving the Bible lesson

Because of a modification in plans once we got there (Jamaican plans change almost every day), we were able to get into 15-20 different public schools in the area. We did the same presentation at each school, sometimes dividing the students up into groups and doing it for each group. Mr. Street would do some magic tricks and a little show with his puppet, Sister Street would lead in a couple songs, and then she and I would do a flannel graph story about Elijah. Neena would come in with some review questions and a memory verse. The kids loved it, and we loved them! I made quite a few sweet little friends at one of the schools!

In Jamaica, the motto is “No Problem!” They are much more laid back than Americans, never in a hurry to do anything or go anywhere. We worked with the Jamaican Holiness churches down there, teaching Sunday School at one and VBS at the other. Due to the school year being extended a week longer than expected, we decided to have VBS both Saturdays (two sessions each) and the first Sunday we were there. We got a pretty good turnout, considering the late and lack of advertisement.

Pastor Simmonds giving Neena and I “bunny ears!” :)

Mr. Street told us about several young people who truly gave their hearts to Jesus last year. They loved the Lord and were sincerely trying to follow Him. However, partly because of the lack of discipleship and follow-up, they have backslidden since then. A couple will openly admit that they are not Christians anymore.

If we look at it from man’s perspective, the spiritual future of Jamaica does not look encouraging. There are many people “serving Jesus,” but their spiritual lives are built on emotions or what others think of them. However, we serve a living God who is all-powerful and has a plan for Jamaica. He has several true servants in that country, people who are TRULY loving Him and willing to follow Him, no matter what the cost.

I feel that God led me to Jamaica so that I can come back here and pray. Prayer is so powerful! It is easier to pray specifically now that I have been there and understand the needs better. I am also very thankful for all the opportunities I got there to witness and serve. I know that God used this trip to show me that only He can fully satisfy. Praise the Lord for being with me through all and giving me the privilege to serve Him.

In the email I sent out before I left, I asked for specific prayer for myself and the team. Thank you so much for praying and for letting me know you would! While I was down there, the thought came to me that I should have asked you all to pray for the Jamaicans instead! I would greatly appreciate it if you would continue to pray—not only for me, but for those who don’t know Christ.

And as an added bonus, here is a short description of our living habits that I wrote to a friend soon after our return:

We stayed in a four-room mission house (two bedrooms, bathroom, and living/dining room. All the kitchen we had was a refridgerator/freezer and a small table area to put food on.

A glimpse of the “kitchen” and living room

It was challenging, as there were ants everywhere. One morning I poured some cereal into my bowl and was about to go on preparing it when I saw it was moving! There were ants ALL over it and in the rest of the box! That was a little disapointing! Another time they got into the peanut butter jar…yuck. 🙂

Pretty much all we lived on there (besides little things here and there) was peanut butter and tropical fruit! The mangos were delicious, but they turned my blue braces green. We also took cold bucket baths each day because the shower head didn’t work.

This was during one of our school presentations…my favorite school for obvious reasons!

To be continued…

Musings

children, jamaica, missions

4 Comments

201502/15

Family Sketches

Watching young children draw, especially reproductions of people they know, is quite entertaining. Cara drew the sweetest little sketches of our family members the other day…and I thought you might like to see them. She did well – some of these are pretty good resemblances!!

Note that all the guys have Menards shirts on and all the girls have Style J skirts. 🙂 It’s also fun to see the different characteristics she gave us!