A Peek Into My Life - Birthdays, Bubble Tea & The Beautiful Shrine

This summer is going by so fast!

So much has been going on around here and I wanted to stop and take some time to share them on the blog with you.

I took a blogging break last week--we had VBS at church and my kids were leaders this year (they had over 600 children show up), so I needed some time to catch my breath! Overall, they had a good time, several children got saved, and a few of my other children want to volunteer next year too.

This month we celebrated my 46th birthday:

My husband surprised me with this little gluten free "Schmoo" cake from Whole Foods (we have three people in our family that are GF) and he got the other children a fruit tart. We drizzled some chocolate syrup on it for the chocolate lovers and it was complete! We ended up going out to dinner at Red Lobster and catching a show afterwards. Earlier I had spent the day shopping at the mall with my daughter.

I can't believe I am that old and nearing 50---which is kind of scary in a way because when you think of 50 you think that is really old when you are young but when you get close to it, it's not. I am trying to take better care of myself by eating better and getting more exercise squeezed into my day.

I stopped by a favorite cafe and picked up my favorite drink that I had been wanting to get all summer--a bubble tea. If you have never heard of them they are ice tea drinks that have bubbles on the bottom in all kinds of flavors. They are so deliciously good!

They have so many varieties that you can choose from but my favorite is Vanilla Chai with Passion Fruit or mango bubbles!

This cafe has a little community board were people can come in and share their thoughts. I think they change the theme every week.

I liked this one:

I left one about following the Lord. Hopefully someone was encouraged by it.

My mother-in-law stayed by our house a few days and we took her to see The Shrine of Christ's Passion since she always wanted to see it. The Shrine is a mile long and has stops that show certain points of the life of Jesus in statue form. Here are a few pictures from that day:

This was inside the gift shop--it was truly beautiful with tons of art, books, decor and more.

You all who have been readers for a while now know how much I love good art--this was stunning to see in person. It is called The Virgin with Angels by William Bouguereau.

This one of Mary, her son Jesus, and a lamb is called Innocence--it was beautiful as well and very large. 

The station above (you might not be able to see it very well) but all the way at the top is Pontius Pilate washing his hands of Jesus' situation. Many of the stops had music playing and a narrator explaining what was happening.

Jesus healing the sick woman.

Jesus crucified on the cross with the thieves. 

Jesus carrying the cross with a soldier standing over him. 

The ceiling in the gift store was beautifully painted too, 

I couldn't help but to take a picture of it.  
All in all it was a great bonding day with Nana and we had a ton of fun.

We also just celebrated our 25th anniversary but I will share that in a future post so you can see what we did.



I hope you enjoyed our pictures!


How are you spending the summer?

Please share in the comments below!







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