Hay Happens and Hay's Happen

This day can be bittersweet for many reasons. One being that experiencing the “Father’s” Love may not have happened to one early in life. For me, it was foreign to have a man love me for me, and moreover to KNOW that I am loved all the time. No question!

Experiencing the FATHER’S love was made real for me as I got older when I understood who God is. I knew He existed, but to experience His immense, deep love for me? Huh…nope. Not sure what that meant. Now I do, but it has taken years.

Fast forward to now. God has completely redeemed my childhood by giving me a second chance through Tatum. She gets to experience an earthly father who absolutely adores her and would sacrifice anything for her. Much like the FATHER’s Love. Sacrifice is one way he shows love to Tatum, but also in spending time with her. Just time. No agenda. Just being. And when she is with him, she has no doubt that he will protect her, guide her, and fight a lion for her!

This is redemption for my life. I get to be a mom watching my girl be loved. Ah, yes.

And I get to see it through cool new glasses! HEE!

New eyes. New life.

Or these!…….God gives us many ways to see the blessings. We just need to

LOOOOOOOOK! I love you, Doug Hay.

We also enjoyed celebrating with MAMA. She made him feel like SUPERMAN, which he really is. XXOO

We celebrated Daddy at our HAY HAPPENS meeting!

Tatum made him a fancy TV. She had worked on it all week. I love how she made it special for him.

This way he can enjoy the TV with the fancy remote at ANY time! HA!

She knows he needs a RELAXING DAY.

With the birdie and doggie…he needs that cotton in his ears. Yes, the chaos can get amok!

Then me…Oh, honey, you are so loved.

Tatum and I know the grill is his happy place on Sundays.

So, know when he flips, he’ll know: I AM THE BEST DAD EVAH!
We put on a little show with Piggie and Gerald to let hime know:

He also brought me apples from our tree, so I transformed them into his FAVORITE dessert! Apple pie but without the crust. OH, and sugar free! IT was a HIT!

We love you, Doug Hay!!! XXOO

Tatum and I are working on a Bible Study right now on friendship and how Iron Sharpens Iron.

We are learning about what is a true friend and how bad company corrupts good morals. ALSO she is seeing the importance of having mentors! We all need them; we all need guidance, wisdom, and positive role models in our life.

This week, one of the days was on having mentors. Tatum showed me her page and I melted.

She says I’m not only her mommy but her teacher. Gosh. I’m honored. I pray for more mentors and coaches in her life.

The other day, we watched a special movie

The young girl, Grace, was bullied in high school for her disability of being a Down syndrome child.

It broke Tatum’s heart, AND it made her want to not only teach these children but adopt one as well.

We have tests every week for not a bummer summer school and she wrote:

“have a disabled kid” for a LT goal. Wow…who knew?

I love her nurturing heart.
She sure does love our two little ones:

(he kinda loves himself)

And this guy can’t get enough love.

Ah….Touched by love.

Oh, it’s fun to have incentives for doing over and above things! Since Tatum is embarking on the Not a bummer Summer School with me, I figured we’d have a little treasure box! Her teacher did this in 4th grade, so I figured we’d continue the fun.

At the 1/2 way mark, she opted to have a “small” prize out of the box.

This light up baton would torture Coopy!

Sorry, Coop…not for you. Sadness.

More fun in the summer. It’s just so far from a BUMMER!

It’s time. She’s been dividing her allowance and any earnings she’s made into three categories:
Save, Spend, Give.

Back in 2020, we opened a savings account for her at Bank of America. She had about $200 in there.

Now, it was time to teach her about investing. I taught her about compounding interest, and I also decided to make an appointment with our financial guy, Sam DeGreen, to help her understand how it all works. Monday morning, 9:30 am.

(Sam in Keith’s son who has taken over DeGreen Capital Management.)

He suggested investing in an ETF which is a BASKET of funds. (We don’t put all of our eggs in one basket). He also requested that she read The Richest Man in Babylon.

So, we took her savings and put it in an ETF through Fidelity. (She chose the NASDAQ (which are the top 100 tech stocks) and S and P 500 (top 500 companies))

After today, she’s already made .21! She just should leave it in there and pretend it’s not there. Every month, I’ll take her savings and put it in.

She’s so motivated to earn now! She’s voraciously writing as many book reports as she can (She gets $5 for a small book and $10 for a big book)

Here she is writing about Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper:

How exciting! My little investor. Teaching her to have financial wisdom is key for her future. I love you, Tot!

We were planning on seeing For King and Country.

We arrived there at 4pm, when it started, and …

Saw Johnathan Traylor: He was truly AWESOME!

He told stories about this Grandma and her message to him about NO ONE can steal your joy! Our joy comes from OUT of this world, so don’t let the world STEAL it!
AMEN.

Oh, look at my honey! We got to hold hands. xo

The Tot was enjoying every minute

YES SWEETIE! Praise HIM!

We enjoyed Andrew RIPP so much! HE had so many GOD stories and inspired all of us with JESUS being our RESCUE STORY!

We can’t wait to return in DECEMBER to see KING and COUNTRY! (We left early for various reasons…seating being one and hunger another.) God redeemed it with new tickets.

AMEN! Loved this time with my family.. HEART FLUTTERS.