Prayer for Another School Year

Where did the summer go? It seems like yesterday when the new school year was upon us with Baylee entering second grade and Nathan in kindergarten yet now, another year has gone by and both kids are moving into new classrooms, new grade levels, with new teachers.

As always, the first Friday before school starts, Jon and I open our home to friends, teachers, and strangers that all love the Lord and value the power of prayer and who are dedicated to starting the school year, covering the campus, faculty, volunteers, curriculum, and kids in prayer. I wouldn’t want to start it any other way!

This year, God brought so many new people to our group; around thirty including four teachers… it was touching! I am humbled with how many believers send their kids to Edu Prize. I am richly blessed to have a home that can host such a vital evening and a husband that has shares the same passion as I do.

Here’s to a great 2009-2010 school year! May all of us continue to pray daily for our children and the school year, as if we were gathered together in our family room.

“Lord, I thank you for the men and women who dedicate their lives to educating children. I ask you to bless them with strength, joy, great health, clarity of thinking, and strong ethics. I pray they are fruitful in every way. Please give them wisdom, patience, love, insight, endurance, joy, support, and creativity. I pray your supernatural love for each student can pour out through each teacher, allowing every child’s heart and life to count in the eyes of all the teachers, volunteers, peers, and facility.

Please sharpen the minds of our students, making them eager to learn more and give you the glory in their success. Build godly character in them. Please draw our children to You. Let them see their need of You and surrender their precious lives to You. Help them let go of what others think and to love the unlovely and be a friend to many. Help our children to obey You even when it's hard.

Thank You in advance for the work you're going to do in our teachers and students' lives this year, Lord. I pray all of these things in the strong and mighty name of Jesus Christ. Amen!"

“The eyes of the Lord watch over those who do right and his ears are open to their prayers.” 1 Peter 3:12

(Thank you to the Keller family for watching our kiddos so it could be an "adult only", peaceful night. They had a super time!)

Closing Ceremonies at Camp Richiak

Our week had to be cut short due to other circumstances, but we were elated to have three days of Camp Richiak! Today we met twice, once in the morning where we painted frames for our camp photo then the Richardson’s returned in the evening as well for our closing ceremonies. We had to show off to the two dads what we had been up to all week, teaching them the handshake, oath, and our favorite camp songs. Then it was dinner time with Walking Tacos on the menu! Afterwards we swam, made S’mores, then went on a memorable hunt locally. Jon took the amateur cousins on the golf course once it hit dark, (as many of us adults know, snipe are nocturnal). With a flashlight in hand, the “call” Jon taught the kids and a brown bag…they were off to catch that fast critter. Even our neighbors joined us as we tiptoed through the open area keeping an eye out for a beady eyed hairy tiny beast. Score! We actually caught one but somehow that hasty thing made a hole in the bag and sped off before we made it home to show him off to the eagerly curious kids. Ugh! Maybe next year we can outsmart that thing!
Although Cousin Camp has come to a close, we plan to reunite in October for a family campout then begin making plans for Camp Richiak 2010!

Swimming Success!

As a young adult I remember once reading, "The greatest barrier to success is the fear of failure!" and it stuck in my head. It's so true! In my younger days, often times I’d find myself paralyzed in trying something with the total fear of failing and hearing the word, “No!” or “You’re not good enough!” Wanting as a parent now to break that thought cycle, I found an opportunity right in front of my face during Baylee’s first swim meet on May 30th. She was so excited for her first competition but eventually when it was time to stand on the lonely board facing the long lane ahead to swim the freestyle heat, she froze. Tears, shaking, and the thought of “I can’t” circled her sweet head. She too, was paralyzed and it broke my heart.

After pulling Baylee aside, reassuring her that no matter what, we loved her, Jon and I prayed with Baylee, and quoted some of her verses we have around her room, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,” (Philippians 4:13) and “For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.” (2 Timothy 1:7). Minutes passed and then Baylee dug deep and found the courage in her that God created her with and did it…she swiftly dove in the water and swam her heart out! To me, she could have taken four hours to swim the 25 yards, and I would have seen it as a huge success since she triumphed over fear. But she did even better than that! She scored 36.64!

Now fast forwarding to the end of the season, it’s amazing to see the growth that took place this summer during swim team practices and meets! Baylee was able to put her faith into practice, has great confidence, and learned first hand the definition of perseverance. She swam in 7 meets, all stokes (butterfly, breast stroke, back stroke, and freestyle) improving in each category, leaps and bounds! In fact, from Baylee’s first time in freestyle of 36.64 to her last, 20.5...the progression is impressive! She advanced an entire 16 seconds!

This summer Baylee didn’t progress to the swim finals but she has it in sight for next season. We rewarded her and Maggie with an honorary family lunch celebration and ceremony of our own, presenting both athletes with a trophy to remember their first season of swim team. From here on out, Baylee has a visual (her trophy) to remind her that “Success does not come to you, you go to it!” And boy did she ever go to it!

(Checking out her competition) (Breast stroke...Baylee in the closest lane to the camera)
(Swim team friends from 2 teams...Maggie, Kaelan, Baylee, and Emma)

(Baylee and Coach Bryn...a great man of encouragement!)(Maggie, Baylee, Kalena, Emma V, Matthew, and Landon...at various meets during the summer)(Baylee wearing her courage shirt next to Matthew and Landon)

(Kaelan, Baylee, Maggie, and Landon)
(Baylee, Maggie, and Kaelan)

We're Still at It, Camp Richiak Day Two

It wasn’t hard to get the kids out of bed today. They knew what was ahead of them, Camp Richiak day two! To launch off the day’s activities, after our camp song and secret handshake, Dylan inspired us to write an oath. We listed things each thought was important and began the writing process setting it aside after awhile for us to ponder overnight and complete tomorrow.

We made rockets and set them off today with Alka Seltzer, made plates as a ‘forever memory’, went on a scavenger hunt, and let’s not forget making our ice cream in individual baggies which everyone gave as a BIG thumbs up!

During lunch today we had some thought provoking questions to get to know one another. We asked:
- What are your three best qualities (honest, loving, etc.)?
-If you were in a movie, what kind would it be and who would you want to be acting with you?
-What do you want to be when you grow up (job)?

The favorite songs of the day we sang were; Bananas, Toot-e-tah, and Boom Chica Boom.

Tomorrow we have planned another grand slam! I can’t wait!

Camp Richiak, Day One

Let the festivities begin! Oh how excited we all were for this day to finally get here!

Our opening ceremonies included each child’s initiation into our elite group, creating then learning the Cousin Camp secret handshake then singing our Camp Song created by one of our very own family members, Jon! We mean business!

With our own hands and hearts, each camp participant worked together to make our camp flag to hang each day outside. Laura and I loved seeing the cousins all plan and conquer their work of art using paint, gems, hot glue, feathers, and glitter. It turned out sweet.

Moving right along, we laughed our heads off with the next item of business, “Laughing Hands!” Since not all would want to do it, we took volunteers on who was willing to get messy and silly (all of Laura’s kids and none of mine…go figure ☺). Then, we assigned a person to either be the ‘face’ or ‘hands’ of the act. Pretty much what happed was, the ‘hand’ acted for the ‘face’ with the pulling of a card then following the task. For example, one card pulled was brushing teeth. As you can imagine, the laughs didn’t end as the ‘hands’ (who couldn’t see at all) spread the toothpaste onto a brush then brushed the teeth of the ‘face’ person’s teeth, without getting up from behind their back (thus not being able to see at all!)
(Here's Blake being a good sport with sister Carlie being his hands! She's shaving his face with whipped cream!)

(Dylan's letting me brush his teeth even!)

(Kaydon's loving joining in on the "manly" act!)

(And Carlie...Baylee's her hands as she 'dolls her up' with lipstick. Check out the before and after photos!)

We also sang silly camp songs, danced the Cha-cha slide, Macarana, and YMCA. We made personal pizzas for lunch, Oobleck, and set off Mentos and soda!

The kids were not ready for our day to end together at Camp Richiak. The good news is this… we all get to do this again tomorrow!

Camp Richiak 2009

Inspired by our beloved friend April who has done this for years, my cousin Laura and I were finally able to kick off our first-ever “Cousin Camp,” otherwise known as Camp Richiak. This year it was just our two Arizona families but hopefully with much excitement, we can talk our other cousins from California into joining us for 2010.

Our name is Camp Richiak because we took our two last names and combined them… Richardson (Rich) and Kempiak (iak). We laugh at how interesting and what a mouth full it could be if we do indeed add the Clement and Flanagan side of the family! (Richiakmentagan maybe) ☺

Let me explain our idea! Each day this week we are having a day ‘camp’ with “just us cousins.” In attendance will be Dylan, Carlie, Baylee, Blake, Nathan, Kaydon, and Owen. We’ve planned activities that we’ll all participate in with the best part of the whole thing…being together. The icing on the cake, we even have an original logo (I made last year when we thought we’d get this thing off and rollin’ but weren’t able to) that we've placed on tshirts and other important documents.

Stay tuned at what the week has for Camp Richiak and the directors, Laura and Kymberly! We can’t wait!

A “Wickedly” Wonderful Time!

As our fifteenth anniversary gift to one another, Jon and I bought tickets to the hottest Broadway musical playing right now, Wicked…the untold story of the witches of Oz! Oh how happy I am that it flew our way! Wicked was truly was phenomenal, totally worth all the hype and our savings! The costumes…{wow},
the set…{wow again},
the makeup…{wow-we},
the acting…{wowzers!}
and the music…{wow to the tenth degree}
all of which left me with a realm of emotions; laughing, cheering, crying, and even speechless at times. To say I got sucked into the story line is a total understatement. Did I ever! At intermission I had such a lump in my throat that I couldn’t talk to Jon for a few minutes. The same rang true at the end. One thing’s for certain, I will never watch the Wizard of Oz again through the same set of eyes I used to!

Oh how I wish I could stay overnight for the next showing to catch all those clever one-liners and just bathe in the talent of the cast right next to my wonderful date, my adoring husband Jon!

Which song was my favorite? Oh it’s so hard to say! The powerful song Defying Gravity won’t leave my head, as well as The Wizard and I, and thinking of Glinda and Elphaba saying goodbye to one another forever with For Good makes my eyes well up with tears again! Can I just say I liked them all?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J72thWNW6PE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0m6sclZkH0

Bowling Buddies

For the second year in a row, Nathan joined a summer bowling league with his buddies and this year, Baylee made her own girls’ team too! They’re both in the bumper teams and play two games each week hitting many strikes and spares, feeling great about themselves with each throw. Nathan’s self named team, the Jedi Knights has his cousin Kaydon, best bud Benjamin, fun friend Gavin, and himself. Baylee’s team, the Bowling Beauties, consisted of her dear friend Sabrina and Cheyanne and a friend of Cheyanne’s, Megan. Summer bowling leagues are a lot of fun. It gets us all indoors away from the scalding heat and gives personal challenges for each kid as they are side by side with some of their most dear friends.

Patriotic Healthy Treat

Here’s what the Kempiak Party of Five is munching on this weekend!
{Note to myself...}
And here’s what I want to make next year…

Something Smells Fishy Around Here!

Out of curiosity, I am wondering if it’s possible to leave the ‘high country’, Greer, without fishing?! After much pondering, I’ve come up with the final answer…NO! I think it would be next to impossible (…well, unless the waters are iced over, but even with that harsh circumstance, I’m still not convinced).
This time, all three kids grabbed a pole with Daddy and Papa John and eagerly desired a catch in the ‘back lake’. What a true blessing we experienced because within the first 15 minutes, each kid’s pole had a bite that they successfully pulled in to shore! Isn’t that remarkably mind-blowing!
Baylee was the first…{so cool}. Although it ended weighing in as the smallest, it didn’t’ matter in her heart. Owen was next, needing a little help with reeling because his was enormous! He caught the biggest, weighing in over a whole pound! Nathan, our avid fisherman caught the final one then took them all back to the cabin and really had a blast, cutting, gutting, deboning, and playing with his finned friend’s eyeballs and heads! {Such a curious boy!}

More 4th of July Fun

Hiking and discovering some Hopi petroglyphs, cooking brats on the hibachi, and watching a spectacular show of fireworks in the sky above the Lyman Lake was precisely what we did with the rest of our holiday today! What a delightful time we had!