Friday Nights

We got into the habit years ago, when the older set were young, of letting the children have a sleep over every Friday night in the family room. This was fun for them and special - especially as we don't do sleep overs. ::snort::

Whe we moved to this house.....the practice stopped as we didn't have a family room...the girls left home...the older two boys work late and long and want to sleep comfortable on Friday night...but the younger ones miss it.

I got home last night at 12:30 a.m. and found this in the living room.

RESOLVED: I'll quit fussing about the cluttered living room and my loss of early Saturday solitary study time...and help them make this a memory. They need it.

It's now after 10:00 p.m. Mike still isn't home. The Hank the Cowdog/Adventures in Odyssey controversy has been mediated....I'm going to go read...either Escape or Commentaries. We shall see.

FANTASTIC FRIDAY

Josiah - took his last exam of his Freshman year on Friday. He has already seen a posted grade from one class - an A. He's been working a LOT of extra hours as one manager has been in the hospital, one has been I'm not sure what and the other is out of town. We've prayed him through the busy schedule and now he has the summer to recoup.

He did get an A or A+ on his paper on FDR in English. That has to be a highlight of the year to pull an A for the "tough prof" in WRITING - which isn't HIS thing. LOL

Jamin saw his words in print twice this week....published in print as opposed to published online. LOL I was at the gym on Thursday and Angela asked, "Did someone in your family write the editor?" She told me the name and it was Jamin. He'd written about the FLDS stuff going on around here. We've heard from several who read his letter and liked what he had to say. I told him to prepare for someone to shred him next week on the editorial page. ::snort::

Jamin also had his article on Mike come out in The Message - Open Bible's magazine. It's not up on the web - or I'd link. I think it turned out well....great article on chaplains and fun photos of Mike. ::snort::

Oh, Jamin won a contest at Writer's Bloc . The story was titled "The Spartan" and it's been published here. He became a staff writer for Real Teen Faith recently too.

Jared has decided to enter an essay contest. I need to buy the books he has to read before he writes the essay. LOL

Arielle was thrilled when a friend, Emma, brought over another stack of Elsie Dinsmore books.

Thursday - Saturday

I'm trying girls....Mom and Dad.....life has hit warp speed...and every time I think it is slowing down....it doesn't. Last week I thought it would slow down but had an out of town PWOC training. This week I thought it would slow down but had United Co-op and a PWOC project night. Next week I'll have a full slate and the week after that a PWOC Planning retreat.... A huge PRAISE - we have - SEVEN - 7 - women on our board. This is huge for our small base. There was one lady leading when I got here and she was ready for me to take over. I begged off for 6 months. I've been working for 3 years to see a leadership team and I'm thrilled that God extended our assignment here a year and I can function with a board for this year. Last night one of the ladies said, "De'Etta one thing I can tell about you - you are determined." We all laughed and someone else said, "stubborn"....but it made me day to have women sitting around laughing, excited about what God is going to do on our base....such joy to savor. God has blessed us. Yeah, yeah...we're still small but we're pure gold. LOL I think by the end of May life should slow down. I pray.

Thursday - For the life of me I cannot remember why I was too busy to update the blog. I remember being busy.

Friday- Mike took the day off! This is great as he's been working real long hours (like today is a day off and he's been in 11 hours at this point). I was thrilled he took the day off.

We all took care of produce co-op.

Mike took me to lunch and we talked.

I raced to the base for PWOC project night. Unfortunately, I forgot the key to the building. Mike and Josiah RACED up to the base to let us in...it was a hot wait. ::snort:: I love these project nights. Several of our ladies weren't able to make it; but we still had 6. Rachel worked on Bible Study (but really we all talked with her and took the opportunity to get to know her more - she's a new 20 yo fresh from an assignment in Guam), Laura cross stitched, Martha sewed curtains, Sherri and I worked on photo albums, Yolanda worked on stamping cards......I love these nights. I have photos but I don't have permission to post from any of the ladies.

Sherri and I closed the building at mid-night. I got 3 more albums transferred and am now in my high school years at Faith Academy, on Luzon. I think I will start my new colorful style when I enter my college years....or maybe when Mike entered my life....seems fitting. ::snort::

Saturday - Determined to get a firm grip on Bible study for Tuesday and to get things done around the home, I skipped the gym today. It's not too bad because I know I'm over that 40 min a day "most days" mandate....I did work out every day from M-Fri.

Mike called and we had an invigorating discussion about a certain Biblical word and the strange way translators handle it. We haven't settled our discussion and he decided not to go there in his sermon tomorrow....and I emailed an author who defines this word one way and asked for sources. ::snort::

Mike fixed my grain mill and I dreamed of baking bread - but it never happened.

I spent most the day working on the bills. It's not that we have so many.....Ummm...this begins with me collecting all the reciepts I can find from the house, the dressers, my purse, his car ::snort:: and entering them into Microsoft money, then I download from the bank in AK, then I match up and figure out what we forgot we spent, THEN I can pay bills. It works. I know it sounds haphazard but most of it is bookwork as we do the whole Dave Ramsey envelope thing there isn't a great fear that we will bounce anything.....cash is cash.

I DID get laundry done.

I DID get a lot of Bible study done. I am immersed in Deborah. I can't tell you how much the book of Judges is speaking to me. I think I'll order the Precept study on Judges and work through the rest of the book....but if I do that I won't have time for that other study project that has been saved for the summer. ARGH - so much to study and so little time. ::snort::

I wanted to do a bunch of blogging things, read blogs, work on an entry for the HSBA blog, totally finish my Deborah study (though I've not felt totally prepared ANY WEEK OF THIS STUDY and yet it's been speaking to hearts), get some stuff done for the Central Region PWOC website....well the list goes on....WORK ON PHOTOS.....

BUT I determined to do "first things first", to take care of the big rocks for the day....and so here it is at 9:35 p.m. The kids are in bed. Mike is still not home. I've got the BIGGEST two rocks done....and I'll just have to trust that God knows how much time I need for this Bible study, and how busy Sunday and Monday will be.....right God???? You know. You know! I've got reams of printed commentary to take to bed and sort through.....and I still have Escape to finish, or I could go do a few photos...maybe if I did a page a day.....

Maybe it's time to change some big rocks into gravel.....or some little rocks into sand....or something.....

Thank God today is produce co-op - things have been frightening in our home.

Let the Mother's Day Celebrations Begin....

Look what I got in the mail today from my grown up Girl Childs.

One dozen mutli-colored roses...that had to be thought of, planned out, ordered on time and paid for. It made my day. I also got a sweet card in the mail yesterday from them about adult daughters and mothers. Please understand it wasn't the gift...though I do love flowers....but it was the relationship that the gift signified.

I had been a bit blue when I realized Mike would be preaching in 3 services on Sunday and we aren't going to be able to do a nice dinner or have a leisurely family day (and 2 of the kids are far away)....but really Mother's Day is about relationships - and in that I'm very, very blessed. I hear from the kids regularly, they serve the Lord, they still miss Mike and I, the older ones still at home are respectful (as are the ones out of the home ::snort::) but my point is that really it's not about gifts, or a nice dinner....but relationships.

The celebration has begun.

Little Gems

Every a.m. Stacia wakes up, comes to find me, throws her arms up, tilts her head to the side and says, "I'm AWAKE now! and hugs me. It's precious.....I need to keep the camera with me some a.m.

This a.m. Zander informed me he had brushed his teeth. I gave him a high five and he said, "with this finger"....ummm....back to the bathroom and use one of your zillion toothbrushes. No wonder we have cavities. ::snort::

WHEW WEDNESDAY

Tuesday I thought about United Co-op....then I thought about Produce co-op. I've spent quite a bit of time thinking about what is working and what isn't working. I called another produce co-op coordinator and chatted about how she runs her co-op. On the weeks when ours is too low to order, I may order from her. I know I need produce. I've made some decisions.

I wasn't sure that I was saving enough to make running the co-op worth my time and effort on weeks when I can't take any free produce. We didn't have co-op last week. I went to buy some pink ladies and they were $2.99 a LB....I get them for .99 a LB......I coudln't buy any....but by today...I had to buy something......

This bakers rack is usually full of baskets of produce, pineapples on the racks, oranges on my counter....and we are down to NOTHING.....in either fridge, or on the bakers rack.... The compost heap was starting to look tasty. It was time to cave and go to Sam's Club. This family would not make it until Friday. I have heard several times, "I can pick it up at Sam's cheaper than $28 ". I got this.....

ONLY this......a bag of gala apples (they aren't Pink Ladies), a 10# bag of navels, 3 lbs of bananas (6), 2.5 lbs of grapes and 3 cucumbers.... $25!!!! I only pay $28 for a basket full at co-op (veggies, lettuce MORE). It's worth it. I've been restructuring.

I think a single share is too big for most families. It was built on the premise of 5 servings each, for 4 people, every day.....so 140 servings max. It's had about 100 - 140 servings, but we hear over and over that it's too much. SO.....we are going to restructure....make the single share more in keeping with what I guess a normal family eats. Now WE aim for 10 - 13 servings a day....so I would think 5 a day doable....but it appears it is still more than most families eat in a day. I will ADMIT that I got very sick of lettuce a few weeks ago. I thought I would die if I had to eat another salad. Being out of all greens this week has cured me of that. ::snort::

I'm revising our brochure and FAQ and then will send out an email to all whose emails I have who have EVER belonged to produce co-op. Just letting them know what we are doing. It may work for some and they may come back. If not, I have three plan B's of what to do at the end of May. ::snort::

I also took care of some PWOC things.....ordered some door prizes for our tea ::shhhh::: (Thanks again, Trish), sent in numbers and announcements to the chapel, thought about what to get for dinner on Friday night Project night, tried to come up with a date for our board planning retreat....just things.

We did school.

I went to the gym. Yep - whipping my bohonkus - I hope it shows some results. ::snort::

I took Jared to meet with the personal trainer at the gym. While he did that the littles and I ran to the library (got the "new" Grisham book - finally) and Sam's Club.

A full day.