Airport Days

Airport days  have proven to be either fantastic or challenging...saying goodbye to school friends, family, deployments, mission assignments...saying hello to school friends, family, Michael....today was a GREAT airport day.

It's always an exceptional day when an adult Gherkin comes home for a bit of a stay. Michael cracked us up with his vigilant watching and pacing.....

This is as FAR as you can go without a ticket...and they checked each train which arrived for nearly an hour.....

It turns out the plane was delayed at DFW for four hours. I am thankful they discovered the cracked hydraulic line before they left DFW.....Meanwhile we watched and waited....

We met Maria coming home from TX....from DFW....and on the next train....

Josiah

I may have crossed the red line to hug him after taking his photo....but really no one messes with a Mama hugging a Gherkin after months apart. LOL Michael seems convinced the waiting was worth it.

We've talked, enjoyed a yummy dinner courtesy of the organic cow in the freezer, talked some more, had dessert and finally these are playing and I'm blogging....a good day.

Um - note to Arielle if you have to ASK, "Is that a blond joke," it most likely is or will become one. ::snort::

Another random fact - our neighbor sings opera in the shower.

Choosing Joy!
©2014 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Lazy Day

We bombed today!

That's the highlight of our day - we set off bug bombs at home...and then drove to base and set them off in the classroom building of the Far West Campus. The skeeters were so bad all of us who cleaned in there are COVERED with itchy bites.  We wanted to be sure they were GONE before any children or ladies were using those buildings. ::grin::

While on base Michael and Nolan stopped to make sure the sound board and worship slides are ready for tomorrow...um.....someone had made quite a few changes to the board - glad to discover it today and not tomorrow morning.

The kids and I watched a few episodes of "I Love Lucy," and Michael is working on sermon prep.

A lazy Saturday - but an o.k. one.

Choosing Joy!
©2014 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Friends, Pizza and Games

This is the start of a four day weekend - woot! 

Michael surprised me by driving to Roseville with me at 0800. I leaned back and listened to Jazz for an hour while the hygienist deep-cleaned my teeth. Michael ran a few errands.

We picked up pizza and headed home.

Singing a country song

We love Friday nights - filled with friends, pizza and games.

After dinner and conversation the kids settled on Quelf. This is an odd game - but they do enjoy it. ::snort::



We enjoyed watching the hilarity.

 

What could cause such a range of expressions?

 



Choosing Joy!
©2014 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Holy Cow!

Yes, that's right. A whole cow!  Why in the world is a vegan buying a cow? Well - three are not vegans... one is a nutritarian and two are meat and potato "teens."  This way I know that when we DO have beef it is certified organic, no antibiotics, no hormones....and so I split a cow with a couple of friends. We should have 127# of beef - though we've lost some beef. The rancher has asked us to recount the entire order....so we'll be playing with beef again this afternoon.....playing with beef is close enough for me. LOL  Michael is dreaming of a steak - tomorrow dear, tomorrow.

Choosing Joy!
©2014 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Smart Dog

Michael had a piece of food in his hand and began pacing. Yuuki paced after him. Michael went around the island twice; Yuuki followed. THEN - she turned around and doubled back on him.

 



Smart Dog

Choosing Joy!
©2014 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Cleaning Day

 

And with ANY move in comes - CLEANING. This is magnified if you are moving into an old school building that has set empty for 10 years.  Several of us have already spent many hours clearing furniture and STUFF out of the rooms which are to be our new home, cleaning, cleaning, cleaning....but it still needed a good cleaning.

 

Tuesday Chapel staff will move stuff over from our current facility. A group of us met over at the Far West Campus to clean before the furniture arrives - again.

 

Looks much better with sparkly windows....

 

She's a communication fiend....in contact with grandparents and siblings every day.....on a break

 

The carpets have been professionally cleaned - with a truck. Each and every surface has been scrubbed several times. It still looks old - but at least we KNOW it's clean - right? 

 

I especially loved that this was a joint cleaning project between PWOC and CWOC. I love that - working together for the good of all....

Choosing Joy!
©2014 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

"That Place"

Tuesday was spent preparing for Wednesday. Wednesday we left home at 0740, arrived back at 2030, ran out to pick up some donations for the new chapel facility.....

We kicked off our PWOC Bible Studies today. We had a combined study with the Catholic and Protestant women and learned about spiritual gifts and how they should function. It was GOOD STUFF. I should have taken more note of all those saying they have the gift of admin. It's a running joke around those who know me well that  God ALWAYS stacks boards I lead with lots of admin types....and he has this year.  Unfortunately, one of our sweet gals is going home for an upcoming deployment. She's been amazing at her role...God will provide.  One thing we've implemented this year is moving the participation tables to the parking lot and having "greeters." Think the OLD SCHOOL Walmart.  It was fun to see our women out front welcoming new gals.....I smiled when I heard Gen's cheery voice ring out, "Welcome to PWOC" at Rally.

Honestly....God is screaming at me that self-care is not selfish. August has racked up 109.5 PWOC volunteer hours - not total hours; just PWOC hours, we're also moving chapel facilities. The Rally and Kick Off are over. Things should begin to settle down....

But I've not worked out on a consistent basis since right before the Board training retreat..... I realize much of "this pace" has had to do with moving things from two chapels to a new facility, setting up for a new year, having a "retreat" without a retreat coordinator....but I'm aware  God worked drastically in my life to teach me margin and self-care....and I need to do better to carry those lessons into this season of service.....

Not much more to say about the past two days. It's been wonderful. It's exciting to see a new team begin to pull together - I've seen that. God's moved. Women have shared some of  what God is ALREADY doing in their lives this year and it's exciting to be a small part of it. I'm excited about our upcoming studies.... I just know I need to dial back the volunteer hours now that things have "kicked off" - or I will end up burned out as I was 2 years ago - and I'm not going back to "that place."  Or maybe I have gone to the outskirts of "that place," but my eyes are opened and I'm pulling back.

The other big thing happening this week is our Protestant Ministries/Service and some Catholic Ministries are moving into an old school. We've worked a lot already but the final push is this week and next....and then we'll have a spacious facility, in housing with room to grow. PWOC and CWOC meet together here and we've really maxed capacity at both of the current chapels.  We knew in the spring we'd have to make changes or find a bigger place to meet. At that point nothing was on the horizon. We prayed. God was already working to provide the answer.  It's worth a few busy months to see the fruit for the upcoming year.

PWOC and CWOC are women's ministries of the Chapel. Protestant Women of the Chapel and Catholic Women of the Chapel.

Choosing Joy!
©2014 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...