Spa night

Chace, Jessica, Catherine, Julian, Rebecca

Happy Lunar Eclipse to you.

Good morning. And did you enjoy the lunar eclipse? We sure did. Our plan was to get up and go to the Y pool to enjoy the event. I've been trying to have a good enough reason to get the kids up early to swim at the Y. The eclipse seemed to be the perfect opportunity. Once I was awake, I turned the news on to make sure we were still going to have a good view, no clouds, etc. to block our view. Once that was verified, I woke everyone and we put on our swimsuits and off we went. What a spectacular show God gave us. And to think children can stare at something other than a television. We watched the moon until the sliver of light was gone then jumped into the very cold pool. It didn't take us long to warm up and get silly. As the sun started coming up I was sure to point the children's eyes heavenward so they could continue to enjoy the light show. They were mesmerized by the varying colors of blue. Chace commented that the first shade of blue we saw matched his sheets. Not sure if that is where he wanted to be so he thought of his sheets. Hmmm. My children had the privilege to enjoy the colors turn from black to shades of blue, all the way to white with streaks of pink. We should do that more often. Other than a few men swimming laps we were the only ones there to entertain the lifeguard. Turns out she will be the one instructing Julian's soon to come swimming lessons. My kids were bundled in their robes to go home. We got lots of smiles from tired adults as they came and went from their work outs.

My father is still recovering in the rehab area of the hospital from his brain surgery to remove a tumor. He has had more good days then bad ones and each day he seems to be more and more himself. Mom is a pillar of strength as she handles this and everything to do with the 'not sale' of their home. My parents were to move last week; so the house is boxed up and realtors and lawyers were working with them. When the sale fell through things began to fall apart. Once the contract with the realtors was up, mom and dad took the house off the market. As you probably know, it isn't all that easy and mom has been quite the trooper dealing with the weight of the matter. Today mom is to have a meeting with the hospital staff, that has helped dad, to see what his next steps will be. There is talk of him going home this week but we don't feel he is quite ready for that. Maybe he will go to an assisted living area to continue therapy or maybe he'll stay where he is. We'll see. Please continue to pray for them; dad, mom and the hospital staff, for God's guidance and for strength.

Tomorrow is garbage day and we have yet another load of empty, tattered boxes to put out for pick up. The house continues to come together and we continue to see how blessed we are to still see available space, not clutter and not a cramped home. Thank you Jesus! The children love our flight of steps. It is one continuous whereas the last home you had to go around a corner. They've taken to using various objects as sleds and have the bruises on their bottom to prove the number of times they've gone down the steps. This should explain why are boxes are so tattered.
OK I'm going to close for now. I'll jot some more soon. Take care! And smile; because, afterall, Jesus loves you!!

Where have you been?

OK, so it's me that hasn't been here lately. I swear I though things would slow down over the summer. I notice that we're at the end of August now. Where have I been? Let me tell you. I started August out sick, mostly sinus stuff. The next week, Julian was REALLY sick. My father went in for surgery in attempts to remove a tumor that was wrapped around the base of his brain. Then we packed up the whole house and moved. And then AWANA started out and with the most amount of children we've ever had with numbers still growing. August has been a blur for me.
Today we had our internet access connected, so here I am.
Lunch just arrived so I'll give you more of the specifics later.