A Busy Week at a Glance

Busy?  Did someone say busy?! Ok, maybe last week was a tad busy!! :-)  It started out with the normal day to day stuff adding a conference at the end.  Then we got a call on Sunday (Easter) telling us of an unexpected death of a man who had just visited our church the week before.  They asked if Craig would do the funeral.  Of course he said yes!  What a way to minister to a hurting family!!!  Well, that made a busy week even busier!!  Now, Craig had to get together with the family and discuss the funeral arrangements, still try to finish his prep for the conference he was speaking at, and try to get rest in the midst of still being a husband and daddy!!!  Wednesday was the funeral, it was done very well and the gospel was preached to a group of family and friends, as well as sailors that he had worked with who were allowed to take half a day to attend.  It was amazing to me at how the very attentive sailors became fidgety during the actual salvation part of the message, and then became very still again after it was over.  I started praying for those who seemed so uncomfortable with the message that God would open their eyes to their need for the salvation that was being declared.  Still praying that the Lord will continue to work in their hearts!!!

Thursday was a crazy day of laundry, packing, and cleaning as we prepared to get over to Redmond that evening.  In the midst of getting ready, my youngest, Zeke, found the iron!! Yep!  It fell on his arm, burning the entire arm from his hand to his elbow!!  Poor little guy!  We put a cold rag on it, then smothered it with burn gel and put guaze over the wound, wrapping it with an ace bandage to prevent him from tearing the guaze off.  He is doing better, but the wound is still ugly!!  We got the van loaded and dropped our puppy off at some very dear folks' house.  (I say very dear because Winston is still a puppy, even if he is fully grown in size, and he can be very naughty and these people KNOW that and still took him!!!!!! Thank you Potvins!!!!)  Then we were off!  The hotel was a short distance from the location of the conference and was a very nice place to crash.  When I say crash, I mean crash!!  Late nights and early mornings along with full days and no naps = crash!!! :-)  My very sweet husband allowed me to take the younger children to the hotel Friday evening and get to bed early, instead of staying for the family night!!!  We went to bed at 9!!!!  Craig spoke twice and did a Q&A roundtable.  After he was done with his commitment, we were able to go through the vendor's hall and look at curriculum.  We had about an hour to two hours.  I am very excited to say we purchased our math curriculum for 1st grade through pre-algebra!!!  We will take the rest of this school year to research other subjects and determine what we will use in the future.  All in all, the conference was good, with much encouragement and reunion of friendships made throughout the years!  My children look forward to seeing many people again and also meeting new people.  The little ones did very well considering all the sitting and being quiet they had to do!!!  I was proud of my husband and his lectures.  He did a great job!!!!  This was a bit out of his comfort zone as he is 100% preacher and not used to lecturing!!  He taught on how to get started in home education and the many ways to do it, including using God's Word as a measuring stick to what you choose.  Making sure that your children's spiritual growth is most important, but that their intellect must not be ignored.  There were many new parents as well as parents who have been doing this for some time.  At the end of the conference, they had a banquet to honor all who worked so hard to put this together.  We ended up leaving around 11 pm!!!!  We got home around 12:30 am on Sunday.  A great way to be refreshed for the 45th anniversary of our church!!!!

We had great services for our anniversary, with Bro Bill Wambsganss coming to rejoice with us!!  He preached for the evening service which is always a blessing!  A wonderful thing when a church is still preaching the gospel strong after 45 years.  Praying for another 45+ years of ministry!!!!

Monday, well, we slept in a bit!!  But couldn't leisure because we had much to do!!  I needed groceries before our deacons meeting that evening.  I took my "muscles" (Daniel)  and went to get the groceries and to pick up our dog, getting home around 5.  The meeting started at 6 with dinner at our house.  We have started having the whole family come over for dinner and fellowship each month and then the men go over to the study for the meeting.  The ladies and the children are all enjoying this change.  After the meeting, we packed Craig's suitcase for his trip to Louisianna.  At 2:30 this morning, I took him to the 76 station where he was picked up by the Kitsap Airporter.  He is doing a second funeral for the same man, this time with his family, in his hometown.  What an honor that they wanted Craig to be the one to do another funeral!!!  My poor husband didn't get a wink of sleep last night and has a full schedule of meeting with the family today and then the funeral itself tomorrow.  He gets home at 12:20 am on Thursday morning.  I'll be picking him up this time as the airporter doesn't have any more runs at that timeframe.  Sigh.  We are hoping for a break soon.  But, the sun is shining and we have rest in the Lord!!

Today I had my doctor's appointment which went well.  Daniel also had his last speech therapy.  He brought flowers and chocolates to the therapist because it was her birthday.  She was thrilled!

In the busyness of the week, I want to leave you with a few things that I am especially thankful for:
I am thankful for a Savior who loves me even with my deepest, darkest sins,
I am thankful for a wonderful (and handsome) husband who is my best friend and confidant,
I am thankful for 11 fantastic children who bless me daily,
I am thankful for sons who are strong enough to lift the 52 lb. bag of dog food so I don't have to,
I am thankful for 2 new babies coming into our life just 4 months after our baby is born,
I am thankful that my friend's daughter is now cancer free!!!!!!!!!

Well, hope your week is a blessed one and that you all rejoice in the goodness of our loving Lord and Savior!!!