Sunday was a good day. Because our pastor had run off to Colorado with the only set of keys to the church (ha!), we had service up at the Clarksons' home. Since we had no preacher we had Sunday School and worship, then Sister Shanda went ahead with her VLB service. Sunday School was excellent and worship was... a struggle! Ha! It's tough when you don't have a piano and you don't have any real strong singers, you know?! James serves as both of those around here usually, so it's really hard when he's gone. I tried to pick songs that most everybody knew well and I made sure to find what key we needed ahead of time. Joe was our lone musician and we would have been in big, big trouble without him and his guitar--that's all I can say! He did very well and Katie was a huge help getting us started. (I have my Dad's knack for music, unfortunatly. ;-) I usually can't "hear" where to start a song, even when somebody gives me the chord. But Katie can, thank goodness!) Anyway, after we made it through song service (!) I really enjoyed Sister Shanda's lesson--as always. It was on faith this time. Good stuff.
Since we had decided to do Sister Shanda's service in the morning along with everything else (it was originally scheduled as our evening service), we had the rest of the day until the guys arrived home from Men's Retreat. Shanda said we could just stay at her house until then, but it ended up being a lot longer visit than we had anticipated. Due to what sounds like an amazing, Spirit-filled service up there, the guys didn't get out of Retreat until about 3 hours later than usual... and they didn't get back to the Clarkson's house until about 10:30 that night! The kids had a blast playing with the Clarkson kids and I really enjoyed my time with Shanda. We mostly just talked and hung out and tried to contain the chaos. I love when the kids have a chance to play together (it doesn't happen very often), but 10 hours is just too much! They get sooooo wound up when they're together and I am NOT the kind of person who handles noise and chaos well. But I was prepared for it this time and endured it far better than I usually do. :-) It really wasn't that bad and I'm really glad we had a chance to spend some time with all of them. It was fun. :-)
It was great to hear some of what went on at Men's Retreat. Brother Chris said, "I know I always say this, but... this was the best one ever!" Ha! The guys said it really did seem like God took it to a brand new level this year with several outpourings of the Spirit and several of the gifts of the spirit at work there. I'm anxious to hear more! I never get a whole lot of information out of James... and Sister Shanda probably gets way too much information out of her husband! Ha!
Monday was a good day. Did school, scrubbed the bathrooms, changed the sheets--stuff like that. Tostada casserole for dinner that night. Made Joe very happy.
That night James and I had a really good talk about some things concerning the kids and our family and stuff like that. It seems like since then I have felt new clarity of direction or something. Like things are just running alot more smoothly around here and I feel more focused on what our goals really are as we try to teach and train and raise our kids. There's been a special nearness to the kids and to the Lord. I'm so thankful! We should have talks like that more often. :-)
Yesterday I got all of the laundry and ironing done, vacuumed most of the house and wet Swiffered the floors. The kids were excited to see that it was snowing again in the morning, but were especially thrilled when it turned to hail. It really wasn't as bad as the head gear would indicate... Ha!
We headed to the library a little late yesterday afternoon, then went on into town to run some errands. We ended up at Dion's for dinner, then went to visit Sister Grimes and Pat for a little while. That was nice, but we were sooooo tired! Sam nearly fell asleep there and I wasn't too far behind him! Ha! Got home and got the kids to bed and I got my second wind (wa-hoo) and was able to stay up and finish the last of the ironing. :-)
Today I got the other end of the house vacuumed and some more things organized and straightened up around here. James took Joe with him to town and was gone for a few hours. Joe had only gotten four library books yesterday due to our late visit--just before closing time--and he had already finished them, so James took him back to the library today to take his time and get some more. He came home with a bag full of 'em and a big smile. That kid LOVES to read. While he was gone I did school with Kate and Sam and got the kitchen cleaned up and looking good. Joe had to do late school due to his trip to town, but he actually whipped through it pretty quick so it wasn't too bad. We all made some thank you cards today (I wrote some out, that is; the kids made some) for Christmas gifts received. Had soup and sandwiches for dinner, then enjoyed an episode of Gunsmoke and a bowl of ice cream before devotions. Now the kids are in bed, I'm blogging because I nagged my Mom about it today (and therefore have to do it myself so as to not be a hypocrite), and then I'm going to get started on the next issue of the Western Skies. The deadline is tonight and I actually have a decent amount of material to work with already. Wa-Hoo! So I'm going to get busy on that now. G'night, all!
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