~whew~

That feels better. I'm still not "really" blogging, but HEY, I put up a new template--doesn't that count for something?! I hated the other one a little more each time I came to my blog. Maybe that's why I've all but stopped coming here. Ha! I've had the cherry thing before, but I love it--so BRIGHT and CHEERY and HAPPY. And RED. Can't live too long without red. :-)

As a brief update, we had great Easter services, three visitors that morning (praise the Lord!), a wonderful afternoon with Sister Galaviz and way too much food. Yesterday was a great success as far in the House Cleaning endeavors. Got both bathrooms thoroughly scrubbed, did 7 or 8 loads of laundry (sheets and even a couple of bedspreads along with the clothes), got the whole house vacuumed, had a full day of school, made a couple of necessary calls, AND sorted and alphabetized 11 boxes of books. Ah, yes...

A wonderful lady I know :-) felt led to donate all of her Christian fiction books to be sold to try to help raise funds to send our folks to Family Camp. She had an amazing collection and we spent lots of hours this past week listing them on eBay. Some of the auctions end tomorrow and some go on for a couple more days. The bids are currently at just over $200. Praise the Lord! I've been praying that God will bless abundantly and truly multiply this effort and amaze us with the total at the end. I'm anxious to see what it will be!

Today we got school done early so we could go in to town to redeem the last of the kids' BookIt! coupons at Pizza Hut. We had several other stops to make afterward, last of all the library. Unfortunately, due to some recurring attitude issues, only Katie was allowed to go in and get books. I HATE punishing children by saying, "No, you can't go to the library this week" (of all things!!!), but it's the thing that hits Joe the very hardest. He was a wreck. James said he just cried and cried the whole time Katie and I were in the library. There is no sharper torture to Joe than being banned from the library. I hope he decides to straighten up real quick so we don't have to repeat this again!

He wasn't the only one in tears today. Sam fell asleep on the drive home. When we got here we all had our arms full and minds occupied with other things. We came in the door and I realized that Sam was still asleep out there. I intended to head right back out to get him, but checked the answering machine and totally forgot about him! Fifteen or twenty minutes later James asked where all the kids were. I told him Katie was in the living room, the boys must be outside. !!! Can you imagine?! I still didn't remember poor Sam out there! Ten or fifteen minutes after that a teary-eyed, red-faced Sam came bursting through the back door, still sobbing. Still didn't remember. I asked what in the world was wrong with him (don't tell Dad this story, Mom--he'll KILL me! Ha!) and Sam said, "Joe!!! He locked me in the van!" Ha! Ah, yes!!! I remember now! ~sigh~ I explained that Joe hadn't locked him in, I just forgot to go out and get him. He's a very forgiving child, thank goodness. At least with me--not so much with Kate and Joe. (Good thing it WASN'T Joe's fault! Ha!)

Anyway, that's about all the excitement from around here today. I guess I did kind of, sort of "really" blog after all, didn't I? Who knew?! It sort of snuck up on me. I'm just as surprised as you are!

A really sweet Sambo (who I'm still feeling a little guilt because of) just came and rubbed a super soft cheek against mine and asked if he could ple-e-e-e-e-e-ease play Spit Frog. It's a computer game that's not really called Spit Frog, but that's basically what the game is about and what he has chosen to call it. He hasn't played on the computer in several weeks and after all, I did forget him in the van. I think I'll let him play. :-)