The Party's Over

That's right, James gets home tomorrow. ;-)

We had a great Sunday yesterday. I so enjoyed the lesson on wisdom. I so lack it. Ha! I love all of the promises, though--that it comes from God (every good gift comes from HIM) and it's not something that we just work at to achieve; he gives it even to the simple ("babes"); and He gives it in response to our acknowledging that we are with out it, and in need of it, and asking for it. Good, good stuff.

Then Brother Chris preached a message on PEACE. He's doing the Advent thing this year. Last week he preached on love, this week on peace. He read the passage where Jesus and the disciples were on the boat and He spoke, "Peace, be still" to the storm. He said that that particular "peace" literally means silence, or to hush. It means that all else has to stop speaking and listen to God. I love the thought that God speaks PEACE to my soul (causing me to hush up and listen to what He has to say, allowing Him to take control) and that he speaks it to my problems and our enemies. The Prince of PEACE. Love that.

After church we went with the Clarksons to the Whole Hog Cafe, a barbeque joint none of us had ever tried before. It was really good (even the kids loved it) and the kids and I ate for $13. Of course, they were still hungry but they didn't tell me that until we were about ready to leave and I didn't want to take time to wait on more food! Oh well. We had a good time visiting and listening to Brother Chris tell more of his crazy stories from way back when. I've known him all my life and heard some of his stories several times (though the never cease to be entertaining), but I'm amazed that after all these years there are always stories that I'd never heard before. He's been in the craziest situations--and has an amazing memory to recall them all! Ha!

That night was Sister Bailey's WMB service. I remember enjoying several of the scriptures that were shared, but I had a hard time focusing that night. I hate it when that happens! We had a visitor, however--a homeless lady in a wheelchair the Clarksons picked up and brought with them. That's always exciting!

After church we did quite a bit of laughing as we had a photo shoot with Brother Chris. Mom had asked me to set up a make-shift green screen (two pieces of lime green poster board taped to the wall--much cheaper than the real thing, but with the same result) and take a picture of him that could be put on the website. He's one of the few Overseers they didn't have a picture of. He was a great sport and we took a whole slew of crazy pictures just for Mom... ones Brother Chris was a little concerned MIGHT end up on the website! Ha! In the end we got the good picture we needed and a whole lot of crazy ones we didn't need, but thoroughly enjoyed. :-)

I got to bed late last night and ended up sleeping in a bit today. Both boys have been a little stuffed up the past couple of days and were sort of groggy so they slept in, too. Katie never has any problem sleeping in. Ha!

Got up and had devotions, then started the laundry. Joe has been reading about Harry Houdini lately and, although he was a very disturbed man (and sometimes a little disturbing! Ha!), what kid could not be intrigued by his amazing feats?! Joe has read a couple of books about him already and has another one on hold at the library. The kids spent most of the morning tying each other up and then starting the stopwatch to see how long it takes them to escape. Joe has dubbed himself The Great Hornini because he couldn’t bring himself to go by the Joe-ini. Ha!!! I love it. :-)

After the kids finished school this afternoon we leashed up Charlie and all walked down to get the mail. I was amazed at how well Charlie did for his first time walking on a leash! Good puppy. :-) And he's been scratching at the door LOTS today--no accidents at all in the house. Good, good puppy!!! We're working on sit, stay, and come with him right now, too. He's a smart dog and doing great. Now if we could just get him to stop screaming and pitching a fit every time we leave the house...

James left Alabama this morning, headed home. That means it's time to put the house back together. Ha! Actually, it's Monday. Monday is always the day to get the house put back together. So now we have nice, sparkly clean bathrooms, floors that have been swept, vacuumed and mopped, and everything back in its rightful place. Except the clothes all over the den because I haven't done the ironing yet. Anyway, James will be home tomorrow night. It blows my mind that his trip is already over--it went so fast!!! I'm sure he'll be happy to know that, while I didn't really miss him (it sounds cruel but it's really not--I've just never been a very good misser!) and we've had a terrific time while he's been away (one big party, you know!), now that he's headed home I'm suddenly so excited that he's coming! It will be great to have him home. And I'm sure it will feel a whole lot more Christmassy with him around. He has a way of doing that. :-)

~sigh~ One more rotation of laundry and then the ironing. I know I'll never be able to make myself do the ironing tonight. Maybe tomorrow. Or maybe I'll just wait until I get ahold of James' laundry (I'm sure there will be plenty of it) so I can do it all at once. Yeah, that's it. That's the perfect excuse to put it off. :-)