Home Alone, Day Ten

We got up this morning and headed to church early because we were the Juans ride to church. We had a good service and I so thoroughly enjoyed the Sunday School lesson. --Especially since Sister Galaviz was able to be there after all and did a GREAT job teaching. She had pictures of sheep with their fleece all matted and full of grass and gunk--and one of a "cast" sheep, lying there in the grass, stuck on its back. Ha! It's pitiful--pitiful and pathetic that an animal could end up in that condition and not be able to get up on his own. But God didn't compare us to dogs or horses or any of the other animals who would just roll over and be on their way; He compared us to sheep. He didn't create us to be self-sufficient. He created us to NEED Him and one another. It's good to be a sheep. :-)

Carlos led songs this morning and Joe played his guitar. Then Sister Bailey was on for WMB service. She taught a lesson on boldness and read several biblical accounts of those who were bold for the Lord: David, the Hebrew children, Daniel, the apostles, etc.

We came home after church and I did a bad, bad thing. I ate a peanut butter and honey sandwich. We were out of homemade jam and I just can't make myself eat the store bought stuff anymore, so I went for honey. It seems like the past few times I've eaten honey I've ended up feeling sort of sick. I wondered about it even as I was making my sandwich, but I've eaten honey all my life and never had any problems--it must've been a coincidence, right? Nope. I'm sure now. I had a long and miserable afternoon curled up into a ball on the couch, trying to sleep so I wouldn't feel the horrible stomach ache. Bleagh. It was sooooo bad for an hour or so, then it eased up to just real bad. Ha! I still don't feel perfect, but I'm grateful to feel only slight discomfort at this point. It's strange... I really don't think honey dissolved in hot tea or anything like that would bother me, but the thought of eating it on cornbread or a sandwich makes me start feeling bad all over again. Why would my body suddenly start reacting badly to something that it never used to react badly to?!

Speaking of which... I'm one of those people who has never been affected the least bit by caffeine or sugar or anything like that. I don't get hyper or wired or whatever. But I've noticed that for quite a little while now I've had a hard time falling asleep at night. I used to hit the pillow and be out cold, but no more. Some nights I can lay there for two hours or more before I finally fall asleep. It's so frustrating! Mom asked me the other day if I have caffeine of any kind before bed. I hadn't thought of anything like that since it's never had any affect on me, but I suppose it's a possibility. It's not uncommon for me to drink a glass of tea the last hour or two before I go to bed. Could it be??? I really don't know (and I HATE the thought of being affected by stuff like that--I've always been completely immune to the rest of the world's caffeine reactions! Ha!), but I've been laying off the tea in the evenings for several days now. And I think I'm falling asleep faster. I'm hoping it's either a coincidence or a mental thing. Ha! I guess I'll have to start paying better attention to the things I'm consuming to try to determine if there really is a connection. If so, it can only mean one thing. I'm getting old. HA! No, it must just be a coincidence. But if it's not... DUSTIN HAYS, I WANT YOU TO KNOW YOU'RE RIGHT BEHIND ME! ;-)

Anyway...

Since service on Thursday night was cancelled it was rescheduled for tonight, giving us two services today! Yeah! I had about an hour this afternoon when I was pretty well confined to the couch and wondering if I'd even be able to make it to church (!), but thank the Lord I was well enough to go when the time came. Brother Juan preached a wonderful message tonight--about bearing fruit for the Lord, of all things! He marched all over my Ladies' Retreat theme. :-) He brought out several scriptures that I hadn't thought of in relation to the retreat and I look lots and lots of notes. Now if only I could figure out what I'm supposed to DO with them. I haven't been planning on teaching a class... but does God want me to?! Should I use what He's laying on my heart for devotions--or should I have somebody else do the devotions? And what about the music? Aaaaauuuugggghhhh! I'm feeling better and better about using certain people, but I still don't know who I need to ask to to what. It's tough to call people and say, "Hey, I really feel like the Lord wants you to be on staff at Ladies' Retreat this year. I have no idea what position I'm asking you to fill, but will you come help out???" I actually did that with one lady who I was feeling really strongly about using, but I can't make myself do it with all of the others! Ha! Time is running out (we're 6 weeks away right now!) and I've GOT to let people know what I'd like for them to do. ~sigh~ Prayers, please. :-)

We came home tonight and tried to watch a few minutes of the Super Bowl, but the commercials were so nasty we turned it off. I couldn't care less about the Packers or the Steelers anyway, except that I'm good and sick of the Packers right now. It's sort of like Alabama football. Last year (before anybody except God knew that we'd be moving there--ha!) I remember thinking that I'd never had any feeling--good or bad--about Alabama football... but suddenly I hated it because I was sooooo tired of hearing Roll Tide Roll! Ha! Same thing with the Packers this year. Besides the fact that I can't think of them without thinking of Brett Farve. I never really liked him anyway, but the tacky and tasteless retiring/not-retiring thing didn't help at all.

You know you're out of things to say when Brett Farve makes it to the blog. Sorry 'bout that.

After the kids were in their pj's tonight they all decided to dress up in suits (even Katie) so they could sing a couple of Cathedrals songs for me. Of course, they didn't wear the same suits the boys had worn to church today--no, they got new suits out of the closet. ~sigh~ Anyway, they sang one song for my Mom over the computer and two or three more for me afterwards. Joe keeps saying they are the Horne Kids Quartet. I told him that they can't be a quartet--there are only three of them. "No, it works, Mom. Katie sings lead and baritone." Ha! Joe was the tenor and Sam sang bass. It was GREAT. I finally had to make them go to bed, but I'm hoping perhaps I can get a video clip of them doing a song or two tomorrow. Sam even went to the bathroom and slicked his hair down to look the part. :-)

Ah, yes. Sam. He just came in here a minute ago, scared. He told me about a bad dream he had last night and he keeps thinking about it and is worried he'll have another bad dream. Last night's terror was the Rumor Weed. It cracks me up (!), but I know that when you're a kid whatever you're afraid of (no matter how silly) is very, very real and scary to you. He started talking about the devil wanting people to be afraid and that led him down a new train of thought. How can the devil make kids all over the world scared at night (he's going with the assumption that he's surely not the only one) at the same time. The devil isn't like God; he can't be everywhere at the same time, so how does he do it? Then, rationalizing why he's having struggles with fear tonight, he said, "I think the devil likes to hang out in New Mexico because he's already got so many bad people around here..." Ha! Albuquerque is a pretty rough place. Sam figures it must be one of the devil's favorite hang-outs. :-) Anyway, I shared several scriptures with him and had a good prayer with him--and I think he's asleep now. His real problem is that he fell asleep (and snored, of course) during church tonight and wasn't tired enough to fall asleep when I sent him to bed. He's usually out like a light (he doesn't have caffeine issues--ha!), but tonight he had time to lay around in the dark and THINK.

Katie and Joe have a birthday coming up next Sunday and I can't wait until it's over. Ha! They start talking about their birthday 6 or 8 months in advance (especially Katie) and what kind of cake they want to have this year and what for dinner and all that stuff. At least James will be home tomorrow and they'll start taking half of their ramblings to him. I asked what they wanted for their birthday this year and was pleasantly surprised by Katie's answer. All she wants is one beautiful red rose and a pair of white gloves that she can wear with her dresses. That seems sweet and old-fashioned to me. :-) Then there's Joe. All he wants is a rope (I assume for the purpose of tying people up and trying to set booby traps) and... an electric blanket. Ha! What a nerd. It would make him the happiest kid in the world to have one of those small electric throw blankets that little old men tuck around their laps when they sit in their recliners--he'd haul it from one chair or couch to another with a stack of books and a wide smile.

Okay, enough is enough. I need to get some sleep. Tomorrow we do school, work to get the house all cleaned up (both because Monday is house cleaning day around here AND because James is coming home), then head into town to pick James up at 5:00-something. We've had a great time partying while he's been gone, but now he's coming home and we're all excited and anxious for him to get here. :-)