Story of my Life

We had a good but lo-o-o-o-ong Sunday. We left for church at about 9:00, then did some running around town between services and didn't come home again until after our evening service--'bout 12 hours in all. It was a good day though.

PRAYER REQUEST: We really, really need a place to worship! Right now we're renting a conference room at a motel on Sundays and meeting in a home on Thursdays. It's worked out for while we've had to do it, but we really feel like we need something a little more permanent, you know?! A place we can have a piano and chairs--and a REVIVAL and things like that! God knows our needs and we trust Him to provide. It's overwhelming in a city this size though and we really need Him to open the doors for us and guide us to them.

James played a portion of an interview with R.O. Covey during our service last night (CPMA service) and it was so neat. What an amazing man he was! So gifted and able to articulate truths about the Word and the Church in a manner that very, very few men have ever possessed. It made me sad and glad all at once to hear his voice again. I loved the opportunities I had to listen to him teach. He was just teeming with wisdom and wit--and such a beautiful meek spirit. What a blessing that God created Him to be such a minister to The Church of God!

After service last night we went to Sister Galaviz's apartment and visited for a few minutes--and picked up another great pounding. These people, I tell ya'! (And there was no canned ham this time! Ha!) Grapes and cheese and soups and bread and spaghetti sauce and noodles... Amazing. We enjoyed our visit with Sister Galaviz as much as we anticipate enjoying the pounding. ;-)

Today we had devotions, then loaded up and headed to Wal-Mart to do some necessary shopping. I had a list of ingredients for more froofy little princess recipes from Katie's cookbook and we had grown quite a grocery list since being home from Arizona--though the pounding yesterday marked several items off the list for us! Anyway, we once again watched Joe meander through the toy section agonizing over what to spend his gift card on and leaving without anything. Katie marched in and purchased some modeling clay and paints to use with it. Sam only wished he had some money to spend! Ha!

We came home and I started the laundry, then started the kids on school. I only made .01 off of the laundry today. Bummer. I have this little pet peeve about clothes being thrown into the laundry inside out. I feel very strongly that no human being should EVER have to reach inside somebody else's dirty, smelly sock to pull it right side out. I finally cracked about 3 weeks ago and told the kids they would pay me one cent for every sock that came through the laundry inside out and five cents for any other item of clothing (even though THEY still have to come fix them). That may not seem like a severe enough penalty to make most people cringe, but when you're 5, 7 and 8 years old and you live off of nickels and dimes it seems pretty important! I made a decent amount of change the first week, very little the second week, and nothing at all last week. Just the one sock from Joe today. I told James that it's pretty amazing how in three weeks' time I've successfully trained our children to do something I haven't been able to train HIM to do in 9 years of marriage! Maybe I'll start charging him... But not nickels and dimes! Ha!

I sat with the kids while they were doing school so I could help out if they had questions, but they were pretty much on their own today. I spent forever getting the regional paper formatted into Spanish. (Thank you, Tayde!!! You're amazing!) I don't know why it took so much longer than usual (most of the time it feels like a pretty fast, easy job), but it took me a-a-a-a-all afternoon. Oh, and I had forgotten to send a couple of things off for translation, so I had to use an online translator for a few items. That always makes me sooooo nervous!!! I hope I didn't do anything disastrous!!!

After school, Katie spent her time molding "signs" with her clay, baking them, then painting them. The one on the right has a purse in the middle, in case you couldn't tell.

She didn't have time to paint this one, but I just love her face! Ha! I was taking too long to snap the picture and she was working super hard to not blink and ruin it. :-)

And that's about it for the day. Sam created lots of trouble. That happens on days when he doesn't get any time invested in him. Today was one of those days. "A child left to himself..." you know! I do recall finding a pile of tiny grapes in the microwave this evening. He said he was trying to make raisins. ~sigh~