The Weekly Blog

That seems to be how often I blog anymore. How sad. I used to be so good at this. Maybe I'll get back into the groove one of these days. Or maybe not. ;-)

Sunday was another good day of church services. I had stayed up until 2:00 Saturday night trying to finalize my VLB lesson, so I was a bit tired. I actually spent Sunday afternoon working on it, too--right up until time to leave for service! I felt really good about things, but it just took a really long time to get it all pieced together and I felt like God was laying little things to add to it on my heart up until the very last minute. "Do not err, my beloved brethren" was our text and we spent the entire service talking about what it means to err, the dangers of erring and the sin it could lead to, those in the Bible who erred and the road it put them on, and how to avoid those errors. Quite a challenging topic for someone who has great difficulty pronouncing her "r"'s. Thanks again, Ma, for thinking it was CUTE when I was little and not signing me up for that speech therapy class. ;-) Anyway, I felt like the service went well. God really spoke to my heart about the subject while I was studying. No Christian ever just jumps head long into sin. It always starts by erring first--using poor judgment or making an unwise decision or not becoming as knowlegable as you should be in the Word, etc. Like the young man in Proverbs 7 who walked down the street where the harlot lived, in the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night. There was no sin in walking down the street. But he erred when he did it and it led him into temptation that he was unable to resist. It was not sinful, but very foolish to be at such a place and in such a time. His erring led to his sin and his downfall. I don't want to simply avoid sin; I want to never err because those errors we make lead in the direction of sin.

We went out to Weinerschnitzel (is that spelled right???) with the Clarkson clan after service that night. It was nice, though it had to have been 90 degrees in that joint! Crazy employees. We enjoyed the fellowship though and that's what really matters. :-)

Monday... Lots of laundry on Monday... School... Those are all the details I can come up with!

Tuesday morning we got the crowd up bright and early (6:30ish, I think) and headed into town to help Brother Chris get the rest of their stuff out of storage and moved up to their house. We worked until just after noon, I think, and we were able to get everything up there except for a bunch of heads. Yeah, heads. Brother Chris was going to go back and get his mounts (deer, antelope, etc.) later on. :-) The kids had a great time catching snails in the Clarksons' back yard and generally just running wild and revelling in the joy of having friends. I am very happy for them. :-)

On our way home that afternoon James told me I ought to take the rest of the day off--that I deserved it. It made me terribly suspicious ("What is it you want me to do tomorrow that I need to be well rested up for?!?!?") and I really had every intention of coming home and doing the ironing... but since my husband actually TOLD me to take the day off I decided it would be best to be submissive. Ha! We didn't home until about 3:00, but I was able to grab a little nap, then I got up and showered and put on some nice, cushy, fleece pj's on by about 5:00. :-) It's actually been cool enough at night to wear them! WA-HOO!!! I spent some time working on the puzzle that I'd gotten out a few days before and just loafed around on the computer for the rest of the night. It was great and I really did feel wiped out and like I had needed the day off, after all. Thanks, James! :-)

Yesterday was more school... a long, grueling day of school for Joe. That kid. He's killin' me. He's got a very light work load right now (I'm waiting until after the Assembly to really get down to business with him again), but he still takes FOREVER to get his school done. He is soooooooo easily distracted. When Brother Keven was here several weeks ago he watched Joe "do school" for a little while and finally just started laughing and saying that the kid must have A.D.D. Ha! He'd probably be all doped up if he was somebody else's kid. I figure he already acts doped up enough! ;-) Joe had already been working for hours yesterday when he got to this page in Maps & Geography where he was supposed to glue the seven continents onto two blank circles--eastern and western hemispheres. He glued what he thought was South America in place, then picked up the next continent and said "Hey... Wait a minute... Is THIS South America???" Sure enough, he had glued Africa down below where North America was to go! I couldn't help but laugh... a lot. Joe was so frustrated and started shaking his book above his head and growling and moaning and growning. "NIA, Mom! Can't this page PLEASE be NIA???" HA! On certain pages that I have felt were too advanced for him I have taken my red pen and written N/A (not applicable) on it and he knows he can skip it. He always thinks it says N I A and calls it "nee-uh," no matter how many times I've tried to explain to him what it stands for. I laughed 'til I cried yesterday over him shaking with frustration and begging and pleading for the page to pleeeeeease be NIA. Ha!

I stayed up wa-a-a-a-a-ay too late last night working on the ironing that's been accumulating over the past two+ weeks. I hate it when I let it become overwhelming like that. Oh, well. I watched the 4th Love Comes Softly movie while I was ironing. I have watched the first 3 over the past couple of months during late night ironing sessions. I know I've seen the next one because I remember Willie dying (DUMB--so not like the books), but I guess we must have just borrowed it when James worked at Mardel because we don't own that one. I looked, but couldn't find anywhere online where I could watch it for free. So I ended up finding The Incredibles and watching it on YouTube instead! Ha! Talk about switching gears... ;-)

Today was a much better school day around here. Joe didn't take 6 hours to do his work, so that helped a lot! Katie LOVES Switched on Schoolhouse and so do I, so far. And I really think Joe will do much better once we start him on it next year, too. I think it will help him focus a lot better than when he's got a book sitting in front of him. The way the work is set up on the computer it's much more interactive and I think it may be easier for him. Or maybe not. You never can tell with Joe!

Our BTI lesson tonight was on the "Signs Following Believers" teaching of the Church. It was another good one. We stood outside of Sister Grimes' house and talked for probably an hour with the Clarksons (!), then grabbed a late dinner at Taco Bell before heading home. I sat down and finished up that 1,000 piece puzzle I started the other day. Actually, as of now it's a 998 piece puzzle. Dopey kids. They will be scouring the floor and under the couch and in the cushions and everywhere else tomorrow, I assure you! James just bought me this puzzle last week. It's just WRONG to have pieces missing!

That's about it, I guess. Be sure to check in next week, same time, same place--there should be a new post by then. ;-)

Oh, here are a few pictures before I go. The first was taken on Saturday night when the boys decided to start their own band. The funky hair... where do kids get such ideas?! Certainly not from any music they hear around THIS house! Ha!


And these were all taken today. Katie caught a praying mantis this morning and kept him throughout the day. She named him Buster and I must say... if there is such a thing as a friendly bug, he was it! He was so curious--would just tilt his head and watch you--and seemed to genuinely like being on Katie's hand. She had a terrible time ever getting him off and putting him back into the box or on the ground. He would turn around and start crawling up onto her hand again real fast, then just sit down contentedly again. Crazy thing. All of the kids had to have their picture taken with him, of course.