Everything as planned?

Today started like most Saturdays with us getting ready for soul winning. The kids went with their Sunday School teachers and Jim and I were together. It was a nice time of talking and walking with each other. After that we did some work for the church: Jim ran to Ace, I did the monthly cleaning of the kitchen, Kyle helped dig up some rocks and roots in the back, and Beth, well she just played.

Everything was going normally, then one of the other boys that was working with Kyle told me he had some dust in his eye and needed me. Well, it wasn’t dust. I don’t know what it was, but it was something that neither Jim nor I could remove. We ended up taking him to the ER to get it checked. Basically he scratched his eye. We got some antibiotic drops and are giving him Ibuprofen for the pain. The doctor told us he is fine and should be healed in a few days.

After that we went back to the church to finish our stuff and headed home to get ready to go out. Jim got some tickets for chicken dinners for a firehouse fund-raiser. So we drove to Bonfield to the Salina Fire Department and had dinner there. It was a really good meal: ½ of a chicken (BBQ), a baked potato, applesauce, roll, and a big chocolate chip cookie. We are back at home now and I just finished cleaning up from making banana bread, made some sugar cookie dough, made Beth’s bed, and tossed my clothes in the dryer… I planned to do this all during the afternoon, but my plans got changed. As we were driving home tonight, we passed over I-80, and I just watched the many cars speed by in a different direction and at a higher rate of speed. I compared it to our road with no one but us, driving much slower, going in a different directions, and the road was not very well lit. There was nothing wrong with the way we were going and there was nothing wrong with the way they were going, it was just different. It made me think about how often we are on a “road” and are so desperately seeking a different “road”. Not that our “road” is bad, it is just not what we want at the time. And “our road” seemed perfectly fine before we “saw the other road”. All this just because my day didn’t go as I planned. Which got me to wonder…. How many times have I been on the “right road” that God orchestrated, and I so flippantly got off because I liked a different road?

Just something to think about the next time the day doesn’t go as planned….

Shopping, relaxing, and date night

Today I did some shopping for the church Spring Conference with Jayne. I can hardly believe it is here already. I am so excited. After we were finished Ryan and Bradley stayed over here and played until about 5:30. When they left, they took Kyle and Beth with them and they had a wonderful evening with them. (I will let Jayne tell you about that) Jim and I skipped our usual dinner out and headed to Kankakee and stopped at Farm and Fleet. F&F is like a farmers Wal-Mart. We enjoyed our drive down there just talking about our day and anything else that came to mind. We picked up some seeds for our garden and a pack of Amaranthus seeds. They look great on the package, so lets hope they will grow well! I hope to show you a tall beautiful plant later in the year. We then stopped at Speedway for a coffee and hot chocolate... thought my last one was a few weeks ago, but it was a nice treat tonight. We talked all the way home about nothing and everything, and stopped by Jayne's to get the kids. Jim is outside right now changing the garage so he can park on the left side, so I can pull straight in the driveway. Isn't he sweet! I really love how much he does for me...Ya know it is all the little things that make such a big difference in the world. He has such a sweet heart toward me, I am truly blessed.

Sick kid

Well, today didn't go as planned. Beth woke up at 6:02 (yes, she told me when she woke me up) and complained that her throat hurt. I being sound asleep did what anyone would do, I told her to get a drink and go back to bed. She said, "But it really hurts". I told her I would get her a cold/sore throat pop as soon as I got up.... trouble is, I didn't drag myself out of bed until 8! So, she told Daddy the story... he loved the 6:02 part.... and he asked if it would be okay if he gave it to her. Boy! Was she excited! So, after I got up finally and hear Julie's blog talking to me about doing what we should do, I confessed and checked on Beth. She looked gross. I took her temp. and it was 100.2; not so bad but she as I said looked gross and I could tell her was dragging. It also was very helpful that she repetitively told me how terrible she felt. She started reading this book, "Strep Throat"; Kyle picked it up from the library on Monday just to be funny... Anyway, so she is looking at this book and sees that if left untreated you could get a flesh eating skin thing, and she started asking about that.... can you picture this? Yes, I am sure you can if you know Beth. After I reassured her that she didn't have that and wouldn't have that today, she wanted to know what would happen if she had to go to the hospital.... Well, this went on for a little then I put her Curious George DVD in! So, fast-forward to 1:30. Jayne called and asked me to get something for her, so I go downstairs and there is water everywhere by the furnace and it is dripping out of this box that is attached to the furnace. I call Jim, simple solution, done. Okay, it is now 1:45 I can't find what I am looking for, Beth is not dressed to go out, Kyle needs to be dropped off at Jayne's and we have to be at the doctor's office in one hour. I get Beth dressed, do some things myself and tell Beth to get her shoes on. Kyle comes to me about 1 minute later and says, "Beth needs you". Hmmmm, well, I am busy and can't go to her, so she comes to me. She is dying... she plops on the ground and says, I hurt, I can't breathe, cough, cough, sticking out tongue, whine, whine, and I really can't breathe! Drama! Now, I am thinking of Gina... and that is a whole different story. So, it all ends with us tossing Kyle out of the van at Jayne's and we managed to get to the doctor's office 10 minutes early! After waiting for about an hour, he checked her and yep.. you guessed it... my little darling has strep again. But the strangest thing is.. I didn't really think she would have it because; she NEVER has a sore throat! No, not even with strep! We stopped to get the medicine, we are back at home, and she is quietly reading her books that she got from the library yesterday.

I am with this kid!

This is how I feel lately.... I think I have spring on the brain and I can not focus!

Making Candles

Today... just minutes ago... we made candles! I got this kit a long time ago at Goodwill for only 3 dollars and we are working on light (and the Light), so this worked out perfectly. Isn't God so good to us even with simple little things like making candles. Three of our candles are burning in the kitchen as I type. Everyone enjoyed this project.

The Letter "G"

God... thank you for everything

gorillas... they are amazing

garage sales... lots of good bargains

garlic... keeps me from getting sick! It really works...

gems... they are beautiful

girls... I am blessed with a wonderful daughter and many good friends

gray... because it make me appreciate the nice bright colors

guys... I have two very special guys. Jim treats me like a queen and Kyle is learning from him!

grapes... yummy

grass... love the smell after is has been cut

Grace Baptist... such a blessing and one I never thought I would know just 5 years ago

Grandma and Grandpa... mine are gone, but Kyle and Beth get to enjoys theirs; and I have wonderful memories.

giraffe... they are neat to look at

grizzly bears... I love bears no matter what kind

AND
gibbons... they are funny little monkeys, and you can talk to them... right Jayne!

Super Sunday

Hi... I really am back now! I am sitting at my desk! Yea. Thanks for working on our computer Craig!!! So, today was wonderful. I love Sundays!! I was in the nursery this morning and it was such a joy to be with the little ones. They were all really good.. and that is always a blessing! After service today, I told Pastor that was a "nice" sermon.... why I said nice, I really don't know! Pastor of course gave me a hard time because it was a silly word, but it was an excellent sermon, and I told him that too. :) After service we went out to lunch with Bob, Cindy, Michael, and Zack. It was a really great time. I spent the "choir" hour in the van reading a book and enjoyed every minute of it!

Here are the pics I told you I would put on....

This dog tennis ball lasted about 20 minutes total and then it was in 2 pieces!
Beth getting brave with her. By the end of the week everyone was very comfortable with her.
This was her "spot". She could hardly stand it when she would see a rabbit or squirrel!




My great new van my wonderful husband got for me!!
Fun in the yard
They could hardly wait to take her for a walk!
The towels were to wipe her feet, but she kept taking them to play with.
I think Boston is wondering why Kyle is taking up so much room! She is sitting right on him!

I am back...kinda

Hi everyone!!! I have missed this so much this week!!! Here is the deal...

As you know my computer hasn't been working correctly a lot lately, so it is getting worked on. I have been computer less for almost an entire week!! I am amazed at how much I rely on it. I thought so many times, Oh I can do that on the computer... oh I can't I don't have one!! Not only could I not do school and church stuff, but I couldn't get to my blog!! I thought about going to Jayne's and doing it, but it has been such a busy week, today it the first day I got over there. (actually, I am at Jayne's now.. I don't have my computer yet, hopefully I will get it tomorrow)

This week in review:

Monday:
We had a normal school day without any trouble! Jeremy and Sabrina came over with Boston about 3 pm. Everyone was so excited! J and S, cuz they got a break, and my family cuz they just love Boston. The kids were outside with her until Jim came home about 5:30. We had "family night", and went to Golden Coral... yummy. Jim is so faithful to our Monday nights; he is the BEST. After we got home we let Boston out and she thought it would be really fun to push the part of the gate that removes so we can get large things in the backyard, and left. She went hunting... and found an opposum! They were very loud. The neighbor helped us and it only took about 15 mins to get her back in. Jim took another 15 mins to make some changes to the fence!

Tuesday:
Today started our day off just like normal, but I got a phone call at 12:30. Jim needed me to go somewhere.... so I met him just a few minutes later to get..... MY NEW VAN!! Yes, you read the right... I got a new, big, beautiful van. It is a 2000 Dodge. I love it! Jim loves it! The kids love it. We stopped by the store, Jayne's (just to show off the van) and then we went to the library to get ready for our next week with Konos, except the week didn't go as planned, so I really didn't need to get it done yet... but I didn't know that then. Boston was in and out all day. She loves looking out Kyle's window and pretty much made that her spot. She was very good and everyone adjusted to her being there really well.

Wednesday:
Kyle woke up sick! Not a good start to the day. He tried to do his work, but it was like talking to a brick wall. Now, sometimes he is just like that... so I have to be careful. It was confirmed it was sick two ways: first of all, he was not ticklish and I took his temp. and it was 102. Kyle had the day off and Beth and I tried to do our work. Do you know it is just not fair one person has to still work when someone else is sick? Yep, it is a mystery! I give Kyle credit, because he still wanted to go to Master's Club. He temp. was down and how could I say no to a kid whose only request was to GO TO CHURCH!!! Boston was in and out and I think she knew something was wrong with Kyle, she would just go by him and lay there or just sit and watch him.

Thursday:
Kyle was still not feeling well. Beth and I did our bookwork, except Konos. The dog was outside pretty much all day. I got a blanket, her dog dishes and set her out on the back deck... doggy heaven. I spent about an hour in the back yard cleaning up my flower beds, they look much better. I need to get rid of some day lilies however, they are trying to take over!! After I can in, Boston thought it would be fun to check out the neighbor's yard.... so she did. Beth went out, came back in, and stated, "Boston is on the wrong side of the fence". So, Kyle took the back, I headed out around the block and caught her. She was so funny because she saw Kyle coming and each time she would move just a little and then sniff around, move, then sniff and so on. I came to the front of this person house and meet Boston there... she thought it would just be easy to turn back... oops.. there's Kyle. So, she decided to make a right just in front of me and I said in my big, mean, angry voice, "SIT".... and she did. We made her stay in for a while, but then Kyle went out with her.... kinda like a prison guard... and he stopped her from digging her way out four times!

Friday:
We went to the planetarium today... see "Just Jayne" blog for the pics. We stopped at Good Will; I got 2 shirts, 1 skirt, 1 two-piece dress, a pair of sandals (all for me!), and a long, jean skirt for Beth (which it to big, but she will grow) "Tried to do some book work", but the dog was locked up all day and really needed us to play with her.... Jeremy came by about 5pm to get her... the kids were kinda sad she left... I thought.. time to get the sheets clean, vac, and clean up a bit! I really have this problem... everyone loves the dog and wants to keep her. If I asked Jeremy and Sabrina, they would give her to us.... that's the other problem!!
Finally, we had date night. We went to White Fence Farm, it was nice and I enjoyed our time together.

Today:
I didn't have to get up and let the dog out... mixed feelings on that.... could it be that I actually like that dog... Oh no!!! We went soul winning, and I got to be with Jayne!! We always have fun and soul winning together is, of course, fun too! We talked to some really nice people today. Hope some of them come to see us at the church. Check out the web site at www.whoisgod.gbcoflockport.com if you haven't seen the videos. They are awesome!! I stopped home after soul winning, to the store, and then to be at Jayne's.... now I have typers-cramp. So, I have to end here....

I hope to have my computer back tomorrow, and it I do I will put on some pictures of Boston and my new van!

I honestly can say I have had a really nice couple of days.

Friday's Bible study was wonderful and got me thinking about my "race". We had a nice afternoon at Jayne's and the boys worked on their science project for the fair. The day ended with "Date Night", we went out to dinner and then stopped at Speedway for some hot chocolate (probably the last one for a while!). Jim always gets the door for me and last night I watched someone watching us as Jim got out, walked around the truck, let me out,walked with me, and then opened the door in Speedway. It's funny that a man opening a door can draw someones attention. I certainly hope God will use little things like that to make people think. I must say that I really enjoy being treated like a lady.

Today while doing my devotion, I was looking over Hebrews 12:1 from Bible study and I really looked at the areas of weights and sins. I confessed to God and kept reading it is amazing how He can speak to us. I started thinking of all the wonderful things I have in my life and it was just a great start to my day. We went soul winning, Jim did some work at the church, and I got busy making banana bread, ironing, and cleaning. I have a few things to get ready for tomorrow, so I am off to do that now!

More pictures

Mr. Jim and his group
Ms. Darlene and her group... who is that cute kid on the end with her feet crossed??!!!
Mr. Mike and his group
Mr. James and the hidden boys... Chris and Tyler. Isn't Brandon a cutie!
The other Mr. Mike practicing phone use for first aid badge. Ryan looks thrilled!!

pictures from Master's Club

Last night I couldn't get any pictures to upload, so I thought I would try again today.... as you can see, it worked.

Page, sweet as can be
Shelby, such a doll

Nicole, hates her picture taken but as pretty as can be.

Mr. Brett and Zack

Our fearless leader (I call her that just to make her laugh)

Kyle's Platelets

Hi again!

I just wanted you all to know that Kyle's platelets are 301 thousand!! That is a great number and we don't have to have it check again for 6 months.

Oh Yea

I forgot to tell you.... we have our high speed internet!!! Uploading the pictures as awesome!!! The dial up was so slow I always had to shrink my pictures in "paint" before putting them on... which takes kinda a long time. Things are moving fast!! I LOVE IT.

P.S. I got my blog done and stopped by everyone's blog and left comments in less than half the time!!! YEAH

Brookfield Zoo

We had a really great day at the zoo. It was so beautiful out!! Thanks for inviting us Jayne!

Sorry I didn't get on yesterday to update you. Jim was trying to get out high speed internet hooked up. We found out it won't be up and running from their end until tomorrow sometime (could be as late as 8pm). So, yesterday the highlight was our night with Brett and Rachel. They invited us over for dinner and we had a really wonderful time. The food was great as well as the fellowship.

Today was another great day at church. I really love going. Nothing out of the ordinary happened, but it is just so great to hear God's word and spend time with the church family. I really enjoyed the lesson in Sunday School, sometimes I "forget" God always sees me. Thank you Julie!

I have been a busy girl today.

I got up and went to the computer first; I had to email Julie about something I thought of right away this morning. I sat down to read my Bible and I got two phone calls. I straightened up the house, got some laundry done, and then headed for the shower. Beth and I left here about 1:00 to look for a comforter. I know exactly what I don't want. I saw one comforter that I thought was okay, but that was pretty much it. Even though I didn't find anything Beth and I had a wonderful time together. She was really funny today, nothing special she was just really silly. We stopped at Aunt Annie's for a pretzel and drink after the two stores in the mall and then headed to the other stores around the mall.
We spent about two hours on this "project" and on the way home I asked her if she had fun.

She said, "Well, it was funny."

"It was funny because you were being silly, right? But did you like looking at the comforters", I asked. (Knowing that we just spent a wonderful afternoon together that I really enjoyed and thought, this was so wonderful, I really like being a Mom and having a day with her.)

She stated, "Oh, that part was boring. But it was a funny and tasty day."

Kyle's prayer

Yesterday, we did our morning book work and headed out the door to get Kyle's blood drawn for the platelet count. He did a wonderful job with it! We did all of our shopping, they to a local school's dinosaur display, to another local school for a book fair, ran to Kmart, Walgreen's, and Jewel (looking for a magazine I cannot find). Anyway, since we were at Jewel we picked up some ice cream. As Kyle was praying he remembered to thank God for not letting the needle hurt as much as before and for helping him be brave. It was so sweet! I get so "charged" when I hear the kids praise God. Sometimes I wonder if they get it, or if God is Mom and Dad's God. One of the things I pray for them is that they would know Him as their personal God, on days like yesterday, He shows me their progress.

Simple Wednesday

Today was a nice easy day. We worked on our regular morning book work and in the afternoon we reviewed WW2 and I read a book. I read for about an hour and I told them we had to stop.... both of them said, "No, not yet!" MUSIC to my ears!! I wasn't really sure if they would like this book because it is about a little eight year old boy who is taken from the only family he knows and reunited with his real parents after WW2 is over. It was very touching and I can hardly wait to finish it.

Well, I feel like I haven't had much time to stop.

SATURDAY: The ladies conference was AWESOME!! I am not putting the pictures on because you have probably seen most already.

SUNDAY: Church and came home to make the banana bread for Birthday and Anniversary and then back to set up by 4:30. When we got home, I was too tired.

MONDAY: The kids and I did some work around the house in the morning and then went to my brother's house to wait for a repairman. Since it was close to dinner, we stayed over there. When we got home, I was tired. (sound familiar?)

TUESDAY: We have had a normal day! We did our book work in the morning and I got next weeks lessons done. Did our Konos in the afternoon(we did airplanes out of toothpicks and marshmallows and talked some more about the planes and the 2 world wars and listened to some swing music, which they thought was funny), went to the cleaners, pet shop, and library. Came home talked to Jayne finally, had something to eat, returned a few phone calls, worked on Master's Club a little more, sewed on a patch, and just got through looking at all the blogs!

Marshmallows are not the easiest thing to work with, but we had fun!!

This is Kyle's plane. You are looking at is from the side.

This is Beth's Zeppelin. The 3 marshmallows coming down on both side are the "things" that hold the basket. The marshmallow in the middle to the box is the basket.

This is my plane. I did one just because they said it was hard. My reply was.. how hard could it be?? Well, let me tell you! It was not an easy task, but I did get it done!

It's here!!!

I am so excited that today is the Ladies Conference!! How did it come so fast?! I can't sleep... I woke up at 3:30 and I stayed there until 4:45 just praying, thinking, and praying some more. Yesterday I stayed at home and had nothing to do to get ready for today. That was STRANGE. But I like it too! Speaking of yesterday. Yesterday Jayne came over to help with my computer... she got rid of a virus or 19. Yes, I really did have that many. No, I don't know why my computer worked at all... maybe just because it likes me and knows I don't know anything about computers. My computer seems to be working a tad bit better today. THANKS Jayne!

Have a wonderful day! I know you will if you will be at the House Beautiful Conference today!!! See ya there.

Beth's school work

I just thought this was the cutest thing. Did she do what it asked??? How could I mark this wrong! She was going to put more hair on, but didn't think there was enough room.

Just in case you are wondering... she was supposed to color one side of the block...