Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Terry's Turn

It's Tuesday morning, and I am not out driving for Penquis (a community action program that offers, among other services, rides for those who can't afford to get to their doctor and other appointments). This has been an opportunity to meet a lot of people, and do some volunteering in the community. I actually get a Presidential Volunteer Service Award every year.

We found that train tickets are not that expensive, so our trip to Michigan is probably back on. I think taking a trip on the train would be a blast, but it would involve traveling overnight. We'll have to see if we feel up to that challenge with the three kids.

Tonight is a quarterly business meeting at the church. The Lord has met all our needs, but we don't have much extra money sitting around, so I don't expect that there will be a whole lot of business to conduct.

Today is AWANA at the Howland Baptist Church, and piano lesson as well. So the kids are having to hustle to get their work done in time to go.

I better get going to try to help out a little bit.

Monday, October 29, 2007

School on Monday








Up and at it this morning. Terry and I are wicked tired this morning because we stayed up and watched the Red Sox win the world series. Yeah! Red Sox! We actually slept in a little and then I felt rushed trying to get the kids going on their work. I thought everyone might like to see our new schoolroom. We have had Mikayla in her own room because of the age difference between her and Lanie. Nathanael had the back room downstairs, where the schoolroom is now. Mikayla threw a major cow when I suggested that the girls double up again. I almost pushed that into reality, but then we decided to try having Nate and Lanie share. It's a short lived answer, we know, but since he is still young he doesn't seem to mind. We pulled out the day bed that we had in the girls room before, left out the trundle, and just took Nate's mattress up. He slides his bed under every morning. I papered half the room with ships, and left the other half in the girly paper that Lanie already had. We put bookshelves and crate style shelves up for him, and transformed the hall closet into a closet for Nate. It's working for now, and the schoolroom makes things so much easier for me. I can take a quick peek to make sure everyone is doing well. I can also run the vacuum or dishwasher or do other household chores without worrying about the distraction.
We spent the morning trying to figure out how in the world we are going to get to Michigan. We have checked JetBlue, Spirit, and even Greyhound. Right! Can you see me on a bus for 24 hours with three kids? I'd have only half a head of hair left by the time we got there, and definitely no sanity. I have so little sanity as it is, and none to spare. We can actually fly cheaper than if we were to drive. It's so expensive to travel right now. We may just have to never mind and go in the spring. Oh, well.

Sunday, October 28, 2007

Sundays at Bible Baptist

We are all getting ready for church this morning. We are picking up one of our S.S. kids on our way. We are hoping to see a new family that has been attending recently. They have two children nursery age, so I stay in the nursery and usually have three little ones. This way these young parents can benefit from S.S. Mikayla has an offertory today. I've been working on one, but she practices more than me, so she is better prepared. Maybe I'll do mine next week. We have been trying to encourage our youth to play in church. Holly plays the trumpet, and Dillan the saxophone. They're a little shy, though. Nathanael and Mikayla play often. Jim has also started trumpet. I might post some picts later if I can get some new batteries for the camera. Lunch today is leftover lasagna. Yum!
ok. We have an extra kid with us today. Her mom is sick, so she came home with us. Today was Pastor Appreciation day, unbenounced to us. Our church folks treated us well. They collected for it for awhile I guess. This gift will allow us to go to Michigan soon. Yeah! Thank-you, BBC! Sorry, no batteries in the camera today.

Saturday, October 27, 2007

Christmas 2006












Christmas 2006 was very fun. Terry's folks had moved back to Michigan that July, and the kids missed them so much. Mikayla especially had a hard time. She would cry and mope about. She and her Nana have a special bond. Nana and Grandpapa decided to surprise us all, and showed up at church on the Sunday before Christmas. Ironically, Mikayla had caught a kids stomach virus and missed church that morning. I stayed with her during S.S. but I had to play the piano for the morning worship service, so I figured she would be alright for an hour at home alone. I went into the auditorium and there they were. I hugged and hugged them, and then I got all teary thinking of Mikayla at home missing out on it all. We decided to keep it a secret all day and see if she would be alright to attend the evening service. You can imagine what we had to go through to keep the other two kids quiet all afternoon. We just about had to threaten bodily harm a couple of times. I suspected that it was just an eight hour bug, and sure enough, she was fine a little later that afternoon. We loaded into the car, and on the way we met Nana and Grandpapa's car. We held our breath, and Mikayla said." hey, there's a car that looks like Nana's. Hey, look, the guy driving looks like Grandpapa." I snapped picts the whole way down Fleming street. You can see the realization and surprise hit. It's funny! When we got into the parking lot, Mikayla jumped out and ran to hug Nana. I jumped out too determined to capture the moment . There I was flying out of the car, my purse slinging its treasures everywhere, while I wildly tried to hurry into position to get a good picture. That would have been a good picture ,too. They stayed and enjoyed Christmas with us. It was really good for the kids, and they seemed to be able to move on and accept that Nana and Grandpapa live in Michigan now.

Spring recitals












Nathanael and Mikayla had their spring recital in late May. Both of them have tried an instrument this year. What a blessing their teacher is! I prayed for several years for a good teacher for them, knowing that they were musically talented. There was no one around here that had any openings. Terry and I knew Mike Drinkwater from BJ days, and knew that he lived in Enfield, but we didn't know that he taught private lessons. The kids have taken three years from him now. Since he is a Christian, he understands some of our stand on music. What a relief! The Lord not only provided a good teacher, but provided over and above what I asked by providing a Christian teacher. Isn't He good!!?


Both kids play piano. Nathanael took trumpet from Mr. Drinkwater, and continues to take a group lesson at the junior high. Mikayla took up flute, but has decided that this is not the instrument for her. Lanie is not interested in the least in piano. As a matter of fact, she cringes at the mere suggestion of taking lessons. She has shown interest in the violin, though. God will have to provide the funds and the instrument, though. I know He will if that's what He wants for her.

Alana's yearly bout of pneumonia




Here's Alana getting back at her schoolwork after her yearly bout with pneumonia. We thought we had made it through the winter this year without her being sick, but she caught a cold in the middle of March. It was a little scary this year because she was on a z-pac already. She was being treated for pneumonia when she suddenly spiked a fever and couldn't breathe very well. I rushed her up to the emergency room after the nebulizer treatment didn't help the second time. They admitted her, and she was there for two days. Of course, I didn't feel that I could leave her, so they put a cot in her room for me. Terry couldn't even spell me very much since it was Sunday and he had to preach. I didn't sleep well at all, so I was exhausted by the time we came home. I was still very anxious about caring for her at home, so I didn't really relax until she really improved. It must have taken me a month to recover from that. She's supposed to grow out of this, so our doc says.

Bible School





Bible School this year was the first week that school was out in June. We had about 45-50 kids. That's about all that our little church can handle. Our workers were good, though. We really like the material that we have used the last three years. It is written by a friend of ours from college and her parents. Rynda writes the music. It's also great because no one else gets this material. Before, it seemed that several churches in Lincoln were using the same material, and in a little town the kids go from church to church quite a bit. Here's a couple of picts. I had a couple of other pictures that I wish you could see, but they have other kids in them and we are afraid of publishing their faces. I guess there are custody issues and things like that.

Our Summer



Here are some pictures of our summer. Half the time I either forgot the camera or it was out of batteries, but here's some for what it's worth. Nathanael played one more year of Farm League with the rec. dept. He did quite well. The girls both played youth soccer, but of course I never had the camera. Aunt Lin and Moriah came for a visit with us from Alaska. They stayed mostly at camp. Jesse, Charlie, and Charlie Owen came up from Boston, too. It was really hot that week, so we were glad that we had the lake to jump in. We had invested in a water trampoline last summer, and it was really funny watching the girls try to climb up on it. It would flip up if no one was on top of it. Charlie helped by getting it anchored down better, and then he made a wooden float that we used the rest of the summer. We had Bible school at the very beginning of the summer in June. It went really well. We love the new material that we get from a college friend.

Lanie and Elizabeth the First





Alana got a caterpillar from Grandma who works at the elementary school here in town. She works for the Foster Grandparent program. We watched the caterpillar eat its way through several milkweed leaves before it attached itself to the stick. We knew it would be making its chrysalis soon, and when we went to eat lunch one day, sure enough it made the chrysalis while we were out of the room. We didn't see it happen last year either. They must know that no one is watching. We learned the caterpillar sheds some of its skin and then actually flips itself inside out, and that's the green chrysalis that we see. What a cool science lesson! Lanie named the butterfly Elizabeth the First. Why? Ummm...Good question. It was just a Lanie thing, I guess. If you know Lanie at all, you know that that is often the only explanation you get. Last year, she named it Amber Rose. We had hoped that Elizabeth the First would stay around awhile since Mama had some nice, bright flowers this year, but she was gone within an hour of her release. I did get some good picts first, though.




Rainy Saturday






It's Saturday and raining here today. We started the day with our devotions and coffee. The kids had their breakfast and devotions, and then sat down to watch their two Saturday shows. Today's choices: Fetch and Wishbone on PBS.

We had hoped to go letterboxing today, but weather and gas prices prevented us from indulging in this new pastime.

Last night was the harvest party at the church complete with Bible trivia costumes. I went as Aquilla, Jen was Damaris, Mikayla was one of the five wise virgins, Nathanael was Eleazar, and Alana was Queen Esther. Two people guessed who I was, most figured out Mikayla and Alana; but Nathanael and Jen were two tough to guess. We all won prizes! Yummy!

The rain made the kids restless today, so since we are all done with sports and don't have anything pressing, we had friends over to play. Rosemary is twelve, and Mikayla's friend. Lucy is nine, and gets along quite well with Nathanael. It doesn't seem to bother him that she's a girl. Melody is Alana's friend, and is almost seven. We do things quite a bit with them . They are one of the homeschool families that we enjoy doing field trips with.