Thursday

One plus (albeit small) of being sick is that one has time to write. My, I haven't been so sick in awhile. Fever and unstoppable diarrhea. Well, if you stop eating it almost stops. Talk about totally draining. Literally. 

On schedule for today was taking a meal to a family in church. The mother has been laid up with a broken foot. There was no way I had the strength to do anything so I lay abed and instructed my trusty boys. Matthew, Melvin and Christopher made the whole meal. Oven BBQ'd Chicken, mashed potatoes (with wells of brown butter), salad, homemade Ranch dressing and a pumpkin sheet cake with cream cheese frosting. They also made a simple supper of rice and chicken, corn and applesauce for our family. They were quite weary of the kitchen! But I was so proud of them! Grandma Schwartz took them and the food where it needed to go. 

Thomas, Stephen and Austin spent another long day in VA where they are doing the finishing on a couple of log homes. My poor men were having to do double duty today. 

Donna Goff has been doing some webinars that are helpful for home educators. I tried listening to the one on Power of an Hour today but slept through part of it. The power of an hour concept is really amazing. You can find her teachings at mentoringourown.com.  

Rain was falling again today. The other day at the thrift store the owner said she heard on radio that it had rained 14 days in a row. If that is so, this makes 17 days now. Not that it rains all day every day though. Thankfully, Thomas and the boys have work inside and out, there in VA. 

The girls from my class at Kid's Club were giving a program at their school this evening. A couple of my co-teachers went and I had planned to go with them. It was disappointing to miss it. 

My mama keeps working on the laundry piles in the house. Bless her! 

One thing that has given me a bit of strength today is homemade "Gatorade". A cup of water, tablespoon of lemon juice, teaspoon of Sucanat, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. That may not be exactly right but that's what I pulled out of my head for today. The cup of water was more like 12 oz. The boys took turns keeping me supplied with hydrating drinks. 

Mom Lapp stopped by with some freezer clean-out items. People know where food will disappear! My sister  once told someone (about our family), "They'll eat anything that bends." (That was back in the days when we readily consumed sugar and grains.) When I'm well I'll see what she brought us. It will surely be helpful. My freezer is nearly deplete of meat and I'm trying to figure out what to do about it. 

What did (or will) you have for supper/dinner? 

How do you economically keep men fed? (Mine need meat.)

Wednesday

This day begins early. Thomas, Stephen and Austin leave at 7:30 am and need their breakfast and lunch made and packed before they leave. This is something I struggle with- to do that much food in an hour and a half. 

Chop a half pound of sliced ham and a bit of onion to fry together while I crack and mix 15 eggs. Fry it all together and shred cheese over the top. Mix a bowl of fruit and breakfast is made. 

Lunch consists of leftover vegetable soup, apples, leftover pie, milk, cheese, and a bag of salty snack. 

Then the younger boys come around and eat their breakfast and we leave for program practice at school taking a bunch of milk with  us to send home with my nephew for the calves to drink.

 While they practice I work on book work and get an ad placed in the paper for the donut fundraiser. Following practice we check out second hand stores, looking for black vests that they want the boys to wear for the school program. We found one. 

While we're gone Grandpas leave for Winchester for a foot Dr appointment. 

Today was so rainy and cool Matthew started a fire in the wood stove.

By the time we got home it was lunch time and I was exhausted. I was having some diarrhea but not really feeling too bad other than tired. This is embarrassing but I slept. All. Afternoon. 

While I slept the boys found things to do. Like mowing their "ball field" and then using it. 

After waking I started some laundry. Matthew and Christopher went to milk the cow. 

With Melvin's help supper got made- gluten free pasta with sausage and Alfredo sauce, green beans and Caeser salad. Then I really crashed, running to the bathroom periodically. I took a couple doses of McNess aromatic compound but it didn't take hold like I wished. 

Thomas went to men's meeting taking Grandpa along. The boys cleaned up the kitchen and another day is past. 

When was the last time you were sick? 

How do you cope with sickness?

Tuesday

It's another cloudy, rainy day. We've had many of these lately. Good for the ground, grass, trees, etc but hard on the soul. 

7:15 am Get out of bed. Dress. Fold the blanket. Remove the pillows. Tuck in the sheet. Return the bed to the inside of the couch. Yes, it's a hide-a-bed. :) Comb hair. 

7:45 am Text one girl's mom to find out if she wants to be picked up for Kid's Club this evening. Cut, package and refrigerate 5 pies that got baked late last night and sat cooling on the counter-top. (We made 17 pies for snack at Kid's Club this eve.) 

Thaw and fry a pound of sausage patties. Fry 12 eggs. Cook grits. Call the family to eat it up. While in the beginning stages of this whole process, at 8 am, Thomas has to leave to go look at a job. Matthew lets the chickens out of their little house where they are put to keep them safe overnight. We have a killer of some sort around here that eats chickens.

Spend some time researching WV homeschool laws (to help friends). Look for field trip opportunities. Online stuff. Christopher finds that his bunny is missing. He says it's a crime scene. Blood on the open greenhouse windowsill where it was kept.  

Have a devotional time with the three youngest. Get them started recording the books they've read in the last year. (Should be done as we go!!) Have Austin start his laundry. Make breakfast for Thomas. He works on desk work.

Work on illustrating the verses from Psalm 1 so I have a base to start from to help the girls at Kid's Club this evening. We are having them memorize Psalm 1 to earn a Bible. They will write and illustrate the verses on cards that they can take with them. I asked one girl if she has a Bible at home? She replied that the only Bible in their house is a touch-me-not. It's old and falling apart. How sad! 

11:45 am Make lunch from leftovers. Eat it. Wash a HUGE stack of dishes. Boys rinse, dry, put away, dump slop, wipe counters.

Call a donut maker to find out some details of what we need to know to do a donut fundraiser with the youth on Memorial Day weekend. Text my side-kick to see when we can get our heads together to do some planning. 

Boys practice their school program just here on their own. They keep changing things up on us at school so that now it isn't going to work for the older boys to be there for practice at least half the time.

Thomas takes Grandpas to the bank to start a new account. The southern account will be closed.

Matthew and Christopher do their writing. Melvin gets a Barton lesson. 

4 pm The sun is out! What a sight for the eyes. Melvin and Christopher work on getting bakery trays clean for transporting the pies this evening. Matthew starts a load of laundry.

Time to make supper. Christopher and I work on making a soup and Matthew and Melvin help us after milking the cow. We get the soup made before we leave at 5 pm or soon after but it will need to be eaten at 9:30 pm when we get back from Kid's Club. We get all the pies cut and loaded.

Our girl who wants to be picked up is not at home! We pick up my niece and head for Romney. Here is our girl! She spent the day with her grandmother in Romney and did her best to let me know but couldn't.

Another evening of trying to keep 9 tweens girls happy. Some were unhappy to begin with because the girl they came specifically to see is not there. They would rather speak to one another and pester each other than to listen to Bible teaching. But they did pretty good! Until it came time for craft. They were very unhappy about making cards illustrating their memory verses! 

Of course the unhappiness always seems greater than the happiness. The one girl I mentioned above who has no Bible to use at home was very diligently copying her verses, faster than I could put them on the white board. She just opened her Bible and wrote them down. I was proud of her. She said she had the first one memorized already since last week.

One thing we have noticed is that we almost never have a rainy evening for Kid's Club. The sun came out like I said around 4 pm and it began to rain on our way home! God has been kind to us.

We finish the routines of the evening and head for home. We eat our supper and crawl into our beds for the night. Another day lived.

What was your day like? 

How has God been kind to you?

Fail!

My blog-every-day effort surely failed. The last post was over a month ago. Often a blog post is formed in my mind but it never makes it to the hardware. If at first you don't succeed, try, try again! Don't let failure spell defeat.

I will use one of my favorite writing guides. The outline below helps to bring my thoughts together.

Outside my window…

A beautiful day. We have had a topsy turvy spring with warm weather out of season and then really cold weather. This poses a problem with the fruit crops. Some flowering trees here were blooming really nicely and then they got frozen. Now some remaining blooms are coming out. There is a need of more moisture already. Will we have a dry summer?

I am thinking…
...about the goodness of God. God is good...All the time. All the time...God is good. We say. What about when your debts are higher than your income? When your baby dies before birth? When the fruit crop freezes? When robbers come and terrorize your children? When your child is expelled from school? When you have your business almost sold and the buyers back out at the last minute? 

These are all real occurrences for someone or another of my acquaintances within the past few weeks. Job also experienced great trials and questioned God's goodness. Does God owe me good things? Is He still good when things in my life are not? That is something we all need to come to terms with in our own hearts.

I am thankful for…

...a God Who is all-powerful, all-wise, all-knowing and holy. Perfect. He creates something from nothing. If I need something I can ask Him for it and He will provide for me. We have seen Him do this over and over.The groceries have been running on low for awhile. I kept wondering how I would make the next meal. Well, I must not have been as far out of groceries as I thought because I kept making one more meal. And one more meal. Sometimes you have food but you're not sure how to make a meal out of it. Such was the case yesterday. Thomas and I went shopping and I didn't know what the boys would have for lunch while we were gone. The menu spot on my weekly plan was blank for yesterday. Then on Sunday someone gave me a leftover potato casserole from the potluck dinner at church. Why do I worry? We are told over and over that God will provide for us. It must grieve His heart to see me fretting over such puny things.

From the learning rooms…
The names and positions of states. Capitols. Postal abbreviations. Is there an interesting way to learn these "boring" facts? Certainly! Put it to a tune and it will stick in your mind. Get an app for your phone or tablet and it becomes a game to see who can get the fastest time score for placing all the states in their correct spots. My, learning is easy nowadays.

The above was written a few weeks ago. Then I filled in below a few days later but the system failed to save my labors. I will just quickly fill it in today.

From the kitchen…
Burnout.

I am wearing…
My clothes. Haha

I am creating…
Food for boys (at home) and crafts for girls (Kid's Club).

I am going…
To job sites with Thomas. Bumming around with him for the day while the boys are on their annual field trip with the church school.

This home owner has an awesome view

I am reading…
The Bible. Portions from Job, Luke and Revelation daily. (As daily as my humanity allows. Some days it gets missed, to my shame.)

I am hearing…
The power washer. Thomas is cleaning logs. (Log home needs to be refinished.)

Around the house…
Just general work.... laundry, dishes, cooking, cleaning, mending, planning, reading, writing. Want to know more? I think it would bore you.

One of my favorite things…
Fresh air and bird songs on a spring morning.

A few plans for the rest of the week…
Get the laundry folded and put away. Clean the house. Cook meals. Tomorrow evening is the annual mother-daughter banquet. Sunday is Mother's Day and the annual tradition is that the men cook lunch for the ladies. Yea! My men are making apple pies.

Here is a picture thought I am sharing….

Christopher made an apple swan

Warmth

Oh, I think spring is my favorite time of the year! Sunday morning there was a surprise snow covering everything. But the rest of this week has been warm or warmer. 

I love the bird songs this time of year. And the spring peepers. The flies and mosquitoes aren't quite so welcome.

The daffodils are beginning to bloom.

The boys are doing their lessons outdoors.

The anemones are blooming.

Crocuses.

The boys had an extra brother a few days this week. Their cousin Mervin stayed here while the rest of his family went to Ohio. They worked together on everything. And slept outdoors even though there was frost on their pillows one night.

The boys enjoy cutting, splitting, hauling and stacking the wood we got recently. Hopefully they can get it off the grass before it kills it. You don't even have to ask them to do wood. Somehow they enjoy it more than other work.

We were nearly out of wood and kept wondering when this promised load would come. Now that it's here we don't need it. Well.... maybe we will yet. But we haven't needed a fire for a few days now. 

Song of Solomon 2:12
The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land

Hebrews 6:7
For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God:

Sierra- a missionary

I met a girl last Saturday evening who is working in the city. She grew up with parents who were not Christians. She was saved as a young person and joined a Baptist church. She began to see the inconsistencies in the church she was a part of and eventually became part of an Anabaptist church.

Sierra took college training and began searching for a school to teach. For five years she searched. Often she was accepted until she appeared in person. Then suddenly she was told they had a replacement for her. She wondered if her plain clothing and head covering were the reasons she was rejected.

Now she is teaching (out of desperation) at a psychiatric ward. She teaches history, I believe. She has been attacked on occasion by the students, and has had to go to the hospital for treatment. Sierra believes some of the students are demon possessed, although they are there with medical names for their problems. One girl who is a Satanist came at her head recently and tried unsuccessfully to remove her head covering. (Don't try to tell me that a head covering for women is unimportant!)

This courageous lady works regular workday weeks- not school hours. So she puts in long days working with people who have committed crimes, etc. 

I asked Sierra if she has anyone praying for her while she's in there. She said she doesn't have anyone specifically. This post is written so that you might join in prayer for her as she ministers to these dear people. She says it's a real mission field in there but most people see her only as a "teacher". Maybe if she had the label of "missionary" someone would be praying for her!

Will you pray for Sierra?

In the comments, please let the world know which day you will commit to praying for her.

I will pray on Monday.

UYWR

Monday blues? Know anything about them? Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest. Or Saturday. God intended for us to be renewed one day a week. But if you are like me, that one day doesn't come. The Holy Sabbath has evolved over the last few generations until it has become "the weekend".

Hence we have the Monday blues. My day was spent resting today. I was so weary from my "weekend". It was a very encouraging weekend spiritually but very wearing physically. We along with two other couples and a number of the young people from our church attended the Urban Youth Workers Retreat in Orrstown, PA. It was held at the Roxbury Holiness Camp. 

Lee Mummau was the main speaker for the 4 sessions. One Friday evening, two on Saturday and one Sunday morning. He spoke into our relationships. His main thrust was that if we are out of touch with our message, which is reconciliation, how can we effectively bring that message to the world? What does out of touch mean?

If I cannot have good relationships with those I live with and work with in my church, then I don't know what reconciliation means in a practical way. And I have nothing to offer anyone else. 

So we received a lot of practical instruction about relationships.

Sunday morning Lee gave us a practical way to minister in our communities.

He said we should ask God to show us 15 houses where we can minister. Then set an evening aside and go knock on these doors. Introduce ourselves and ask if  there is anything they would like us to pray about for them. Consistently return to these houses and continually pray for them. They will learn to know and trust you and you will learn to know them and their needs. Such a simple, practical way to reach out.

We heard from Glen Weaver and his wife Joyce about Integrity in Relationships. Glen Hoover spoke to us about issues that face today's children. And Phil Beiler gave us a talk about cross-cultural relationships. 

Such an enriching time! It was also wonderful to meet many others who are in the same type of work we are -ministering to children in the city.

The theme for next year was announced- Teaching With Impact. I can hardly wait!

I was excited to meet some folks from Baltimore, MD. I had just read about the mission there this past week. 

Back home, Thomas and Austin hit the road early this morning and went to Gap Mills to fix water pipes in his Mom's house. Actually, she just sold it but the agreement was that the water would be inspected and any repairs made that were necessary. Unfortunately a number of pipes had burst within the house.

Thomas was able to work with the plumber to correct all that today and came home this evening around 8 pm. I am thankful he is safely back and that is done and off his mind!

A couple things from this weekend-

Impression without expression leaves depression.

What reason do the children have to listen to me?