Bad Blogger...Finally A New Post!

I was just on my sister-in-laws blog and giving her heck for not keeping up with her blog when I realized DUH, that's like the proverbial pot calling the kettle black. Sorry I've been a bad blogger.

It's been busy around here since we got home from family camp and whenever I seem to think I've found a minute to sit down and blog, I end up getting sidetracked by something or other.

So...

school starts in 1 week and here I'm getting that butterfly feeling in the stomach again. Actually this feels more like a herd of stampeding buffalo more than butterflies.

So much to do and get ready. Some days I think I should have had twins so I would only have one grade to teach instead of two. It's the year 2008 and I am entering grades 4 and 7/8 again. I really didn't like my 7/8 years so here's hoping I can make them more enjoyable for Amy.

We've got the curriculum all figured out, at least what we're using and the schedule is almost all figured out. Now I just get to spend the next few days reading lessons and planning ahead. My poor kids, it's summer and mom is stuck in the classroom reading schoolbooks and they are sooooo bored.

We didn't get the pool put up this year with Jay being away and all, so there's no swimming to be had. Gas money for excursions is very limited due to the lack of work for Jay. So it's actually very boring around here these days. I'm almost tempted to let X-Box have free reign here (notice I said almost tempted). I hate X-Box, it's a stinky mind stealer, brain freezer, attention hog.

Anyways, back to school. We picked up our school supplies last week and had a nice day out in the city (haha pop. 35,000). We've been organizing the classroom, setting up both kids on internet, re-arranging desks etc. It's looking pretty good in here.

Yesterday we climbed and conquered Laundry Mountain. Remember the story in the Bible where Elisha tells the poor widow to fill a bunch of bottles with oil to sell? She only had a small amount of oil herself but she did as he commanded and was able to fill many many jars with oil to sell to pay her debts? Well, yesterday I was about to start the laundry when I noticed I didn't have very much laundry soap, I'm talking an almost empty bottle here folks and 8 large loads of laundry to do.

I remembered this story and said a quick little prayer along the lines of "Lord, please let me have enough soap to do this laundry like you gave the widow enough oil". Very short, very simple and very effective! I put the last load of laundry in last night and there was JUST enough to fill it to the line on the cup! I got 8 loads of laundry washed with what seemed to me and impossibly small amount of soap, and I honestly didn't scrimp on the amounts.

This may seem like a small thing to someone else, but to me it was huge. I didn't have the money to go buy any more soap and I had so much to do. God knew that I needed to have this little 'miracle' to give me hope. I've been worrying and stressing over the lack of work for Jay this month and with a mortgage payment due in 9 days and no money in the bank, it sometimes gets a little overwhelming. Okay, okay, I know I am not supposed to worry and I try not to but...

Jay came home last night and got a phone call from Devon (the guy he went to Calgary with). They have three appointments over the next two days with different window companies! We're praying that one or more of these will be interested in taking the guys on as subs. Please pray for us guys. They're at one right now as I write (7:30am) and have another right after.

I can say though, I am handling my worry better than normal. I am just so grateful to have Jay home that even the stress of piling bills and an empty bank account cannot take away that joy.

Speaking of having Jay home. The kids have been so cute. They are still a little on the velcro side of sticking to him, but have finally begun to ease up. Jay's been so good with them. They are spending so much time together (and I don't even get jealous) playing, talking etc. Jay's even started up an evening devotional time with us. We haven't been able to do it every night, but on the nights we have it's been awesome. These kids have so many questions about God, faith and their walks, that I didn't fully realize were there. We've had some wonderful conversations and prayer time with them. Simon has decided that he is ready to be baptized. I will have to look into that for him soon.

Well, it's 8am and I have three loads of laundry from yesterday to hang on the line and a shower to get. So, I will end this post and come back later (hopefully) and post some pics of our newly organized classroom etc.