Wordless Wednesday

Sunday

Today dawned clear, chilly and beautiful! It was a perfect fall day. Our church was comfortably full, and Paul preached a tremendous message on our response to suffering. He also sang and played a special on his new guitar. He is so thrilled with it!

Baby Ben (as Sam calls him)is moving more and more and I can feel him growing. What a blessing this baby is already. Tomorrow will be 4 months exactly until my due date. I've still got a toddler to potty train and get out of the crib before then, along with other various projects.

Today, Sam was a wiggle worm in church (as he is most Sundays!). I whispered to him, "Sam, be quiet. Church is almost done." He looked at me and whispered back, "Time for the blessed hose?" For those of you who don't attend our church, it has become a tradition for Sam to run down the aisle to Paul while we are singing the doxology at the end of the service. Sam calls the doxology the blessed hose, because of the end of the first line which says, "Praise God from whom all blessings flow!"

I took Anna shopping last night. She desperately needs new fall church dresses and skirts. We have looked at Goodwill for several months, with no luck. So I took her to Walmart as a last ditch effort to find something for her to wear today. Walmart is notorious for not having modest girl clothes, but I decided to look in the ladies section to see if I could find something that would work. I walked right to the clearance rack and pulled off a skirt and a shirt that were really marked down, asked her if she liked them and had her try them on. They fit great so we got them. All of this in less than 5 minutes. She is now wearing ladies sizes. Aghhhh! When did that happen?

Tonight we went to see on of our older ladies that is in the hospital. We took Ellie and Samuel with us. When we were done, Paul took us out for Chinese food and we had a really nice time with the two younger ones. Sometimes Ellie gets lost in the shuffle of the big kids and Samuel. It was nice to spend time with her by herself-well, almost by herself.

Have a great week this week.

Bear and Deer

The boys are at it again. They left today for the mountains, to hunt deer and bear. They were all so excited, and we pray and hope they take something! A bunch of men and boys from our church went, so I think they were just as excited about the fellowship as the hunt.

It has turned chilly here again- hopefully it will stay chilly a little longer this time! It was in the 40's this morning- nice Fall weather!

Wordless Wednesday

The Magic of Childhood

Our new Fireplace

The last few years, our heat pump has not been able to effectively heat our house in the winter. It doesn't get real cold here, but even 50's and 40's are cold with no heat. So he has been looking for a fireplace insert- kind of like a wood burning stove, but it goes right into the existing fireplace. They cost about $2000 new and $500-$700 used, way out of our price range.

A few weeks ago, I was at the Salvation Army thrift store, and found one! It cost $199, and looked to be in pretty good condition. I called Paul and told him. He went home and measured our fireplace and sent Paul Jr. and his dad back to the store to see if it would fit. By the time they got there, they had dropped the price by $100- it was now only $99!

So they bought it and it has been sitting on my front porch until Monday. Monday two men came and literally worked all day long to make the adjustments to the fireplace so the insert would fit. They also painted it- making it look brand new. I was not sure how I would like it, but it looks so nice. Part of the reason is that our fireplace is huge, so it doesn't get overwhelmed with the insert.

We are looking forward to being toasty warm this winter!

The Pumpkin Patch

A few days ago, we took Samuel to the little pumpkin patch here in town and let him pick out his own pumpkin. He loves seeing all the pumpkins laid out and touching them all. He picked out a small one, and has held and played with that pumpkin since we got it!

Homecoming Sunday

Today was Homecoming Sunday at our church. Not having been raised in the South, my husband and I had no idea what this was when we moved here 7 years ago. To put it simply, on Homecoming, you "come home" to a church you previously attended. We had some old attenders come today and it was so nice to see them, but we generally don't have that many come back. The church was comfortably full and there was a sweet spirit evident. Paul preached a mighty message today and he preached hard.

After the service, the church presented him with a gift for clergy appreciation Sunday. Our church has always been more than generous when it comes to this. Our first year here they sent us on a 5 day Caribbean Cruise! They asked me several weeks ago what they should do for Paul. I knew they were going to ask, so I started thinking about what I should tell them. The last two years they have given us money for some needed repairs on our house, but this year, I wanted it to be something just for Paul, something he would never do for himself.

He broke his guitar several months ago, and I knew he would never buy himself a nice one, so I told the deacon about that. Well, he took it and ran with it! He got with another few men in our church who knew something about guitars, and they got him such a nice one! He was so surprised when they came in carrying the guitar case but he was shocked when he opened the case and saw what kind of guitar they got him. It was a Seagull. Now, if you are like me, that name means nothing. But if you are a guitar player, you know it is the "rolls royce" of guitars. They are each handmade and so beautiful when played. He would have never been able to get one for himself.

It was a great day!