Spring Break

So it is spring break week. I took off the week hoping to spend some time with the kids and do some spring cleaning. Well, my sister's sitter for the week fell through so I have had her kids (4 under the age of 11). Then, my brother's sitter fell through as he is in the last two days of building his new house. So...I also have had his kids (3 under the age of 8). I have spent my spring break with a total of 10 children. Needless to say, I did not get my spring cleaning done! But, it has been a good week and I have been glad to help them out.

Kermit spent Easter weekend the way he normally does...helping out with out church's tomb reenactment. I'm not sure if I have blogged about it before or not, but our church does a reenactment each year of Christ's tomb. We begin at sundown on Friday and go through sunrise on Sunday. There is a 'tomb' set up on the corner of the church lot (on a busy corner) with two 'roman soldiers' standing guard. We have 2 guards on duty around the clock and open the tomb with bright light shining out at sunrise on Easter morning. Now, for all you theologians out there, we know that Friday burial and Sunday resurrection is not accurate, but work with us here. We have been doing this for about 8 years and have had a huge response from local community and beyond. Each year we have dozens of folks stop and provide our guards with hot chocolate, cookies, Whoppers, etc. We have believers stop with encouraging words and folks honk their horns to let us know they have noticed us. But most importantly, we have the lost stopping and asking questions. Some out of genuine curiosity and some to try to prove that we are wrong in our beliefs. We welcome them all and thank God for the opportunity to share the TRUTH of Christ with them. We have received letters from as far west as California, as far north as Canada and as far south as Florida. Sometimes the little things we do can make a difference.

Oh yeah, I said all that to tell you about Kermit's weekend. He took off on Friday to help build the tomb and stack the firewood. He had signed up for several guard shifts over the weekend. Little did he know that we would have a snow storm on Friday (10 inches) that would keep a few of our men from getting back to town to take their shifts. So, Kermit ended up taking a few of those shifts to help out (as did a few other men, thanks Dennis and Ed!). This meant that Kermit ended up working from 6-10:30 on Friday night and 6am to 6pm on Saturday. Now, during those times he had a variety of different people standing shift with him (including Jake), but Kermit did the full 12 hours. Needless to say he was beat. He was tempted to grumble a bit, but then a woman and her son drove up and said 'We look for you every year. We were sure you wouldn't be here because of the snow!" He quickly decided it was all worth it.

Jake has had an interesting week. He has had to deal with our ever changing plans (since we can't go anywhere with 7 extra children) and he spent two days at the orthodontist getting braces. Yes, we now have to brace faces in the house. He has top and bottom and has a pretty sore mouth. He has also had to deal with 'the cousins'...namely Simon and Caleb. These are the only two male cousins that live in our vicinity. They are 5 and 4 and they think Jacob is just about the neatest thing on the planet. I'm sure I don't have to explain how 13 year olds feel about 4 and5 year olds that follow them everywhere calling their name (Jake calls it stalking). I have been really proud of how he has tried to include them and play with them. His biggest challenge this week has been having to help clean house. It's supposed to be spring BREAK, don't you know.

Hannah has had a fun week with the cousins (since they are almost all girls). They have played and she has started trying to teach them all how to play piano. She did a bit of complaining earlier in the week when we cleaned her room (including under the bed). It took awhile but she saw the value once it was done. She has not wanted to help clean it up since then. Today she woke up with a fever and the aches (it started with achy eyelids). She spent most of the day sleeping.

Lily LOVES having the cousins over. She enjoys having everyone over to boss around...oh, I mean play with : ) She is so sensitive and cries every time Gracie (brother's daughter that is 8 days older than Lily) tells her "you're not my cousin anymore". She also insists that no matter what, she did NOT make the mess (everyone else in the world did) so she should not have to help clean up.

With everyone grumbling this week, we are all learning a new verse (really learning it, not just paraphrasing it). I pray the Lord will write it upon our hearts and that we can make it the true test of our attitudes about work and serving others.

"Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men...It is the Lord Christ whom you serve." Colossians 3:23,24

BEST DAY EVER

Cold but GLORIOUS!

This weekend, Jacob and I went on a camp-out with the Boy Scouts for the annual "new Scout" camp-out (where the rookies get to work on rank requirements). We didn't leave until 6:00 pm on Friday (just in time for the temps to start dropping) and got to the campsite at about (Jacob's guess because I didn't pay attention) 6:30-6:45 ish. The mini-mountain that we were camping on top of had been covered with snow and ice until.........about 23 kids and 5 Leaders showed up and had to go up and down over and over and over and well, you get the idea. The temps on Saturday hovered right around 35-38 which means that NOTHING, not even mud, stays frozen. Saturday night the temps dropped to around 25 or maybe lower. Sunday morning's flag ceremony (12 rookies each practicing raising and lowering the flag) in the wind {temps around 25 before figuring wind-chill} was COLD!!!

Now for the glorious part. Both nights, there was a definite lack of cloud cover mixed with a half moon with about a million stars thrown in for good measure. It was ABSOLUTELY AWESOME!!!!
Then, on Friday night as everyone was TRYING to stay warm and get some sleep, there was something that kept on making a weird scream-type call (I thought maybe a cub was calling its mom){I then remembered the hibernation rule} which the Scoutmaster (Forest Preserve Patrol Officer){Game Warden for you Southerners} told me it was a variety of owl.
Saturday night was a replay of Friday night but with a distinct WHOO-WHOO-WHOO of yet another owl. I thought that it was such an awesome thing that God created such beauty just for us to enjoy.

Heat Wave...Briefly

We had a heat wave on Sunday. We actually hit 55 degrees! I am not kidding when I tell you that our neighbors were outside in their shorts and t-shirts playing basketball. It was strange seeing them playing ball in their shorts with snow all around. By the end of the day our 3 feet of snow was a good bit of the way melted. We were able to leave the house with not coats for the first time in months. Of course, the weather today is starting as rain and then the temp will drop to 30 degrees and we will get about four inches of snow. I guess the groundhog was right.

All the temperature changes have been having their toll on Lily. She has had the sniffles and a sore throat.