Another Wild Weekend

WOW! I just had another wild weekend with the Scouts.
It started out on Friday afternoon with the temp at 82. By the time we made the forty minute drive to the campsite in Zion, IL. (Illinois Beach State Park) on the edge of Lake Michigan, some really nasty looking clouds had rolled in and light rain started. Well, being the hard-headed one that I am, I decided to go ahead and start putting up my tent. I was almost completly done when there was a bright flash accompanied by a loud POW! Lightning had struck a high tension power pole only five hundred feet away. Needless to say, I made a hasty retreat for the truck (the scouts were still in the vehicles). I think that God is trying to tell me something about lightning in Zion because I nearly got struck about four years ago working on a tree for Candy's Grandfather, but that is another story.
Back to camping. After the storm passed (about twenty minutes), the winds stayed harsh and the temps dropped to around 45. The whole weekend was chilly and very windy (gusts up to 40 mph). Sometime Saturday morning, the Leader's dining canopy had gotten caught by the wind and decided to take a roll through the campsite. Not funny at the time, but hilarious now.
We had to take the new scouts on a nature hike so they could find and identify 10 different plant as well as 10 different animals. I learned somethings as well: 1) Illinois Beach State Park was the first nature park in the nation. 2) We have Prickly Pear Cactus growing in our area. 3) Sand being whipped by 40 mph winds HURTS!!
Well, I guess that about describes the event. Unless you want to throw in helping 10 Scouts around the age of eleven to learn the proper way to handle and sharpen knives and axes. Or helping them to learn how to build fires. All in all, it was a fun filled weekend and I would gladly do it all over again.

Lots Going On

It has been such a beautiful week! Right now I am sitting in the living room with all the windows open. The breeze going through the house is GREAT! It is FINALLY spring! I'm sure we will still have a few more chilly days, but I think we have finally turned the corner. Now we just have to deal with all the rain. We have been blessed not to have any flooding and our sump pump has not failed. Many folks in our township and townships around us have had to deal with severe flooding. We just had so much snow this winter and then many days of rain that the ground cannot take anymore.

We had an earthquake this week. This is the second one since we have lived here. Neither have caused any damage since they were centered so far away, but we could feel the shaking of the bed. Kind of interesting.

Jake is in the final stretch of his Cycling Merit Badge. He has been on several rides including a 30 miler yesterday. It has taken a lot of work but he has stuck with it. He has three more rides over the next few weeks and will then have a 50 mile ride on Memorial Day weekend. Oh, did I ever mention that he passed his swim requirements that were making him so nervous? He passed and is moving on to bigger and better things. He took a two day trip to Springfield, IL this week to learn about state government, Honest Abe, etc. He had a great time.

Hannah enjoyed her two days with no Jacob. She completed her AWANA book this week (6 weeks early, she'll remind you) and has been helping her two friends pass their sections. She is becoming such a social butterfly. We are having to keep our eyes on her and helping her tip-toe through the minefield that makes up 5th grade friendships.

Lily has been enjoying the nice weather. She has been playing outside everyday and is ready for school to be over (I'm a bit nervous that she is sick of school and she is only in pre-K). She just this minute walked in the door upset that the neighbor boy just decided to leave and go play with the other neighbor. She slammed the door and said "I am so upset. Kobey doesn't want to play with me and that hurts my feelings!". Everything is the end of the world. If this is her at 5, I hate to think about age 15!

Kermit had Assistant Scoutmaster training this weekend. He is now officially 'Trained'. He is glad to hear that as it took a lot more training than he anticipated.

I celebrated my 10 year anniversary at Hewitt this week. That is not said to highlight me, but to say I am daily grateful and awed at how God has provided for us through a job that I had no background in, was never qualified for and never had to interview for. He truly is Jehovah Jireh, our provider. His faithfulness in spite of our daily struggle to live for Him is truly amazing.

Kermit and I completed our Crown Financial bible study this week. It was great. The neatest thing was to see how God works. Kermit and I have talked about introducing this study to our church for about three years but things never quite worked out. As we started it 10 weeks ago it was obvious that God's timing is perfect and there was a reason he waited until now for us to all take the course. It was amazing to see how God could completely transform hearts and lives in a short 10 weeks. Ain't God Good?

A few prayer requests -
Pray for my grandmother (Mary) - she has been really sick over the last two weeks. On top of that she found out that her sister (my Aunt Myrna) has breast cancer and that her brother (my Uncle Herschel) has leukemia. Then, this last week, my late grandfather's grandson, Jason (from his first marriage) was put in the hospital due to a pancreatic infection. He has had to have several surgeries and they still don't know whether or not he will pull through.

So, please pray for my grandmother, my aunt, my uncle and my cousin.