This was an interesting week for us. However, Friday did eventually come, and with it came the arrival of a week of spring break! As much as the teachers and the students need a break, it’s a bit overwhelming to think that we still have over 8 weeks to go in the school year! My sister will finish up her school year around May 16, and we will be a month behind that! But since it is what it is, we will try to ignore the mud and enjoy the break!
We started off the week with a snow day on April 8. Another snow day means that we have used up all of our snow days and then some. The kids played outside for a while, but this snow was so wet and sloppy that everyone ended up soaked within minutes! The kids and I did some spring cleaning and sorting, and there is certainly something refreshing about getting rid of junk! With five kids, we seem to collect quite a bit at times!
Also on Monday Garett completed another step in his academic project by completing a phone interview. It was good to talk to our Alaskan friend, Damaris, for a few minutes. Garett had originally planned to talk with Mr. Mortvedt who is the one who piloted the plane to the North and South Pole, but Mr. Mortvedt was off in the bush. His wife, Damaris, is a good friend of ours and she was able to help Garett with some of his questions. We certainly love and appreciate them.
Tuesday was a day of grocery shopping and errands for Emma and I. The boys were happy to go to school. Roger had off on Tuesday, so he was able to help the boys wrap up the finishing touches on their academic fair projects.
It was a slow and cautious drive to school on Wednesday as we had projects, reports, and backboards that needed to arrive safely. I had music classes to teach, and Emma was able to go to a friends house for a bit. It was the pre-school open house day, so Emma did not have any school today. After teaching music classes, we had a short parents group meeting. Sometimes it gets a bit overwhelming
to be few in number, but God always provides the right hands to help in His perfect timing.
Thursday— Academic Fair night! After dropping off the boys, Emma and I got right to work setting up tables and sweeping floors in preparation for the academic fair. A few other moms helped as well,
and in a few hours we had everything set up for the evening. This was the first year that two of our classes would have tables set up in the fellowship hall instead of their classrooms. It was a great night! All the academic fair projects were on one level of the building; the classes in the fellowship hall had plenty of room; there was space for the visitors to visit together; and the students did a fine job explaining all that they had learned. It was a great night, and we came home with five very tired children.
Also on Thursday, I made some “blessing boxes” for the kids teachers. It’s a time of year that can get a bit long, and we are so appreciative of those who pour their lives into our children. So Emma and I put together little gift boxes for the teachers with homemade treats, little delights, and a card. My love language is giving gifts to those I love, and I had such fun putting together those boxes with Emma.
Travis came home from school in tears. It took me a while to figure out the problem, but eventually he spilled it all out. He was terribly distraught because his academic fair project was right between two girls! He was going to have to stand there for an hour next to his project and next to girls! I tried...really, I did, to understand why this was so upsetting to him. I will admit that I also had a very hard time not smiling a little! However, this was clearly upsetting to him. I asked him why didn’t talk to his teach about his problem, and he just replied that he didn’t want to be a problem. I explained that sometimes it’s okay to politely ask those in authority about a situation. Wyatt piped up, “Yeah, I asked Mrs. Wheelis to not put me next to you, Travis! You could’ve just asked nicely!” That did not help Travis feel better. You know what though, he made it through the entire night standing between those two girls!
Having tired children can make the following morning a bit rough for everyone! Friday was not the best morning in the world, but we did manage to get out the door on time. Since there were projects set up in the fellowship hall, the students would be having lunch in their classrooms. This meant no hot lunch! Hooray! I mean, I don’t mind at all, but I was pretty excited that I would get to go home after picking up Emma from preschool!
Emma was delighted to go to school on Friday. She was a bit confused as to why she only had one day of school this week. I played the piano for chapel, and I loved hearing the students sing “Here I am to Worship”. Its a song that they know very well, and I couldn’t help but smile as I listened to their voices singing. I’m pretty sure that sometimes I get the biggest blessing in playing the piano for chapel!
After chapel, Allison and I squeezed in a quick coffee date! Say what!? Who is this lady?! Sometimes we see each other almost every day, but don’t really get to have a meaningful conversation. It was a blessing to get coffee, pick up palm branches for Palm Sunday, and spend some time in deep conversations. We came back to the church and sat in the car for a bit just talking and visiting. We both have many particular prayer requests that we are praying for right now, and it is such a gift to have a friend to pray with and share our burdens and blessings.
Emma and I went home for a bit after she finished school at 11:30am, but we came back early to make sure that everything was put away from the academic fair night. Since the school and the church share some spaces, it’s important that everyone does their part to keep things neat and tidy for the next group. Allison and I whipped through organizing chairs and tables. I managed to find a ladder and take down some hanging displays, and everything was back in order by 3:00pm, which was time to pick up the boys. It was a busy 1/2 hour!
Finally....Spring break! Chandler has been asking me to talk to the parents of the boys in his class. He has been wanting to have them over to play. Chandler reminded me on Thursday that I needed to talk to their parents. We were able to set up a play date for Saturday. I don’t know either of these boys or their families extremely well, but Roger and I have always said that we want to meet and interact with our kids friends. It was raining on Saturday morning, but that didn’t stop the boys from playing outside! For four hours our backyard was a busy bee hive of swarming boys, airsoft guns, loud voices, and lots of food! We went through 16 hotdogs, 14 hotdog buns, 2 bags of chips, 1 cantaloupe, 1 pineapple, 2 containers of ice cream...and that was just for lunch! Chandler told me thank you several times, and I know it meant a lot to him to have his friends over. I sure do love these boys even though they are loud, smelly, noisy, and destructive!
Chandler made himself a pair of camouflage pants this week. He took a pair of jeans that had holes in them, and he gathered up a bunch of leaves and sticks. Then he hot glued all those leaves and sticks to his pants! He was thrilled with the outcome! He also discovered that the hot glue didn’t work as well as he would have thought once the pants were wet and muddy. Yes, he is learning in life too! Chandlers big news for this week is that he made honor role! He was so excited when he opened his report card! Language arts has been a challenge for him, but he brought up his grade in that and succeeded in making honor role for the first time. We are very thankful for all of his hard work, and thrilled to see his excitement over his achievement.
This week Emma was told to clean up the play room. Garett was in there playing with legos. Emma came back out a moment later saying that she couldn’t clean the play room. When I asked her why, she replied, “It stinks in there! It smells like a toilet!” I was sure she was exaggerating, so I went to the play room. Sure enough...it smelled terrible! We spent some time trying to figure out what the smell was, and Garett was trying to help us. All the sudden Emma announces, “Garett! It’s your feet that smell like a toilet!” Um...wow! Pre-puberty boys and their feet! Garett didn’t seem to bothered by the smell, but the rest of us sure were bothered!
We don’t really have very many plans for this week of break. Wyatt would like to stay home as much as possible! Roger has off on Wednesday so we might try to do something fun with the kids, we will see.
A huge blessing this week: This is the time of year when we can go ahead and register the kids for the next school year. God has miraculously (and I do mean miraculously) provided for our kids to attend this Christian school. We had received some money from my parents to put towards the kids schooling. Roger and I had decided that we would put that towards the registration fees which would cost $875.00. I was getting ready to walk down to the school office on Friday, when my friend, Allison, handed me an envelope. She said that someone had given money for one of the registration fees for one of our children! I didn’t even have time to pray about it, and God answered a request! Our kids registration fees are paid in full for the next school year! How awesome is that!? God has provided above and beyond all that we could ask or think! Please continue to pray with us as we ask God to bring us 90 students for the 2019-2020 school year. We serve an amazing God!
As we look towards next Sunday, we will celebrate Resurrection Sunday. I had the opportunity to teach the children’s Sunday school class this morning, and I taught on the crucifixion of Jesus. I am so thankful that Jesus was willing to die that horrific death. Its hard to even wrap our minds around all the facts in the Bible. However, I can rest 100% assured that Jesus lives today! What a promise!
“He is not here, but he is risen as he said.” Hallelujah!
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