Day# 55

Early Morning studies 

Food...their favorite! 

Emma and Mom 

Snow flurries?! It actually snowed quite heartily for several hours, but nothing really stuck to the ground. It was a windy, chilly day today -summer was yesterday and it’s back to winter today!

Travis needed some help this morning finishing up his math work. He didn’t have a lot left, and he just needed help with the explanation of a few things. I am thankful that we are down to 14 days left of school! The longer we go on, the harder it is to keep everything moving in the right direction. But God provides new mercies for everyday. “At-home” learning should not be compared to “homeschooling”, in my opinion! In this “at-home” adventure we are all thrust into it- unexpectedly and unprepared (both the teachers and the students) ! If Roger and I had chosen “homeschooling” for our children, I would have carefully selected and hand-picked the curriculum. Our children are blessed to have the support of great and well-qualified teachers, but obviously the dynamics change greatly when we are not sitting in a classroom! God is faithful, and did I mention that we only have fourteen days left?!

Roger had the day off today, so while I helped Travis a bit, Roger and Garett were able to get the trash done. Garett came back from the dump very disappointed. Everything has gone back to the way it was eight weeks ago. We are back to sorting the cardboard, recyclables and the trash. It definitely was much easier to just dump it all in one dumpster, but oh well! It’s a necessity to take trash to the dump.

One of Roger’s co-workers is turning 50 years old tomorrow. There was a surprise party for Shawn this afternoon, and we were invited to stop by to say “Happy Birthday”. It was a surprise to Shawn, so that was fun!

Maine has seen a spike in Coronavirus cases over the last few days, probably largely due to the fact that there has been a large outbreak at the Tyson food plant. There are 34 new cases today, and one additional death has been reported. We are at 487 active cases. It’s a bit disheartening to see the graph climb again, but again many of the cases are coming from a similar region and area.

Tomorrow is Sunday- and Mother’s Day! I wrote a bunch of Mother’s Day cards, and mailed them out this week. But I am notorious for mailing out any card late! Oh, well!

In the middle of all that is going on in the world around us, it’s easy to get caught up in emotions, feelings, and opinions. I have all of those too! I also believe that it is extremely important that we  still love and interact with those that might not have the same opinion as we hold. Of course, when anyone agrees with us, that’s our favorite! However, that’s not always the case and especially not in the case of this pandemic. I think we do need to have our own thoughts and feelings, but I also think we need to be careful in how we express them. Just because we CAN say something, does not mean that we need to say it! (I’m guilty of this!)  The Bible tells us often to guard our tongue, let our speech be always with grace, be kind, tender hearted, be wise as serpents and harmless as doves, to think on things that are true, lovely and of good report, and I could go on and on. Anyways, I guess my challenge to myself is to make sure that I am gracious and kind. If you want my opinion, I’ll happily share it with you. But if you don’t want my opinion or you don’t agree with me, I still want to be your friend.

Happy Mother’s Day a day early!
Blessings,
Sarah