Busy Days and Happy Hearts

I'm blessed to be their mama! 

Greetings from Maine

We had a busy week(s) the last two weeks with standardized testing for the boys at school, a hot lunch for the school, having a friend for the afternoon, a birthday party to attend, a speaking session for a missions group, two Bible studies, and just life! 

The boys enjoyed the variety of the afternoon activities last week during testing, but it certainly did make them tired! We worked hard at being consistent with bedtimes and routines to make sure that they were operating at 100% during the testing. Several of the parents got together to bring in healthy snacks for the classes to eat together. Since we have children in three different classrooms, it was quite a big pile of cheese and crackers when it was our turn! Thankfully, I volunteered for each of their classrooms on the same day. I did end up helping out one of the other classrooms by providing extra snacks, but it is my privilege to help out our teachers in whatever way I can. 

I attended a Bible study on Tuesday morning, although I probably should have forgone that event because of the business of the rest of the week. Oh well! It is always an encouragement to listen to a group of older ladies express the life lessons that they have learned and the blessings of digging in Gods word. 

Wednesday was a busy day as it was a hot lunch day. This was a fun one though, and probably my favorite of the year. We were supposed to have an outdoor picnic; but since we had our one day of spring weather on Monday, we had to have it inside. I'm being sarcastic, of course, about the spring weather, but it is certainly slow in coming. But the grass is growing, and the trees are beginning to show different hues of green. Anyways, back to the lunch topic! Since the picnic needed to be inside, I brought sheets and blankets to tape to the floor. We had make-your-own subs, chips, watermelon, and juice boxes for lunch. The kids had a good time, and the cleanup was so easy and fast! 

Later on Wednesday afternoon, I went to pick up our pastors son to play at our house for the afternoon. The boys enjoy having Austin over to play, and they certainly weren't bothered by the rainy conditions. They came in with wet shoes, sloppy socks, and dirty clothes, but with happy hearts and a refreshed spirit. I'm thankful that the boys enjoy being outside, and it was nice to give them a little variety in the middle of the week. 

Thursday was one of Roger's days off of work. We spent the morning together working on some various projects around the house, and then he picked up Emma and Travis from school. I was thankful that Roger had off this particular day as I had been asked to speak on my Haiti trip. I had to opportunity to share about my trip to the ladies mission group at church. One of the older ladies had come up to me on Sunday to tell me that she would pick me up for the meeting. Our church has a bunch of older ladies, and I've been introduced several times. However, I just can't seem to remember everyone's name. But I didn't want to tell her that I didn't know her name, so I just figured that I would figure it out by someone else calling her by her name. 😀 There were about eight ladies there, and guess what? They went around the room and introduced themselves. Hooray! It was a good opportunity for me to get to know these dear women better and to share more of the details of my Haiti missions trip. I don't know if God will make a way for me to go again, but I'm certainly willing to go if He should allow. It was a life changing experience! 

Friday is always a bit of a busy morning for me with the ladies Bible study at church and playing  the piano for the school chapel. I do enjoy these Friday morning opportunities to play the piano, and sometimes the voices of those young kids singing so enthusiastically will move me to tears. After the chapel service, we have a ladies Bible study at the church. We've been having a good turnout of ladies of about fifteen, and we also had another new lady join us. She lives in the area, and said that she had seen the announcement about the Bible study via the church sign. It was a reminder to me of  the power of the written word. She came because someone had put the effort to put the notice on the church sign that can be seen from the road. I thought that was really neat!  

 Saturday was a beautiful day as the sun was out and the rain stayed away! Roger was working so I  took the  boys to an event at the YMCA. It was an open house for kids with various activities for them to do. It was fun for a bit, but there could've been a few more things to do. So, we decided to take a trip to the beach to climb on the rocks and look for sea glass. It's still hard to believe that we live so close to the coast and that there are many beaches to choose from! The boys had a good time climbing all over the rocks and searching for sea glass. By the time we headed home everyone was ready for a bit of down time. Roger was able to get home by 4:30, so that was a pleasant surprise for us. We cleaned up the yard, and Roger and I talked while the kids jumped on the trampoline. Suddenly we heard Chandler yelling for Garett to get off the trampoline. "Get off! You are getting blood on here!" I've learned not to get to worried about blood and the boys, but Garett did have blood streaming off his face. I left Roger to get started on looking at the issue while I went to get some paper towels. None of his brothers acted too concerned about him, but they were worried about the blood Garett had dripped  on the trampoline! Apparently Garett had been talked into trying a gymnastics move that he was not quite comfortable with performing. When he did the flip, he came down and hit his knee with his face along with having his lip between his teeth! Oh my! Yes, lots of blood and towels but the bleeding did stop. His lip is very swollen and busted, but he will survive. His biggest complaint has been that it hurts to get food  past his lips, so he has been very hungry! His brothers were impressed with how much his lip swelled up, and Travis did offer him one of his popsicles. Oh, the joys of boy hood! 

By Sunday morning, Garett's lip was very swollen. He agreed to take some medicine, so I know it must have been hurting quite a bit. Garett does not like to take medicine! I know it will get better, but it's going to take some time.

We had a bit of a rough start to our school week as the vehicle wouldn't start on Monday morning. I had already been a bit frazzled that morning with trying to get some extra chores done with the kids before they left for school. So the car not starting was the icing on the cake! Of course, I couldn't get ahold of of Roger, we don't live near others that go to the school, and Chandler was upset that they might miss gym class. After taking a deep breath...and letting go of a few tears of frustration...we moved on to what we could do. I had Chandler pray that he would make it to gym class, and I told the boys that now God had provided a few extra minutes for them to do a few more chores. I called Rogers work and learned that he was out on one of the islands, which I had figured as much. I just left a message at the office to please have him call me when he arrived back. I called the school to let them know that we would be late, and I praised the Lord that this was not the week of testing. (If the kids had been late last week, they would've had to make arrangements to make up any testing that they missed.) Thankfully, Roger was able to get out to rescue us a little after 8:45 am., so the boys were at school by 9:10. Gym classs starts at 9:30 am., so the boys were delighted that God answered their prayers. Emma and I ran a bunch of errands while waiting for Travis to be done with school at 11:30. I had left some medicine for Garett in the office in case he needed it. When I picked up Travis, I spoke with Garett's teacher. She said that she had been gently trying to suggest to Garett that he go take some medicine, but he was getting the clues. I laughed and said that Garett does not get clues, but I would give him instructions from his mama to get some medicine after lunch. 😁

Here is the funny story in all of that...Garett came home from school with a note saying that he had been given some medicine and an ice pack. I asked him if the ice pack had helped, and Garett replied, "Not really." I was trying to process why not, when Chandler announced, "He had it on his head, Mom!" I asked Garett why on earth he would put it on his head instead of his lip. He replied, "Well, the lady in the office said that this was the ice pack they gave to kids with headaches sometimes, so I figured that must be where it was supposed to go!" Oh.my.word. Well, moving on...I told Garett that tomorrow he should place the ice pack on his lip to see if that would help. 😜

I need to wrap this up, but I have a few praises.
1) We were invited to a birthday party yesterday. It was a such a fun time, and I'm so thankful to have gotten the opportunity to know the Philbrook family. The boys had a good time bowling, and it's so good to see them developing and making friendships also.

2) I made a dessert for the teacher appreciation dinner today. Lemon curd is amazingly delicious...who knew?! I'm thankful that the dessert was going to the school because that would've been hard to resist.

3) Someone anonymously gave $200.00 to the boys school bill this month. I can't imagine who that might be or who knows our family well enough to consider donating towards our school bill. But it so encourages my heart, and I am so very thankful.

4) I made a meal for a family that recently moved today, and it was a reminder of how thankful I am that God has blessed us with a home, a wonderful church family, and a great Christian school for the kids.

It is now the month of May...and hopefully warmer weather, spring flowers, gardens, and less mud! It is also the month that I can probably share about that prayer request from a few weeks ago. We are so thankful to each one of you who pray for us. We had to make some decisions concerning health insurance for Roger and I. With Roger's recent pay raise, we did not qualify for the state insurance. We are over the cut off limit by a very little amount but we still had to figure something out. It was a bit of a stressful time for us as we tried to refit  our budget, and nothing was coming together. The  cost for us to get our own health insurance is  almost triple what the amount of the raise was going to be. Thankfully, the kids will still qualify for state insurance. It is not our intent or desire to be dependent upon the state but it has been helpful to have health  insurance as we've been transitioning. We are in a difficult position to figure out all of the budget issues, but we did receive notice that we will have six months to figure it out. This paperwork has brought a bit of peace of mind, as we sort through the changes we need to make. We appreciate your continued prayers.

Our love to you,
Sarah ❤️