Brunch and Blessings!

My blessings!

 Fun times 

 Friendships! Heather and I 

 All these kids!! 

 Wyatt is wearing a mask because of the black flies; Travis is sitting in the basketball hoop 

Another week consisting of school, spring weather, a get together with friends, a birthday party, a meeting for Travis, the grandparents brunch, and life has passed us by! We had a busy week as I spent much of the week preparing for the Grandparents Brunch which took place on Friday morning. It was a long week, in many ways, but God continued to give grace and strength as He watched over us.

Last Saturday we were able to meet up with friends from Wisconsin! Jeremy, Heather, and their children have been traveling out this way as they continue to work to raise support for their missionary work. We weren’t sure if we were going to be able to make it work for us to get together as they have a tight schedule, and Roger is working a lot these days. We had originally planned to meet them in Portland on Friday night, but Roger was working. He didn’t get home until after seven pm. By that time, it was too late to meet up with the Ingalls in Portland. Thankfully, God worked out the details so that we could meet in Augusta for brunch on Saturday. We have nine kids between the two of us, and we went to brunch at Denny’s. The kids (except Emma) sat together in a corner booth. They did very well for seven boys at one table! No spills, no squabbles, and all the food was consumed! After brunch, we tried to find a park in Augusta. Neither Roger nor I are very familiar with Augusta, but we managed to find a place for the boys to play football, and to go on a short walk. I had such a good visit with Heather, as it was so refreshing to be able to share my challenges of parenting with someone who has faced or is facing similar challenges. It was a reminder to pray for their family, as they are also seeking to raise their children for God’s glory. We talked about many things in our short visit, and I am so thankful that God worked it out so that we could visit together.

On Sunday Roger was working again. It looks like during these busy summer months, he may have to work two Sundays a month. That’s not ideal,  but we will make it work. We are down to the last two   weeks of our children’s program on Sunday nights, and I’m looking forward to getting back to Sunday night services. We had hospitality Sunday on that first Sunday in May, which meant breakfast at church. It’s always a bit more of a challenge on the days that Roger can’t come, but we arrived on time and with food in hand. I do enjoy the discussion on hospitality, and it’s a topic that I enjoy. I also taught children’s church as we are working to add more organization and intent to this ministry. I don’t want to do it for forever, but it gets a little smoother every week! After church, I was blessed and surprised to find a loaf of homemade bread in our truck. The kids wanted to eat it in the way home, of course, but we managed to wait until we arrived home! It was a busy Sunday, but God is so faithful.

Monday was music class for me, which always makes for a busy day! This was our last music class before the grandparent brunch on Friday morning, so we needed to make every moment count. For the most part, the students have worked very hard. I’m pleased with how well they’ve memorized words, parts, and the things that I’ve asked them to do. While I’m looking forward to summer break, I have certainly enjoyed the challenges and delights that have come with teaching music class this year. It’s something that I put hours of prep work into to prepare lesson plans, organize music, and teach with deliberation and intent. It’s not ALWAYS fun, but for the most part, it’s been a good year. I don’t get a whole lot of feedback from parents, so I guess right now I’m just hoping that means I’m doing a good job!

Tuesday was a meeting for Travis with the special education people. I’m not a fan of these meeting simply because one- we are discussing my child, and two- I am not putting my child in public school, so stop mentioning it!! Travis has been having speech lessons since November, and his speech teacher really put in a plug for Travis to continue having these lessons. The problems we are facing is that Travis is a good test taker, but his day-to-day education struggles are the real deal! The district seems to like to look mostly at test scores from Terra Nova, but any teacher will tell you that those results are a small piece of the puzzle! After hearing the concerns from his speech teacher, his classroom teacher, and myself as the parent, the superintendent decided that Travis could continue speech lessons for this year. In October or November another meeting will be organized to discuss possibly getting Travis tested for some learning struggles. (I dislike the work disabilities and refuse to use it when discussing our son.) The truth is that God made Travis to have these particular struggles not because God made a mistake,  but because there is a bigger picture here than what my immediate   mind can conjure. We are trusting that God will show Himself strong in all of these and that Travis will be encouraged. He told me on Monday, “Mom, I’m done. I don’t want anymore school, no more piano lessons, no more speech lessons, and I just want to play now.” Yeah, my son, I feel your pain, but we must press on! Please pray for Travis. And also for Garett as the school district was supposed to be in touch with us by now about some plans for his education in junior high, but they are dragging their feet. Why on earth is it so difficult for those of us that don’t choose to send our child to public school to get some answers and help?! Seriously, we are paying taxes too! Good night!

Anyways, on  Wednesday (May 9) I made lunch for the teachers. This week was the actually Teacher Appreciation week, but since we have the grandparents brunch on Friday, we already have a lot going on! The kids and I made pasta salad and homemade cookies on Tuesday night. I certainly appreciate each of the teachers that works at the school, and I want them to know that we love them. Making a meal is a small token of my appreciation for them. I also worked with Allison and Claire to figure out how much food we still needed for the brunch on Friday. This is a big deal for our small PBA group. To be honest, I wasn’t sure how it was all going to come together by Friday! We had decided on a menu of fruit salad, sausage, egg bakes, and baked pastries and muffins. We managed to get a lot of the fruit and pastries provided by parents of the students, but the egg bakes were another thing altogether! I ended up making four of them, Allison made four,  Claire made two, and a few other parents agreed to make a few also. With having over 120 people to feed for brunch on Friday, the last thing we wanted to do was to not have enough food!

Roger had a day off on Thursday...hooray! The boys had a dentist appointment in the afternoon, and I was going to cancel it. Thursday afternoon was when we were going to decorate and set up for the grandparents brunch, but Roger said that he wouldn’t mind taking the kids to the appointment. He also went with the School on their bowling outing in the morning, and he graciously put up with all my craziness this week! I am truly married to a wonderful guy! Even though Emma didn’t have a dentist appointment, she wanted to go with daddy. It did make it a little easier for me to decorate, set up tables, and organize for the next day without having Emma at school with me. Allison and I had taken the morning to finish the shopping for the brunch. We purchased the sausage, extra fruit, extra pastries, paper products, and the flowers that the kids were handing out to their grandparents. It was a crazy, busy full day with decorating, shopping,  making egg casseroles, and three loaves of banana  bread. I’ve been tired this week!!

On Friday, I was awake before the alarm clock. I hadn’t slept well, and every time I woke up I had the brunch on my mind. The boys were excited for the day took so they were up early also. It all worked out though since I needed to be at school early to put the sausage in the nesco. Roger’s boss, Kevin and his wife, Terri, were coming to the brunch as the boys surrogate grandparents today. By the time the chapel service rolled around at nine am, we were as ready as we were ever going to be! The students did a great job on their music, and the only rumple in the program was when I misplaced the music for the junior high class! I knew it was in my music folder... up where?! Thankfully, one of the students had a copy in her desk. She ran to get it for me, and the program went on. The students presented their grandparents with a flower, a message was given, a song was sung, and we headed down to brunch. All in all, I thought the morning went really well. God gave grace in each situation, and we had plenty of food. I’m thankful for each parent that helped in any way to make this event possible. I’m also really glad that it’s behind us!

Following the brunch was clean up time, lunch out to Roger,  and back to school for piano lessons for the kids. We even managed to attend a small birthday gathering at Allison’s house for one of her girls.   We didn’t stay late as Roger had to work on Saturday, and everyone was tired. It was nice to know that we didn’t have any plans for Saturday!

Saturday was a day at home. We did take trash to the dump, and we did go to the local park, but it was a wonderful down day! I’m so excited that there will be more of those coming soon! I’m thankful that not every week is like this week, but I do believe that God was honored and glorified at the grandparents brunch. The message was clear both through song and through the Word. We serve an amazing God!

I hope that you each had a great week too...it’s okay if it wasn’t as crazy as ours! But did you worship and honor God this week? As our kids get older, it’s something that I see of utmost importance. I wan our kids to know that life is about giving God glory and not our own selfish ambitions. One of my children gave me a great compliment whene he told me “Mom, your always serving other people. But I know that you’ll always listen to me.” It was also a reminder to work at that every. Single. Day. May God be glorified in and through me today and always!

Love, Sarah