I used to be amazed at how quickly the weeks roll by. I’m over that now. That’s because the months are moving along at a good clip these days. It seems like we just started school a couple of weeks ago and now I look and the first nine week grading period has ended and we are starting our Fall Break.
BACK ON HER FEET AGAIN! That’s the good news from Pauline. She walked into church Sunday morning and to the church picnic that night. She has even driven her car this week! We are very thankful she is getting back to normal before Mom’s surgery.
SPEAKING OF THE PICNIC. We had a really fun time Sunday evening. We are beginning a new campaign to focus on retiring the debt from building our sanctuary five years ago and to expand our ministry. The picnic was one of several events to kick this off. We had live entertainment and all kinds of things for the kids to do. It was very well organized and from what I could tell everyone there had a great time.
SNACK SNOB. Vicki took Mom back to the Red Cross yesterday to give another pint of blood for herself. Thursday evening Mom called our house and asked Vicki if we had anything good in the pantry. We didn’t (but Vicki was about to make cookies). Then she kept asking what other sweet stuff we had. This made Vicki ask Mom if she was just desperate for something sweet to eat. It turns out that Mom wasn’t too impressed with the snacks the Red Cross served last week and wanted to pack her own food. Vicki brought her some chocolate oatmeal cookies to help speed up her recovery!
THE BLAME GAME. One day this week Ben was building some big Lego project. When he got done he pushed his creation toward the kitchen to show it off to Vicki. Somewhere in the hall his structure fell apart and crashed to the floor. Right after the crash Vicki heard Ben exclaim, “NATE!”
Vicki said, “Benton, Nate is in the kitchen here with me!. He didn’t knock that down.”
After a short silence Ben, refusing to let Nate off the hook, said, “I know...but he did it with his magic!”
SOWING SEEDS OF KINDNESS. Vicki was visiting at Jenna’s school yesterday and noticed a little girl in Jenna’s class who had a very joyous smile. Vicki made a comment to Mrs. Phillips about the girl and got quite a story. In all of this Vicki learned that none of the other kids really pay much attention to this little girl, except for Jenna.
Mrs. Phillips continued to tell about another little girl in the class who Jenna has befriended. Jenna takes it upon herself to look after this girl and help her with her class work. It turns out that this little girl will not talk to anyone but Jenna, not even Mrs. Phillips!
We feel pretty sure both little girls have a rough time in life right now. Their friendships with Jenna may very well be the closest thing to a normal relationship either one of them have. Sadly, this is the case for way too many kids. I don’t think anyone will ever need to explain to Jenna what Jesus meant when He said, “You are the salt of the earth,” and I am humbled to see my daughter spread her salt where it is most needed. What’s really neat about Jenna is that she has all kinds of friends and she doesn’t seem to draw any lines on who can be her friend and who cannot.
VACATION PLANS. We are leaving for Florida in the morning! We plan to make the trip to Orlando in one day and we hope everyone is a good traveler. Vicki took the kids to Judy DePriest’s for haircuts and Ben was telling Judy all about our upcoming trip. When she asked Ben what he planned to do in Florida he said, “Spend money!”
Joe
