Finally, A Post!

My intentions have been good, but my follow through ... as you can see, it's been a month since my last post. Let's see if I can catch up quickly.

Baseball - We finally finished the season two weeks ago. Our team was 3-17. Not so good. Hayden played 3rd mostly. He also got to step in as pitcher some. He actually pitched the end of the last game, closing out our season. He was nominated for All Stars but did not get voted in. Actually, we are thankful that he didn't get chosen! We are more than ready for a break from sports since we have been playing some type of ball since last July!

School - We finished our first year of home school! I can truly say that I have no regrets. Home School is not an easy task, but it has been very worth it for us. I wouldn't take a million dollars for the time I am spending with him. I am so thankful to the Lord that I have this opportunity. It feels wonderful to have that 1st year behind us. Jimmy & I were able to attend our state home school conference in May. Although we still have a lot to learn, we felt much more prepared as we shopped and listened to some phenomenal speakers! I am already anticipating next year! We will begin to study Explorers - 1850's in history. We were fortunate to be able to visit Washington DC, Valley Forge and Mt. Vernon this past fall. It will be awesome to study all the history of the places we saw. I have to admit I am struggling with the fact that he will be in 5th grade this year. Time is flying!

Church - Things have been busy at church as well. At the same time we were winding down school, we were gearing up for Vacation Bible School. I directed the Preschool 3-5 year olds and assisted our Children's Director in a lot of administrative duties - registration, attendance, blah, blah, blah..... Anyway, it was a very busy two weeks ( the one prior to VBS and the week of!) But oh how rewarding! We were exhausted, but in a wonderful way! We had an average of 358 each day. In our Sunday School class this week, a mom thanked us for helping with VBS and shared how her 2nd grader had been sharing Jesus with a friend from her ball team and her mom. We will never know how many seeds were planted.

Jimmy & I resigned as teacher of our Sunday School Class. We felt that we needed to step back from a couple of things in light of our responsibility with his parents. God provided a teacher and our class has already grown.

On another church note - We will meet our prospective Pastor this weekend. Our family is very excited! We believe that God has great things in store for our church. Our prayer is that God's will be done.

Jimmy's mom - We were able to bring her home mid May. She had to be re-hospitalized over Memorial Day weekend, but is OK. Jimmy is now working 4- 10 hour days, in order to be off one day per week. He has to leave work each Tuesday around 9:30 a.m. - go get his mom ready and transport her to dialysis by 11:30. He and his dad then grab a burger and his dad takes him back to work. His dad then picks him back up around 3 Pm and they then get her from dialysis. He takes them back home, helps unload, change her, etc. Usually by the time he finishes, it is too late to return to work. (She has dialysis on Thursday and Saturday as well.) Jimmy is off on Thursday and thus spends his day with his parents. Usually there is some errand that he and his dad have to take care of while she is at the clinic. On Saturday, he has been going to his office to work after they get her set up at the clinic. This allows him to make up his time that he missed on Tuesday. We are blessed that he has flexibility to rearrange his schedule this way! Hospice is coming 3 times per week to bathe her and help with her care.

Please pray for Jimmy and his dad as they are the primary caregivers. It can be exhausting. And the patient is usually hardest on these people. ( In this case, it is particularly true!) Jimmy got called Sunday morning and had to go "referee" because she had gotten very upset with his dad. Also pray that his dad's health will remain strong. Otherwise, I don't know what we will do.

I don't say all this for self-pity, just to let you all know how things are going. God is still in control and has given us strength, joy and grace for the journey. I realized this week that the Enemy would love to rob that from me, and lately I have almost let him.


Fun - We were able to take a long weekend to the beach for Memorial Day. It was a wonderful time to get away. We were able to leave some "daily pressures" of life behind temporarily. We went with my sister, her new found "friend" - sorry no details at this point - and her girls as well as other friends.

We went to PC Beach. The water looked beautiful, but was extremely dangerous. There were double red flags up. Sadly, there were 2 people who drowned that weekend and well over 100 rescues in 24 hours. We actually saw about 20 rescues in front of our condos during the weekend. In 35 years of visiting the beach, I have never witnessed anything like it. Rescue helicopters were constantly flying up and down the beach. We also saw Bay Count Sheriff and Coast Guard Boats up and down the water as well. Despite all the rescues, people continued to get in the water.