No Power

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Last month we had one of the worst storms in St. Louis history insofar as it made the most people lose power of any storm ever. Wednesday night we were fixing supper and getting ready for church when it started blowing in. James called the kids outside to pick up the toys when the wind began to blow. They had no sooner gotten all the toys picked up than it began to rain and continued blowing. Minutes later the power went out. It didn’t come on for 5 days! We didn’t end up getting to church that night. We suspected a tornado warning, even though we heard no sirens and couldn’t listen to the radio to find out so we went downstairs and waited. The boys were very concerned about the tree we have in our backyard. The wind was blowing so hard (60 mph with 90 mph gusts!) that it looked like it was going to blow over! They prayed for the tree and God protected it! We spent the night at home that night with all the windows open.

Thursday it got very hot – up to 100 degrees! So we spent most of the day and then the night at the church since the church had air conditioning and it would be safer for the kids. We cleaned up the church yard, visited with other folks who were there because they had no power either, and just had fun. Then we went swimming at Mom and Dad’s.

Friday another storm came through. It wasn’t as bad as the other but it knocked out the power again for many of the people who’d gotten it back on the day before. More trees blew over. This storm cooled things off. Since the church lost power with this second storm, and things had cooled off so much we went home. It was beautiful! It got so cool that we needed blankets that night! God was good to us! We didn’t lose very much food. What needed to be used we were able to share with others who also had no power. For instance, we had some ground beef that needed to be used. Mom had some sausage. We put together some chili and had it for dinner one of the nights. Another night we used up some chicken one family had and some spaghetti and cheese another family had in chicken spaghetti. It was so much fun to be that creative! It was definitely GMT – Good Missionary Training. It certainly was nice when the power came back on. An electric pole a couple houses down from us had a tree fall on it and it broke the wires. Monday night they put a new pole in and then rigged up a temporary “fix” so that we could have electricity. A couple days later they came in and made it more permanent.

As a Christian I’m never without power. Thankfully, God’s grace is always there and it is always sufficient. I do, however, have to choose to tap into it. Will I respond to problems or react to them? It’s like turning on a lightswitch and the light coming on when the power is there. When I receive God’s grace I turn on that switch and it flows through me and gives me the power to do and be what He wants me to be.

Some more kid stories

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On the Friday night of the Family Workshop, Matthew Guimon killed a mouse outside with the help of my brothers. They didn’t really do anything with the mouse, just left it laying somewhere. My older two boys watched the whole thing and saw where they left the mouse. The next day at lunch time, here they came with the mouse in hand to show me. I was appropriately horrified and we had the “dead mouse” talk that my Mom had with my brothers when they were little. (You know, the one where you tell them that mice carry diseases, etc.) They washed REALLY well with supervision. Hopefully they’ve learned. I’ll just never forget the sight of James running through the church basement with that dead mouse in his hand! It was actually kind of funny later!

Last Sunday Mom and Dad were still gone and Naomi and Esther had us over for lunch. James was trying to do a little work on Naomi’s computer to make it run faster. Gaelin was moving around the living room and he walked from the couch to the door of their entertainment center! He has been letting go and trying a little more readily lately! One of these days he’ll be off running for good. Then I really will have a time keeping up!

Saturday night after his bath he was playing with the brush I use on his hair and he passed it from one hand to the other without dropping it. He was so proud of himself that he grinned really big and jabbered something. It sounded like he said “I got it!” He tends to jabber and try to say things more than the other kids. I guess he just has so many people to keep up with that it is a survival mechanism for him! He sure loves those big guys, though, and they really love him, too. James and John do an amazing job helping him stay entertained. It’s hard to even imagine what I did with two when they were little and I didn’t have older kids to help me chase the little ones. (Of course at that time they all took a nap every day and we weren’t doing school on a daily basis. So I guess that makes a difference.)

Hope you had a great Independence Day!

Sewing time

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Since we’ve been home I’ve been trying to get some much needed sewing done for myself and the kids. I started out just working hard to get some things made for Elizabeth. We’d gotten some fabric last fall that had Strawberry Shortcake all over them. I finally got her clothes cut out and sewn up. It is really cool to be able to make Strawberry Shortcake clothes for her since my Mom made clothes for me out of Strawberry Shortcake fabric when I was a little girl! I was able to make two little shirts for Elizabeth along with some cullottes, two shirts and cullottes for one niece and two little rompers for my other niece. They all turned out so cute! Since I sort of expanded my project from two outfits to 6 it took me a little longer to finish. But we’ll give them to the other little girls next week. Now I’m trying to make pajamas for everyone. Esther, my sister, came over the other day and helped me cut out shorts for the boys and I still need to cut out and make some pajamas for Elizabeth. God has provided a bunch of fabric for me to use for this. It’s fun to pull it out and have things to use to make clothes that my kids need.

Busy-ness

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It hardly seems like it has been an entire month at home! We’d been gone so much in the spring – which was as it should be – that certain things around here had fallen terribly behind. I’d heard a rumor somewhere that I had a dresser in my bedroom. I even remembered seeing it once, a long, long time ago! Gaelin had outgrown two different sizes of clothes and all the clothes were stuck like some sort of weird time warp in his bedroom, leaving no room for the clothes that he needed to wear now. It was the same for Ethan and Elizabeth.

So over the course of the last month I’ve been working hard on getting our bedrooms straightened up. I got our room done first and discovered that we DO have a dresser underneath all that stuff! We pulled furniture out and I cleaned the windows.

Then it was time for Gaelin’s room (I’d already cleaned the room the rest of the kids are sleeping in). I went through everything and sorted it all – all the baby clothes, all the burp clothes, everything – and got it all put away or put in a place where it can be given away. It was quite the walk down memory lane, thinking of times when the older boys had worn the clothes that I got out for Gaelin to wear right now. So now Gaelin has a drawer for his clothes, Elizabeth has a drawer for hers, and Ethan’s drawer contains summer clothes. He’s loving that, since it has been quite hot for the last two or three weeks!Â

We’re hoping to have a garage sale in just a few weeks, as soon as I finish sorting everything in the house. I know it will need to be done again next year as we continue to pare down our belongings in order to move to Africa, and then again the following year before we actually move. So I have a goal that is only a few weeks away. But the next few weeks will be busier than these have been so it will be more challenging!

The kids in the Family Workshop

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It’s been a busy couple weeks since I last wrote. We had the Family Workshop at our church. All the kids were able to participate in this. It was SO much fun for them. The kids were each put into different classes. Each of the boys planted a little plant – that I’m now trying to keep alive. They decorated journals and painted t-shirts with their names and their class logos. They’ve been wearing those t-shirts proudly everywhere we will let them, only taking them off for washing now and then when I make them.

The teachers did such a good job. The kids were learning about the 4 soils from Luke and Ethan’s teacher reviewed them with the kids so much that Ethan started blurting them out in the large group times – times when all the kids met together. Part of the draw was that every time a child answered they were given a Starburst candy. So Ethan wanted those candies. He would shoot his little hand into the air and then not wait to be called on but would blurt out the answers. He could list of all the types of soils and what they meant. We were so proud of him! They all learned all the songs and new the verses with a LOT of help. James and John did their activity papers almost completely – with help from their teachers. But the teachers kept telling me how well they could write for only being just barely 5. Guess our school work is paying off!

Another thing they did was to have 4 of the teen guys dress up like Mexican boys and come in and talk with grossly fake latin accents and just be very silly. Our kids got such a kick out of them. Once when they came running in, Ethan laughed and laughed out loud, leaning over and slapping his knee. Another time Elizabeth got so tickled that she just sat there and laughed hysterically the whole time they were in the room. They almost had to take her out! James and John would just giggle and giggle at everything they said.

It’s been neat to see our kids start to participate more in our family Bible reading. They have been giving real answers to questions James asks them about the Bible passages we just read, not just Sunday School answers. It is so fun to watch our little Christians grow!

Well, I’ll try to be a bit better about posting things here from now on!  I guess time just got away from me!