September–Already?!?

Yes, that is what I am thinking.  The last few weeks have been so busy that my blog has been put on the back burner once again.  Since I last wrote, we have traveled several thousand miles cross-country, held several meetings, and I don’t know what all…  My brain feels quite numb. 

We have begun our fourth week of school, and everyone seems to be settling into the routine pretty well.  Mornings are clogged with papers, reading, writing, problems, and sometimes even a few tears (although not as many as the first week – and not all of them mine). 

We were home for a very brief visit.  I was planning to have two weeks at home to get all the winter/summer clothes changed out in preparation for our trip north, in addition to school, housework (you know, my house was pretty dusty after a whole summer of being gone), and I was hoping to get a little crafting done.  It was not to be.  We got a call the day after we arrived home asking us to come to northern Indiana the next week.  I now had five days to get everything done.  Was I upset?  Sort of.  Was I overwhelmed?  Definitely.  Did I cry?  You better believe it!  However, I got as much done as I could in that short window of time.  My house really didn’t get cleaned – just got all the dead bugs and spiders swept up out of the corners. 

Now that we are in Indiana, we have a little time to rest while visiting my in-laws.  The kids haven’t seen their grandparents for months.  I cannot remember the last time we saw them.  It is still a pretty busy week, just with all the plans we have, but I am hoping to get a little fun in the schedule as well. :)

Here are some pictures of a few things we have done over the last few weeks.

Packing up the hoses

Surprise visit of friends in NC

Lots of homework

Indians on the warpath – yikes!

Evening with Paw & Maw Carpenter – dear friends of our family

Sporting my favorite knitted scarf

Choir special during our revival service

Doily made of bamboo thread – so amazingly soft!

These two cracking me up “playing” the offertory in the service!

Found a beagle in the church parking lot that had been hit by a car.  We ended up calling the animal control to come and get it, but in the meantime, the kids had fun playing with it.  Sweet little dog!

Thrifting with my friend Laine – so much fun!

Cute pink boots for Esther at the thrift store – like new!

Campfire and s’mores with friends – watch out for the kids with super-heated bamboo spears! :)

Fresh chocolate chip cookies for Labor Day!  Yummy!

Boards form our collapsing fence that had to be torn down.  I have big crafting plans for these babies (when we get back home).  Can’t wait to get started on some awesome projects!

At Papa’s farm in Indiana.

Well, now you are caught up on the last few weeks, and hopefully, I can stay abreast of events as they happen.  I’m not making any promises, though – because I know the next few weeks are gonna be crazy, too.

Independence Celebration

I never know where or how we will celebrate our nation’s birth from year to year, and as a consequence, it varies a great deal.  This year was by no means an exception.  We ended up with some college friends in Colorado and they kind of took us in hand and included us in all their plans.  We left early in the morning to go to the Fourth of July parade in the next town over.  We had to get there a bit early to get seats on the sidewalk, and then, of course, all the shady spots were already taken.  It was a nice day, though, and it wasn’t too hot unless you were in the direct sunlight for a long time.

Here we all are, lined up in our chairs.

The lady who lived in the house behind where we were sitting was rather inconsiderate and kept asking us to move down, for what reason we never did figure out, since no one sat in the place we had vacated.  As the parade progressed, she kept spraying the parade participants with the garden hose, and drawing the return fire of the ones who had fire hoses and water guns.  By the end of the parade, we were all soaked, since we had been directly in the crossfire.  Oh, well. 

Here are the girls with Jack, the pastor’s new puppy – he really was so cute!

The guys – waiting for the parade to begin

The parade began with the flags and the firemen, carrying a banner honoring the 19 firemen who lost their lives earlier fighting the forest fires in Arizona.  It was a sobering reminder that people are still giving their lives for our safety.  There are nineteen families who are grieving a terrible loss this week.

Rural parades are so very different from the big city parades.  There tend to be a lot of old vehicles, farm tractors, and makeshift floats on wagons.  Definitely not the Macy’s parade, but very fun and appealing in a down-home sort of way.

The kids thought this bicycle was totally awesome.  The adults wondered among ourselves how one mounted and dismounted this vehicle without personal injury…

There were also horses – lots of horses.  This is the local rodeo royalty.

And you thought Santa lived at the North Pole!  :)

More horses and cowboys

Another cool truck – Josiah wants one of these

A huge tractor hauling a giant, flag-painted bale of hay

The local tractor dealership squadron

And of course, there was a lot of candy.  Most of ours got soaked, though, thanks to the exuberant hose-toting woman behind us.  Makes for a sticky mess.

Good place to keep your spare candy!

This is way too much sugar for my kids!

Don’t they look happy about it, though?

I love this picture.  In a way, it reminds me of one of those activity book pictures that says “Which one does not belong?”  Daniel didn’t have a red shirt, and he didn’t want to wear his hat.  Love the independence of this picture!

Later, at the rodeo grounds, my kids put on their own rodeo, complete with bucking broncos…

Look at that ornery face!

My cowgirl wanna-be. 

Ride that bronc!  I want to say here, that it is extremely difficult to take pictures of bronc riding and bull riding.  You have 8 seconds to get a shot of a wildly moving target – if they can stay on that long!  I was not able to get any of the bull riding for this reason – none of them was able to stay on for even 8 seconds!

Barrel racing – fastest time of the night was 17.78 seconds

And of course, after the rodeo was over, there was a pretty good fireworks display!

All in all, we had a wonderful time together, enjoying our freedom and celebrating the great nation that God has given us.  God Bless America!

Guatemala–Part 4

I could go on and on about our trip, but I am going to make this the last post about the missions trip.  We had a wonderful, busy, and eventful week.  We saw several visitors attend the Sunday services as a direct result of our tract distribution, which was a blessing to both the team and the missionary family.  Praise the Lord!
Here are just some random pictures from the trip – things I want to share with you.

Soap plant – the Mayans use the berries from this plant to clean their clothing.  It grows all over the mountains.

Gas prices (divide by 7.7 to get the $ equivalent)

Mom and I after the volcano hike – still smiling, albeit wearily!

Public restroom – enter at your own risk…

Children getting out of school.  They have three shifts of school each day, so there are always children in school from early morning until evening.  Interesting concept.

Tuc-Tuc!  I didn’t get to ride in one of these while we were there, but next, time, look out!

Bagged – not bottled – water.

At the ruins of an old Catholic church in Antigua.

This place was originally built in 1545, but was destroyed by an earthquake, then rebuilt, then demolished again.  Pretty impressive architecture, still.

Scrubbing the church floor.

Mom, Misty, & Me (had to alliterate that) :)

The Wilder Family

Group photo at the ruins – getting this picture was quite hilarious!

The Najera family – missionaries to Bolivia.  This was a sweet and Godly family that we met while at the church.  Originally from Mexico, they are raising support to plant churches in Bolivia.

Misty and I – friends forever!

I am so grateful for the opportunity to make this trip, and, as always, it is great to see my cousin and friend.  I thoroughly enjoyed the other team members and the new friends we met in Guatemala.  I know better how to pray for these missionaries, and the particular struggles that they have in their ministry.  I cannot wait to go back!