John's Bathroom

This is the afore mentioned bathroom that can be loaded with coolers, rosemary trees, mops and buckets without the knowledge of most of it's occupants as they shower. We are having it remodeled. I took this picture this morning and I hope in a few weeks to show you the 'after'.

Friday Snow

Here is the snow event for today. You can't tell from the pictures that it is snowing like crazy. Carl made it to work but Kaitlin and Marisa didn't have class. John is on his way home from Conway.

With the snow predicted I decided along with half the folks in town to get some groceries yesterday. You would of thought that there was pure gold on the milk and bread aisle. I got out quicker than most because I did the self-checkout.

Pretty Cool

I won a blog contest on Andew Peterson's blog! My prize is a copy of his new book. I am to review it on my blog later this month. He also sent me another copy so I could have a blog give away. I am working out the details so stay tuned. His book is On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness. It is book one of The Wingfeather Saga.

Could you put some lotion on my back, PLEASE?

In 1987 I had just had my third C-section in 5 years. I had a 5 year old, a two year old and a new born baby and I was tired. No , I was TIRED. My hands were dried and cracked from all the hand washing that goes with a new baby. Before Carl would go to work, he would make three PB and J's, hand me the remote to the tv, the phone, diapers for K , diapers for J and a large glass of juice. I would cry as he left. Kaitlin danced over to me one day with a bottle of lotion and wanted me to put it on her. I didn't think I could do one more thing. I was not happy with her request. I very reluctantly said that I would. I had forgotten what fun it was to put lotion on a chunky 2 year old body. She laughed and I laughed and we had a wonderful time. I was so stunned when I was done to realize that the lotion I had put on her got all over my hands. I realized, to some small extent then, that when we serve we sometimes realize the greater gain.

I say all that to tell you another lotion story...

Marisa is John's girlfriend. Her home life went from rough to bad to abusive. We sought counsel about what we could do. She moved in with us in December. Carl told her the rules and she has followed them joyfully. She is a full time student at a community college. She has a regular job of sitting with a precious older saint who has Alzheimer's and she babysits for lots of folks in our church. She and Kaitlin both wear a size 4. I've talked in previous posts about Kaitlin's walk-on closet, well now I have two girls wearing all those clothes.

She recently left a note on my pillow, thanking me for all we have done for her. Here comes the lotion... Marisa is the sister that Kaitlin never had to share the fixing of hair with and the helping each other get dressed( you should hear all the lauhging that comes from their bathroom), my kitchen has never looked better plus the 10,000 steps she saves me every day. What a blessing she is to me.

Some folks raise the question about what will we do if John and Marisa are no longer together, my answer is we will deal with that when and if that arises. Carl said that our goal is to love on this precious child and if they don't end up together we will have given Marisa a glimmer of what a family is with a mom and dad who love each other.

Mission Conference lll

On Saturday night we heard Abbey talk about her four week trip to Ghana. She worked in a Rafika orphanage. Abbey spent her first 10 years of life on the mission field in Africa. Her dad is a pilot and they worked in Africa. She always wanted to go back and see what it was like. She didn't remember the long plane ride and has a new appreciation for her mama who kept her and her brother happy for all those hours. We saw some of her pictures and a few videos. It was great. We also heard Ted challenge us to pray. He gave examples from his life

Sunday morning we had a brunch as we heard the missionaries talk about their plans for the future. They shared prayer requests with us also. The Sunday service began with the flag ceremony. Each country where we have a missionary or have had a missionary we have a flag. They are brought in one by one and placed in the front of the church as the statistics are read about how many Christians they have in those countries. The most moving to me is always the American flag. It is carried by someone in full uniform usually someone from the Air Force. This Sunday a Boy Scout carried the flag. We also have missionaries in the Czech Republic and we have a couple in our church from there. They carried their flag. How moving that was. Dr Medeiors spoke til 12:30 and I never even looked at my watch.

There are pictures on our church web site http://www.covenantpca.com for you to see and enjoy. I sat all day Monday. I feel so much better today but still plan to sit most of the day.

I can't wait til the next conference!

Winter Wonderland

Snow in Arkansas. Callie and Kaitlin ran outside so I could have some people in a picture. They are sad because they still have school. It is beautiful.

Missions conference ll

Four down and two to go.

Wednesday evening was wonderful. After our tummies were full of bar b que and beans and wonderful potato salad plus desserts to die for, we gathered in the living room for the introductions. Tom is the committee chairman and he was the master of ceremonies. There were 31 of us. He asked us to tell our name, why we were there and our nickname. I think the funniest nickname was his wife, KimF. She loved to wear a sweatshirt of her mother's when KimF was in high school. When her mama wore it, it said 'Charlotte'. When Kim , who was smaller than mom, wore it, it said 'harlot' . A close second was Terry who said that his wife calls him ' Terwy' ( like Elmer Fund would say it). Lots of laughs.

Thursday. My day began when KimT picked me up at 10. We had loaned one of our cars to a missionary to drive while they were here. KimT and I met Barbara and Sandy at The Old Mill for lunch. Thursday is the busiest day in the kitchen because we don't have all the kinks worked out on where stuff should be served plus we are making as much as we can for the next day. The meal that night was ham, hash brown casserole, green beans, a roll and banana pudding. It was wonderful if I may say so. We heard from Darlene , who is serving in Japan, and Scott and Kathy, who are raising support to go to Mexico. Our main speaker , Dr Medeiros, is from Brazil. He gestures greatly and pounds the pulpit to get a point across. He spoke from Matthew 4. He exhorted us to be deliberate for Christ. He was very witty and I was sad when his time to speak was over.

Friday. The meal was Swedish meatballs over rice, marinated salad, a roll and three milk cake. mmmmm. We had door prizes this night. It is fun to see how much folks are paying attention to this conference and to those in the past. It was moving when the question was asked " Who has been on a short term mission trip?" About 100 folks stood up. Wow! Dr Medeiros spoke from Matthew 9. He charged us to pray, pay and participate.

This morning the ladies had a breakfast buffet. We were in a new setting and it was wonderful. The room we had was more intimate than in years past. I believe we had 69 ladies with us. The missionaries shared what God is doing in their lives. God was teaching them all about change and that HE is in control. One is striving to learn to let God carry her burdens, one has had to come off the field because of aging parents, one is wondering when they will have enough support to go on the field and one came off the field because she has a brain tumor. She said that she doesn't know if she has months or years to live. She is writing and getting in contact with all her friends and contacts because she doesn't want to leave this earth with unfinished business. I am still blown away by that.

We have a college and career supper tonight then SS and church tomorrow. I think I will go to bed tomorrow about 3 in the afternoon. I may wake up on Tuesday.