May the 4th Be With You

Kara came home from her very last Wednesday night as a "kid" in church.  They break for the summer and when we go back in the fall, Kara will be in the youth group!! 

Her last night, awards were handed out.  Kara told me every detail.  She said the very first award went to her - the children's leader said, "there is someone who comes every Wednesday and serves.  She is so helpful!"  Kara said she almost cried because she was so happy.  I'm more proud of her servant heart than any A grade!!!

Today was Thursday.  I worked at the church - we did a broad overview of everything she does in a month (wow!  That took about 3 hours), then I worked on a bank reconciliation (if they go smoothly, like this one did, they take about 2-3 hours), then I started working to find a problem.  I didn't find it yet, but I know where to look, so I'll continue at home on my own.  After that, I picked up dinner so I could do our Drive Thru Thursday - ladies eat dinner together and fellowship.  We laughed so hard we cried.  Women are awesome.  (Don't get me wrong, men are too!)

All day my mind was somewhere else.  Mostly it was with Tim and Vicky.  Micheal's dad is doing poorly with a tumor on his brain and a brain bleed.  All I can do is cover them with love and prayer.  All day long.  And their kids.  Just praying, praying, praying.  When I can't think of anything else to say, I just say, "God, please."  He knows my heart.  I am just squirming inside knowing how bad things are right now.

After those two things, my mind was on Kara at home working on school alone.  (She did well, she just "forgot" two things, so she did them for homework.)  My mind was also on the claim I filed with the insurance company for hail damage - we scheduled a time for them to come.  My mind was also on Michael - wondering how he is handling things while his dad is so sick - since he doesn't share feelings and stuff.  My mind was also on the Drive Thru Thursday inserts we are doing for next month's bulletin.  My mind was also on the contractors who called a couple times to see if they could come to the house today to work on something for me - even though I wasn't there.

To say I was distracted is an understatement!

Let me leave you on a good note.  Kara's recent writing assignment was to write about her move to Alabama.  Just about every fact is wrong, but I actually enjoyed reading how it felt to her (and her grammar is good):

The day we moved to Alabama, we went to our rental house—our new house was still being built—and my grandma came with us for a while to help us unpack. After only about a week, we had unpacked everything we would need in the short nine months of living in the rental house, and my grandma went back to her own home in Florida. It only took a few days for the moving truck with our furniture to get there, and until then, we made small chairs work.

Finally, nine months later, in May of 2016, our new house was done. We moved and once again, my grandma helped us unpack. Except, this time, instead of moving from Maryland to Alabama, we just went across town, so the moving truck only took about fifteen to twenty minutes to get there. Our backyard was nineteen acres of forest, and our front yard was a large stretch of tough grass until it reached a bluff.

In June, I could finally get what I’ve been wanting for several years: cats. The kittens were old enough to be separated from their mother. We picked out two little black kittens because their siblings wanted nothing to do with us, and the black ones were always buddies.

Now, nearly a year after getting the cats, in May of 2017, my family is still living a calm and happy life with our two black cats and beautiful forest.