The one about wednesdays...

Wednesdays are "interrupted" days as far as our school schedule goes. Maddie and Marcus have classes at the Omaha Homeschool Learning Center on Wednesday afternoons. http://omahahomeschool.com/index.shtml
It is located at Benson Baptist Church in the Benson area of North Omaha and is put together by Jack and Holly Donnolly. Check out the website for more information.

So, anyway, we have to get all our school work finished before we go up there. Sometimes we find we need to cut the day's work a little shorter than I would like.
So I have started to work our schedule around Wednesday afternoons a little better.

Maddie is taking an entrepeneur class at the Learning Center. She wants to start a dog walking business. As she is taking the class though, she is coming up with a lot more ideas for different ways she could make money. She's talked about decorating dog collars, because she likes to work with jewelry. Last night, we had friends come over and she discovered they liked her popcorn. So today as she was working on her homework for the class and she said, "Maybe I could sell my popcorn." I thought that was so cute. She wants to earn money so she can save up for a plane ticket to visit Bethany Wilson her friend (and adopted sister) in California.

Marcus is taking a woodworking class. He's is starting to get more enjoyment out of the class as he sees it all coming together. He's building what would be classified as an 1800's type doll house. It is giving him the insight on how a house is put together with framing and floors and such. He is finally working on the roof now. It's fun to hear him come home and tell me about what he will be doing to his house next. He will tell some that he doesn't like the class, but he is proud of what he has accomplished so far. That's a neat kind of satisfaction.

The one about a new verse for the week...

Matthew 20:26b-28

”But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”

This is the verse I'm memorizing this week.

Yesterday was a great day. Mr. Folken...I can't call him by his first name, because I don't want to disrespect him, had an amazing set of songs lined up for morning worship. Most excellent.
One of the praise and worship team, (who shall remain nameless), told me I needed to stop showing so much emotion as I sang with the congregation. It was something else. Our Savior He's alive and well.
This song has also been going through my head all week. As I said before, I love "The Loving Kind"....here's the lyrics to this song that I love.
Oh and just for the record. I like the song Yahweh, but if I had my choice yesterday I would have sang "Praise the King" I would sing it every Resurrection Sunday if I could!

"Alive and Well"
Words by Cindy Morgan and Andrew Ramsey
Music by Michael W. Smith

Mark 16: 1-8

Who did you call Him
When the people ran to His strong healing hands
Do you know
Who did you call Him
When the children danced in the warmth of His glance
Do you know

You raised your voices in doubt
His blood is falling on you
Do you know

Chorus:
Shattered darkness brought the Light
Poured the blood and pierced the night
Sweet salvation shine the Light
My Savior He's alive and well
Shattered darkness brought the Light
Poured the blood and pierced the night
Sweet salvation shine the Light
My Savior He's alive

Who did you call Him
When He raised the dead and all of Hell's demons fled
Do you know
Who did you call Him
Did He demand your all and in your pride
Now you fall once again

I've touched the wounds in His side
And He dried the tears in my eyes
And He's Alive

(chorus)

Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelu, hallelujah
Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelu, hallelujah
He's alive. hallelujah.

Do you believe it He's alive, He's alive and well
Shattered darkness brought the Light
Poured the blood and pierced the night
Oh won't you lift your voices and sing
Yeah sweet salvation

(chorus)

The one about a new verse for the week and a bunch of randomness......

Psalm 32:8-9
I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you. Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding, which must be curbed with bit and bridle, or it will not stay near you. (ESV)

Just a quick update: Marcus started doing "tracking chains". They help him with his phonemic awareness. He's caught on quite well, and when I see his success I'm encouraged at progress with his reading.

So, it's almost spring and Easter is Sunday. I love spring and I love the focus during this time of year...not the world's focus but at our church with the hymns and songs, and in our home. One of my favorite CD's is Cindy Morgan's The Loving Kind. It's a great CD to listen to around this time of year as the whole album is about the week before the crucifixtion and then on through the resurrection. It's a beautiful piece of work. If you can...listen to a copy of it this week and read the liner notes.

I'll be scrapbooking on Saturday with my friend Joy and her sister in law Chastity. I'm really looking forward to learning a lot from these girls who know a lot more about scrapbooking than I do. I think it will be a lot of fun.

When I get home on Saturday night, we will read with the kids, do our homemade version of resurrection eggs, and then color eggs with the kids. I will hopefully get Michael to sing "Up From the Grave He Arose" as he has done since he was a little guy of the age of two. (We have video!) We do these things every year and maybe I will even make scones and lemon curd for Easter morning breakfast. (Or I may buy lemon curd this year...I found it at the commissary) (grin)

Everyone got new Easter clothes this year. (except for me...so far) I always wait until the last minute. It surprises me all the time at the choices my boys make. They made some fun choices and will look sharp as we go to church on Sunday. I love that they love to dress up. It's fun. We went out for the trek for Easter clothes last Friday night...this is how it went....

Our excursion for Easter clothes this year all started on Friday night after our annual Lent trip to Sorintinos. We love their pizza but for some reason we usually only go there during Lent. It's because that they are usually less busy on Friday nights then, because all the Catholics are at the fish fry's all over town. But this year Sorintinos caught on and are now offering fish sandwiches and some other seafood choices, so I'm afraid to say it was still crowded but a good time was had by all!
Then we headed to Burlington Coat Factory. I don't shop there often, but we've had success there at Easter for several years. Marcus wanted a suit again this year. When Michael was his age he never wanted a suit, but I love that Marc wants to look like our Pastor, so again we got him a suit. Now, he had a certain color picked out and I will leave that as a surprise, but he'll be stylin'. Maddie started trying on dresses in the girl's deparment and this was our realization that we had to move to juniors. As soon as we walked into the juniors deparment, Mickey said, "Oh, when they get to this age, they wear a lot less clothing, huh?!" How true but how sad. He showed Maddie an article of clothing and commented about it being a nightie, and Maddie had to correct him and tell him it was a dress. Poor Mickey. However, Maddie knows all about modesty and has good guidelines for herself. She picked out a cute little number and we headed to Kohl's to take care of Mickey and Michael. I always get Michael and Mickey a new shirt and tie for Easter. This year, though, Michael got something extra and Mickey decided he needed a new pair of khakis. Mickey doesn't ask for new clothes very often, so when he mentions needing something I try to jump on it and buy it for him.
So I am left to buy for new clothes for Easter. I figure I'll go out on Thursday evening and do my annual CJ Banks trip. Maddie said she would accompany me. She is great about running back and forth and getting me different sizes. She's a good little matcher too. I showed her how to look at the color lots on the CJ Banks tags and she's become quite adept in helping out picking things and putting them together.

These traditions of Easter shopping are our own. When I grew up I always had a new dress for Easter but it was never store bought. My mother is a master at making clothes and she would sew all four of us girls new Easter dresses every year and managed to do so on a budget. These days material/pattern prices are sometimes outrageous, but my mom was always thinking ahead and bought things on sale and still had time to make everything. Back in those days, she would even make suits for my brothers as polyester was a big deal and everyone had polyester suits. I don't know how she had time for it all and was still able to be a good Pastor's wife to my dad and keep our house neat and clean. It still amazes me. I had some great Easter dresses too. Two of my favorites were a mint green peasant dress with an very pretty inset in the bodice. I loved that dress. Another was one Mom worked on even the day before Easter. Crunch time sewing is not fun for me, but Mom did that year and it was another blue/green patterned dress. It had swirls or a feathery pattern to it. I loved it. I don't know if our kids will remember their Easter outfits the way I remember mine. They are just store bought clothing, but I do hope they remember the fun we had while out shopping and eating out together as a family. We have a good time when we are together.

The one about being a little queasy but up and around...and a new verse

Well, Friday turned into quite a day. I went to my friend Mary's house on Friday afternoon. I had lunch and it never did quite "sit" right. As the afternoon progressed, my stomach just was not feeling well.
Mickey and I had plans to take our two kids plus Andrew and Brittany Hall to Lincoln to a CYIA activity to get information about CYIA camp this year and let our kids meet some of the other kids. Well...as I was driving to the Halls, my stomach really started to feel bad. I dropped Marcus off and picked up Andrew and Brittany. (The Halls sweetly watched Marcus for us that night) As I was driving I thought I might need to pull over, but I don't think any of the kids realized how bad I felt. I gave them directions about the dinner that was in the crockpot and I went upstairs. I had Michael call Mickey and he said he could take the kids himself. I went to bed. I was freezing. I had been cold all afternoon, but that is something I have struggled with all winter and Friday was a terribly cold day. Well, I collapsed in the bed. I was chilling and Mickey gave me some tylenol and I laid there miserably. He left for Lincoln with the kids. My temp went up to 102.7 I think. I was taking it off and on and ended up taking some extra motrin. The big temp finally broke sometime during the night, but I continued to have a sick stomach and low grade temp for the remainder of the weekend. I had to miss church again. However, I did get to hear Sunday morning's message as Mickey called me on the cell phone and put it on speaker so I could listen. I heard most of it. YAY!
So, today I am up and around, but still feeling a little queasy. Thank goodness the fever is gone! I don't know what kind of nasty bug that was, but I hope no one else in the family gets it.
So today is the start of another work week...even though Sunday is the actual start of a new week.
And so I have a new verse to memorize this week. (I had to call Pastor last night before he left for his conference today, to say last week's verse.)
This week is:

Psalm 30:4-5
Sing praises to the LORD, O you His saints, and give thanks to His Holy Name. For His anger is but for a moment and His favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.

The one about surprises, surprises...!

I got quite a surprise last night.My husband walked in the door. I was on the phone with him at the time.

It was so funny, because I had talked with him off and on yesterday and had no idea he was on his way. I knew he was probably coming in early from Texas...sometime before Friday, but I had no idea that he would be in yesterday!

Anyway, I was on the phone with him last evening as we we were talking, our dog was barking here. The thought ran through my head, that I thought I could hear the dog barking even in Mickey's phone, but I didn't say anything. I just figured it was a bad echo thing. I was sitting at the computer desk in the lower level, butI could see part of the front door.

Well, I called to the kids to go and see why the dog was barking so fiercely, and while they were moving towards the door, (from my downstairs position) I saw the front door open and close and I said in a slightly more firm voice, "Someone just came in here." Mickey on the phone said, "What?" (In my head, that was now trying to think quickly, I wondered if it was my friend Mary Cutler who might come in, if she had seen me at the computer desk through the window.)

Well, as the kids moved faster then, they started to yell, "Daddy's home!"I was shocked.

Mickey is quite proud of himself for this feat. I think he should be. I am pretty hard to surprise.

Needless to say, Marcus is stuck to Mickey almost like glue and we are all very happy.
Even sick Michael is thrilled to have Daddy home!

It was good surprise.

The FIRST one about surprises, surprises!

I got quite a surprise last night.

My husband walked in the door. I was on the phone with him at the time.

It was so funny, because I had talked with him on and off yesterday and had no idea he was on his way. I knew he was probably coming in early...sometime before Friday, but I had no idea that he would be in yesterday!

Anyway, I was on the phone with him last evening as we we were talking, our dog was barking here. The thought ran through my head, that I thought I could hear the dog barking even in Mickey's phone, but I didn't say anything. I just figured it was a bad echo thing. Well, I called to the kids to go and see what the dog was barking at, and while they were moving towards the door, I saw the front door open and close and I said, "Someone just came in here." Well, as the kids moved faster then, they started to yell, "Daddy's home!"
I was shocked. Mickey is quite proud of himself for this feat. I think he should be. I am pretty hard to surprise.
Needless to say, Marcus is stuck to Mickey almost like glue and we are all very happy. Even sick Michael is thrilled to have Daddy home! :-)

The one about a New Verse for the Week...

Ok, so I said my verse for this week to my pastor this morning at church. So, now it is time for verse number 3. It's one of my favorite passages of scripture, but I must admit, I've learned it at different times from different Bible versions and haven't gotten a consistent memory of it down. So I will be learning it in the ESV.

It's Philippians 4:6-8:

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

If you want to check out the Fighter verse schedule:
http://www.hopeingod.org/VerseOfTheWeek.aspx
I am working on Schedule C.

The one about a beautiful day...

Totally random post....

Well, it's a beautiful day in NE. I have spent it inside and observing it from my living room. I came home from my doc appt. and errands on Thursday and collapsed in the bed. I thought I might be getting strep throat, but that tenderness has gone away. I'm taking Mucinex D per P.A. Reis advising from my appt. on Friday. Do you think the Folkens passed this illness our way. I sure hope not! But I am feeling like I can venture out tomorrow after two days in bed.

I was supposed to sing at a funeral last night, but was unable to even attend the funeral. I was able to stay at home and pray for those who were involved and those who were grieving.

It has been such an interesting week. I hope that spring is really on our horizon.
It is hard to believe that today is March 1st. Where did January and February go? Before you know it will be planning vacations and activities for the summer. Whew!

Anyway, we are in the final countdown and I sure hope that Mickey will be returning home this coming Friday. I can't wait! I miss him so much when he is away from our family. We do our best at holdling down the fort, but he is such an intregal part we will just have to celebrate for awhile when he gets back!