I guess you have noticed I took a major break from blogging. To be honest I probably could of done the best blogging of my life this past month, but I did not trust my feelings. The struggles with the kids and my own personal health and struggles were a little overwhelming and I had to sort through a lot of things. I do appreciate your prayers and the phone calls we received and I tried to hit the highlights on FB :) I am happy to report that Chloe is doing so much better at school. The teacher finally put a discipline chart in the classroom and her behavior has completely turned around. We still see her moments of her strong-will, but doing much better. Emma continues to do great at school. She is making lots of friends and learning so much. Samuel is now 9 years old and is also doing good. He has made some friends and seems to be adjusting to the new school. He is actually going to a friend's birthday party on Saturday. This Saturday Samuel finishes up his soccer season and already looking forward to spring soccer. We are so glad that we signed him up! It has been a great experience for him and he is actually pretty good. The other parents were surprised when they found out this was his first year playing :). Jeremy ran his first full marathon a few weeks ago and he is working hard to finish up his doctorate degree.
I am enjoying my job situation this year. I have finally got into a routine and I am setting aside at least one day a week where I come straight home and just sit down and read or watch TV, no errands and no cleaning, just resting. I have had a great deal of pain the past few weeks, but I started to make notes about what seemed to set off the different areas of pain. I am trying to make adjustments and it seems to be helping.
Before I close I just wanted to share something about today and how God spoke to me. Okay, this is a really weird way to start this story, but here it goes. I do not like feet and I even have issues with socks. I have been this way for a really long time. I seriously would refuse to wear sandals with my toes showing for the longest time. I eventually fell in love with wearing flip-flops so that changed my choice of shoes I would wear. I hate when people of all ages are wearing dirty socks and the worst is when the sock is hanging loose off the toes (YIKES, I am getting freaked out just writing that!). Being a good Free Will Baptist I have attended feet washing services, but I have to say it really is a humbling thing for me to do (P.S. ladies, wearing your hoes during feet washing doesn't help matters!) and I will admit that I would sneak out if given the chance. I think my dislike of feet and socks have carried over to my dislike of even folding clean socks. Anyway, yesterday the teacher I work with showed me these really cute ghost paintings. She explained to me that the ghosts are made my painting the kid's feet and then their foot prints are the ghosts. They were really cute and I agreed that it was a cute idea. Today during our center time the teacher asked me if I would oversee the ghost project. At first I was like, "Sure", but then the horror set in as she was telling me to have them take a shoe and sock off and then paint the bottom of their foot, and then take a wet wipe and wipe off their foot and then help them put their sock back on. Um, lady, I don't do feet did not seem like the correct way to approach this situation. So, one by one (19 in all) a preschooler sat down in the chair and took one shoe off and one sweating, clinging sock off their foot. Stuck it in my face and waiting for me to turn their foot into a ghost. Now the worst part was actually helping them put the sock back on because you know not a single kid was successful in keeping their sock from being inside out, but even in my discomfort God was speaking to me. Many of the kids giggled and squirmed through most of the painting and several times I though I would have a big footprint on my face, but as I wiped their little feet off, getting all the paint out from between their squishy toes, I was reminded why we moved our family to Chicago, to serve those who need Christ. It was in their giggles that I was reminded that serving others is not always ( and sometimes never) enjoyable for us. It is in the small and sometimes messy tasks in our daily lives that we are showing God's love. It was in those moments today that I was humbled and reminded that no task is too small or insignificant when we are doing it for the Lord. I had the opportunity to whisper a prayer for each child and their families as I wiped their feet and in the end it was a beautiful thing.
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| Enjoying some play ground time before the cold comes in |
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| Making my mom's yummy sugar cookies! |
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| The cold weather gear has been a must this week. I LOVE this hat on Sam :) |
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