Jason's away on a church trip for a couple of nights. I woke up to my alarm and blue sky this morning at 6:40, then woke up again to my son climbing into my bed at the frightfully late time of 7:30. Good thing I set those alarms! We always have spiders in the kitchen in the morning, way up in the corners of the ceiling. I'm too short to reach them, of course, so Jason always takes care of them. Well, on this lovely morning while I'm home alone with the kids, the spider is in the sink. EWW! Now I have to kill it. It took me a ridiculous three tries to kill it with a paper towel. How pathetic is that? After a lovely breakfast of oatmeal and orange juice, we read out of our bible story book. Today we read about Moses on Mt. Sinai, receiving the Ten Commandments. So I decided to bust out the big old Bible. You know, the real one. The one I read when I'm not reading Children's Bibles. We went through the Ten Commandments, what they meant, holding up the number of fingers as we went. It was refreshing to see Ethan actually beginning to understand why we have some of the rules and principles that we do. But even MORE refreshing to bring Jesus and his death into the story at the end! That even though we will break these commandments, repentance leads to forgiveness, which leads to eternal life in heaven because our punishment is paid! Despite the rules! Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound! A long awaited bath was next. Well, long awaited by me. It's been four days. (Believe it or not, I've actually made them go longer.) And Caty's hair was starting to stick to her. They've been listening to The Magic Treehouse stories on cd, which they can't get enough of! So, in that came to the bathroom with us. Finally we were ready for the day, hopped on the bike and in the bike trailer, and took the first trek of the year over to church with just the energy of my muscular legs. Yep. Hope no one noticed the open-mouthed, gasping for breath lady on the bike pulling two content kids eating snacks and reading books. Ah, the life of a child. We made it to church, got toys cleaned, and made it home in time to gobble up lunch. I was SO much hungrier than them, I promise! (I'm pretty sure it's more uphill on the way home than on the way there.) Naptime. Terri comes over to talk and pray with me. It's become a weekly ritual that I value and cherish. I wish it for everyone. Then a trip to a neighboring church to see the JAARS helicopter and eat some good grilled food. We saw Pastor John and his family there, and he eagerly bought Ethan and Caty hot dogs. He's amazing. I don't think his wallet is ever used for himself. Such a blessing to have a man of God like this in our lives, who is so loving to our children. The kids had their first cotton candy, as pictured below. Then we went for more dinner at a friends' house. And by the time we were headed home, Ethan had lost his TV privileges for the next week. Seriously, that boy has an obssession. It drives me crazy. Anyway, I don't know how I ended up just gabbing about our day. Maybe because Jason didn't come home for me to tell it to. It really wasn't that exciting. Well, I'll just call it a day in the life... The kids' first cotton candy 
Fun at Pine Lake a couple of weekends ago with Stout friends. Ethan LOVED the bubble gun!  And he also loved trying to eat the bubbles. 
Here we are taking a trek around the camp. 
Our cherry tree in blossom! 
I LOVE flowering trees! 
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