Mon., Mar. 3 - Wed., Mar. 5

On Monday the children played Dinosaur Explorers for about two full hours, inside and outside, including finding 'fruit' on 'trees' to snack on (Their apple snacks between breakfast and lunch.) They chose their outfits to match, all the way to their caps. So cute!! They had so much fun. :))

Justus, as he has done every day following last Wednesday's flu symptoms, got to feeling very bad in the afternoon, through the evening. :(( Since J wasn't feeling up to traveling around town with me, I decided to leave both him and N with Elaine here at the house; I'm still convinced it was the right decision. Sadly, I forgot my list & coupons at home, so I did only half the Grocery Game shopping (milk on sale $1/half gal.! and we were completely out of milk!), and stopped at Office Max for a new pencil sharpener (Our grrrrreat one bit the dust due to some as-yet-undetermined mistreatment, is my suspicion.), and to PetSmart for a toothbrush for Chewie. Brushing dogs' teeth is funny. LOL!!!!!!! Makes me laugh just to think about it.

Jeremy spent the day in Sierra Vista laying more tile, but arrived back in town just in time for a meeting with the men to talk with some Spanish-speaking brothers who are interested in using our facility for their worship services and sharing with us in Bible classes!!!!!! The meeting was awesome; there was much positive energy, and spiritual thinking. What a joy! It is looking very much like it will be only until April before Mission Valley is a bi-lingual congregation. AMEN!!!!! It's been too long in coming!

Monday night I pulled out our two boxes of high-quality magnetic letters; I don't leave them out all the time because there are a gazillion of them and they are too 'LOUD' for me to deal with on a regular basis. After placing them on the refrigerator I 'wrote' a message for Jeremy and one for the children, hoping to mostly get the children excited about using the letters to write sentences. Hilariously (to me), although they have done some of that, it is blowing my mind that N & J have been equally-enjoying flipping the letters all this-way and that-way and 'drawing' 'pictures' with the letters!! Recognizable stuff!! I'll try and take some photos; it's weird and fun/creative.... Never heard of THAT before....

Monday night Jeremy got super-super sick, most likely, we think, with the same bug Justus had last week (and still seems to be fighting). Jeremy slept very, very little; I'll spare you the details. He spent all day Tuesday in the bed. The children and I accomplished stops at the library, the health food store, Fry's (WITH the list and coupons this time), and Wal-Mart. We were blessed to have grilled steak and Anaheim pepeprs for supper, one of Jeremy's all-time favorite meals ... which of course he couldn't eat. :( I was able to have some phone time on Tuesday with both Stephanie and Travis, who still plans to spend his Spring Break here with us in Tucson with his friend Kristen. Exciting!!

Something fun happened at the health food store. The children are having a complete BALL weighing stuff in grocery stores now. I am completely happy to oblige this interest. We bought four 'bulk' items, and as the children were weighing the bags they decided they were bags of gold. By the time we got to the check-out counter N & J were well into this line of thinking, and as they turned over the bags to the clerk, N & J said, "Here, you may have the bags of gold." The lady said, "Oh, bags of gold, huh?" N said, "Well, we're just pretending they were bags of gold when we were weighing them." The lady said, "This one is actually oatmeal. What will you use this oatmeal for?" N said, "Oh, one thing is for GRANOLA!" The lady said, "Hm! And do you eat it plain or with milk?" N said, "With MILK!" I said, "Another thing we like to do with oatmeal is make Chocolate Oatmeal No-Bake Cookies." The lady said, "Sounds good; what's in them?" N & I told her about oatmeal, peanut butter, chocolate, walnuts. She asked where I got the recipe, and if N & J like them, to which they replied, "Oh, YES! They are one of our favorite things to make and eat!" She was interested-enough that I asked her if she would like me to bring in the recipe for her next time we stop in (What is it with me and recipes? I'm almost getting annoyed!!! But ... no one else seems to be, so ...??); she said yes! lol So I got her name in case she's not working when I go in next time. Our transaction done, we backed away from the counter, toward the door. I heard her say half-contemplatively, "Wow, enthusiastic children!" Then she blinked, then she said to me, "Wait, why aren't they in school?" Another customer was approaching the counter, so I just tried to quietly holler my answer: "We're homeschoolers! (and then a second later) So actually we *are* at school!" She looked baffled for a minute, and then nodded that she understood, as we slipped out the door. I left feeling very good about having left a good impression about homeschoolers. However, my heart was also reminded of the sadness that so many children are NOT enthusiastic ... about, basically, anything, and that just breaks my heart.

At the health food store this time we picked up a product N will use this next month to see if it helps with her dry skin/flaky spot above her lip. It might be eczema; we have been 'fighting it' for the past six months or so. I had a matching one that I have managed to mostly-kill, but N's is really bugging me, so we'll see how this works. "Omega Twin" is the product. It's a capsule of fish oil and other stuff that she can just swallow. The employee I spoke with about it said that this is one of several products that are effective in controlling her 15yo daughter's psoriasis.

Also at the health food store (Have I mentioned how much I like the health food store????) I got a new essential oil. Lime. Yay!! I'm learning that it is an antiseptic, a disinfectant and an astringent and can help clear up pimples! HUH!! http://ezinearticles.com/?Lime-Pure-Essential-Oil&id=112714

Today was Wednesday. After Jeremy (who stayed home today) helped me plop a roast and veggies in the Crock-Pot for supper, I weeded. The weeds have gotten out of hand; I have some sort of strange blinders that make it impossible for me to see weeds until there is a weed PROBLEM!!! [Note: I know it is difficult for my loved ones under a foot of snow to view my weeds as a 'problem'. Please bear with me. lol] I am thankful for this quarter's break from teaching a Bible class because it will give me more time over this next three months than I usually have. Most Wednesdays I would spend an hour prepping my class; today I weeded for that hour. At the beginning of a big project like this, it's difficult to see any major amounts of improvement.... I am super-thankful for Natasha's and Justus's help. While Justus watered the garden, Natasha lugged the water bucket to him for a refill and back to me so I could spot-soak the weeds I wanted to pull!

In the afternoon Jeremy mustered up all the energy he had in order to keep a commitment. A middle-aged woman in the church, whom Jeremy and I have grown to love, shared with Jeremy that over the past two years she has come to the realization that her first 'baptism' wasn't a baptism at all because it was not done in faith. She was told by her mother at age 15 that it was time for her to get baptized, so she did it ... and then promptly turned around and lived twenty-five really bad years ... you name it. :*( However, she has fallen in love with God recently, and her faith has grown tremendously, so she decided to commit her life to Jesus, starting today. WOW, was she BEAMING. Oh, man, what a lovely moment in which to participate.

This afternoon I did some computer work, edited some more recipe book pages, and decided to leave J home with Jeremy while N & I went to Bible class. There are no children's Bible classes on Wednesdays this quarter because Mary Jo is teaching a class for the ladies, in which the leadership wished for me and the girls to partipate. So J will go to the class with the men for this quarter. What he will gain from that class will largely be references that Jeremy speaks with him about during the week, but it is a good change of pace for everyone.