The First of Six Chalk Drawings

   Last night, Andy did the first of six chalk drawings for this year.  He'll be doing one every other month on Sunday evenings.  He's been telling stories on Sunday nights of great Christians and Missionaries, which has been so interesting!  So far, he's told the stories of Fanny Crosby, Adoniram Judson, and John Bunyan.  Last nights story was of John Newton, the author of the hymn, Amazing Grace.  What a rough life that man lived, from a wild, murdering young man who got "pressed" onto a ship in the British navy, to a slave trader, and eventually a preacher and song writer.  Its amazing what God can do with a life given to Him.  Andy drew a picture of a ship on stormy seas, and the black light picture was a cross.  I know Andy's a little out of practice, but still, he did a wonderful job.  The service was a good one and we had a lot of visitors.  One young family has been coming on Sundays.  The husband is saved, but the wife is not.  She has been against anything to do with church for several years, but this year, she made a resolution to start going.  She loves our church!  Please pray for her salvation.  Her name is Kolby.  Their two children, a boy and a girl, LOVE Andy's Sunday school class and ran up to him last night at church telling him how much they missed class that morning, having not been able to make it for some reason.  Pray that this family will continue to get in.  Our ladies meeting is next Tuesday and Kolby said she wanted to come and will be bringing her daughter.  She's all smiles, which is a switch from when they first started coming last month. 
   Some of Andy's family also came down for the chalk drawing.  It was good seeing them again!  We had pizza at our house afterwards.  Thanks again, Edi and Nathan!   :)
   Tomorrow, I'm taking Wesley to an allergist.  Hopefully he'll be able to pinpoint what's causing Wesley's rash.  All three of the kids are battling runny noses and coughs right now.  Not too bad yet, and I pray it'll stay that way.  Sick kids are NO fun!  I can't wait for this weather to move on and take all the bugs with it! 
   Andy's tuning a piano at the church of a preacher friend today, and may tune our church piano if he gets home in time.  He's been staying busy these days!  He's been rushing to finish his Samurai, or at least get the engine parts cleaned and put together and on the frame.  He's been getting some paperwork together so that he can try to get a loan on a house.  He's decided to go ahead and try an make an offer on a place about 7 miles out of town.  Its a three bedroom, two bath, with big garage and a full basement, and a good size shed, and a smaller tool shed next to it.  The house sits on about three acres surrounded by fields and horse pasture.   We're going to go forward with this and see what happens.  I pray that the owners will take the offer and we can get moved in before Spring and planting season.  I'd love to have a garden this year, especially since Wesley will be eating solids soon.  I want to grow most of it myself.  Spending another long summer in town really doesn't thrill me!  :)  Please pray that, if this place is right for us, that it'll all go smoothly.  We want God's will on this.  Buying a house is no little decision. 
   Andy surprised me last weekend with a dozen roses and a box of chocolates for Valentines Day!  Not that he never does anything like that.  :)  He NEVER forgets a special date.  Its just been a few years since he was able to get flowers.  There has always been something else that we needed, and we learned that flowers were a luxury.   Oh, I'm like every other girl out there, I love flowers and chocolates!  But life sometimes gets in the way of little luxuries like that and you learn to live without them.  That is okay.  We learned to make our dates special in other ways that were less pricey, and we also learned to enjoy those simple ways.  Looking back, I wouldn't trade those days for anything.  They taught us a lot about being grateful for what we had.  We would save up our loose change, and when we had a few dollars worth, we'd head out early Saturday morning and hit every yard sale we could find to hunt down a good deal that we could try to sale online and double our money.  It was a good time!  Simple ways will draw you closer to your husband and family in ways that the wealthy know nothing about.  Oh, it got hard at times trying to stretch those few dollars to make ends meet, but God provided our "needs" every time.  It was the "wants" that got put on the back burner for awhile.  Like flowers and chocolates.  Luxuries.  So, when Andy walked in last Friday carrying those beautiful red roses and a big box of Russell Stover chocolates, I almost cried.  It was so sweet, and so special.  A lot of memories came flooding back.  Memories that drew us close. 

My kitchen becomes Grand Central Station when I'm cooking.  I finally had to make a rule that no toys where allowed in my "cooking corner" of the kitchen.  The kids LOVE being in there with me.  I normally have a preaching CD playing while I'm working and the kids will drag their bedding in there and find themselves a spot to either play toys or read books.  I don't really mind stepping over them, as long as their are out of my work space.   It tears them up if I tell them to "go play".   I was changing Wesley one day in my room, and when I finished I noticed how quiet it was in the house.  That is always worrisome when you have two little ones who are supposed to be playing somewhere!  As I climbed the stairs to see what they were getting into, I heard a mans voice and thought that Andy had come home without me knowing it.  When I peeked into Christian's room, I realized it was not Andy's voice I was hearing, but Bro. Ron Ralph's on a CD.  Christian had gotten my kitchen CD player and taken it up to his room and he and Audra were playing on the floor, quiet as ever, listening to Bro. Ron tell them to get right with God.  :)  Christian gets all excited when he recognizes a Bible character in the preaching!  :)  So no, I don't mind the kids camping out on my kitchen floor while I work.  They are listening to the preaching and that is worth a little inconvenience on my part.