Weird, Bowling, and Wilson Warrior

I can't believe how fast January is slipping by. I have so many check-up's and medical appointments scheduled in February that it hardly seems time. I've had 2 weeks with NO doctors appointments which has been NICE. The past few days have been rough, emotionally and physically and I think Sunday's Satan really tries to keep me from attending church. Every Sunday we have gone to church here, the sermons have been amazing- exactly what we needed to hear. I was struggling with patience last night and sure enough- today's sermon was mostly about patience- waiting for God's greatness and not settling for lentil soup (like Esau did with Jacob). I'm so thankful for the music and words this morning that resounded in my heart a new desire to be patient. . . whatever that means- I will learn as I continue to struggle and not feel well, I hope that I can learn patience in my perserverence.

A few weeks ago, I saw an idea on Pinterest for a snake wreath. I modified it just a tad but this is what Malachi and I came up with. We had fun creating it. However, it's been a few years since my teacher/glue gun days and I ended up with quite the ouchie on my hand that is still a nice blister. This will be a fun decoration at his birthday party that we've been planning.

Our church is doing a sermon/book study on the book "Weird" and I have loved having the boys learn the lessons as it applies to kids as well. Shawn has been listening to the audio book and I've been reading our paper copy. It is a great book and also convicting about being "weird in a God way."
 
This past Friday, Zachary was a Wilson Warrior. It meant that he got to put up a display case for the day and showcase some of his special things. Besides it being an early morning and the end of a particularly rough week for me, we got things displayed well and even had lunch with him. I am proud of him.
 
We also finally made it back to the league bowling. My boys have so many to make since I thought the season was over. My friend Melanie's son is on Logan and Malachi's team so we had to get team pictures.

What a busy, yet blessed weekend. God is good.

Surviving

Today was Grandpa's funeral and it was difficult, but also comforting to be around so many people that shared so many fond memories of him. And, it was a difficult day so my eyes are burning right now and I'd like nothing more than to head to bed and veg out like I did last night, but I have 3 boys that seem to think they'd like to do otherwise.

Tomorrow will be another early morning to head to school. I REALLY wanted to take today and tomorrow off to just have time to "re-cap" and actually spend time with family as well as do some real grieving, but it seems as time off is very difficult to get and I'm made to feel like a bad teacher should I not go to school unless it is impossible, so I'll be there tomorrow, but it will be hard and its one the the first days I'm really not looking forward to it. Hopefully my kids are well-behaved tomorrow and we'll get through the day just fine.

Tonight, I'm so very thankful for my true friends that have cared by texting, calling, or sending cards and as last year when Logan went through his surgery (that was successful by the way) and it was a trying time for me, I felt so much stress, but I certainly learned who my true friends were and it's so nice to know that many of them are the same right now. I know I analyze things too much sometimes, but that's how I learn from them and I'm certainly understanding more about relationships and caring from the compassion I've been shown throughout the past few days, so if you should be one of those true friends- THANK YOU! Although words never can completely heal the pain, they are so comforting at a time like this. And, I apprecite you for have courage to call me and chat and let me cry and be grumpy.

Here are so pictures not related at all to this post, but they do make me smile. They are from the boys' cousin's birthday party a few weekends ago. They went bowling and it was a blast for Zach & Logan.