Prayer Request

Please keep Bryan the son of my dearest friend, in your prayers or good thoughts. Bryan's wife passed away suddenly this morning of a massive heart attack, leaving him and three teenaged children. She was just in her 40s and was thought to be in good health.

Decisions, Decisions...

Today, my local grands school district decided that the schools will be online until September 28-no in person school. I could swear I heard both sighs of relief and groans of disappointment echoing through the air. There are so many kids with so many different needs and so many different family dynamics, that there is just no way to make a decision that will make everyone happy or that is even safe for everybody. I feel for those who have to make decisions like this and keep them in my prayers. Just between my 3 local grands there are 3 very different needs. My 14 year old granddaughter is scared to go back to school and will be happy for the reprieve for a lot of different reasons. She is starting high school and has really dreaded having to go in person just for normal teenage angst reasons, although I think the lock downs also have her somewhat depressed. It's hard to get her to leave the house at all because wearing a mask brings on panic attacks for her. The 11 year old granddaughter was looking forward to starting middle school and will be very disappointed. She wasn't happy doing online school last spring. Our almost 8 year old grandson is mildly autistic (what they used to call Asperger's) and has difficulty in a classroom setting but hated online school as well. My poor daughter will be going in circles trying to keep up with it all. I feel so sorry for them and for everyone affected by the times we're living in. And I pray that things will become clearer.

Hills

I've been thinking. (Yes, I know-scary.) I've been hearing a lot about "hills to die on" lately. It's a crazy weird time right now in our world. People are afraid of losing a lot of things-their freedoms, their health, their lives. Losing control of everything we believe we should have control over. I think we all have positions that we deeply believe in and that we don't like to back down from. Important positions on just about everything on both sides of every question. I know I do. There are a lot of things that are very important to me. Things that I tend to think should be important to others. Things that I tend to make my personal "hill to die on". But-I hope that before I do that, I will stop and remember the hill of Calvary that Christ chose to die on. The ultimate hill. He did it for me and for all of us. He didn't have to-He did it because He loved us and knew it was our only hope. When I think about that, it makes my "hills to die on" seem pretty insignificant. And I hope it makes me want to come down off my hills and extend as much love and grace to others as I can.  

Uggggh.

It's 100F degrees outside and with the humidity, the heat index is 116. Can't imagine how people lived here in the summer before air conditioning!

Busy Week

We had our son and his 3 children plus our daughter and her family here for the 4th! It was so good to have everyone together. My husband grilled some yummy steaks (courtesy of our latest steer and then our son and daughter treated the kids to some fireworks. We all had a great time. Our son went back home Sunday afternoon, but our two youngest grandsons (5 and 7) and their little sister (6 months) are staying here until Friday. Our daughter took the boys home with her yesterday for a sleepover with our other grandson who is also 7. They have so much fun together and are best friends! We like to call them the 3 Musketeers. They had a sleepover here Monday. We are enjoying the baby, but I had forgotten what it was like to have a baby in the house 24/7! It definitely takes a lot of energy! Fortunately her Pop (my hubby) is a wonderful grandpa and has been getting up with her if she wakes up during the night.  The weather has been so hot and humid and the pools and splash pads are closed because of the 'Rona restrictions, so we're staying inside a lot. Right now we're watching VeggieTales. Guess I'll wind this up. As Bob the Tomato says, "Remember, God made you special and He loves you very much!" 💗

Happy 4th of July

A little late in posting this, but didn't want the day to go by without saying Happy 4th of July and:

Already July or Only July

I'm not sure whether I'm relieved this year is already half over or depressed that this year is only half over.  Either way, 2020 is a year that no one will forget!