Sunday

It's Sunday afternoon. Paul is putting a doorknob on the new closet door, I hear the "blip, blip, wheee" of the video game system, and Sam is running around, jabbering about something.



Will left yesterday for his missions trip. It sounds like a busy week for the kids. They're doing 2 VBS programs daily for a church plant west of Omaha. I think they have some fun time planned for the kids, but it does sound like an awful lot of work to me. The kids had to start late last winter fulfilling requirements in order to go. Ten went so apparently it's something they enjoy, anyway! It will be good for Will and I'm glad he had the desire to go. He'll be back Sat. morning and then we'll pack him up so he can leave next Monday for camp. Two weeks without my trash taker outer, dog feeder, and spider killer!



We stayed here for the 4th of July. The boys love the parades in Carlisle and Pleasantville and the Pleasantville fireworks are the best I have ever seen, anywhere. It was rainy and cool yesterday morning so we just went to the Pleasantville parade, which started later. We snagged a spot near the beginning of the parade route and the boys collected a ton of candy! We know where to sit from now on! We weren't sure how Sam would do with the loud siren noises. He stood there for a moment and then calmly picked up his blankie and walked straight over and climbed up into Will's lap. He knew where it was safe!



Last night we went back down to Pleasantville for the fireworks. We got there around 8 so the boys had time to play at the park where they hold the celebration. I watched Sam as he encountered some different play equipment than he was used to. He cocked his head, watched the other kids, and then took off. I couldn't believe that our one year old was happily going down the twisty slide meant for older children! And then he discovered the other twisty slide that's about 15 feet tall and started up that. Fortunately, David got in line behind him and they went down together. My heart was in my throat the entire time Sam made his way up the steps, though! That's a little too daring, even for this laid-back mom of boys.



These were Sam's first fireworks, too. Last year, when he was 8 months old, we were in Council Bluffs for the 4th and the guys just lit off a bunch of fireworks in his sister's driveway. Supposedly, they are illegal, but nobody seems to know that - or care. Out there, they all just cross the river into Nebraska, buy a trunk load of fireworks, and bring them back over to Iowa. Pleasantville's show is always amazing so I was curious to see how Sam would do with the lights and noise. He was fine! When it got to be too much, he'd cover his head with his blankie, but most of the time he watched and commented on how the fireworks were flying up in the sky. Eventually, he fell asleep right there in my arms. He didn't wake up until this morning. All was well!



I have made an appointment with an ear doctor for the end of this month. I am finding it harder and harder to hear. This has been a problem for about 7 years now. I actually went to an audiologist in Omaha 5 years ago and we started some preliminary testing. Then we moved and that's as far as it got. I do remember being told at that time that I no longer had the ability to hear high and low sounds in my left ear. I am totally dependent on that left ear since I lost the ability to hear in my right ear as a baby. I find myself increasingly frustrated because I hear people talking but I cannot make out the individual words. I can hear sound, but I can't distinguish it into words. And I miss a lot too. So, it's been on my mind to find someone. But I have had all this stroke stuff going on so I really hate to have to deal with two things at once. Plus, I'm guessing either a hearing aid or surgery is in my future and neither one excites me. But last Sun. a lady at church mentioned that she was meeting with her ear dr. this week to decided if she should have surgery. So I went and talked to her and she called me after church with her dr's name and number. Of course, I'm so deaf that I couldn't make out what she was telling me! I wrote down what I thought she said, but what she said wasn't what I heard, I discovered when I went to look this guy up in the phonebook. Fortunately, she had given me his phone number, which I did get right. When I called the number this week the receptionist didn't know who I was asking for, but we eventually figured it out. When I realized who this was, I remembered that this is the same dr. who did Ben's adnoidectomy 4 years ago! So we'll see what comes about of this. Our insurance is pretty good right now so this would probably be a good time to do this. I know I want it taken care of before we get into a socialized medicine situation here in the U.S., that's for sure!



I went through Will's biology book this week, preparing for next year's science. Wow - Apologia (the publisher) is SO advanced! But he can do it and he'll love it. I spent $84 on that book and now I see that he is going to need a microscope, prepared slides, and dissection kits, too. Good grief - it's expensive to educate your kids! If he didn't have a scientific bent I probably wouldn't pursue chasing these things down. But since he does, I'd like him to have the full benefit of studying biology, since he won't have it again until college. I don't even know where to begin looking for these things. I'm going to have to do some asking around, I guess.



I had a decorating epiphany late this week. I have decided to paint the upstairs hallway floor. It has had pink carpeting on it since before we moved in. We were given a bunch of tan indoor/outdoor carpet right after we moved in. We used it downstairs and then the plan was to use it upstairs whenever Paul got around to it. So he pulled that out of the garage Friday and out of curiosity, I peeled up the hallway carpet. It wasn't like when we lived at our old house and I discovered beautiful hardwood floors underneath the nasty blue carpet on top. That was a find! But, our hallway is made up of these wide (about 7") boards and they are actually already painted - an orangy, pukey color. It occurred to me that this would look really cute painted with a braided rug on top - very "country". So now I'm trying to decide between cream and gray for the color. I think I'm going to do something with a high gloss and then seal it to keep out the dirt. Then, we figured that we have just enough carpet to do the big boys' bedroom. But we need to get a pad for that first. I'm excited! I'm hoping to get to it this week. Although, I had planned to slow down this week and kind of take it easy...



This morning was our first time ever to do Children's Church (2-5 year olds). Ben wanted to help and he was so excited to be in a helping position. I was telling the Creation story and Ben jumped right in and said, "And you know, boys and girls, if you ask Jesus in your heart, you can go to Heaven!" I shushed him, but it was sweet. Later, he prayed for the kids' snack and he prayed that "the little boys and girls will listen and learn about you" He was just so anxious to help with anything he could. I suppose some of that is because it's a novelty for him to be in a helping position when he has been on the receiving end of help all his life. But it gives me hope that maybe he has a servant's heart, as well.



There were probably other things that I was going to share, but my mind is going fuzzy. I cannot take a nap any other time of the week, but somehow, my body knows when it is Sunday, and it insists that it gets a nap then! In the immortal words of the Terminator, though, "I'll be back!"