We soon will have the money to go so we've scheduled Grace to go back to Sunshine Therapy in October! It works out wonderfully because Grace will only miss 2 weeks of school during her 3-week therapy session. Her first week of therapy is during Robertson County's Fall Break (which lasts 1 week) Yippeeee! That means that Landis will be out of school as well. So...do I want to attempt to take all 4 children to Atlanta for just one week? Maybe. It wouldn't be a big deal. It's not like I've never been anywhere with all 4 of them afterall. Maybe, just maybe I can somehow interest Papaw & Mamaw to come stay at our house for those remaining 2 weeks to tend to Landis and Hope while Grace, Faith and I are away Sunday afternoon through Friday morning for 2 weeks. MAYBE! I won't hold my breath. :) I'll be praying about how to ask them, for sure!

Cattapillars or "Pattakillers", as Hope calls them are the rave here at our house right now. Landis and Hope are collecting them left and right. Here they are picking them off the trees. Yuck. Landis has been asking me, "Mom, is it still Spring?" When I tell him it is he groans and expresses his frustration. I asked him one day why he doesn't like Spring. He told me he'd rather play in the snow. Go figure.

Bobby left this morning at 7:30 to record 12 tracks in Shane's studio in Madison. He called just before 10 this evening and they had 3 more songs to go. I'll be surprised and amazed if they actually finish up before shutting down. I don't know which of the 3 guys will actually feel like driving anywhere. They will be singing in Morehead, Kentucky tomorrow night and Wallace, Indiana on Sunday.

The kids and I will be doing the 5K walk tomorrow morning at Cedar Hill Park in Madison. Mr. Pat will be pushing Grace, Landis will ride his bike, Hope will walk some and when she grows weary I will pull her in a wagon and Faith will ride, facing out, in the front pack carrier thing I have. I know we're gonna be good and tired when it's over. The event is called SoulWalk and it benefits missions.

I've been soaking my nasty big toe in epson salts and the water is cooling off so I will go to bed!

How 'bout those tornados on the 7th? Bobby was in Erin, Tennessee of course. I had gone to pick up Grace at Woodall, the school she attended last year. She had gone to visit for an hour or so because the principal there had asked her p.m. bus drivers if they'd make plans to go get her at Watauga one day and bring her to Woodall to visit with everyone. I had just arrived home when I decided to turn the news on and look at the radar. One look and I scooped Grace up off the floor again and went back out to the van. I won't go into all the details of how many times I was in and out of the house but I'll say that we went over to the neighbors who have told us more than once to come to their basement anytime we want...the door is always unlocked. Well, on the 7th of April, it wasn't. :) The Lord protected us and our home and we were quite alright. Gallatin was hit pretty hard though and 12 people lost their lives that day. We stopped on the way to church on the following Sunday morning and took these pictures. Metro Baptist Church had 30+ children in their daycare when the storm hit and there wasn't a scratch on anyone.

I found out when I got to church that morning that the storm did some extensive damage to the home of a couple in the choir. They will have to live with his parents for about 6 weeks. No one was home when the storm hit. She has been wanting to stay at home with their 3 boys and he made her go to work just 1 more week. I know she's thankful she was working that day.
The storm hit one of the nicest subdivisions in Gallatin. Nearly all of the homes in the subdivision, Woodhaven, were destroyed. I don't know which subdivision I took a picture of. There are several right together. Our business administrator, Pastor Dana and his wife Julia live in Woodhaven and their home was one of just a small handful that had no significant damage. Actually, I heard that it WAS the only one or one of two houses left standing. I'm not certain that's true as I didn't speak to Dana or Julia myself. I zoomed in with my amazing camera as far as I could but this was as close as we could get as the National Guard kept traffic moving along. There were cars lined up and down the street here as people were trying to get a glimpse of the damage.

Wow. Two weeks since I posted. I don't like to wait that long but I can't help it. It's just been a very busy time with Easter and all.

Grace is complaining every morning when I get her ready for school. She reminds me of myself when I was her age. I used to tell my mom I didn't feel good because I wanted to stay home with her. Mom made me go, of course, and many mornings I got on the bus in tears. Once I was there I was fine and Grace's daily notes from the teacher tell me she's the same way.

Landis' attention span is short most of the time. However, he's a great helper with so many things. He puts the dishes away from the dishwasher, he vacuums, he can bathe himself (but I often help because he's slow to get started), he puts his clean folded clothes away, he can quiet the baby - as well as make the baby cry, he's been starting the van for me for several months now. It was so nice of him to start it up in the winter months and turn the heat on.

Hope can't seem to keep her thumb out of her mouth and her finger out of her nose. She's my "bag lady". She carries 2 dolls and 3 purses around and still finds a way to get her thumb in her mouth. She and Landis can play so well together as well as do a pretty good job of fighting. The other day I heard Landis doing his usual manipulative move on her when he didn't get his way immediately. I've heard this so much lately I told him to cut it out! He says, "I'm going to my room and I'm not gonna play with you anymore!!!" Instead of her usual pandering after him and telling him he could do things his way she said very calmly, "Ok, Landis. Shut your [bedroom] door." She's still into mess-making too. I still have to keep a close eye on her. Yesterday she was supposed to wash her hands and come out to the kitchen. About 3 minutes had gone by and I could still hear water running so I hollered, "Hope are you making a mess?!" Her reply was, "No. I'm cleaning up a mess."

Faith is just as sweet as can be. We are all enjoying her very much. 13 lbs and talking a lot. She's not bald like the she appears in the picture. I guess it's the light behind her.

Whew! I just got back from a rehearsal with the worship team and there's just nothing more relaxing to me. I was nonstop and on the go from 6:00 this morning until 7:00 tonight when I sat down to sing with 9 others. Nonstop with the exception of sitting down and feeding Faith and one of those feedings was in the van.

Groceries. It takes my entire "mother's day out" time to get groceries, with driving to Franklin, KY, getting the oil changed (but in Kentucky it's an "earl change") stopping to feed a baby and buying a month's worth of groceries - yeah, it takes the entire 5 hour time slot.

The photo taken above was taken a couple of weeks ago. It cracked me up to turn and see Hope, my thumb-sucker, getting her fix while showing Faith how she could get her own fix with the passy. Hey when you've got something good going on you want to share it with others, right?

Something that blessed me today: nice people. I approached the little stand to give the guy my keys and information on my van in order to get the earl change. He said, "It's a beautiful day the Lord has blessed us with, isn't it?" Then he ran ahead and opened two doors for me. I went in to look at fabrics and the two ladies waiting on me were so friendly and very gracious. I was about to enter a space between two checkout lanes and a middle-aged man came from the opposite direction at the same time. He stopped short and motioned for me to come through and said, "You come first, you have priority." He said that because I was pushing a baby. I left Wal Mart feeling so blessed. It reminded me of what I can do for others by just treating them with kindness and giving them a smile.

My midwife called me when I got home and said she was in the area and instead of coming tomorrow at 1:00 like we had planned, she asked if she could swing by now? Sure. It was so nice to see her. I hadn't seen her since Faith was born (9 weeks ago today). Faith weighs an even 12 pounds today and is a healthy baby. I enjoy visiting with Kathy and was trying to think of more questions to ask her to keep her there just a little longer. But I knew she was tired and had one more appointment to make before she was finished for the day.

The rest of my afternoon consisted of putting groceries away, making dinner, bathing children, feeding Grace, hanging sheets on the line, supervising outdoor play (neighbor children came over). I apologized to Bobby for having such a messy house when he arrived home this evening but there was just nothing I could have done. He told me not to worry about it and things were tidied up considerably when I got home.