Flying Solo

I am going to attempt to recap our week. It will be boring, but I'll have fun reading it next year and seeing what we were up to.

Monday:

Curtis and I were given tickets to see Amy Grant in concert at the Hobby Center. She is on the Pieces of Our Lives tour with Compassion, which was designed to benefit the Leadership Development Program.

Amy Grant was fabulous and I loved hearing her sing old and new favorites. Four other things about the night were also fabulous. One, our tickets had us in the center of the third row. They were the best seats in the house if you ask me. Two, we got to dress up, which is always fun. Three, it was a very intimate setting in a room that only held 300 people. Amy told stories in between her songs and talked to us like we were all friends. It was so neat. Also? She is really funny. Four, a former LDP student from Kenya named Ben shared his testimony. I wish we could have taken him to dinner and heard more of his story. If you are in a financial tier that would allow you to give $300 a month, please pray about sponsoring a college age Compassion student. (Groups can also pull their resources together to sponsor LDP students.) Only the top 20 students from each country who demonstrate academic excellence get to enroll in this program each year. These students go on to be leaders in their countries and mentors to the next generation. What a worthy investment! Thanks to Shaun Groves and Brian Seay for treating us to such a special night.

Tuesday:

I was wiped out. I stayed at home and read my Francine Rivers novel - Her Daughter's Dream - while the kids were at school. It was very good.

Wednesday:

Annabeth and I stayed home from church because she wasn't feeling well. I'd let the house go for several days and I spent the evening cleaning. Woo hoo!

Thursday:

The kids had a fun run at their school. Annabeth's class was pushed in a buggy. Can you imagine what it would be like to try to get toddlers to run in any semblance of order? I went up there in time to see the preschoolers run and it was the funniest thing I've ever seen in my life. I was a hole puncher, so I had to grab as many kids as I could at the end of each lap and punch a hole in their little name tag. By the end, all the kids were coughing and red-faced because they were running so hard. Bless their hearts! They seemed to love it and the atmosphere was very fun. There was loud music and pom poms and lots of cheering. I'm sad that this was the first time I attended this event and it was also the last one for Jackson.

After that, I had lunch with Heather and Mollie at The Bake Shop, which is right down the road from LPM. They are famous for a little wonder called the ding dong cake. I got two to go. That night, Kay and Jerrell came over to hang out for a bit and we broke into the desserts. Jerrell rededicated his life to the Lord because he was so inspired by it. Curtis turned up his nose at it, so I ate his half the next day. His loss, my gain!

Friday:

Curtis left town to speak at a youth event in Kentucky. He was really excited to be able to do that. I was a little bummed because my mom was also going out of town, but what can you do? I have been gone so much lately that I knew I needed to buck up and take it like a woman. The kids and I went to a park. I'm not a fan of playgrounds, but it was fine. There was a little girl who repeatedly begged my son to chase her, and when he did she went screaming to her mother. Fun times. Later we went to the pediatrician for preventive flu measures. We made it out in one piece and I was very proud of us.

Saturday:

The kids and I drove out to the TGR Exotics pumpkin patch in Spring. I randomly found it by searching online for pumpkin patches in the area. I wanted to go to Dewberry Farms, as we have for the last two years, but I didn't think it would be wise to try such a crowded place without Curtis. TGR seemed like it would be a laid back experience and the web site said we could make scarecrows. Isn't that fun? We had the best time. It was just a very relaxed day on a farm with some pumpkins. The kids played with shovels in a corn-filled trough and Jackson painted a small pumpkin.

The last thing we did was make a scarecrow. (FYI, this was the only weekend for the scarecrow project.) The owner, Gwen, who was as sweet and engaging as she could be, sat down with us for at least 20 minutes and helped us make it. She had the head already made and I had to draw a face on it. Bless its heart. Then we got to pick out the clothes and scarecrow accessories. Finally, we went to town stuffing hay into the thing, which left me itchy for the rest of the day. But it was worth it! It was the highlight of our weekend. I am the opposite of crafty and I never would have done this on my own. Our scarecrow is hanging out in my office right now until I can figure out how to arrange him outside. Jackson named him Scary Uncle Lou Scarecrow. According to my child, Scary Uncle Lou protects all the worms in the ground from the birds so that he can play with them. One such worm is "Clumsy, the world's bravest worm." You're welcome for that.

On Saturday evening, I made spaghetti and meatballs. I was so proud of myself for cooking while Curt was gone but it didn't turn out very good due to a current lack of pepper in my kitchen. Oh well. After that we visited our sweet babysitter, Sara, who is home from college for fall break. She imported some cookies for us from JD's Chippery in Dallas. Praise the Lord. On the way home we had to get milk at HEB and this was definitely the low point of the weekend. It was so crowded and my son was beyond hyper. I probably would have ended the day feeling like super mom, but I was not proud of how I handled things between us at the store. And I never showered.

Sunday:

Sweet mercy, my husband came home late this morning! We had lunch together Berryhill and then I got Annabeth some fall clothes at Baby Gap, where everything was on sale for 25% off. Tonight we picked up my mom and went to the evening church service. Pastor Gregg preached a great sermon on Jesus's first miracle at the wedding in Cana. You should be able to watch it here if you'd like to.

In conclusion, I'd just like to say THANK GOD IT'S OCTOBER!