This week.

This week has been busy. Last weekend we went to Italy and had a wonderful time! I LOVE Venice! I can't wait until we can go back again. It was everything I dreamed it'd be and more! It's hard to put in words how wonderful it was. When you're walking the streets of a place that seems so magical to you, so beyond your imagination! We're planning to go back in April after our trip to Ireland! I look forward to it! Anyways...we came back and it felt I had to jump right back into the grind and busyness of life (yes...busy ness!) Tuesday I had to go and finalize everything with the caterer for Thursday's Deployed Spouses dinner I put together for our PWOC ladies who's husband's are downrange. I went by the flower shop and got the flowers ordered, and went to the chapel and spoke with Ch. W, Spc B, and another person to make sure everything was on task and answer a few questions. I will say thank goodness for my sweet friend B. I don't know what I'd do without her. She watched the boys for me while I did all my running, so I didn't have to take 3 kids out and about, just Emma. It made things much easier! Wed was PWOC. Jacob went to a friends home (Linda she lives in your old apartment!). He stayed with my friends son, who's also homeschooled and old enough to babysit. Jacob was able to get his school work done while I was at PWOC so he didn't have to sit down and do it in the afternoon. I did some running around that afternoon, then basketball practice for Jacob. Oh on Monday Chad and the boys went to a place called Tuckerland's. It's an indoor (and outdoor, which isn't running right now obviously) fun park sort of place. Has rock climbing, go carts, bumper cars, ball area, rope climbing, etc. Just a lot of fun for various ages and it's cheap entrance at that! Emma and I stayed home and just enjoyed the quiet and the fact that we were not in a vehicle! LOL She definately had no desire to be in her carseat after the drive to and from Italy!

Thursday was our big day. I met "L" at the commissary at 10, got drinks for the dinner. Came home, met up with B outside and took a friend home who B had brought on post for her babies well baby check up. Ran back to the commissary for some ice cream that was to go with that evenings dessert of Apple Strudel, and grabbed some frozen pizza's for lunch! B called and said she was home and that I could bring the boys over while I did all my running for the afternoon. I almost cried because it was such a blessing to not have to take the boys out and about. It's not that they're hard, they're not, it's just that if you have more than 1 child you can understand it's easier when running around like your head's cut off to only have one child than 3 with you! So I dropped the boys off and up to the chapel I went. Told the Chaplain's Assistant's Assistant how I wanted the tables, got the books that were to be gifts for the ladies out, got games and picked out video's for the kids to watch and play after they ate. Ran to the flower shop and picked up and paid for the flowers. Dropped off the flowers and off to pick up the food. Let me tell you now that up until this moment everything had gone very smoothly, I should have been prepared for Satan to attack, but I was rather surprised! LOL I get to the caterer and find that although they marked "Thursday" or I should say "Donnertag" she wrote the 25 vs the 24. So they were not expecting me until Friday. I was shocked and said that my dinner was at 5: 30 that evening. They asked if I could come back in an hour and the food would be ready, except they wouldn't be able to make the apple strudel. That was fine, I had vanilla ice cream for dessert so I did not care! I went back in an hour and it was done, loaded into my van, and I got it all unloaded (without help). The sweet girl who spoke English had only been working there for 4 weeks and was so upset, she was sobbing at one point. I felt terrible for her. I just hugged her and told her it was ok, that God KNEW this would happen and that it was fine. I had a choice in that moment to be angry and upset or show God's grace. I showed Grace, which is of course exactly what she needed and deserved. I have no idea if she knows Christ, but I shared with her that I did and that he knew this was going to happen and that he was with her. I prayed that her boss showed her grace and was not hard on her. Mistakes happen, that's just a fact of life. Once I got back to the chapel I unloaded everything from the van, then it was start preparing for the ladies! I got all the flowers out on the tables (I had ordered primroses, they were beautiful!). Got the food set up. I had to get out another table for the books, I got those spread out for the ladies to be able to look at and choose. My helpers arrived and began making plates for the kids, they even cut up the little one's schnitzel's had their juice boxes ready and everything! We prayed with the kids as they were arriving so they could begin to eat. Once all the ladies had arrived I shared with them how Satan tried to attack our evening and that it got me back on focus.

The fact is Thursday was not about me. It wasn't even all that much about the deployed spouses. It was and is about GOD. He is what our focus needs to be on at all times. What an awesome reminder that was for me and I hope for the ladies at the dinner. I prayed over our meal and we ate! Dinner was wonderful! The food was great, the friendships are precious, and the fellowship and focus on God..AWESOME! I shared the devotion I'd been praying over for the last 2 weeks. God just always gives us the right words at the right time doesn't he?! He took me all over the place, but in the end it was just what they needed to hear from him. I also shared idea's for Carepackages for the soldiers. I was really happy I was able to do that! There was 8 pages of idea's! The ladies all helped me clean up, which was so awesome and kind! I was done and on my way home by 8 pm!

I want my focus this week to be placed directly on the Lord this week and make sure he's the focus of my children this week. Thursday, Jacob turns 7 yrs old. I can not believe it! How fast the years are going by. I really do recognize how fast these years are going by and how in a blink of an eye he'll be off to college. My heart aches and rejoices at once. I'll have done my job at preparing him for adulthood, but will ache for the little boy he is right now. He's a precious little boy. He's got a kind heart, full of love, grace, and compassion. I pray he continues to hold onto those qualities. I pray I can be a better mom to him. He deserves me to be the best I can be. To be compassionate along with firm. I need to be better at spending one on one time with him. If you have more than one child it gets to be more challenging. When you have two, it is definately possible to have one on one, but once you have more than that living in your home you find yourself all caught up with well everything, but what you should be. I should write that I get caught up like that. One of the things I want to do this next year of Jacob's life is make sure I get one on one time with him. I am going to be allowing him to stay up longer than Jackson by 20 minutes. I think this is important. They share a room, but I hope that if we send Jack to bed earlier we can sit and just talk to Jacob. It means we do have to be on top of bedtime even more than we are and I feel over all bedtime is pretty smooth most nights. I know Jack will not like it, but well things happen that we don't always like! With that I need to make sure we're having one on one with Jackson as well.

Well I've rambled enough!