My Weekend

This weekend was a good, but busy one! Friday was difficult, although not nearly as awful as Jordyn's birthday was. I truly am praising JESUS for the grace he has given me through these days. Amy asked me if maybe sometime I'd share how Jordyn's death effected Chad and I's marriage. I'm praying over that Amy. I think I will, but need to still pray about it. It's a story of The Good, The Bad, and the oh so Ugly. Some typical and and not so typical grieving from a husband and wife, father and mother.

So Friday I ended up taking the kids and we went to my friend Jen's. She is such a blessing to me. We've known each other since I moved here, well I met her shortly afterwards. She's one of those sweet, full of grace women, yet we never got to know each other that well until the last few months and oh how much I have been blessed by her friendship and her children! She's a mother of 6...7 and under! She loves her children and sees them as a blessing! It breaks my heart to ever hear ugly comments of "doesn't she know how to prevent that" or "have they ever heard of birth control", etc. What's most disheartening is when it comes out of a Fellow Christians mouth. When did our nation stop seeing children as the blessing that GOD tells us children are? He BLESSES us with children:
Deuteronomy 7:13
He will love you and bless you and increase your numbers. He will bless the fruit of your womb, the crops of your land--your grain, new wine and oil--the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks in the land that he swore to your forefathers to give you.

Did you see that? He will bless us and increase our numbers! He will bless the fruit of our wombs! Ladies and gentlmen...children are NOT a curse, they are not a burden...they are a BLESSING.

So, enough of the bible lesson and slight lecture! I was blessed to spend Friday with Jen. I took out 2 of my photo albums of Jordyn and shared them with Jen, who blessed me with her comments on how beautiful and joyful Jordyn looked in all her pictures. You know, she really was too. She was beautiful and filled with joy...from the day she was born! I am truly blessed to have been able to hold her in my arms for those 2 years she was here on this earth. I am blessed to know that she's safe in the arms of Jesus now!

Saturday was a new day and the beginning of a new adventure! My friend Heather and her husband (who's a chaplain) had a retreat down in Garmisch and they wanted (and deserved) a weekend alone. So a few weeks ago Heather asked if I'd be willing to keep their kids D (boy-13) and B (girl-4). I said sure! Heather made sure I knew I could "use" D...go to the store ALONE, send him out to the park with the kids, etc! So at 9:30 Scott and Heather dropped the kids off and a couple hours later, after making a grocery list for the weekend I was off to the commissary, ALONE!!!!!! Wahoo! LOL Let me tell you that going shopping alone is such a treat. It just rarely happens when the husband's off in Iraq serving our country! He took the kids and played outside at the park and in the backyard. It was great!

Sunday/Mother's Day I made us a big breakfast of Biscuits and Gravy. Then off to church. I taught children's church (last time until at LEAST September! wahoo..this Momma and volunteer needs a break!). D and another young woman assisted me. We skipped this weeks lesson and instead I had the kids make Mother's Day cards. So many of the kids, their dad's are deployed and the majority of them had nothing to give to mom, so at least Mom got a hand made card, that as all of us Mom's know, means so much more than any store bought card, ever could!
We had our next to last AWANA meeting, which was also Store night. It was good, and I will admit I'm ready for Awana to be over for the year. It's nice to have a break. We will be having VBS in only a short few weeks, and I will be helping with music (singing and teaching the kids the hand motions and words to the songs, most are new songs, with a couple well known ones!)
Today I took all 5 kids to an indoor pool. It was a lot of fun, but as swimming is, exhausting, especially when you have a 21 month old and a 4 year old wanting YOU to take them down the big slide, over and over again. I took them down aprox 20 times. I was exhausted, my thighs were getting sore, my arms were like spaghetti (carrying Emma up those stairs over and over again), but I can say I definitely got a workout! I ended up making dinner tonight for not only D&B which I hadn't counted on, but D asked me if I would and well when you're being complimented on being a "great cook" (hehe) how could I say no?? So I called Heather, to see when they'd be arriving and since their arrival evened up to when dinner was to be done, I invited them to just stay, eat, and relax for a moment, and then feel no pressure to just go home!
I was complemented on dinner by all (and shockers of all shocks, Jackson had not 2nds, but 3rds on dinner). Now let me explain...he's not always such a fan of the meal I made (which is a stroganoff with meatballs...it's MY all time favorite), so to see him going so crazy over it was pretty amazing! LOL

Since they left I've been relaxing. The kids all got baths/showers, I'm going to go take a shower soon, and then head to bed. Tomorrow will be a down day. I have laundry to do and need to mop my kitchen, and of course the boys have school. It'll be nice to be back to our routine, but it was a good weekend and I'm so blessed that I was able to help my sweet friend out and give them some alone time together, we all need that! I'm looking forward to my own with Chad when he returns!!