Spell the Word, Races!

It has been a crazy, busy week. Our home school group had it's annual Spelling bee on Friday and the kids were also involved with a local church's pine derby racing event. Both events were fun, but took weeks of planning, practicing, building and preparation. 

This year for the spelling bee, Jeanna finished 2nd place in her group. She messed up on the word "sleep" as she started spelling, lost her train of thought and restarted it without asking to restart it. Once the speller says the word, spells the word and then says it again, it is considered final. She was pleased with her effort and we of course are proud of her as this is the child that had so many delays, but look at her now. 

Jackson once again finished 1st place in his group and has quite the following among the other parents and spellers. He was all business like up there and was extremely pleased when he was the last one standing. 

James was 1st out in his group this year, but he is a trooper and never looses his smile. 

The pine derby races were a huge hit! The kids enjoyed designing, painting and building their cars. There were families from 3 churches involved and the camaraderie was fantastic. The neatest thing to see was how wonderful the 4 pastors were together... they were like old friends and really demonstrated a wonderful friendship and brotherhood that I think really set the tone for a beautiful event. There were 4 categories of races; K-2nd grade, 3-5th grade, 6-12th grade and then adults (with preschoolers)
Jordan won 1st place in design, Jeanna won 2nd place in speed, Jackson won 3rd place in speed and James won 3rd place in design and 1st place in speed. 

Oh... and I have to mention that Jordan is taking driver's ed at one of the local high schools. Interesting! She cracks me up talking about how the kids behave in school. She is so shocked! She has almost finished her classroom hours and starts her driving hours next week. My baby will be 16 yrs old in April.  How in the world..... 

Monica

It has been a while since I have blogged. If you remember back in 2012 I told of my dear friend that had been diagnosed with cancer. For a while I had a donation widget on the sidebar as the medical bills grew...

Well, my dear friend passed from this life into the arms of Jesus on February 13, 2014. She was 39 yrs old. She left behind a husband of 20 years and 4 children.

When the cancer came back in January, she asked if we could come to be with her. So we moved into her basement. She did not want Hospice, she wanted family to care for her. It was sad, and beautiful and painful and rewarding. She taught me so much about living in those days before dying.

My kids are really good kids. They packed in a moments notice, traveled and left their home life for almost a month. They slept on air mattresses and pallets on the floor. They left their toys, games and favorite blankets.

They never complained!

James took on shoveling their drive and walkway, Jackson took on taking out the trash and sweeping. Jordan took on caring for the babies and became the preschool teacher for 3 little ones. Her children showed me where everything was and hung in their with me teaching their curriculum that I was not familiar with, changing the way they normally do school, gave up their playroom and shared their toys. All the kids accepted a new menu as cooking for 9 children in someone else's kitchen is a challenge.

And finally, all the children surrounded my dear friend with love, kisses, songs and prayers. Everyday that she could, she would have the kids come into her room and cuddle, talk and spend precious time with each one. She and her husband did a beautiful job of explaining what would happen and her children were wonderful ambassadors of grace and peace at one of the largest funerals that I have ever attended.

She had asked Joshua to sing at her funeral and that little boy went to the front of the church, got up on the stage in front of 400+ people and sang!

Beautiful, beautiful, Jesus is beautiful
and Jesus makes beautiful things of my life
Carefully, touching me, causing my eyes to see
and Jesus makes beautiful
Things of my life.

I know she was smiling.

So, I wanted to document this.

My heart aches with missing her. She was my very dearest friend, my sister, my cheerleader. I am proud to have known her.