Lenise wife of my husband’s college roommate had this quiz linked on her blog, so I had to take it, too. Well, I thought getting electronic gifts for my birthday would make me nerdier, but I guess I was wrong.

I guess I mentioned that I have a new digital camera. So here’s my first attempt at posting some photos from it.

First, here’s Mark with Charis. Pretty sweet!

Here’s Calvin the day after my birthday–the subject of the second picture I took with the new camera.

Evangeline with her baseball trophy for participating on the little girls’ team this year.

Nevin’s VBS teacher made little photos using this fun poster and my digital camera. So far, this is the only photo of Nevin I’ve managed to get with the new camera. It’s cute, but there will be more to come.

Thanks to my husband and my family, I have some new toys to make my life more fun and easier. I had a milestone birthday last week (yes, you know which one), and I received a digital camera and a laptop computer. I am starting some new business ventures, so both of these things will help with that. But so far, I have mostly just been playing around with them. I love using the computer in the living room. I have also enjoyed taking pictures, but I just haven’t downloaded any yet. So I guess the moral of this is that getting older has its perks.

I’ve reached the final curtain. VBS 2005 is over. I served as the VBS director at our church this year, and tonight was our closing program after a week of fun, Bible stories, crafts, recreation, and singing. The week went really well, but it wasn’t because of me. I spent a lot of time the last few months planning this and that, but the real reason VBS at Providence was a success once again is because the people who volunteer give 100%. This was a busy summer for everyone who volunteered, and last week, I was feeling like I hadn’t communicated well enough with all the teachers and staff, and that things were going to really fall apart. But that was just my own negative spriral spinning out of control. God graciously provided our VBS program with staff members and helpers who want to make the week fun and educational for the kids who come. I am really thankful for all their help. I am also glad it is over.

Well, the livin’s not so easy, but it is summertime and it is quickly fleeting. After July 4th is over, you are just on a fast track to school starting.

Speaking of school, we have finally worked out the school plans for our 3 older children for the coming year. We are sending them to a Lutheran school about 5 minutes from our home. We are really glad to have worked out some things with them to make it more affordable for us, and we think it will be a good fit for our kids. We are thankful for God’s provision in all this, and now we can talk openly with our kids about where they will go, etc. Since we were uncertain for about 4 months, we have tried to just not confuse them with all the possibilities.

I am also gearing up to do some work. I hope to market myself for some writing projects that will bring in some helpful income. While I am working on developing some new software skills and getting together some marketing plans, I hope to work for a temp agency. I applied with a local one today, took their skills tests, and I am officially on their list of people to assign to temp jobs. We’ll see . . .

That’s what’s on my mind this week . . . Oh, and Mark and Calvin are heading to Mexico on a missions trip with a group from our church. They leave Saturday. Please pray for the entire team to have a safe trip and effective ministry opportunities while they are there. You might think to pray for my sanity while they are gone too.

I’ve made it through another week with no bodily injuries–foot or otherwise. I’m very thankful for this. My toe and ankle are healing, and I am looking forward to being able to put my left foot in a normal shoe in a few weeks. (Sandals are working, BTW.)

We’ve had a busy week. I unpacked all the boxes I had marked for a garage sale on Thursday, and I opened the sale yesterday. It was very slow. I am getting ready to go out for day 2. On Thursday, the kids and I baked cookies for them to sell to customers. So I am hoping that today goes better and that they sell a few cookies. With it being a holiday weekend, we may have to repeat the sale next weekend. Although, I am sort of feeling like packing up when I finish today and living with whatever the results are. We’ll see . . .

Happy 4th of July to all.

Ok. I haven’t posted anything all week. I’ve been busy with swimming lessons, ball games and practice, helping with the reading contest forms for the library’s reading summer reading program, VBS planning for the end of July (have I told you I’m the VBS director at church?), considering job possibilities, helping Mark with his missions trip support letters, feeding people in my house, maintaining minimal sanity, and doing a little laundry.

So today, I run out to get a little wading pool for the kids to use in the back yard. I bring it home, blow it up, and fill it with water. On my way across the yard to pick up the hose and put it back in its place, I step over the patio wall and knock over a stone slab. It lands on my calf/ankle. I now have a big scraped wound on my calf and my ankle is swelling. It’s sprained, but not badly. And, yes, it is on the same foot as the broken toe. Sometimes life is funnier than Seinfeld (or the comedy show of your choice).

Some who have stopped by my blog in months/years past may remember that at least one time, I mentioned severely injuring my toe. As it turns out, my mother-in-law and sister-in-law in recent years have also had severe toe injuries. I have joked that there is some sort of curse on the toes of women who marry Horne men.

The curse has returned. Today while at the pool with the children, I put 2-year-old Charis on the side of the pool near the ladder and told her to sit there until I could get out and get her. In an effort to get out quickly (and to not give her enough time to jump back in the pool) I was hurrying up the ladder. At the top of the ladder, I slammed my second toe into the concrete of the pool wall. My second toe and my big toe were practically in a “Y” shape. After “snapping” my second toe into its regular place, I diagnosed the toe as broken. Now, 8 hours later, the toe is very, very purple, swollen, and sore.

Last week we headed east to see my mom and some of my extended family. The children were excellent travellers, apart from the occasional “is that the hotel we’re going to stay in?”

Mom lives in Western Pa. In past years, the Amish have been slowly migrating from east from Ohioa and West from Lancaster County to settle in the countryside surrounding my hometown. They have quite a large community there now, and one of the things my kids wanted to do while we were there was to “see the Amish.” So in typical voyeuristic American style, we drove through the areas that now are Amish communities where we passed a few horse-drawn buggies, and saw the Amish people out in the fields working. We also dropped by an Amish store to pick up a few goodies, and the children enjoyed talking with the Amish lady who ran the cash register (mechanical, not electric).

Our trip to the Amish was on our way home from the cemeteries. Every year on Memorial Day, my mom makes her journey to the graves of her parents, her siblings, and her husband to plant flowers and tend to those that were planted before. As a child, I remember spending half a day making this trek and thinking how I would rather be doing something else. This year, I drove my mom to the cemetaries, and I was happy to be with her; I was also happy to have my children along. I think I now understand a little of why she always made me go with her when I was little.

After 3 days with my mom, we headed south to Nashville. Our drive from PA to TN was the worst part of the trip. It was just sooooooo long. However, after we arrived, we had a good night’s sleep and spent the following day with a couple of friends from our pre-seminary church home. We enjoyed seeing the Owens, and we had fun visiting a couple of Nashville landmarks–The Hermitage (home of Andrew Jackson whom we studied at the end of our year of homeschooling) and the Parthenon, a replica of the real Parthenon in Greece that sits in the middle of Centennial Park in central Nashville.

We arrived home Saturday night. It was a pleasant trip, but as always, it is good to be home.

P.S. In relation to my last post, now all the laundry is certainly not done. Oh well.

(Sung to the tune of California Dreaming)

All the laundry’s done (all the laundry’s done)
And it’s put away (put away)
Oh domestic dreaming
On such a pretty day . . .

Ok. This is all I have so far, but every time I have the laundry done (or even nearly done) I want to sing. It seems only appropriate that I should sing about the completed task.