RELAXING THURSDAY ...

Hi Friends!

Well, of course -- my whole pretending to be normal yesterday took its toll. What was I thinking? After all, normal is just a setting on your dryer. But as usual, I did too much. After grocery shopping late in the evening, I was listening to a book on tape with Bill last night. We are doing a Heaven Bible study, and so we needed to prepare for the 1st study by listening to the intro and preface. I remember listening for a little bit, and then I woke up to Bill saying, "Did you like it?" So, I guess I fell right asleep. And I was so tired last night when I went up to bed that I put my V-neck PJ's on backwards. I sure looked silly when I got up this morning.

So, I decided to take it easy on myself today. Brandon is already done with school for the summer, so he came over for the day. He'll also be over on Friday and Saturday. I decided to give the boys today and tomorrow off of school so that they could enjoy some time with him. He starts summer school next week. And I am planning to do some summer work with all the kids as well, so a few days off won't kill them!

I slept in until 9:30 when Brandon arrived, and he then took over and watched the boys all day. He really is a nice kid, and the boys see him as a big brother. Annie and I went to a post-garage sale give-away that was advertised on Freecycle this morning. It was pretty picked-over, but I got a few things -- some clothes, a mop, a bedskirt, etc. We then stopped at McDonald's and got some food to bring home for lunch.

The boys were thrilled about that. Brandon and Nate spent most of the day building ramps and skateboarding. Thursday is early-release day for the public elementary schools here, so Heather and Will came over when they got done with school at 12:50 p.m. Heather played Barbies in Molly's room, and Annie read her some stories and played "horsie" with her. Will and Isaac played with their army men all afternoon. And after Cam and Molly did their homework and chores -- they watched TV and just hung out. So, it was quiet, and I did some puttering around the house. And I got in a baking mood and made brownies and chocolate chip cookies for our Bible study tonight! That was fun because I hadn't baked in quite a while.

Tonight we had our first Heaven Bible Study at our house. It's from 7-9 p.m. each Thursday for the next 12 weeks. Bill is leading it and it is based on the book by Randy Alcorn. We have 14 people signed up, and it looks to be a very good study. Annie is babysitting the kids for us upstairs as usual. She does it for $5 a kid, which is quite a good deal for the parents.

So, right now all of our kids are in bed, and it's time for me to turn in, too. Cameron and Molly will be up early for school in the morning. Nate went to Brandon's house tonight, and he and Brandon will be back bright and early when Shirlene has to go to work. Isaac was invited, too -- but he chose to stay home because he was having so much fun with Will. Tomorrow night he and Nate will go on their usual Friday night sleep-over there. And, they are planning to have Will spend the night here on Saturday. I'm sure we'll end up with Heather, too -- othewise she'd feel left out.

More tomorrow ...

Much Love,
Michele