Just checking in real quick, as today promises to be busy. I have four little boys' costumes to sew up for our church's Reformation Night party tonight, and Shay and I will probably be competing for the sewing machine as she is finishing up her dress. When we have projects going on the whole house pretty much goes to the dogs as I don't have a neat tidy place to hide away my sewing machine and such. It all gets mixed in with real life around here! Pattern pieces, little boys' feet, school books, fabric scraps, apple cores because nobody wanted to make lunch when we are all so busy... But it all gets cleaned up eventually and if we couldn't do anything without making a mess, we'd never get anything done at my house.

Reformation Night is one of my kids' favorite nights of the year, probably just down from Family Camp and Christmas. We don't usually do Martin Luther alone as some churches do. We focus on a different Reformer or historical figure every year and the older kids and grown-ups make booths and activities that illustrate something about that person's life and the kids play the games and get loud and jazzed on candy. It is usually very loud, bright, loud, crowded, loud.. well, you get the picture.. I usually go home early or if I have a very little one, hide in the nursing room. It's just all too loud for me.. The kid's are putting dibs on which of the little boys they get to be in charge of for the night. It will be Joseph's real first year, since last year he was just a baby and everyone is excited to see him have fun. Children really are such fun. They make everything fresh and new with their excitement over things.

Elisa went to the doctor Wed. as she has been having chronic headaches. The doctor says she is allergic to grains which included wheat and oats. We usually have oatmeal for breakfast two or three times a week! Poor thing. So she has to fast off those things for the next two weeks and the doctor will try to desensitize her. I hope this helps with the headaches. It's just miserable to see her not feeling well so much of the time. This is such a bad time of year to be on diet restrictions-don't I well know because I can't have the sugar or high carb things right now either! But I know God must have a reason to bring about this time of suffering for her and I pray she will benefit from it in the long-term, character wise. It's hard to see our children go through hard times. So often we want to just fix it and make it all better and smooth for them, (Not that I could with this one, even pain relievers don't seem to help much,)but sometimes we just have to teach them that God has a plan for them and they too, just like grown-ups, have to submit and trust God in suffering. I do still hope, though, that we can get her feeling well and back to her energetic cheerful self soon.

Well, I better get those costumes going. I'll try to get some good pics and show off the results later!

The Lord bless you and keep you...
Kerri