Oh boy! Where to start?
I know I've talked about this before but for some reason the Lord has been stressing this lesson to our family again lately:"A man's heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps." Proverbs 16:9.Two Saturdays ago we set out in the bus, hoping to go to San Diego to a family get-together/birthday party. It wasn't more than 30 minutes later we were sitting on the side of the road, (actually we pulled into a parking lot), because a belt broke, causing us to lose power steering. (Not good in a big ol' bus!) We sat in that familiar silence as the boys opened up the engine compartent and began to assess the situation. We needed some new belts that were somehow not in our onboard stock. A few minutes later a truck drove up, a man called out, asking if we needed a ride to get any parts or tools! A few hours later we were back in operable condition, but barely, so we felt the Lord's direction to head back home where we spent a quiet evening together with just our family.
Justin went with the man who offered a ride, in search of some belts while the other guys took the old ones off.
Another way the Lord is directing steps, differently from our plan has been with the house plans. Many people have been asking about them. We're asking too! Dad and Mom went to the county this morning and discovered that they won't accept the plans the way we have them, Mom had been working on the design for well over a month, and we all liked it a lot. The county said we could pay them $5,100 to have a hearing and they might reconsider their decision possibly. We opted out of that since they're already requiring us to pay $5,100 for the CUP, plus $1,400 to get our lot re-divided. It's looking like Dad and Mom will be spending yet more time drawing up another idea.
Since the last update we've had two pizza nights. The next one is scheduled for Friday, September 2nd. The last two pizza nights were blogged about already by some family members here and here.
Visiting on pizza night...
Find a seat and eat! With 89 people that can be harder than you think. ;)
Jim's ministry at pizza night, smoothies and frappaccinos for everyone!
Where the real fun begins!
Can life get any better then this? ;)
We had the pleasure of seeing our friends from up north last week. Uncle Tony and Aunt Barbara have been such a good example of a joyfully married couple, and we've always admired them for that. Over 12 years ago their family generously opened up their home to our family of 9 kids to stay as long as we needed to since we didn't have any other house available to us at the time... Now they have 9 kids! (But they still have a house to live in.) ;) It was great spending time with them and getting to know their kids better!
Uncle Tony: "Hey hon, what do you think about moving to Africa? Aunt Barbara, "Sure babe, whatever you want!" (That was an old old old quote, but we've never forgotten it because it's a perfect example of how willing Aunt Barbara is to cheerfully follow Uncle Tony to the ends of the earth. Isn't that sweet?
About a week ago we were busy doing little odds and ends that needed to be done and the phone started ringing. Next thing we knew there were 4 kitchens waiting for us to remodel so it looks like we'll be busy for awhile. We started the first one yesterday. It's been neat to see how the Lord provides work for us without our help! Each job brings in one or two more just by word of mouth referals.
We've been enjoying playing instruments together since music camp. It's a new favorite pass-time. Maybe we'll work on playing the same thing in the same key at the same time together so that other people can stand listening in. ;)
This week we have a small family of 10 in the evenings because Tiffany is attending the Basic Seminar with Jack and Joanna, while Annie, Will and Merrie are working in the childrens program. It's amazing how quiet the house is, even though Kaylee and Heidi are running around and bouncing off the walls, while Trevor crawls, stomps or wanders around wondering what to do with himself. Alyssa is stretched across a bed trying to learn how to do graphic designing, while Charity hangs out in Dad and Mom's room where Mom is working on house plans and Dad is playing the guitar. Justin is using his laptop up on his bed, it's a relaxing thing to do after a long day of work. Chris is actually off taking pictures at the seminar tonight, and I'm sitting in the middle of everyone, typing...and listening. (That's why it takes me so long to update!)
Edit: I typed that last paragraph yesterday. The rest of it was edited today.
Hopefully I will post again soon with pictures from the seminar and of some kitchens we did... but I'm trying not to make any promises!
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