Day Thirty Five - March 7, 2010

The absolute toughest day of the week is Sunday! Well, more accurately from 11am until about 12:30pm is the toughest part of the week!! It wasn't much easier today but I was able to survive!

I was so glad I cleaned the kitchen last night before I went to bed - I strongly considered waiting until today. Personal self-discipline is a key to being a stay-behind person on the deployment - I can see where it might be tougher for someone without kids in the house during a time like this because there are moments when you just want to say "who cares, it'll be there tomorrow" and forget about it. But I'm not going to allow myself to get into that mindset - once it happens the first time, it will become a consistent failure not to mention a poor example for the girls.

I am glad I set the alarm last night though - I probably would have slept a little longer than I did! When the dog heard the alarm, she was at the door waiting on me - she really had to pee and must have been full to her eyeballs! I grabbed the paper and waited on her - I'm really going to have to put some type of shoe by the front door at night, the concrete is quite chilly in the morning! Once back inside, I started the water for the elbow macaroni and I checked on the banana pudding I made last night - okay, so maybe I took a little taste but someone had to be the first to try it! It tasted very good. I'll never be a five star chef or anything like that, just not my passion, but I can certainly read a recipe card! The macaroni and cheese went into the oven as we were eating a bowl of cereal. Both girls were in good spirits and they both enjoy going to church. Plus today our friend, Dr. Yoho was going to lead Sunday School, the 11am and 6pm services talking about 1 Corinthians 13. I have only known him for a few months now but we have developed a really good friendship.

Getting dressed and ready went good. We had the great fortune of talking with my wife again this morning - she was at the USO and was able to call. She was no longer a zombie as she had 11 hours of sleep last night and sounded much more like her normal self. But all was good with her - she can't go into much detail or specifics with us about who, what, when, where and how but the important thing was we all got the chance to talk with her.

I let the teenager drive to Sunday School this morning and her decision making process is still off a little. By now she should be able to drive from the house to church with her eyes closed but it just isn't happening yet. I'm hoping the light comes on quickly - I'll jump ahead a little bit to after church and letting her drive home - let's just say she got chewed out for her rather poor performance on the way home and she was told to either find her focus or there was no way I was going to even let her attempt to get her license in April when she's eligible.

I started off the Sunday School service by taking prayer requests and leading the opening prayer. Dr. Yoho took over after that and gave us a re-hash of what he talked about at our Valentine's Dinner - he started this series then but today he was going to go all the way through it over the three services. I'll just suffice it to say that he gave an excellent sermon and I wound up with three pages of notes! I must also compliment our pastor - not many pastors would step aside and let another man speak from God's pulpit like that but our pastor is big enough to allow others to be a voice.

We had fellowship after the 11am service and the food was very good. I was surprised the macaroni and cheese was wiped out quickly - I will admit it did taste good. We had an abundant supply of desserts as well and my wife's banana pudding was cleaned out as well. Dr. Yoho and his wife sat at our table and we had a very pleasant conversation over fried chicken, mac&cheese, potato salad, green beans and dessert. Yoho has been both a source of wisdom and a challenge to me - I really do enjoy people that cause me to stretch outside of my normal self - Yoho does that quite well.

After our less than decent drive home and heart-to-heart discussion, I started a load of towels in the laundry while the girls got their homework finished and backpacks ready for school. The little one terrorized the dog and vice versa for a little while. Finally the chicken kicked in and the girls laid across the bed playing video games for about an hour. I did some research based on my conversation with Dr. Yoho and then applied for a job. After that, I took a short nap - I was just completely out of gas!

We had to be back to church at 5 for choir practice - the teenager drove and did better this time - she does well as long as she is completely focused. The girls are in the choir and enjoy it a lot. They were practicing their Easter presentation of songs - I was in the back pew talking with the pastor and some how I wasn't paying enough attention to the music director, the next thing I know I wind up with a speaking part for the presentation!! I'm going to have to keep an eye on them women next week so I don' wind up with more!!

I will continue my thought process that I cannot even imagine taking on the challenge of maintaining a decent home for the girls during a deployment without being actively involved in the right church. This group of people are so very wonderful and so encouraging. I also had a chance to talk with Dr. Yoho before the service and we'll continue our discussions over the next few weeks.

Yoho's conclusion to 1 Corinthians 13 was exceptional. I have never been the kind of person that could quote Bible verses from memory very well and I was amazed at how strong his memory and retention of the verses was. I wound up with almost 2 more pages of notes.

As with most guest speakers, the service ran a little longer than normal but that was okay. We drove through Wendy's on the way home and had chicken sandwiches. The girls devotion tonight was "Brianna's Baby Book" referencing Colossians 3:23-24 and it talked about not dwelling on failures and mistakes. The teenager needed that after her driving this afternoon! My devotion was "Undaunted radiance" referencing Romans 8:37. It was a continuance of yesterday's reading.

30 Sundays to go!! I've gotten a lot of advice from folks about counting or not counting how many days, weeks or months to go. Each person has their own logic behind why or why not to count a certain way - to be honest none of them really make the time go faster, it all comes down to how your mind is best able to handle the time apart. Day Thirty Five is in the books, here's looking forward to Day Thirty Six!!