Day Thirty One - March 3, 2010

We woke up to snow on the ground and slush on the roads this morning plus we had those giant, puffy snowflakes falling from the sky. As I walked out to rescue the newspaper, our ditches were full of water, the concrete was slippery and slushy and the snowflakes were really, really wet - almost like someone throwing a small slush ball at you! I thought for sure the girls would get to sleep in a little bit or school would be cancelled but that didn't happen. I opened the garage door and we stood in there waiting on the bus to show up - I had to shovel a path through the slush so the little one could safely make it to the bus. The bus driver blamed us for bringing the weather back with us from Seattle!!

I wound up running a couple of errands this morning since I won't be able to go anywhere Thursday due to the gutter guys coming. I stopped by the post office to drop off box number two and some letters - we still send birthday cards to the folks back at Central and stay in touch. We have two office supply stores relatively close by and neither one has everything you need. I picked up a new projector so I don't have to lug around the big 42" tv when I speak at church plus the oldest daughter has been using a dining room chair at her desk since her desk chair broke so I got her a really nice chair. Most of the cards I have for stationary have something written in them or are sympathy or birthday cards, so I stopped by Lifeway and picked up some blank cards so I could write to my wife and drop those in the mail. I'm going to encourage the girls to write often as well and keep their mom posted on what is going on - not only will it be good for all of them and keep her in the loop, it will enhance their letter writing skills. Our oldest daughter is such a creative writer but she struggles so much when we have her write a thank you or birthday card to someone.

The afternoon was quiet until the youngest one got home. I put the new chair together for the oldest daughter and swapped it out with the dining room chair. The other good thing about her new chair is she won't be able to lean back on one or two legs - it was just a matter of time before she broke that dining room chair even though it is relatively heavy duty.

Of course it was raining when the little one got home and an even bigger "duh" is she came sprinting off the bus with her jacket unzipped and no hood on. I can't wait for 20 years from now when she is fussing at her kids to zip up their jacket, wear their hats and wonder where all the gloves went - I can sit back and say "I remember when you didn't do any of that stuff, why should your children do it?" I'm sure she'll tell everyone she was an angel and deny all of it. Just in case, I'd better take photos!! We've been telling the oldest daughter for years now that when she gets an apartment or house, we're going to come over and drink red KoolAid on her furniture, not use a napkin and wipe our hands on the furniture, jump and bounce on the floors and furniture, leave our shoes in the middle of the floor and never, ever, ever replace an empty toilet paper roll - we'll just go to another bathroom instead of all that labor involved with swapping out a new roll.

We had what is fast becoming our favorite dinner tonight - meat loaf!! I will admit that it doesn't get much easier than this recipe and it is quite good. I get really good ground chuck from the meat store, add one egg, 1/2 cup milk, 1 cup bread crumbs and 2 tablespoons of spices from a bag the butcher sells, slather some ketchup across the top, bake at 350 for one hour, add some mashed potatoes and peas, put out a roll, fill three glasses of water and there you have supper! We have a few rules we must observe in the house - with mashed potatoes you have to have either peas or corn but you cannot have steamed peas, they must be from a can. Also, the corn has to be whole kernel, do not dare put cream corn out. A regular slice of bread from a loaf will not work either - you have to buy either potato rolls or those hawaiian breads. See, isn't meal time so much fun!! The good thing is I'll have meat loaf sandwich for lunch tomorrow!

Church service this evening was good and everyone was in a nice mood. We don't seem to have much in the way of gossip or poo-stirrers in this church and it is so nice. We are going through the ABC's of Christian Growth on Wednesday nights and it is such a nice compliment to the Sunday School class I teach. We've loaded the course on my wife's computer and I'll start sending her the lesson answers so she can keep up on both of them. The writer of the course I'm using on Sunday mornings is quite the hoot - he sends some very funny e-mails almost daily - he stays closely connected to our church and really likes us. We met him our first Sunday when we visited this church and we've e-mailed since.

We had a chance to talk with my wife tonight. She was doing some of her final phone calls before she leaves, talking with her sister, her mom and dad. She sounded good and is staying positive. I'm sure she must be nervous but I'm not hearing it in her voice. She just wants to get this started and over with. I'll probably have the chance to talk with her tomorrow during the day and that will be it for awhile. We all just want this over with. The good news is the first month flew by - we have March madness staring in a week or so and that time always seems to fly by, then baseball season starts in April. Even though they play 162 games, the season flies by as well - she'll be home just as the regular season ends and the Reds have finished a couple of games below .500 again!

The devotions tonight were good. The girls did "Family Members" referencing Galatians 4:1-7 and "The Picture Puzzle" referencing Romans 12:3-8. They should be caught back up after tomorrow night and will be able to return to one per night. My book has a February 29th in it, so I did three tonight - the first was "What do you want the Lord to do for you?" referencing Luke 18:41. The second was "The undeviating question" referencing John 21:17. Finally I read "Have you felt the hurt of the Lord?" once again referencing John 21:17.

As Day Thirty One comes to a close, it is still raining outside. It must be low tide because our ditches are less than half full. Tomorrow is a full day and one when my concern for my wife's safety will start to kick in overdrive - still, I'm looking forward to Day Thirty Two; without it, there cannot be a Day Two Hundred and Forty Six.