"Break" Week

This is co-op break week for us- glory, glory! It's been a *very* busy several weeks. JM, Becca and Philip have worked with the youth group several times to clean up yards, hand out food, or help in other ways after the ice storm. John has been busy cleaning tree debris in the yard, and I've been trying to get the rest of our life back into a groove, with mixed results. The February 4-H meeting, a co-op Valentine's party, a children's chorus fundraiser, and PMS added just enough extra chaos to send this mom to the edge of crazy and back again. (I knew it must be PMS when I woke up one morning unreasonably upset because I had dreamed that John brought home a second, much younger wife. Now, there have been times when I probably would have done a happy dance if John had brought home a second wife, but this was apparently NOT one of those times. John said he couldn't imagine why any man would want more than one wife- one was plenty, thankyouverymuch- and I'm pretty sure he also said something about a gun and a hole in his head too, but we won't go into that.) Oh February, you will soon be over! This was a particularly wild (but fun!) weekend:

Ben, Philip and Becca competed in the county 4-H Communications Day competition on Friday night, and John Mark was a room host. We are all so glad that is over! The storm really threw off speech preparations, so everyone was stressed out. This was Ben's very first time competing, and he did so well! I am particularly proud of him because he is my quiet child, and the one least willing to take risks. The three of them will all compete in the regional competition at the end of March.Becca's best bud, Lauren, spent the night with us on Friday night, and on Saturday, I took the gals to a new ceramic place for Becca's 14th birthday. They painted tiles and ate cake, and were very silly!
Before we left yesterday afternoon, Nathanael came up to me and asked, "Mom, what's an inferno?"

"It's a really large fire. Why?"

"Because Dad's making one in the yard."

!!!!!

SO... John spent the afternoon playing with fire burning the tree debris in the back yard, and when he got done, my honey made me chocolate-covered strawberries and took me out for a late dinner at my favorite restaurant! For all the times that man drives me absolutely nuts, the times he gets it right makes up for it many, many times over. I love that man of mine!

Today, after teaching the middle-schoolers at church and leading CARE group, John went out to burn again, and my soot-covered husband just informed me that he still has both feet only because he was wearing steel-toed boots while cutting logs. Within seconds, the chainsaw had hit his boot, cutting all the way down to the steel. Scared us both silly, and I will be very happy when this mess is cleaned up and life returns to normal (some people in our church and community are still without power, so I really can't complain too much.)

This week, I'm going to do some deep cleaning, catch up on laundry, get the consignment stuff ready to go to the sale in a few weeks, take Ben to the orthodontist, and maybe stress a little more about the Praise Team workshop at the end of the month. The two teens head to Winterfest in Gatlinburg next weekend, and maybe John and I will eventually get to go pick up our new chairs, which have been patiently waiting for a couple of weeks at the furniture store. And now, I must head out to pick up the teens at youth group. Have a good one!