The Marathon...

I feel like I am running a race with no finish line in sight. Last week was another one of those weeks where I ran a particularly arduous part of the journey. Wednesday, AWANA started and after we got home at 9 p.m. Jordan and I got to work cutting up tomatoes for making soup the next day, making up the meat mixture for enchiladas and planning lunch and supper for the next day. Jordan taught lessons all day the next day. When we got home the real race began. About 9:30 p.m. we unloaded groceries and started work. We were going camping the next day so had to prepare that food, load the camper, and can up the food stuff I had started. 14 quarts of tomato soup, 7 quarts of stewed tomatoes, 7 pints of raspberry jelly, crock pot enchiladas, frog-eye salad, cookie salad, zucchini cake, tuna sandwiches, hard-boiled eggs, grapes, one-cup cookies and the hundred other little details later we were able to pull out of our place Friday by 1 p.m. I ended up in bed at 3 a.m. after taking the last jars out of the canner. Tomatoes are too precious to waste for us (thanks again Jan for the bountiful gift, we cherish them). We didn't get enough in our garden to mention so we are still in need of tomatoes for anyone out there who knows someone who is tired of tomatoes :) We could also use a lot of apples!

We had a great time again fellow shipping with other home schoolers and brothers and sisters in Christ (this time in South Dakota). The boys found some other boys that like sword and gun play and that's pretty much all they did for the 3 days we were gone. Several dads shared their insight into a couple chapters in Ephesians. Another dad share his knowledge of "digging for treasure" in the Bible. There were 2 hayrides, food, campfires, apple dunking and caramel, candle dipping, children's story time, and late night card games. We have been going to this particular weekend for 9 years only missing once when Rebekah at 8 months old had the chicken pox. Today, we are washing up the clothes since everything else is put away!!!! The kids did the job of emptying the camper and getting the stuff put away last night. We plan to do a bit of school today but no pressure since we are all a bit tired. Hope you have a good week. About Wednesday the marathon gets strenuous again but thank the Lord for strength and joy to keep going on.