February 23, 2008

The meals were delicious & beautiful. We got up Sunday morning for a delicious breakfast with our kind hosts.  Ms. Patsy fixed us breakfast burritos, sausage links, asparagus with sauce, delicious buttery grits and a side of brown sugar broiled grapefruit on the side.  Wow.  We had a really nice time visiting with them and with the other couple who were staying there.  We just barely left in time to get to church at Glad Tiding Fellowship.  They had a really nice service there.  Cousin Beryl Landis led the songs.  Cousin Eldon Eberly was the superintendent.  Matthew Carpenter preached the sermon.  I had never met him before but he had a good message on "Our Anchor".  After the service they kindly shared their delicious fellowship meal with us.  We had a really nice time.   From there we headed back to Dad's and picked up the children.  We were all glad to see each other again.  Then back to Govan for a very short rest before heading to church in the evening.  The program was mainly a topic by Patrick Heatwole on "How to Benefit from Revivals"  Home then for strawberry shakes and some good old family time.  This has been a wonderful getaway weekend.
On the front porch of Magnolia Mornings. Ina Sue said she felt like she had a hangover Monday morning.  I went in to work a little bit early and she got a start on the weekly laundry.  It was a windy rainy day so she didn't use the clothesline.  She got it all done and ironed though in time to make us a feast of catfish, ranch potatoes and green beans for supper.  After supper the children & I planted peppers, tomatoes, zinnias & daisies in the green house.  The Spring garden that we planted last week has all come up very nicely.
Planting veggies & flowers I made us a Polish breakfast casserole for breakfast on Tuesday.  Then off to work.  It was very windy and a little bit chilly this morning.  Ina Sue was able to get in some caulking and painting on the back porch.  She said that she is getting incredibly tired of painting.  The last while she has been painting the blocks around the bottom of the screen porch and that is kinda nasty work.  The concrete is cold and the blocks really absorb the paint.  Tonight was our first evening of revival meetings.  Bro. Ernest Hostetler from Abbeville, SC is our evangelist.  He was planning to begin Monday evening but came down with a case of laryngitis and had to postpone for one night.  He preached tonight on Obedience.  Our chldren could have really used the instruction but alas, they were too busy being disobedient.....  After church we came home and got the children in bed then I went back into work to try and get some accounting work done.
With my helpers looking on.

 

I got back from work about 5:30 Wednesday morning.  Got in a quick little nap then had devotions with the family and headed back in for another day at 8:30.  Ina Sue said that she honestly could not think of one thing that she got done during the day.  Take that with a grain of salt....   I came home from work at about 4:30 and got in a short nap before a supper of taco soup.  Then off for another service at church.  A really good sermon tonight on "The Cross".  Bro Ernest is a wonderfully practical speaker and we have been enjoying his sermons a lot.  He does normally speak until about 9:00 and our children get pretty restless.  It makes it a little hard to really focus on the message.   I trust God understands...   Home then for a snack of fresh guacamole and chips.
Janice has the children enthralled. It was very cold and rainy on Thursday.  I forgot to take my dirty clothes into work with me for the uniform service to pickup, so Ina Sue had to load up the children and bring them in for me.  I spent almost the whole day on the road doing service calls.  Ina Sue did some cooking and scrapbooking then fixed us BLT's for supper.  Tonight Bro. Ernest spoke directly to the youth with another very practical and down to earth message.  The children actually did extremely well tonight.  Perhaps we are making some progress?
Landon loved playing with Stuart. Friday was my 36'th birthday.  We got up and had waffles and sausage patties for the birthday breakfast then I headed in to work.  Ina Sue spent the day cleaning the house and making food.  It was rainy all day again.  We certainly do not complain though because we can really use the rain.  Ina Sue made us a stromboli for supper.  Ernest spoke on the subject of "Modesty".  I especially liked his emphasis that Modesty is only partly about clothing and a lot about lifestyle.  Ina Sue had invited Duane and Janice over for the evening to help celebrate my birthday so they were there at church.   After I had found out they were coming I suggested that we invite them to just stay for the night.  We were very happy when they agreed.  It made our evening much more relaxed and we had a wonderful time just talking.   Ina Sue fixed gingerbread with whipped cream and lemon sauce, a special cheeseball and crackers,  and fresh pineapple for our snack.  The children had a great time playing together and didn't get to bed until about 11:00.  It was several hours after that before the rest of us hit the sack. 
The Duane Strite Family. Saturday morning we all slept in until about 8:00 then I got up and made us a breakfast casserole.  The children played & played together and hardly wanted to stop for breakfast.  Duane's left around 11:00.  I worked for a while pulling weeds and Round-Uping our flower & shrub beds.  Ina Sue and Carolina walked over to Hendrick's and came back with a gift for me.  Here she had bought a really gas powered lawn edger for me.  We had talked about them before and I will really enjoy using it to clean up our edges.  We spent the rest of the day doing odd jobs and cleaning up.  Grilled hotdogs for supper then went to church again in the evening.  The topic was "What are you Thirsty For?"  We left real soon after closing and went in to Walmart for some shopping before coming home to bed.