December 5, 2009

A beautiful japanese maple in our neighbor's yard.	To church at Barnwell on Sunday.  Uncle Enos preached from Romans 16, "How to Relate to the Brotherhood".  We were invited to Andy Korvers after church for a delicious Thanksgiving meal along with Lloyd & Emma.  We left soon after the meal so that I could get home and work on my presentation for the evening.  I spent most of the afternoon working on that while the rest of the family took their naps.  In the evening I was asked to give a presentation on the mission work in Puerto Rico.  I went back with a slide show to go over the history of the mission then tried to give an overview of where we are now and where we are headed.
Having a tea party.	Monday was a lovely day with me having to spend most of the day in the shop.  Ina Sue did the laundry and even got everything finished with the ironing and folding.  For supper Ina Sue fixed us creme puffs with turkey stuffing and salad with avocado, apples and candied pecans.  Wow.  A fairly restful evening at home playing with the children.
Singing at the Nursing Home.	Tuesday was another beautiful day.  Ina Sue did odds and ends, baked cookies, sewed etc.  I spent much of my day on the road with service calls.  For supper: creamed hominy with tenderloin gravy, field peas and carrots.   After supper we picked out more pecans and I candied another 18 cups for my customers.
Giving out the cookie plates.	Ina Sue fixed us breakfast of baked oatmeal on Wednesday then I headed back to work.  Savannah clearly did not feel very well today.  Teeth maybe??  Very grouchy!  It rained pretty much all day.  In the evening we went to church for prayer meeting and Bible study.  We are really enjoying our new smaller grouped study classes.  Ina is in the Child Training class and I am taking Bible Prophecy.
Isaiah and Savannah.	Thursday was pretty busy.  I kept Savannah with me while Ina Sue took the two oldest along with her to sewing circle.  She clearly wasn't feeling very good but was so sweet as I carted her around on numerous service calls.   Ina Sue and the sewing circle ladies were not sewing today but instead went Christmas caroling at the local nursing homes.  The old folks enjoy the children almost more than the singing.  After the caroling the ladies met back at the church for a potato bar lunch.  I came home around 2:00 and picked up pecans for a while.  Then I borrowed Nelson's mower and used it to sweep up and mulch the leaves on our yard.  Worked so nice!
The portraits for our Christmas letter.	Friday was pretty ordinary with me at work and Ina Sue holding the fort at home.  She did the normal cleaning.  She also spent a fair amount of time making phone calls.  Our dear Dr. and midwives in Bamberg have told us that they will no longer be doing births in Bamberg.  That means that our only options are hospitals in Orangeburg or Aiken or doing some variation of a home birth or birth center.  We like our old arrangement so good that we are depressed even to consider other options...  Patrick's children came over at 3:00 for the afternoon/evening.  After they went home I spent an hour or two typing up and laying out Ina Sue's christmas letter.
	Saturday was a drizzly day.  We had to spend the day doing inside projects.  Ina Sue made some pecan pies and other baking.  She cut my hair in the afternoon then I took the children with me to Barnwell for a short shopping trip.  We went in to the shop to print out the Christmas letter.  The Govan Christmas party was this evening at 5:30.  There was a very good turn-out there with lots of delicious food.  Home by 7:30.  I got the children their baths while Ina Sue made up food for dinner tomorrow.