Wednesday, May 20, 2009

A Tuesday/Wednesday with Heidi

Well, I’m late again…I actually started this yesterday but didn’t quite get done…so here it is…

I'm thankful for…Ben. We’ve had very little work in the last week & a half so he has spent a lot of time at home. I’ve really enjoyed the family times we’ve had…it has helped take my mind off the stress of not being able to pay bills. I have also so appreciated all Ben has done around the house in the last couple of weeks! Our yard looks sooooo much better & it feels so good to have those odds & ends wrapped up. Thank you honey for all you do for our family! I love you!

I'm listening to…Benjamin tossing a game chip in the air learning probability for math, Kirby playing a game, Manda chatting.

What's for supper tonight…hamburgers! I’m excited to make burgers for the first time this spring…just wish there was no snow on the ground & it was nice so we could eat outside!J

Highlights from last week…More swimming, soccer, & school. I got all my pictures caught up that I had people waiting for so that felt really good. Ben didn’t have much work last week so we spent quite a bit of time hanging out as a family & working on the yard. Ben built little picket fences to put around my flower beds & raspberries. Fudge kept walking through them & it was driving me crazy so this is a way to teach him he can’t go there with something that looks really good too! I ordered 10 caterpillars through the homeschool group I’m a part of so that we can raise some butterflies! We finally got them this weekend & the kids are super excited. Ben even built a butterfly house for us!

On Thursday I did Amanda’s re-evaluation with her ND over the phone. (If you have no idea what I’m talking about & are interested, check out this post: http://bhwerdalfamily.blogspot.com/2008/10/nda-very-special-program-for-very_7272.html. I have been very discouraged with Manda’s program since about September when I started Kid Connection. With so much going on I just wasn’t finding the time to get her program done which in turn made me even more discouraged…etc. I’ve been partially dreading & partially looking forward to this re-eval. I didn’t want to hear that she’d made no progress, yet I half expected to hear that because of how little I’ve done. At the same time I was looking forward to starting fresh & getting back into the swing of things. Anyways, I was very pleased to hear that she has indeed made progress even with the little I’ve done & I’m going to do a condensed program over the summer so that I can get back in the swing of things without having tons to do through the summer.

On Friday we ended up with unscheduled plans…going to a funeral. A young man who used to work for us, was killed in a work accident. I actually knew him from school…he used to be on my cousin’s bus so whenever I would go to visit her after school I was witness to the fact that he was a trouble maker. When he came to work for us he was in the process of working with some good friends of ours who were mentoring him & helping him turn his life around. We didn’t see him for a long time after he was done working for us & I still had it in my head that he was living life his own way. I’m not sure why I had this in my head…I knew our friends were working with him & that he was going to church with them…and they talked about how he was changing. Lord forgive me for judging when I didn’t know his heart! We decided to go to the funeral mainly just to support our friends who were really close to him & it hit them hard. I am so thankful that we went. Lance had married into a strong Christian family & was living for the Lord. I think many times I would have been skeptical about whether they were just making it out to be that way so that everyone could feel good about his life…but it was very clear that this was real. Jesus was real to him & he was living for Jesus. I look forward to seeing Lance in heaven someday.

We decided not to go camping on the long weekend…we just really don’t enjoy all the people & it would have been so wet & mucky, so we decided to just do some family stuff instead. On Saturday we went for our first bike ride of the year (first one since Benjamin taught himself to ride a 2-wheeler). The kids love doing this & we had a lot of fun. On Sunday Ben did his first special night (see here for explanation: http://bhwerdalfamily.blogspot.com/2009/04/popcorn-hot-carrots.html) with Benjamin. Benjamin loves doing science projects & I don’t do enough with him. He had gotten a book from the library about water projects & there was one he really wanted to do that was too complicated for me so I suggested they do it for his special night. They ended up missing a couple of parts so it’s not quite finished, but they had fun working on the flood alarm together & then challenging each other in a few games.

What's happening this week…Swimming lessons & soccer… Tomorrow Benjamin’s facilitator (the teacher who “oversees” his schooling) comes for our last visit of the year. We’re super excited, because Benjamin will be done nearly all of grade 2 by the time he gets here tomorrow afternoon! On Friday we are going to Calaway Park with a friend of mine from high school who runs a day home. We enjoy getting together for field trips & a chance to catch up. I’m very thankful for this trip…we could not have afforded it, but Kim was able to scrounge up free tickets for all of us! It’ll be a good celebration for the end of the year for BenjaminJ. Hopefully Ben will do special days with both Amanda & Kirby this weekend as we’re gone next weekend…but we’ll see how it goes. Other than that, it’s just day to day life…

I am missing…having work! Struggling not to worry about how we’re going to pay bills…

I’m going to add a new topic this week…

I am praying for…Lance Orr’s family & friends…& his wife Becky who is expecting their first child…that his death would bring people to know Jesus…especially his family & the people he worked with…I’m so thankful for how God was glorified at his service.

1 comment:

Muirhead Family said...

I heard about Lance's death on Sunday and I have to tell you, my heart broke. I remembered all the trouble he caused and all the hassle I gave him about it when we were younger. I never shared God with him and when I heard about his death, I was so sad that he'd probably never given his life to the Lord. That was partly my fault! Your post made me cry Heidi. I'm so happy that he was living for Christ. What an amazing story, that he'd turn his life around and would not only marry into a Christian family, but that he would become a Christian himself. Thanks for mentioning it in your post... I've been sick about this for days.
I'm sure that sounded like yimmer-yammer, but I'm so overcome I couldn't even put it into coherant thought... :)