2 times in one week? Watch out. I may be back....nah. I just can't commit fully yet :)
I figured I'd update a few more things. I forgot to mention in the last post that my children are phenomenal at swallowing vitamins now, which really opens up a whole new world of medication and allergy meds (no more grape flavored chewable or drinkable expensive gunk!). They can be super slow in swallowing the hand-full of vitamins they are currently taking BUT they get swallowed eventually. I consider that a win.
We are chugging along in school. Both kids are doing better and better. There is less fighting me than before. I also consider that a win. There is still fighting, to be sure, just less of it. I changed math curriculum to something called Making Math Meaningful. It helps them to not only understand math equations but also math concepts (something I'm getting a ton out of myself!). I think it'll be good in the long run even though they are having to get used to doing a bit more work. Kale has moved on from studying just the U.S. to now studying different countries. He and I are currently playing a geography game of North America. Seriously I've never known more geography in my life. Sad! Kate is steadily reading more and more and doing amazingly well. So proud of her!
On that note, her eyes have improved since starting therapy and we had them rechecked by the eye doctor. He approved of her going from the bifocals back to just one lens. We were super excited to see serious progress and we put the new lenses in right away. Unfortunately she couldn't focus up close on her schoolwork and it frustrated her (and me) so we had to change back to her bifocals. Bummer. But we'll keep on trying!
Mark and I went to Branson, MO. at the beginning of October for a pastor's conference. It was the first time in a long time that we've been away from our kids. I loved it. I was so desperate for a break and it turned out to be such a nice time. We went with our associate pastors, the Quisenberrys, and had a great time getting to know them better as well. The kids shared their time away with us with both sets of grandparents. It was so nice to be able to leave them with family.
On that note, Mark is doing an amazing job as lead pastor. Honestly I couldn't be more proud of him. He works hard, loves people, seeks God and has just blown my mind on his capacity to minister! He's also going to school and working hard reading textbooks and writing papers. On top of that he has dealt with our issues with Kate as well as my struggles. He's been a rock and a help and support and I'm super blessed to be married to this man. I don't normally gush but just when I start thinking about all he's had to do and deal with in the last few months, I'm blown away at how God has faithfully used him. So awesome.
Two weeks ago I helped lead my first women's retreat as lead pastor's wife. Overall it was a huge success thanks to the amazing ladies who helped put it all together. So much of the original planning was done when my mind couldn't focus. It was so strange to me to not be able to concentrate and make decisions. Normally I know just what I want to do ;). But I struggled with reading the curriculum we were using and putting it all together. The ladies on my team stepped up and took over much to my great delight. My mind has been coming back and was much better at the time of the retreat. Honestly the few glitches we had were in areas I was in charge of. We had 55 women come (way more than I thought would come) and my overall goal to have women get to know each other and just have fun together was reached. It was thrilling. There was even a ropes course there and we had a blast going down the zip line and trying out different elements on the high ropes course. I told people that God just filled in all our cracks and the retreat was successful!
Wow. I don't think I even shared about our trip to Breckenridge over Labor Day weekend. Sadly I need to get going so I'll have to save that for another post. That just means there's another one coming!
