Today...

Matthew and I are both sick. He has severe head congestion to the point of having a shooting pain in his left ear when he sneezes or yawns. I have some head congestion (like my head is underwater while I'm going about my day) making all sounds extremely exaggerated (not good to be in the present of a preschooler and baby) and body aches causing lack of energy. There were rough moments today (telling Philip I had played with him and now he needed to play on his own after only 5 minutes; gathering energy to bath both of them when I'm very much ready for bed myself). I know, and here I am blogging!

Just wanted to recap how the Angela Thomas Bible Study went yesterday as it was our first session. I was very nervous mostly due to the unknown factors (how many women would attend, would they like the material, would I flub over my words, etc.), and the morning was pretty rough as both kids were crying at the same time at varying moments before leaving the house and Philip did not want to go into his classroom when it was time. He probably felt my nerves and it rubbed off on him. However he was a great helper in stacking the desktop calendars on the counter which I forgot to mention for the ladies to take!

Anyway, our church is offering two Bible studies this summer. Beth Moore's "Breaking Free" really helps in uncovering some deeply hidden burdens in your life and how to work through those things. And the "Do You Think I'm Beautiful?" study by Angela Thomas which I'm faciliating which deals with women coming to the realization that our God, Maker of the Universe, finds them beautiful (Ps. 45:11) and wants them to live life feeling as such and leaving behind all the baggage the world dumps on them. Well, "Breaking Free" has about 30 women in attendance and "Do You Think I'm Beautiful?" has 6. God is so wonderful! I am so excited to get to know the other five ladies in this study with me as I know also those ladies in the other study will be blessed incredibly. The best part is how God brought together the group in my study. There's me who was asked about faciliating a different study (another Beth Moore) but declined due to fear of keeping up with the home assignments (Beth's studies are amazing but very time-consuming). Then "Breaking Free" was decided upon and Betty who is the veteran faciliator said yes to that which left "Do You Think I'm Beautiful?" open to me to say yes to. I had seen Angela speak in March at a conference and after praying, said yes. Enough about me.

Next there's a girl who attends our church and MOPS but just wanted a change from Beth Moore. The second girl happened upon our church website after looking for a MOPS group in the area and found our MOPS summer calendar on the web. How awesome that she just showed up at our park playdate on Wednesday and as I walked by her, God urged me to say hello to her. She said she had seen the calendar online and asked if the Bible studies would be starting the next day! So she came the next day too! The third girl has been attending MOPS this spring but I just really met her at a Chuck E. Cheese playdate in May. We chatted for a while at the park on Wednesday too and have really hit it off. She's been attending our church too and is really growing in her faith. The fourth girl and I met Wednesday night at our church dinner. Her family has been visiting and her son was actually in Ruth Ann's kindergarten class this year. And the fifth girl attends a church across town but saw Angela Thomas' name on our church sign and since she attended the same conference I did, wanted to come to the Bible study also.

God works in amazing ways every day... you just have to look for Him.

And to really change the subject, we put up our backyard pool this evening!! It's identical to the one we had last summer (that one just got folded down and really dirty) so I know it will be really fun. The huge difference this summer is Braewyn will be joining us! If she can get over her fear of water (a little scared i.e. screamed everytime ANYONE jumped in the last pool we visited). Hopefully as the water warms in our crazy hot summer heat, she'll grow to love it too! Can't wait to post those pictures.