April 22, 2008 - Updates three months in a row...will miracles never cease?! Yes, I'm back again with another update on our family this month. We had quite a snowfall back in March when I last wrote. Allison had the day off from school and we actually lost power from about 7:00 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. It was interesting to see how lost we felt without technology. No TV to watch, no computer to work/play on, no microwave to thaw out some meat to grill for lunch...we're pretty spoiled with all of our electrical gadgets. We survived the outage and haven't gotten any snow since then. It's still a little chilly most days, but hopefully spring is officially here and we won't get any more snow! Gary is doing well. Last week he felt crummy with a cold, but he's finally over that. He still stays very busy with sermon prep (two a week most weeks), Sunday School, consistory (church leadership meetings once a month), visitation with those who are sick or have lost a loved one, administrative tasks (the ones he can't pass off to me :-), and so much more. It seems strange to try to put it into a list like that. His job/call consists of so much more than that, of course. He prays for and loves this congregation - so do I! Nascar races are one of the ways he finds to relax and get away from the pressures of ministry once in a while. For now he just watches races on TV, but he'd love to get away to an actual race sometime. Last week our church had a "Raise the Roof" Auction to raise money for a new roof for the church. A little over $15, 000 was raised for the project. It was such a fun evening, bidding on items that people had donated. I'm doing well, too. Haven't been bothered by the flu or colds too much this winter. Our bell choirs did a concert on April 13 for a special evening service - people from other reformed churches in this area were invited to come enjoy the concert and fellowship afterward. It was a fun evening, but nice to have it over with (a little stressful for all of us bell choir members, wondering how it would go). In June I'm going to go to a Handbell Conference in Sioux Falls with three friends from bell choir. It should be great to play with a mass choir and take some workshops to work on different aspects of bell ringing. I'm staying busy with homeschooling and community and church activities. Seems like I'm in one of those periods where I'm so overwhelmed with all that I should be doing that I'm not really getting much of anything done. We do just enough schoolwork, but I know I should be/could be doing so much more. My house is pretty clean, but I know it should be/could be even more clean and organized. I get easily overwhelmed - it's time to take a deep breath and ask God to help me do the things that are most important and let the rest go. I can't do it all! I might as well stop expecting myself to. On to some updates about each of the kids: Erin (15) - Plugging away with her algebra and biology classes. Learning "un poco" more Spanish. Reading lots of good books and enjoying time with friends quite often. Last Sunday night the youth group led our worship service and did a great job! It was so nice to see them singing. playing bells (the crystal bells they used to play when they were little :-), doing a skit, and participating in other aspects of the service. Erin gets to babysit quite a bit - good for the cash flow! Allison (13) - This past weekend I drove her up to St. Cloud, MN for the State Horse Quiz Bowl competition. They lost, but there were some exciting moments in the matches they were in. It was an honor to just get to go to State - if Allison decides to do it again next year she'll know what to expect and hopefully it will go even better. On Friday night we stayed with the rest of our two teams at a hotel with a water slide and pool - fun for both of us (I enjoyed the hot tub after quite a few trips down the slide). Blake (10) - He's doing well in math and the rest of his schoolwork, too. Spelling is a little more difficult for him, but he does better after studying words for a week. He's moved on to other Star Wars series books. Both boys have been enjoying a series we read at bedtime called "The American Adventure". It follows different fictional kids through history as they live through historical events like riding over on the Mayflower and going through different wars. I find it interesting, too! Dylan (8) - He liked the Lego set very much - never even said anything about the video games he didn't get for his birthday last month. Dylan is doing well with his schoolwork, too, especially math. We keep working on the challenge of obeying and controlling his temper. He can be so good - but he can also get pretty out of control sometimes! I won't give up...we'll keep working on it. I keep reminding myself that kids with strong personalities like that can grow up to be great leaders. (I hope that's true!) Parenting sure can be difficult sometimes, but we just keep doing the best we can, don't we? Well, I'm anxious to get this on the site so I guess I'll go for now. May God bless you as you parent your precious children. Keep running to God for the answers when it seems too difficult. Until next month,    ~Robyn