It's November? Already?!

Yipes! It's been almost a month since I last posted! I've been busy, yes, but I had no idea it had been that long. It certainly has not been for lack of subject matter.

Have I mentioned that I love living in Wisconsin? Well, I do. I love living in Wisconsin. I've only gotten a glimpse of a Wisconsin spring, enjoyed a very moderate summer, and seen most of what an autumn is like here. I love different things about all the seasons no matter where I am, but fall is by far my absolute favorite. We have been surrounded by an amazing pallet of colors. At every turn the view has become just a little more breathtaking.

The only thing landscape wise that I miss about Montana is being able to see the sky. We are encased by trees so closely now that I have to leave my house to get a glimpse of the sky; even now that most of the leaves have fallen off the trees. Several times I have gotten decidedly claustrophobic. I hope that doesn't become a regular occurrence. I have found myself subconsciously taking deep breaths when we are traveling along an open area of road where the sky is visible for miles as if to store up the enjoyment enough to savor it again later.

Josh is responsible for four pipeline stations within a hundred mile radius so he gets to see a lot of the countryside. One night last month he took me on a date to show me all the beautiful places he has discovered. I couldn't even begin to do justice to the sights we saw by attempting to describe them, or even by posting pictures. It was spectacular. If you all ever want to come to visit us, plan to do it in the fall. Especially all you Montanans. Only those who aren't used to having this many trees around can fully appreciate it.

My mom and dad are doing very well. My mom is back to work, and other than catching a cold she has been feeling well. My dad was sick last week, too, and wasn't able to get a whole lot of sleep. I don't imagine it's much better for my mom, but she hasn't mentioned anything about that.

Some of the guys at my dad's prison decided to pull the fire alarms every couple of hours one night last week, and each time all the prisoners had to vacate the building in the freezing cold in the middle of the night. Then I guess they decided to hoot and yell and cause a general ruckus in an attempt to wake up the entire surrounding neighborhood. The next morning the warden had a big meeting with all of the inmates and said if the nonsense didn't stop they would all lose their telephone and commissary privileges indefinitely. The more mature of the men apparently outed the culprits and they were sent to The Shoe so the others have had a much needed and much appreciated reprieve. Both my mom and dad have said it's like living with a bunch of overgrown two and three year olds, and one just never quite gets used to all the stupidity.

My mom has put in her paperwork to be included in the Second Chance Act. It's a reduction of up to 12 months off sentencing for first time, non-violent offenders. It doesn't look like she'll get the full 12 months, but they are seriously considering six months. In any case she should be granted a minimum of two. So while I'm still praying they'll give her 12 months off (which would put her at home by January of 2010), I would still be happy if the Lord granted her six instead. The only reason they may not grant her request would be due to the fact that all the half-way houses are full because of the Second Chance Act. But since she has a house to live in, they may grant her house arrest for the remainder of her sentencing instead. Please, please pray with us for the full twelve months. She needs to be home in order to properly treat her cancer naturally.

Life has finally settled into somewhat of a routine, I think. We try to have people from church over once a week to be an encouragement and get to know them individually. We're all so busy serving when we're at church that I often don't even see certain people while we're there. We found that to be true even in Montana, and I have often wished we had begun to do this while we were still there. I've never been very good in the area of hospitality, but the Lord has made it plain that this is what He wants us to do, and has therefore given us grace in abundance with which to carry it out. I can sincerely say it has been a tremendous blessing and privilege for us, and can only hope the same has been true for our guests. (None of whom, I'm fairly certain, read my blog.)

Funny story...when we were teaching the young married couple's class at Gospel Baptist, Josh decided he wanted me to do a separate class with just the women for one Sunday. I replied I thought that would be fun and asked what he thought I should talk about. Without blinking his response was "Hospitality". I almost choked on my tea at the irony.

"Don't you think I should talk on a subject that I actually know something about?"

"Nope. If you do it, I really think you should talk about the importance of hospitality."

Praise the Lord, it was shortly thereafter that we found out for sure we were moving, and nothing ever came of it. Even if he asked me to do something similar now after a few months of actually practicing it, I would still feel woefully inadequate.

I'll close with snippets of answers to prayer we've seen in the last few weeks. They may not seem like much, but they were unspeakable blessings to our hearts.

Last Saturday the weather was so nice we decided to take the kids to the park after soul-winning. On our way there Josh stopped and bought a raspberry cream cheese pie. I swiped a few tastes with my finger as we rode along, and let me tell you, it was scrumptious! When we arrived he realized he had no fork. He wouldn't even consider eating it with just his fingers as I had, while dressed in his nice soul-winning clothes. I chuckled at his dismay, and assured him of the unlikelyhood of there being a fork in the van especially since I had just had the kids clean it out the day before. He so had his heart set on enjoying that pie while the kids were playing though that he prayed on the spot that the Lord would provide a fork with which to eat it. He moved the console between the front seats in the van, and there, just waiting for him to reach down and pick it up, was a plastic fork! You should have seen the glow in his eyes as he enjoyed that pie!

While at the store last week I realized I hadn't planned a dessert for the meal we were having the next day with a new family from church. Cookie Salad is my mainstay for last minute desserts because it's quick and easy. I have the recipe memorized for just such an occasion. It only has six ingredients, but no matter how hard I tried, I could not remember the last ingredient as I wrapped up my purchases. When that was the only thing left to locate before I could check out, I stopped, bowed my head, and prayed that the Lord would help me remember what it was. When I looked up, immediately my eyes focused in on the refrigerated section at the opposite end of the aisle I was in. There on the top shelf, in bright red and white, stood cans of Redi-Whip! That was it! I almost jumped up and down as I said OUT LOUD, "Cool Whip! YES! Thank you, Lord!!!" Ummm, yeah. It was loud enough that the people around me got quiet, stopped, and stared. Oh well, Praise the Lord, anyhow!

The next day as I prepared for our company things just kept going wrong. The little boys were fussy, and grumpy with each other. The older three needed to be prodded to action, and then only did as little as possible to get by. As I cleaned I kept coming across messes that had been there for I don't know how long, and required a lot of time that I didn't have to clean up. In spite of all that though, God's grace flowed in abundance throughout the day. I was surprisingly calm, and unusually excited in anticipation of the evening's food, fun, and fellowship.

At 5:15 I looked at the clock and realized I hadn't even begun to prepare any of the food. And Josh wasn't home from work yet. They were supposed to be arriving at 6:00. The Jalapeno Poppers needed to be made and required an hour's cooking time; I had to assemble two Enchilada Casserole's, one mild and one hot; and I hadn't even thrown the Cookie Salad together yet. I had made sweet tea earlier which I didn't try until right then, realizing too late that it was weak and tasted mostly like honey. About that time a roll of paper towels caught on fire from a nearby candle. I prayed fervently and boldly for "grace to help in time of need", doused the paper towels in water, and got busy on the food.

They ended up being over an hour late, giving me plenty of time to finish everything up, get myself ready, and even unwind a little with a back rub from my Sweetie. By the time they got here, I was relaxed and refreshed. With the first bite of our food, Josh leaned over and whispered to me, "God has definitely heard and answered your prayer, Honey! Everything has turned out great. It's supernaturally good!" And the fellowship was the sweetest we've had in a really long time.

If this last hiatus is any indication, it might be awhile before I post again. Just in case, I'd like to wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving!