A Father's Love

It's that time of year... "back to school" shopping.

Even for a homeschool family, there's "back to school" shopping to do. Shopping for school supplies, textbooks, and this year uniforms for both Ben & Olivia for the days they go to the study center for classes. Like everyone else, we've felt the pinch of increased prices and apparently have spoken of this enough that our children watch our budget closely.

I ordered Ben his penny loafer's like Dad's for school and decided to look on line for a pair of shoes for Eric as well (his loafers with holes in the soles didn't survive the last rainstorm!). Eric has an odd shoe size, making it hard to find shoes for him and when we do, they are expensive. I was thrilled to find him a pair in his size on Ebay. I mentioned this while we were all together, and Olivia asked why we were spending so much on clothes these days. We talked about how uniforms and shoes were something everyone needs including Dad.

Eric could see Olivia was not totally convinced, so he slipped off his shoe and showed Olivia the holes in them. They were worse than I thought! You could see the liner through the bottom, and three nails were clearly visible in the heel.

As we were looking at them, Eric told how he slipped in his meeting at corporate last week and the president asked him if there was water on the floor. "I told him no. I knew what it was, but I didn't want to tell him," Eric explained. Then Eric pointed to the nails on his heels and said, my heels slid on the smooth floor and I lost my balance.

Eric left the room, and I started to cry. Olivia looked up and asked why I was crying. I explained that Daddy loved them and often sacrifices his needs so we can first meet their needs, including putting off buying new shoes.

The next morning as I headed out to the Thrift store, it was the day before Eric's next weekly meeting at HH's corporate head quarters. As I backed out of the drive, I prayed and asked God to help me find a pair of size 9 shoes for Eric, so he can at least wear something decent for the meeting until his new shoes arrived.

Sure enough, I found a pair of 9's in nearly new condition and slipped them into my shopping cart, and continued to search for the other things on my list. As I was leaving I noticed a rack of shoes and spotted a pair of new black tassle loafer shoes shoes. I pulled back the tongue to see the size... 8 1/2 EEE. They were the perfect size, in Eric's prefered style, the right color,new, and the tag color of the day, making them $2.20.

I've never seen a pair of EEE shoes at the thrift store -- in any size, let alone Eric's.

This time it was God, giving Eric a picture of our heavenly Father's love!

And the Winner Is...

The Megilligans came to town! What a great surprise. Since they moved to North Carolina, we don't get to see them much, but when we do ... we love to catch up with them and have fun together.

We introduced them to fire pit dinners and our gigantic swing! Everyone took a try. Ben demonstrated how to pick leaves as you fly above the fence. Olivia demonstrated the side swing -- which requires no assistance. Eric was the official pusher.

Reece took tiny pushes.

Lindsey chose to spin and do the hair fling.

Austin braved a little height and then proclaimed "that's enough" when asked if he wanted to go higher.

And Janet, always willing to try new things that we throw her way, dared to get on. She did so with great bravery ... I believe she's the first adult to swing above the fence.

After the judges confirred...

A winner was selected!

MISS JANET THE QUEEN OF THE SWING FOR 2008!

Turning 8 With A Trip To The 1880's

Olivia turned 8 this month, and for her party she wanted to play "back then" -- which in our house is code word for playing as if it were in the days of Laura & Mary Ingalls. True to form, she was certain about many of the details of her party...
A Sleep over (so we have longer to play!)
Turn off the lights and use CANDLES
Drink from jars
A fire pit cookout
Dress up
Prairie Bonnets for everyone -- and straw hats for the boys
Water in a bowl with soap in a dish on the side for handwashing
Mrs. Fraley's pancakes in the shape of letters for breakfast
Old fashion toys to play with

She invited 6 friends (ages 4 to 11) each chosen because she has at some point played "old fashion" with them and wrote out her invitations and delivered them by Camry express. And on the morning of the party she and Ben were dressed and ready!At 6 pm our home became the Wachtel homestead, as friends began to arrive.

Olivia beamed.

We played games -- tag and capture the flag were the favorites, ate scrumptous fire pit dinners uniquely made by each child, made ice cream in a bag and ate it, giggled, screamed, layed on the grass and talked under the stars, and finally ate cake and opened presents at 10:00 pm by candle light. At 11:30pm the last word of Elsie Piddock Skips In Her Sleep was read and the last

candle blown out. The night was short, the first to fall asleep, Allisa & Olivia, were awake by 6:00 am ...much to the dismay of the last to fall asleep, Mikayla & Megan! There was plenty of time to play the back then game, eat a breakfast with letter pancakes (thanks to Eric's creative skills) to mark their place setting, and more capture the flag. By 11 a.m. when it was time for everyone to go home, some new friendships had been made and lots of great memories made.

... A tired and happy Olivia spent the rest of the afternoon sleeping on the hammock!