Hi!

It's been a while since I posted, and that's because life has been crazy - and it's going to stay crazy for a while.

We had Thanksgiving dinner here for some extended family, and it was a cleaning and cooking marathon. The end result was a lovely time, though the combined stress and excess of food made my husband rather sick again and he's still struggling to recover.

The next two weeks look to be equally crazy. There's just a little too many activities that come together at this time of year. This next weekend, for example, my 6th grade daughter will be marching in two parades, one on Saturday and one on Sunday (and both are pretty big parades). These will be her first marching band experiences, and as a trombone player she is placed in the middle of the front row of the band (what pressure!). On both Saturday and Sunday afternoon, after the parades, we will drive to church for play practices and both girls will be in the children's play at our church on Sunday evening (and the 6th grader is singing a small solo). And that's just two days!

I am trying to be deliberate in how I do the things that I do - each day can be overwhelming right now, in it's busyness and in emotional stress, but each day is really do-able with God's grace.

On another note - my 6th grade daughter, who often has a hard time going to sleep, just came out from her room to ask me what she should say if a boy asks her to the dance that is happening at her school this friday evening. That was easy - I told her to say "No!"

I can't believe that my baby is old enough (according to her school's standards, anyway) to go to a dance! And some of her peers are going with dates!!! She's only 11 years old!

No. It really is a simple answer to that question. She's fine with that response. She asked me about it more because she can't imagine what it would feel like if a boy did ask her out. Oh. My. Gosh. I'm not imagining it well, either...