Thankful Thursday

 

Happy Thursday, friends! Rebecca Jo and I are back for another installment of Thankful Thursday. We hope you join in with us! Be sure to link back to one of both of us. 

I have so much to be thankful for this week! First and foremost is that God has been faithful to hold off bad weather for our community. This is the week that our church holds its annual Backyard Kids' Clubs. We do this in lieu of Vacation Bible School and we've had upwards of 400 something kids participate. Isn't that amazing? I think this is the right number...I thought I remember hearing our kids' pastor say around 430. I'm not participating in it this year, but I've been praying for each club this week and thinking about them all as the bad weather has literally skirted around us much of the week. As I write this, though, it looks like it's about to storm and it's almost five o'clock on Wednesday evening.

In case you don't know what this is, it's a three or four night long event that happens in the yards of people who attend our church in the community of our small town. There's usually an opening or closing party, then each night there are games, crafts, music, snacks and Bible stories. It takes an army of people to pull this off, and we've got an army of people volunteering their time all week. I used to participate in this, but haven't in a few years. I also used to lead craft time for the fifth graders at VBS in the days when our church held that there. This is something that is priceless and memorable in the lives of little ones, and at one site, there are always a lot of people there from India. They hear the gospel and the parents are encouraged to stay if they'd like, and we've seen the same people come to salvation and begin to attend Bible studies and services at our church as a result. It's an amazing outreach!

Look at all these kiddos! I swiped this picture off the Facebook page of our active families' pastor (kids' pastor).

I'm thankful for a good week with my husband and our evenings at home together. He's been watching a show that he loves and I either read or do things for my blog. 

I'm thankful for the opportunity to catch up with some of my best friends after way too much time goes by without seeing each other.

I'm thankful for books that hold my attention and the time to spend reading them.

I'm thankful for the time I get to spend with family! Just this week, I've seen one representative from each set of parents.

I'm thankful for quality time with each of our sons. Whether it's an hour, five minutes or a phone call as they drive, I'm grateful for every bit of the time they give to me. I realize this isn't always normal once kids turn into adults and I want to give God glory to answering my prayer that they'd always be this way. I know it could change at the drop of a hat, but I'm thankful for it now and I'll treasure each moment. I've not been seeing a lot of Drew lately because he's trying to save money because of the price of gas, so I was thrilled to see him at church Sunday and get three hugs from him when he came to find me after. I've talked to him several times this week since I'm not seeing him as often.

I'm thankful that I've been able to help make a dent in getting our Bible study ready for publication in a few weeks so that we can take it in the fall. I'm also grateful to be a part of the writing team—these women are excellent writers, teachers, leaders and friends. I've been blown away by the work that they've put out for this study! We'll be studying 1,2,3 John and Jude and the title is That You May Know.

This was me sitting down to start editing on Monday.

I'm so glad that we have dogs to love and make us laugh. This was Oakley one morning this week. She sleeps this way all the time and she even falls asleep mid-play some days. She loves laying and playing on her back. She's such a baby! Have you seen those cute animal videos of dogs saying that? They say something like, "According to my mom, I'm just a baby!" How sweet are her and Chip sleeping the morning away like this? They all wake up with me when I come downstairs everyday in the five o'clock hour, so after going outside and getting a drink of water, they all go back to sleep either on the beds or on the couches. We love our furry babies! They're spoiled rotten.

I'd love to hear from you now! What's one thing you're grateful for this week? Thank you for reading my blog, friends. Love to all! 

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