What's Going On?!!

April has been a very busy month....wait, 2011 has been a busy year.  This year is moving at light speed to me.  It might have something to do with having three girls, one of whom is in school now, keeping up with all the little extras that most everyone has creep into their life.  We have sent our newest addition (our new Mac) to be worked on over the next couple of weeks.  I hope to get my SD card out of the CD slot!!!  In the midst of waiting for the triumphant return of those two things, Preacher Man and I have made it through one revival week where he was gone and now he has been asked to do another for today and yesterday.  Thankfully this revival is in a town a little closer than the last.  The week of the 11th, I was franticly pulling together Sweet Pea's birthday extravaganza!!  Her birthday is on the 17th, her Opa and Oma were coming on Friday morning, Saturday afternoon was the party and Sunday was the actual day.  When things fall like that is seems like a birthday extravaganza.  I will be posting pics when I get the chance. (no SD card slot on ole faithful here and I can't find the USB cord. :) Bare with me, I am a little scattered at the moment.)

Sweet Pea and I have had a relationship like that of teacher and student.  Sometimes those roles have switched to her favor.  She is uniquely different from her older sister.  Cutie Pie is more reserved, more serious and methodical.  Sweet Pea is more never-meet-a-stranger (gets that from her Opa), always ready to make you laugh (even when she should be in the deepest of trouble), and VERY implusive.  None of these are bad, but just different from my first child rearing experience.  I will never forget the first time I took her to youth camp at four months old.  She was sleeping through the services for the most part, but one night she woke up and the chapel area wasn't very big.  I didn't want to leave and not hear the rest of the message.  Sweet Pea was not having this!  She started screaming.  When Cutie Pie would start that I would sing Jesus loves me and it would calm her down.  So I start to sing this sweet lullaby to her and she just looks straight into my eyes and screams louder.  I tried holding her still in a effort to get her to sleep she wiggled and squirmed more and more for 30 minutes this went on.  It felt like almost 3 hours!!! It did end, but I did notice other times that she would push her limits and boundaries.  She has been much more of challenge to raise only because I am a people pleaser for the most part.  There are times that I get fed up with a situation in my life and I have to check my poor attitude with God.  Well, Sweet Pea has matured so much in the last few months.  She was lying to me so much in the last year that it was beginning to worry me.  But in the last few weeks she has started to work at telling the truth because I see in her eyes the effort to look at me and tell me the truth.  She has also potty trained.  I still sit sometimes in amazement.  To give you an idea of how funny she can be, Sweet Pea looked at me when she was almost three and said, "when I am four I will go potty."  What?!!  I mean Preacher Man and I tried everything! She many times would go sit on the potty and then within minutes of getting up...she would use her pull up and laugh and giggle about it.  Oh it was a struggle!  As we got closer to her birthday, she started to tell everyone that, "when I am 5 I will go potty."  NOO!!  We had just gotten back from our vacation on Spring Break and she was supposed to go potty when we got home and she looked at me and sang, "I pooped in my pants".  That was the last pull up she EVER wore!  It could have been a terrible idea, but I was more determined than she was at that point.  I haven't been able to enjoy one in diapers in a few years.  Anyway, Sweet Pea has also developed this deep empathy and thoughtfulness that has just astounded me.  No mater how 'strong' willed she may seem.  She is the first one to be truly concerned about an hurt foot or a sad face or someone being left out.

Another thing that I am looking forward to is our Good Friday service.  Preacher Man and I loved our church where we got married because they had a Good Friday service.  I have missed it.  Many churches now don't do them.  It does cause me to interrupt what is going on in my life to get my mind quiet and remembering what that day represents.  My savior died and that Sunday is coming!  He rose again and is sitting by God's right hand!!  Also, Preacher Man turns 36 on Good Friday!!!  It is a 'good' friday.  I had to sneak that in....ok, if I haven't already lost you because of my cheesy joke.  I can't say enough about Preacher Man and all that he does to help me.  I do give him a hard time, but he works so hard to provide for us and then he comes home to help with the girls without complaining (most days).  I do need to recognize how blessed I am to have him in my life.  At least once a year, I try to call Preacher Man's mom and thank her for raising him and trying her best to have him be a gentleman.  I also thank his dad. This year unlike others, I have asked him what he wants for his birthday.  I didn't get a straight answer.  So what is a Blue Jean Queen to do?!  I hope that he enjoys whatever we decide to do.  Well, I wanted to share that is what's going on in our ministry life.  What's going on in your life?