Cabin Fever

Paul went to work on Monday, but the kids and I were at home all day that day since Nadia's softball practice was cancelled. Although we spent a fair amount of time outside yesterday, we didn't leave our property. The plow did come through last night, and although the schools all around here were closed again today, when I found out AWANA was cancelled for this evening, I decided we should take a short drive to the library and go out to dinner. Nadia in particular prefers to get out and about most days. We got 16 inches, but some people less than 30 minutes from our house got more than 30 inches. It has gone down as one of the three worst winter storms in March in our area in over 100 years. There was a lot of drifting from the heavy winds, and the snowplow had blocked in our driveway so Paul and I did some more shoveling today. I actually enjoy shoveling the snow. I certainly can use the exercise! Paul didn't go in to work again today because there wasn't room for his vehicle on the property yet. His brother was working on digging out the plant. Paul plans to go in early tomorrow morning. The kids certainly enjoyed playing with Daddy in the snow two days in a row!

Lately when we've been using gift cards for restaurants it's just been the kids and I. Today all five of us ate at Applebee's. The kids' meals are each $2.99 on Wednesdays (which is $2 less than normal) so that was nice, and Paul and I ordered off the 2 for $20 menu which includes 2 entrees and an appetizer. Still we never would have eaten there without a gift card. The kids and I don't have any plans to go anywhere tomorrow, which again makes me think it was a good idea we went somewhere today. I assume by Friday everything will be back to normal and they'll have gym class in the morning, etc.

Staying home all day will certainly not be happening once the soccer and softball seasons get started because Oliver's practices are on M/W from 5:30-6:30, Ian's are on T/Th from 5:30-6:30, and Nadia's are on M/T/Th from 5:00-6:00. In other words I'll be at the soccer fields five days a week (including the games on Saturdays), and on M/T/Th I'll be bouncing back and forth as the locations of the softball and soccer fields are about a 10 minute drive apart. I'll have to drop Nadia off, then drive to the soccer field and drop Ian (or Oliver) off, then go back to get Nadia from softball, and then go back to the soccer field to get Ian (or Oliver). Basketball season is definitely easier in terms of chauffeuring since they each only have one practice a week. We shall see when these seasons actually get started as we certainly aren't playing soccer or softball with 16 inches of snow on the ground!

One thing we accomplished today (aside from school work and house work) was that Ian selected another child to sponsor since Compassion can't work in India any more. Tomorrow I need to write our final letter to Manu. My eyes welled up with tears every time I went to do so today. Goodbyes are not very fun. I have to trust God to meet Manu's needs even though he lives in a very impoverished area of the world. Nadia loved picking a child that had her same birthdate. There were many (more than 100) boys looking for sponsors who had 12/12 birthdays, and several were even born on 12/12/09, but Ian was most interested in picking as young as possible. So I just searched for boys born in 2016, and there were about 20 toddlers for Ian to pick between. He selected Morgan Muriiki, who lives in Kenya and turned one on March 8. Personally I enjoy picking a child a little bit older so we can communicate directly with the child (through a translator), but Ian really wanted a baby. I pray that we will be a blessing to Morgan and his family in the years to come!