Quick Update

Realized that it's been so long since my last post... we have so much going on - not necessarily exciting things- but our days are filled with lots of good stuff.

We're working on getting into a regular, disciplined routine with early rising, daily exercising, keeping up on maintaining the house/ meals / chores and school work... and fitting in all the stuff on the church calendar (youth group / pastor's and wives dinners / couples' meetings... etc.) September is our "re-entry month" - getting back into our regular routines after a lazy summer. :) 5:30 AM comes early so we're not keeping late hours anymore. :)

We've finished our 1st month of school with a new curriculum - it's going very well, but it's rigorous and demanding for the girls and for me. We start our school day at 8 AM with everyone at the table to do a few subjects together and then I work individually with each of the girls for different subjects like math and we come together again in the afternoon for writing. We usually finish by 3PM.

The girls are taking a few outside classes: writing, Latin 2, PE, violin (Taylor) and a Worldviews class, Ashley is in a cooking class.


I'm teaching a beginning Latin class with 12 students at our Friday School at SGA. I'm learning along with the kids - studying a week ahead of them to master the material before teaching it to them. Keeps me on my toes!

We're eating less processed foods now - so I spend a lot of time in the kitchen preparing meals (and doing dishes!) We are seeing a difference in our health and energy levels.

We have an exchange student from China who's attending school in La Canada - it's about a 7 minute drive from our house. He stays in the middle bedroom - Paige has moved into the girls' room for this school year. Tan Wei is a nice, quiet boy who keeps to his room when he's not eating meals with us. So, my part time job this year is to drive him to school and cook him dinner - not bad, I think! (We're hoping he gets his license so he can drive himself soon - he's already bought a car.) It's a little inconvenient with giving up living space, but I could never earn this kind of money if I went out and got an outside job. This way, with just a little sacrifice, I get to be home with my family, help out with finances and still be able to keep up with my priorities at home / church. Pretty sweet deal! But, I think we'll be ready to be "just us" again by June. :)

I'm leading a Women's Bible Study- a small group of ladies who meet 2x a month. We're going through the book of Colossians. I don't have to teach it - just facilitate it. For Women's Ministry this year, I organized 7 small groups to meet in different locations and at different days/ times so that more women could participate. I think we have just a little over 50 women participating - so we're pleased with this new system.

Ron's been busy getting the church ready to go to 2 services - we start next Sunday. He is doing such a great job. He's an awesome pastor~ a good shepherd who loves, cares for and feeds his sheep. He's doing an excellent job leading, preaching, preparing, training, counseling... I'm so proud of him!

For his birthday our theme for gifts was "stress relief" - Paige refinished a chair and made a chair pad for him to sit by the table next to the fireplace. We bought him some coffee, Starbucks mugs and a puzzle. Now he can sit in his favorite chair, drinking his favorite coffee, relaxing in front of the fire by doing a puzzle. We're hoping that it will help with the extra work / stress he's taking on this fall. :)





Next month, we're going to Maryland for a Leader's Conference for 4 days. And then after that, we go to Martha's Vineyard for the weekend where Ron will perform an (outdoor, next to a lighthouse!) wedding. I'm so excited to go to New England! We'll stay an extra day after the wedding to celebrate our anniversary. Hope to get some good pictures!