Dear friends...

Susan and Gail and others who wanted an update,

We are well, always working on something! I have started assisting Chris in teaching and I am doing more leading worship. I am leading worship Aug 28 for a women's conference in town. I s'preached a couple of Sundays ago. It has been rainy this week which is a blessing. August is supposed to be the rainy month here. Normally it is so dry.

Brennan has terrible eczema all over his hands and up his arms. We have tried so many things. Today I went back to Wal-Mart and bought 3 more things to try! He has been sleeping with ointment smeared all over them and wrapped in socks! Funny!

We have been doing homeschool part-time and this week we upped it a notch. We added all our computer stuff like Spanish, typing, reader rabbit, etc. We are using My Father's World Kindergarten for Gabriella and John-James. Gabriella can already read, but it will be a great review phonetically and she will enjoy the literature, projects and creation and science stuff. The older boys are doing My Father's World Rome to the Reformation. Already received most of our books. They are awesome! We are finishing a wonderful geography book (Exploring the Holy Land) and some online studies while we wait to start MFW.

Oh, NEWSFLASH!, the children are screaming! There is a mouse! Running around downstairs! Brennan and David caught it, and then it jumped out of the box while they were bringing it to me – like I wanted it! So it ran into a hole in the wall and is currently hiding. Although the children are lined up and tempting it with a bit of cheese. Ha! Ha! Ha! They crack me up!

I doubt anyone will go to sleep quickly tonight. It is a good thing that Gabriella should be getting a mattress soon. She is the only one of us left sleeping on the floor.

The boys surprised us with homemade muffins when we came home from church last night. They were real dramatic (wonder who they got that from) and flashed the lights on and uncovered a beautifully wrapped platter with perfectly stacked warm brown-sugar-covered muffins from scratch! Whew! What a treat! Yummy!

I hope to sign Gabriella up for ballet tonight. Elysiana is potty training – sort of. And Isabella is growing. She keeps outgrowing her clothes.

We were going to the fair tonight but the rain is yucky. Maybe tomorrow. We are blessed to have the rain – not complaining!

Well, they are calling me. The baby is awake and ready to eat.

Jeannie Revells