When this week began, I was anticipating doing a pretty mundane, uneventful Friday Fave Five post recounting the simple joys of a relaxing first official week of summer vacation. I even took a few pictures and planned what I would put on my "favorites list" in an essentially uneventful week. On Wednesday, the week changed from uneventful and boring to newsworthy and stressful. I will start with mundane and work up to stressful.
1. A new free book
I received my first book to review as an official "blogger reviewer" for Bethany House publishers. I have enjoyed many uplifting and interesting Bethany House books in the past, so I am pretty excited to join in their reviewer program. I have never been able to resist the offer of a "free book" and I still can't. Stay turned for my review of this new book in a couple of weeks.
2. A lot of garbage
I am continuing my goal to "lighten up" this summer beginning with purging and organizing my closet. I went through some papers I had been holding onto for way too long, filed the important stuff and recycled the rest. Lest you think I am a total hoarder, I will disclose that there were other items in my recycle bin underneath the papers from my closet, so I didn't completely fill the bin with unneeded paperwork. It feels good to "lighten the load" a bit and I plan to continue looking at all of my possessions with a more critical eye - keeping only what I truly need, what has a specific purpose in my life or what makes me truly happy. The rest can go.
I spent a considerable amount of time this week meeting with other teachers and planning lessons and curriculum for next school year. I also spent some time working on my own at home. It feels good to get a jump on next year and get paid some extra "summer money" to do this necessary "teacher work."
Wednesday morning, I received this short email from one of my children, "We have news for you. We're pregnant!" The ultrasound picture above was attached. Grandchild #8 is on the way - due in early January! Now that's news that is anything but boring and mundane.
5. Safety for Elder Jones
No picture for this one (only borrowed clip art), and this excerpt from the Josh's weekly email which came on Thursday this week:
"...a lot of crazy things have happened this week. First off we got our house broken into...we opened the door and everything was all ransacked. Stuff just scattered all over the floor everywhere and the bars over the window in the back of the house were busted open. We didn´t call the police because there´s not a whole lot police can do once the burglar is already gone. They did take a few things but...not a whole lot from me. I feel very blessed though because that day I happened to have both my debit cards and all my money with me when it happened. The only things he took that were mine were my tennis shoes, my sandals, a pocket knife I had (which isn´t a very good thing because now there´s a drug addict somewhere running around with a knife) and mom, I think they also took that pair of gloves you sent me in my birthday box. Other than that, he took our microwave, a portable DVD player we had, and some of my companion´s things including his camera. He didn´t take my camera. So now we´re living in the other missionaries' house whose area was terminated. It´s a little different because we don´t have hot water or electricity so it´s kind of like camping, but better safe than sorry."
Fortunately, both Josh and his missionary companion were safe, and Josh didn't even sound that upset about his experience. I will admit that reading about it shook me up a bit, but I think that something like this can (unfortunately) be expected "south of the border" and I trust God to watch over and protect my son.
I will end with this scripture, which I dedicate to my son in Mexico:
Thanks once again to Susanne at Living to Tell the Story for hosting this opportunity to look back at the past week's good and bad, boring and exciting and to find the best in all of it!
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