You may remember me mentioning Amazing Jacob, a little boy with cancer whom I list in my links. Jacob became an angel last night and is now finally healed and in the arms of our Father in heaven.

My heart breaks for his family. I have constantly been astounded by their faith and their full reliance on God throughout this – even though I too believe that God can do all things. I know that I and so many others around the world prayed in earnest for Jacob to be healed here on earth, knowing that it was God’s will – not ours – that would be the final say. As recently as Saturday, during a pray vigil time that was set for Jacob, I was praying for his healing on earth but also acknowledging God’s will in the situation – even if it would not be what we would want.

I know that God hears all of our prayers. It saddens me and breaks my heart that Jacob has left this world but I know that many people’s faith was strengthen through him and that some people came to faith through this amazing family. God’s timing is not our timing and his ways are not our ways. We may not understand it now but there is a reason for everything – even this.

Please pray for the Duckworth family – for Heather, Donnie, Devin, Brandon & Kyle, as well as their friends and extended family during this time.

I had big plans for today.

To do nothing.

And in a way, I suppose I succeeded, but not as I had hoped.

After yesterday’s whirlwind, I decided that no matter how long the to do list was (and it just seems to keep growing!), I was going to come home from church and relax. If I felt like doing anything around the house, it would be because I chose to, not because I felt like I had to.

Today was our first Sunday doing full-service children’s ministry. We’ve been working up to this for years and decided it was finally time to leap. Basically, when the kids arrive with their parents, they now can come into Adventure Theater where we have games & crafts set up and music playing. We have a somewhat unstructured time together, hanging out, and then break into our groups for a connection question before worship time. Before, we would have the kids stay with the parents until after adult worship time was over and then come in and worship. Needless to say, they weren’t digging it. Plus, there wasn’t anything for them to do except run amok through the church before service started…and run amok is exactly what many of them did.

So, we put out the crafts and activities, turned on the music and waited for the kids to arrive. We didn’t have as many as we had hoped in the beginning but we did have a good time. And I got to actually spend time talking with the kids instead of being so focused on teaching them…and that was really nice. I think it is going to make a huge difference in our lives – ours and the kids – and in our church.

But toward the end, I started to get a terrible headache. This has been happening for some time on Sunday mornings. I actually had one week where I had to sit down afterwards and Kym & Kim were bringing me water & taking care of me because I felt so sick and totally wiped out by a headache like this. I went to the dr and he felt it was low blood sugar, caused by my breakfast of Starbucks. So I cut out my weekly Starbucks treat : ( . This morning, knowing I had a full morning, I actually ate some cereal – which is unusual for me. But again, the same deal. I chalked it up again to blood sugar and ran through a drive thru on the way to a baptism of two of my youths but still felt increasingly crummy. I convinced myself it was allergies and tried to lie down and rest but it turned into a full blown migraine. Joy!! So my day of rest was indeed one of rest – but not a comfortable, relaxing rest as I had hoped.

I just can’t figure it out. I understand the low blood sugar theory and all that. Maybe I just waited too long to get something to eat when it came on? I don’t know but I can’t keep ending up like this every Sunday. I end up in bed most Sunday afternoons…which in theory should be a good thing. But I’d rather be watching a movie or reading a book or watching the race.

I think my diet needs a massive overhaul. I was doing well with smaller meals and such during the week and felt a lot better but the weekends I fall back into my patterns of no breakfast, quick lunch and dinner…nothing really in between because I am constantly running. Any suggestions?

I couldn’t find anything witty to post about that began with “F” yesterday. (I kept coming up with “frantic”, “frenetic”, and “frenzied”…which would have been accurate but hard to put down in words). So today we have Scrappin’ Saturday. I spent several hours last night working on the scrapbook for The One Who is Leaving. I’m almost finished. I want to write something nice on the last page and I have to do a personal page from me as well but that shouldn’t be a big deal. I’m pretty pleased with it and hope that everyone remembers to bring me their pages tomorrow. I really don’t want to have to scramble next Sunday to put it together before the picnic.

ANYWAY, today was also a big scrapbooking day. My aunt is up from Florida and had asked if I could help her with a Red Hat scrapbook. I said sure and she & my mom came up. Neither of them scrapbook but after an hour or so they were cropping and putting on embellishments and having themselves a good old time. I’ve never done a whole scrapbook in a day – until today! She still has some things to add and needs to journal in about what everything is but for the most part, it’s together. Whoo! And we also had lunch out and went shopping. What a day! I’m pooped. But now I have to prepare the Adventure Theater lesson for tomorrow and make dinner. After that, though, it’s all about lying on the couch watching tv. Ah, how I dream of not having anything to do!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Since I’ve been busy and the creative juices are definitely not flowing (posting my to do list??? – please!) I’m going to try lifting some ideas from other renowned blogophiles. And today, I take “Thankful Thursday” from Nic

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1. My youth…no, I don’t mean my age…I mean my youth in my youth group. We had a really awesome night last night and I was reminded, as I often am, of why God has me working with them. My heart was overflowing last night when I left and I was just singing my praise to God for him putting me where I am and allowing me the blessing of working with these young people! I love you guys!

2. My health. I am struggling this week with fatigue again and am about to cut my head off so my allergy symptoms will abate, but overall, my health has been much better that last few weeks. I’m thankful that I do have good days and sometimes even good weeks like right now.

3. That I am seriously able to consider buying a house. I really feel like it will be a stretch – a big one – and things may be so tight they squeak for a while. But I feel like the time is right and I need to invest in something. And investing in a home, ultimately will be investing in myself and my financial health. I am going to look at two condos tonight. I just looked at them online and am very interested in one. I keep saying this is going to be a long, drawn out process but it may not be if I find the right place. I am just not willing to compromise.

4. Ramona, Nellie & Norm. Some people might think it is silly to put them on this list but they are my furry children and I love them so dearly. I’ve had some trouble sleeping this week and each night, they all climb in with me and snuggle in until I am able to fall back asleep.

5. That my aunt Delores is visiting from Florida and wants to spend the day with me & my mom on Saturday. I’ve always struggled with feeling somewhat extended family-less because we never really did things together since I was a small child. With the loss of my grammy and then my uncle last year, I feel like there has been a strengthening on my mom’s side of the family – more effort being made to keep in touch and be in one another’s lives and that makes me so very happy.

6. For all the men & women serving our country. We may not always agree with the President or whathaveyou, but these folks choose to risk their lives each day so that we can be free! How amazing is that? Sometimes it leaves me completely awestruck to think of it. Please keep Ron Dangler in your prayers, too, the friend I met at Tom & Keri’s at Christmas, who has been serving in Iraq. I think he’s due home this month sometime. Please just pray for his continued safety and that of his friends & unit.
I’m sure I’ve got a lot more to be thankful for but I’ll save some for next week’s edition!