VBS and The Storm

 This week was Vacation Bible School. VBS is a big deal in our house, especially when you're 5, because you have to go to your class all by yourself. Josiah was not happy about this. He cried the for 2 minutes the first and second night. After that he was just fine and didn't even noticed me when we passed in the hall. He participated and made friends. This year was Anna's first year. I was with her in the preschool class. I'm pretty sure I'm going to set the record for the most years spent in the preschool class!

Friday night was the program and Josiah wanted no part of singing with his class. I decided it would do him no good to sit and watch his class so I stood beside him. He had quiet tears running down his face through the whole song. 

Aliza, on the other hand, was the singer in her class. She did the motions and we could hear her voice loud and clear! She was nervous, but she did great.

 Jeremy had left on Wednesday morning for business in New Mexico. Jeremy's parents arrived for a visit on Wednesday afternoon. They were such a big help to me this week. We were expecting Jeremy to land at 5:30 Friday evening in time to make it to the VBS program. I got several phone calls from the airline telling me of delays and time changes. Jeremy texted me at 6:20 that he was boarding the airplane for the commuter flight of 25 minutes. There was a storm during the program but it seemed to have passed and when I hadn't heard from him at 7:30 I started getting nervous. We headed home where my Mom and Dad were waiting to visit and see the children's crafts from the week.

Instead...soon after we got home it started pouring rain and the wind started blowing. I really can't describe the wind and the rain. All I know is that I looked out the sliding door and the wind was doing some kind of swirly thing in the tops of the trees and the rain was going sideways. And then limbs started falling. I walked to the front windows and saw this--

 and then this--

 and then this--

 and I got scared. And Aliza was scared. And I realized Jeremy was circling somewhere between here and Philly and I was worried about him. And Aliza started wondering is Daddy was going to come home. And then it started to hail and all I could think was "tornado" and I couldn't get the word out to ask Mom and I held Aliza and Anna on the floor and Mom prayed. In a few minutes the wind and rain calmed.

Karen shared a little later that earlier in the week she had felt a heavy negative feeling that led her to praying for protection over her family.  I'm so thankful she did pray. Jeremy landed safely about 8:30.

Saturday morning it was time to start cleaning up. Chore charts aren't really my thing, but when there's a job to do I expect everyone to participate and I'll teach by example. Josiah helped Jeremy fix the chainsaw and us girls started hauling limbs to the brush pile. (The brush pile that was very recently just about completely cleared!!) The girls weren't exactly willing helpers, but we stuck with it. Josiah hauled loads on his Gator.

 This Gator has paid for itself several times over!

 Aliza decided she wanted no part in dragging branches. (She much preferred to make her case for an outdoor cat.) Anna wanted to be carried. So I got out the stroller and Aliza's job was to push Anna while I dragged limbs and then I pushed Anna back. Aliza had no idea how hard she worked! It was HOT and HUMID!

 By the end Aliza figured out that if she entertained Anna she could just sit in the shade. Smart girl! And Aliza had the camera...

 We have had a wet summer. The ground is saturated. During the storm we had puddles all over the yard and when we had another hard rain this morning (Sunday), the ditch immediately filled with water. It became the swimming pool.