Wow, I've been busy this week! My youngest son, Casey, is in band and football at the high school. Both of those organizations have parent booster clubs. As a dedicated mother, I feel obligated to assist in any way possible in order to provide my son with the best high school experiences possible. (Plus scholarships hinge on extra-curricular activities as well as grades.)

This last Saturday was the band's first field show competition. I was helping with props. I mean to tell you, these are some BIG props!! Saturday we were putting the finishing touches on some of the props at the very last minute. We had some materials problems, so only half the props got done. It was crazy!

The band ended up winning the sweepstakes over all the other bands! The trophy is taller than I am! The drum line (of which Casey is a part) was the best of all the rest. The funny thing is there was only one other school that had better props than we did (according to the judges) and ours were obviously only half finished! HA HA HA!

I was also working on lots of other things last week. I hardly had time to blow my nose. (Or should I say "dose?" If it is needing blowing it would sound that way, wouldn't it?) This week won't be much better. Sigh!

The wind is blowing big time today. I need to get going so I can batten down the hatches outside. Thanks for stopping by! See you next week?

I am in some spiritual warfare on behalf of my church. I covet your prayers.

Link to the 10/5/98 Bible study.

Satan was repaving the street in front of my church last Wednesday. Well, I didn't actually see him, but I know he was there. The city didn't notify the church and preschool that they would be completely closing that street on Wednesday. When I got to the church (a half-hour drive from my house) they didn't want to let me in. I finally convinced one guy that I needed to get in and he let me through and told me I'd be stuck there until that afternoon.

Two other women and I set up a militant intercessory prayer group that prays for our church. We meet every Wednesday at 10:00AM. I know we are getting results, otherwise satan wouldn't try to stop it. I've been praying that he not have any power to interfere with the pray-ers' lives to keep us from the prayer group. I didn't pray that the church remain accessible to us, however. The other pray-er that tried to come to the prayer group was not allowed to come to the church. Well, prayer was on schedule though light on attendance. I still covet your prayers for our spiritual warfare on behalf of our church.

Well, I suppose I need to pull out my house-cleaning supplies and get my nose to the grindstone. I'm having relatives come visit the end of this week. I've been so busy lately that the dust bunnies are the size of large dogs. The barking is driving me crazy!

Link to the 10/12/98 Bible study.

Wow, I thought I was busy last week! HA! I've topped it!

I somehow got to be in charge of covering the large field show backdrops for the high school band field show. The theme of the field show is Jekyll and Hyde and the backdrops are huge panels; half are white and the other half are black.

The white ones hadn't been finished and I ended up with the frames from the backdrops in my back yard. I put my mother-in-law, who was visiting from out of town, to work peeling the backing off the velcro pieces. I was covering the frames with the fabric panels.

The wind began blowing very hard in the afternoon while I was trying to attach the two 27' by 7' panels. That was fun! The panels became huge sails!!! You should have seen it! I was pulling fabric and positioning and stapling Velcro. My mother-in-law was holding the fabric down as best she could. Then I began hollering and rebuking the wind. You can probably imagine the looks I was getting from my mother-in-law.

I worked on attaching them all day long. I got done just as someone came to pick them up. Then I got the pleasure (not!) of helping him load the frames onto the trailer. Where the heck were all the parent helpers??? That was not fun!

That night at the football game the wind ended up blowing too hard to use the large panels. (Imagine, if you will, a wall of white fabric 12' tall and 32' wide. Now imagine another one of the same in black. To the side of the white wall were two smaller 28' by 7' tall white ones and to the far side of the black wall were two identical black ones. Behind the large walls (which were on wheeled frames) was a large "stained glass" window made from heavy cellophane. Behind each of the four smaller backdrops were smaller "stained glass" windows. Now imagine the wind blowing. . . .)

Saturday was a field show competition. Thank God the wind wasn't blowing there! We did break one of the supports on one of the large backdrops trying to get it off the field over a cement curb. We only have three minutes to clear the field and we were cutting it close. Ahhh, the fun of being a booster club parent!

I was exhausted when it was over! Today I get to check all the fabric panels for necessary repairs and refold them all. Sigh.

On top of it all I had my in-laws over for the weekend.

Link to the 10/19/98 Bible study.

I won't go into detail again, but I was really busy again last week. It looks like it will be this way during the fall every year for the next three years at least!

There is a wonderful benefit from the time I am spending helping with the band program. Casey, my son, is seeing me spending a lot of time and working hard for the band. He knows I am only doing it for him. He appreciates the fact that I am continuously around during his performances.

He doesn't actually tell me this, but I can tell. He has been voluntarily hugging me and wanting to be near me and to talk with me. I believe he is finally getting an understanding that the rules we set as parents and the things we expect from him are only because of our concern for his welfare and his future.

He has actually been working on improving his grades - - voluntarily! This is a great thing! I'm encouraged!

I love my sons and do everything in my power to assist them so they can do well and be happy. My love for them is unconditional. I love them just as much when they are messing up as when they are doing well. That is the same way God loves us. He wants the best for us. He wants us to be happy. He loves us even when we are messing up. He will do anything to assist us so we can do well and be happy.

Now, let me explain the catch. My sons have a choice of accepting my assistance. They have a choice to follow my advice. We, too, have those same choices when it comes to God's assistance. So many times we complain about our "hard luck" and whine about God not helping us. We have an end to carry in the deal. We need to find out what our portion is and then we need to do it.

Today's Bible study is about one of the things that is our portion.

Link to the 10/26/98 Bible study.