No Matter What, Trust God!

1. I am tired. It was another very full week. I'm going to really try to keep this post "Quick." I mean it this time. Really.

2. Here's the progress picture of Celestial Dragon:

You will notice that I finished up the top blue section which I used as a diversion while I was dragging my feet over the section that needed frogging. But, after I finished that, I had no more excuses so I spent the 2 hours studying the pattern and my work, back and forth, until I figured out where I went wrong. Another 20 minutes taking out about 20 stitches, and then I moved on. I haven't redone that section yet so I'm not absolutely certain I found exactly where I went wrong (it is a very complex pattern), but I'm hopeful that I identified the right wrong (hah!) and can move forward.

The great thing is that I'm really starting to feel confident about my work on this pattern and my progress is faster than it ever was when I worked on it previously (2-3 years ago). It helps that I'm still using the lesson I learned with White Lilies on Red: work on one small section at a time and don't move on until you finish it! So this dragon's going to have a whole head real soon like!

3. While stitching in the evenings this week, I've been watching the Olympic Trials. So much fun! Just no more gaga over Michael Phelps, please. I've moved on.

4. A few movies were viewed last weekend:

• On Friday night, Marshall and I watched Let The Bullets Fly. We are both long-time fans of Yun-Fat Chow and he played against type this time as the bad guy, which was fun to see. We are also new fans of Wen Jiang who both starred and directed the film. A little quirky but a lot of fun.
• On Sunday night, my mother graciously watched the kids for us so we could finally go see Prometheus. It was good and very pretty. And Michael Fassbender was excellent, as always. 
• Only 4 more days until The Amazing Spider-Man opens!
• I still want to see Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, though. But I'm not sure I want to see it alone, so it may have to wait for video.

5. I know, I know; I should have put VBS as number 1. It's only what we did ALL WEEK LONG!

The program for this was Sky and I'm sure we will be singing the music for the rest of the summer. And the theme was, guess what, "No matter what, trust God!"

Some highlights:

• Miranda is a social animal so she loves activities like this; she would do this every week all summer long. Alex has more difficulty adapting to the schedule and following along with his peers. But he was given 3 boys who, at different times, helped him through his difficult times so that he could participate. I am so very thankful!
• While the children were off learning how to trust God, I spent 3 of the mornings writing cards and postcards for Youth Group students (16 postcards and 17 Mission Trip cards) in peaceful, quiet places where I could pray over each card and write from my heart. 
• Wednesday morning I spent with my mother-in-law and Thursday with my mother, which is always fun. We got to have whole conversations without children interrupting!

The end result is the kids are tired and happy and so am I: WIN-WIN!

6. The only down-side is that Alex got stung on each thumb by yellow jackets on Wednesday when he was outside and his thumbs are now inflamed which necessitated a trip to the pediatrician's after VBS ended, this afternoon. He was prescribed a very, heavy-duty antihistamine and, if the swelling hasn't started to recede by tomorrow, an antibiotic. More fun for all.

7. The church picnic is this Sunday after church and it's at the lake and we are going to play and have a good time until Miranda is crying with exhaustion (which is our barometer for when we need to leave a party). And then we will go home and call it a good day.

That was shortish, wasn't it? :)

Here's Jen.