Virusville

...that's where we live...our own special petri dish of viruses...all new to us...all eager to hitch a ride on one of the viable carriers in the H Fam.

All weekend...we stayed in.

The kids were quarantined to the house as many still had fevers, coughs, body aches and/or sore throats. Talk about your fun autumn weekend!

Dad and I darted out separately as fast as possible to bring in feed and supplies.

Worst note of all was that we had to miss our Sunday meeting! This was a great blow because the young were to sing a new song "If I were a butterfly" in front of the gathering. We got up, bathed and right about one hour before we were to depart...they began wilting before my eyes.

I was so discouraged...so frustrated...we look to this time each week to refill our tanks and to encourage us...the highlight of our week...missed.

It caused me to reflect on my attitude about Sunday meetings back at The Old Place. We hardly ever missed, always looked forward to meeting with our people and were generally unhappy if we missed.

But yesterday, we felt crushed....truly, crushed that we were going to miss! Our message to those of you who are surrounded by opportunities to meet with and enjoy brothers and sisters...appreciate it a little bit more this week...it is a blssng!

Today school was a particular delight for me...though Magpie went home after half the day feeling too ill to continue...in my reading class today...ALL OF THE STUDENTS READ! IN ENGLISH! Overcome with joy I hugged two of them for whom I knew it was the greatest accomplishment!

Dad is having a bit of a tougher go this week. I left him just now at the campus sorting out more details about this week's fire drill. With our school being brand new, everything it seems has to be re-invented! I think I saw his eyes bulging a bit with frustration...ah, life where you cannot understand what people are speaking about...it will wear you down!

I'm tempted to lament the fact that we missed the meeting yesterday once again in light of Dad's tough day...but in reality, we have all that we need for today. When these times arise where we're stressed, fatigued and generally displeased...we need to remember that the best defense is a good Thanksgiving session!

I came home the other night to find a long list of items that Dad had typed into a Word file...items for which he was giving thanks. This seems to be the lesson we're learning now. Often things aren't the way we wish they would be with health, relationships or obligations...too often we take the bait to focus on those items and to allow them to fill our radar screen with negative thinking. Yet, we are so blssd! We have been given the greatest gift, have received enduring promises and have access to eternal joy...

...really, in light of that...

how great it is to have breath in our lungs to enable us to give thanks!