Fall Festival and Sickness

This has been a hard weekend. Eli likely has the swine flu and Autumn either has a cold or a milder version of the flu. I'm hoping it's a milder version of the flu so she'll be done with it.

One thing that meant for us was that the girls couldn't go to the Fall Festival at the church where they attend Awanas yesterday. They've been looking forward to it for weeks. I prepared them on Friday and explained that we would try to have several surprises for them the next day. I felt bad for them, but knew there was nothing I could do to change that Autumn and Eli are/were sick.

I was talking on the phone yesterday morning and the friend asked if the girls were really disappointed and how they were doing. I told her they were okay. And thankfully, they really seemed to be. I'm sure they were disappointed but I am so thankful that they still enjoyed their day. I got out the puppet theater in the morning and made coffee cake for breakfast. After breakfast, they got dressed up in their fancy dresses and found the new shoes I surprised them with (I have to exchange Sami's though because they were the wrong size). Then, they played with Autumn's new ponyville toy and cash register through the morning. Eli was cranky through most of it, but the girls were okay. After lunch and a nap, I got out a big roll of princess coloring pages I had found for them and they were excited to get to color. They did that for quite a long time and then we had dinner. After dinner, I made popcorn and we watched Wallace and Gromit in A grand day out. Then Bible stories and bed time.

I am very thankful for the hearts and joy that the Lord has given my children. I know they could have whined all day and complained, but they didn't. One thing about our house is that what mom and dad says goes. I think that we both see in ourselves (especially me) a resistance to authority, so we want to teach our children how to submit with a joyful heart to the authorities over you. In their case, it's God and mom and dad. This doesn't mean that I won't teach them when to stand up to people and how to speak up--not at all. But, God continues to work on my heart and a submissive attitude and I desire for my children to live in joy and not bitterness as I have struggled with.

This is actually an issue for a long discussion and I need to run and get things ready for my family to wake up, but hopefully soon I'll be able to write more...