thistle epistles

Today is the beginning of our second Women’s Conference for this year.  This time we are hosting the wives of Covenant College alumni.  CC now has about 60 graduates (not sure of the exact number) so we could get anywhere from 20-50 women or so.  We hope many will join us for this conference, which begins this afternoon and ends on Saturday afternoon.   So far, at the time I'm posting this, 6 ladies have shown up and we are waiting for more to arrive!

Today has been frantically busy – printing schedules, menu, and Bible study materials, arranging details with Nelson (the cook and all-around assistant for these events), preparing the dormitory, etc.  On the home front, I've been running back and forth to the potty with Elijah, then next on the list was sorting out the next size of cloth nappies for Ketzia who has outgrown the ones she’s currently in.  Then sorting out the next size of clothing, and packing the ones she’s outgrown into storage.  

Ketzia has picked today to cut her first tooth, so she has been very unhappy the whole day long.  My plan is to get her settled in bed for the night (she's usually asleep by 6:30pm) and then welcome the ladies for the first evening session where I will be leading a Bible study.  My original plan was to do a study on Prayer, but I have not been able to get it to come together in time, because of my own mental fatigue combined with needy children and very limited time, so instead I will be reusing one of the Bible studies I taught in March (it's a different group of ladies this time).  That is the essence of having children and a household to care for -- it makes you flexible.

I have discovered that chocolate apparently gives me headaches now, which is totally depressing...

But, I will end with an encouraging note from our potty training saga with Elijah: Elijah woke up from his nap with a full nappy, as usual.  He was playing around with his cars and suddenly said, “Mama!  Pee-pee!”  So I said, “Quick, let’s go to the potty!”  We went running to the potty and I had every expectation that he would have just peed in his nappy by the time we got there, especially since it was already wet from his nap.  But nope… he took his nappy off, sat down on his potty and peed!  He was so proud of himself, “Yay!” he said, giving me a fabulous smile.  He’s caught onto the idea so fast….  Twice after that he felt the urge and immediately told me and took off for the bathroom, but unfortunately didn’t quite make it in time, however we reassured him that the recognition and the effort are what counts!