Can We Say Busy?!

Oh wow, talk about busy. We have been so busy lately we have completely neglected blogging. Starting at the end of April and going to the end of May, we have had at least two, sometimes up to five events per weekend. We don't always get to all of them but we try. And we will have to split up once to cover all our events. Week days have been filled with work for Roger as usual and lots of projects, volunteering, serving and house duties for me. Of course I drag Roger into as many of those as I can. Here's a run down of what we've been doing lately.

For Easter our church held a Passover Seder celebration. It was so cool. You know I did my research on a Passover Seder meal before we attended. I have to know what I'm getting into before I get into it. Although it is a Jewish ritual feast, there is a Christian version of it which is what we did. It was amazing. Full of knowledge about the Old Testament, God himself, his character and his promises and about the Good News. I highly recommend everyone attend one in their lifetime. I want to go to Jerusalem even more now.

On April 26th I participated in my first sprint distance triathlon that wasn't canceled at the last minute or turned into a dualthon because of bad weather. I was so happy to finally do a sprint triathlon. I had a disastrous start, but my finish was great! Although swimming is the hardest part of a triathlon and I was more than prepared for it, the swim leg of the race did not go well for me. I learned a lot during this triathlon. And I mean a lot about every part of triathlons but I definitely learned I need to practice open water swimming a lot more.

I borrowed Roger's truck one day to get some over sized garage organization materials home and he was rear ended on the way home in my car. He suffered some pain in his right hip and was sore and stiff for a few days. But he's a lot better now. This would be the second time the rear end of my car has been damaged since we got it. The first time a teenager backed into it. But all repairs have been made and the other person's insurance covered it all (both times). Thank God we were hit by people who had insurance. Speaking of garage organization, we are finally finished with all our home improvements and decorating of the new house. We are basically done. All we have left is one chair to replace whenever that happens. We started trying to host gatherings, dinners, bbq's before it got too busy this month. We hosted a grilled pizza party for our community group and a happy hour with Roger's coworkers. Having the new deck and back yard landscaping done is working out well for socializing and grilling. Especially since our back yard faces East and is in the shade in the evening unlike our last house. We plan to host many more especially with our neighbors.

We have also been very busy volunteering and serving with our church. One week I volunteered eleven hours. We have served families that lost everything in an apartment fire, helped people move, washed cars for a free single mom's car wash, edited a video for church, hosted a birthday party for homeless children while their parents went to a class, signed in children to childcare before church, ran the lyrics and message during service, helped tear down after church, and cooked and delivered dinner to a couple with a new baby. Tonight we are delivering and assembling a baby crib for a single mom and Friday we are helping babysit for a fundraiser for a wonderful young lady in our church to go on a mission trip this summer. I'm sure there will be more serving and volunteering before the month of May is over. I know there will be. Our church has another Serve Austin Sunday coming up on May 31st. And you never know what else will come up. I'm just thankful our church is service oriented. They let us know when there are people in need and how we can help. "Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you." James 1:27

Last but definitely not least, our family is keeping us busy lately. We have quite a few birthdays in the month of May which means lots of parties and none of them are local. One special birthday party was my cousin's Quince Anos this past weekend. We traveled out of town to help decorate and attend it. And it was so much fun. It turned out to be a mini family reunion too. It was such a blessing and so great to see so many family members that we haven't seen in so long at one time. We did a lot of dancing. And if you know me well, you know how much I love to dance. I hope to have pictures up soon. The other birthdays celebrated and will be celebrated are another fifteen year old, a six year old, a one year old and I won't mention how old my brother-in-law is. That's just the last week of April through the end of May.

One thing is for sure, we have had a lot of fun staying busy. God gives us joy in all of it. "I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!" John 15:11 I know I have said this many times before, but I will try to blog more often so these things won't be so long. I know, you are all laughing right now.