Changes...

Our fall has been so weird here lately. It has been downright hot and humid! It was just making me grumpy, I'm ready for fall not this July weather. Today we have relief, it's only supposed to get up to 60! The color is near peak around here, but alot of our leaves have already fallen. I think the trees were stressed from all the work that was done in our "earth" when we put in our new septic- it's the only explaination I have for it. That or some of the roots were damaged. Who knows. It's nice to be raking when the weather is comfortable anyway.
Our Monday routine is much like last year, Katia has ballet so I pick her up from school and we go over to my Dad and Joy's. Yesterday though, after dance, we were invited to supper at my Mom's. Joy had also invited us over, which was so nice, but what are the chances that a family of five would be asked twice in one day? It's nice to have family nearby, that's for sure! Mondays are hard to plan a decent supper because by the time we come home, it's 5:30pm. I either have to throw a quick meal on or use the crock pot which I don't do very often. There's just something about leaving the house with an appliance on that I don't like. I don't even like to leave the dryer running if I'm leaving.
Today I have to make tons of cookies. Some for home and a 3 1/2 dozen for Word of Life tomorrow. We have snacks at the end of the night while we go over the awards and announcements. Thank goodness my oven is fixed! I had signed up back in August before it broke. Course I could have found something else to make like a trail mix or something if I had to. Our oven element broke about a month ago, maybe a little longer. So we used the grill alot- I made johnny cake on it a few times, made bars, chinamen pie, it really worked well in a pinch. It's weird, but it was sort of fun to rough it. Made me appreciate my oven a whole lot more that's for sure.
Also a month ago, we had to replace our picture window in our living room. The window had fallen down out of it's frame and was going down into the wall. We could actually see outside on one end and big spiders and rain were getting in! I hate big spiders. We're not sure when it started to fall, sometime in the spring we think because we noticed a film between the panes back then, but weren't sure what was causing it. Once we realized what was happening, we had to work quick to get a new one ordered because it could actually fall into the living room. Course at the same time, about a month ago, Paul had broken a rib. So the whole project was approaching and we were trying to figure out how he was going to get that window out without actually lifting it himself. My dad had just gone out on the road and he's usually our biggest help with all our projects. So Paul asked a friend of mine's husband from church to help, (Paul's) cousin Bob, our neighbor friend Jason, and Paul's dad. It took all those guys to lift that window and it was still a struggle. The new one is a picture window with double hungs on the sides and was alot lighter. The old one didn't break when they took it out which was also a concern, the window is like 5 1/2 feet tall and 9 feet long. The whole bottom of the frame fell completely apart when they took it out, so it was in worse shape than we figured. We were so thankful it didn't all happen like around Christmas time! The whole outside wall was completely rotted so we had to replace that as well. Nothing is as simple as it appears, but we got through it. We still have to replace all the trim around the inside, but Paul just finished the siding and outside aluminum trim this past weekend. I personally can't wait till all the home projects are done. It all takes so much time, time that is in short supply. We finally have a closet in our room, but it only has padding on the floor. The carpet is yet to be installed. Paul finished the wiring in our room as well this weekend so I have a lightswitch right by the bedroom door now-yeah! Little by little we'll get it all done. We still have a closet to build for Katia's room, but that will have to wait a while.
So the days now are looking a little better than they were a month ago. Everything happened at once. It always seems to.
We had our board meeting last night and there are some exciting changes happening at our church in the next weeks. The Lord is really working. I've had some difficult companies to deal with recently. It's amazing how many companies will try to rip off a church(really God) if they can get away with it! The last instance has been something that has taken alot of prayer to figure out how to deal with it. It was brought up at our last meeting, and I was asked to research it because I had success in the last case. Once I found out what was going on, I sure didn't feel any peace about the situation. The legality of it all or what could end up happening was unnerving. Then it just finally came to me last week and the board approved my plan last night. In this bible study on the excellent wife, I was starting to think that maybe I shouldn't be the treasurer. While our Pastor had asked me to take it on, I was starting to feel conflicted with the whole aspect that this responsibility was put into a woman's hands. Maybe it would be better in a man's? Maybe someone else has a greater gift in the area of budgeting than I do. Anyone can write checks, it's forseeing the future that is tricky. We used to have two treasurers- one to do the everyday activities, and one to do the budgeting aspect. Well, now it's done to a one person job. No, it's not paid and I don't think I would even consider it if it was. I had no experience.
I do the quarterly taxes, w-2's, the budget, the payroll, and the accounts payable. The financial secretary does all the receivables- I don't have touch the money aspect of it or keep track of the individual giving except for the designated giving- thankgoodness! I only had accounting 1 in college, but along with prayer I've gotten along alright. I will keep doing the best I can for now, it's all I'm asked of and all I can give. I'm not the most poplular person at church anymore because of some of the things that have been revealed, but keep I try to keep in mind that I'm not serving the people, I'm serving God. If nothing else, they know I'm trustworthy and honest and God knows my heart is in the right place.