Teenagers Today

Before bed tonight, I asked Cory (13) what he would change if he could have anything changed. "Anything?" he asked. "Sure", I said, "more friends, a girlfriend, your own bedroom, Xbox instead of Playstation, taller so you could play better basketball?" Cory didn't take long, "That Jeff's accident didn't happen."

Teenagers today.

Onward and Upward

 Every Saturday through the winter, we will be spending a good deal of time at Upward Basketball. I coach the Panthers, Joshua's 1-2 Grade Boys basketball team. Hannah plays on the 3-4th Grade girls team, The Hoosiers.

Joshua had a real good game. He was scrappy. Although he only scored about 6-8 points, I can't count the rebounds. He seemed to always be in the right place on both sides of the court.

Hannah also had a good game...for her, a great game. Forced to guard some taller players, she met the challenge. They scored a few times on her but she now knows to step toward them when they begin to shoot. Their shots won't come so easily next week. Rare for her, she also scored once. She stole the ball, drove the court, shot (missed), rebounded and then scored!

Way to go, kids!
 

Bless this food...

Tonight at dinner, Joshua was into his third or fourth bite of chili before the rest of us had even "doctored" ours up. That's a sure fire way to get asked to say the blessing at our table. So, being asked to pray, in his best Mushmouth voice from Fat Albert, he offers up, "Bubba, debubada, bubba" which created a good amount of free laughter from the other 3 kids (of course, Mom and Dad can't join in that, right?). Receiving a stern look from his father, he decides to offer up real "Thanks". He prayed for the Masters (a missionary family that we know), his uncle Jeff (who's in the ICU) and then he prayed in his most animated (near bad witch) voice, "and help us not to go, 'Oh, I can't stand it anymore, I can't stand it!' "Amen", he added. Then, over the laughter (which now includes Mom and Dad) he exclaimed, "I have guilt, I have guilt!"

Of course, he forgot to ask God's blessing on the food.

Yard Work

Yesterday I asked the kids to help get the leaves out of the yard. Cory's (13) job was to ride the mower and pull a vacuum machine behind to pick up the leaves. Then, he would dump them in the back yard where Joshua (7) would put them in bags. I left them to it for about an hour. When I came back, Josh was still going at it with a good attitude. Cory was still going at it, too - but his job was quite a bit easier than Josh's. Hannah joined in the fun with about 30 minutes of work to go. They all worked so hard - I was very proud of them.

Fun at Awana

Hannah took her camera to Awana last week. Of course, you know girls are going to be silly - but did you know that they can pursuade their leaders to join them? 

Jeff's Recovery

Jeff continues his recovery. He's still in UT Medical's Trauma ICU. They've removed the ventilator and he has been breathing on his own for over 48 hours! I haven't heard from anyone who has seen him that he has shown any new signs of response.

We're still praying for definite signs of responding.