Sledding

On Tuesday we were at the Meekhof's to sled; the only problem was there wasn't really any snow.  The ground was quite hard and frozen, however, and the hill fairly steep so some of the sleds actually worked.  The downside--the children's coats, snowpants and mittens looked as if they were worn sledding on frozen earth as opposed to snow.  The kids also had fun with the Wii, Nintendo, Legos, nerf guns and all sorts of things that boys (and girls) like to play with.

Even without snow for sledding, we enjoyed our afternoon at their home.  They have a beautiful older home in Lamont, MI.  Connie has her own little salon area in her home and cut the girls' hair which was a huge blessing!   While she cut hair we were able to exchange homeschool notes, stories of how we met our husbands, and just generally got to know each others families better.

We returned home and ate a quick supper and then I had to leave for the seminary wives  Bible study and cookie exchange.  The kids were so tired from the night before that Russ said all were in bed by 8:00 (including the two older boys!)   In the wives meeting we discussed the area of money and finances.  One of the wives began with a devotional on God's name, Jehovah Jirah--God will Provide.  She brought out that just as God provided a ram to take the place of Isaac, he has also provided a Lamb for our salvation.  And if we trust in a God who is willing to provide His own Son as the Lamb, shouldn't we also trust him to provide in the other areas of life? One of the discussion questions was to share a time when God had provided for you or your family.  I had so many examples I didn't know which one to share.  I decided to share God's most recent provision from last week when I had my mammogram.   Most insurances pay 100% of a screening mammogram, but a diagnostic mammogram goes toward your deductible.  We found this out last April when I had my first mammogram.   I had an area on the left that they wanted to keep an eye on so needed a 6 month repeat which is what I had last week.  I knew this one would also be diagnostic so we would again have to cover this larger expense.  We also knew I really needed to have it checked out and would worry about finances later.  Not only did the mammogram results come back normal, but I was told that a grant was in place for people like me who have high deductibles.  They informed me that they would bill my insurance and when it came back that it went to my deductible the grant would kick in and I wouldn't owe a dime.  Once again, God demonstrated that he loves to do "exceedingly, abundantly, above all we can ask or imagine" (Ephesians 3:20).