This month has been extremely busy, hence there have been very few blog entries. To survive the winter blahs of homeschooling, our family has adopted the tradition of a January Interim, much like some colleges do. Last year we studied math and Lewis & Clark for the entire month of January, ending in a trip along the Lewis & Clark trail. We covered 1/3 of the trail and will finish it in coming years. This year we are studying Minnesota and its history for the month. We’ll end up the unit with a trip to the Twin Cities and visits to many historical sites.

In addition to the J-Term adventure, I’ve been busy writing. I have rewritten the first 4 chapters of Small Town Sin in the last couple of weeks. I set it aside for several months to study the craft some more and to read tons of fiction. Of course, I completed several other writing projects during that break from the novel, but the space from STS was good for me…and for the novel. It is cleaning up quite nicely now. My goal is to complete rewrites on 10 chapters a month for the next couple of months.

This week I also had an opportunity to complete a writing assignment for a BOZ the friendly green neighborhood bear project. My four-year-old, Caleb, loves BOZ, so working on this short project was especially fun.

Mike and I designed postcards in the last couple of weeks to promote my two retreat packages. We have sent those out to a few hundred churches this week. It will be fun to see the fruit of this effort.

My greatest delight and sorrow in the last month has been carrying the mat of prayer for several friends. Like the paralyzed man whose friends carried him on a mat and lowered him through the roof of a home so he might be blessed by Christ, sometimes loved ones need us to carry them to the Lord. I’ve had the special privilege of praying for Jennifer who will have a double masectomy this Tuesday. I’ve also prayed extensively for Susie and her family. Susie’s young son is receiving care from a hospice nurse and daily his life is in the Lord’s hands. This week her husband left the car for her to take their son (1 of 6 children) to the doctor to see if his kidneys were failing. Ferris drove his mo-ped to work and was hit by a car. Even after major surgery there is a chance he may lose one of his legs, and yesterday a possible blood clot was discovered in his lung. While I can not understand why such things happen, I know that God knows and has a plan. He is and will be faithful. In the meantime, I will continue to carry their mat.