September 11th Mary Wrote

Good Morning!!

It is Saturday, and I have a few hours alone. I had to set priorities and this made the list.

Another school year has begun and I am actually in the middle years of homeschooling. Last year was a lot of changes to our schedules, and I used different materials and this year I went back to curriculum I used before and it feels like home again. I am excited about opportunities that God continues to Bless our family with, to grow and be the people he calls us to be. Sometimes that means there is pain involved, but I praise him for being the rock and strength to hold onto.

Psalm 18 is an excellent passage when you need some encouragement that God cares.

Aaron will be coming home in the next few weeks. It will be good to have him home again, and we realize he will be coming home a different person than when he left and Paul and I will need to rise to the challenge to know what kind of parents we will need to be. He has worked hard and is ready to be home. He will be finishing his senior year of high school with 3 classes at Bucks County Community College in the spring semester. In between he still has several things to finish up here at home as well.

David is continuing at Vo-tech in the Diesel Class. He teacher has challenged him to consider running for state office with the Skills USA club that their class in part of. Our district involves 5 tech schools and they meet together for leadership training and competition. David went last year to the different events and will be pursuing oportunites as they come along. David has also taken the gas pumping job at Levy's and is enjoying that.

Nathan continues in playing music with the orchestra that his teacher put together. He is definitely my social bunny, He hops here and there and it is hard to keep him home. He has a good circle of friends and continues to work for our friends John and Gwen. The transportation to and from that job continues to be a challenge and keeps me on the road.

Samuel is playing soccor at Quakertown Christian School again this year and it will be his last since he is in 8th grade. He has been doing alot of bike riding this summer and he has a ride planned with Paul to go to Emmaus for breakfast the first Friday in Oct. They have been practicing on Gehmans hills and also Beverly Hill. It will be an all day event. I offered to pick them up after breakfast but was told that would ruin the fun. Happy biking.

Well speaking of biking, I have actually been getting around the Wentz Rd, Steinsburg Rd, Bauman Rd block on Aaron's bike. It feels good to know that it is true, once you learn to ride bike you will never forget how. It had been 17 years and I can still do it. I want to keep doing it. Paul and I have decided that we want to work up to riding a Tandem Bike from the Oregon Coast to the East Coast when we are 60. What do you think about that goal. I better start expaning my block. I am not sure if that is when I an 60 or he is 60 but any way dreams are an important part of life.

Paul has lost 58 lbs. since May going to Weight Watchers. I am learning to count points and work at proportions. We both continue to work at the losing battle. Exercise is a big part of that and we find the more we exercise the better we feel to do more exercise and the weight comes off.

Mary