Tim Update

Tim came home yesterday - from his parents house.

He's lost at least 12 lbs in the last week - probably more, but has gained back a few with the fluids and food back in him.  Though his now even more picky about what he wants to eat than he was previously - I understand - when you feel THAT bad - everything tastes bad, and it is a LOT of work to chew.

His arms are thin and his face is thin - but he still has the belly fat, so if you look at him, he looks gaunt and old, and actually surprising that he still has dark hair.  This sickness really took a toll on him.

Volley ball season is starting.  He's turned back the next 2 weeks of games - though I think everybody who has seen him at the last meeting is fine with that.  He's got a game the middle of August, nearby I think.

I'm praying Tim is feeling up to church and the library on Sunday.  Maybe if we just go late?

Also, if you call and talk to him, you may find he sounds "off" of normal.  I find this disturbing.

Keep him in your prayers.

Rhoda and I are trying to start a business making Memory Movies  - like of weddings, birthdays, school events, births, funerals, .... anything legal and in good taste.  If you want to help us get started by giving us a project, we sure would appreciate it!   $99 seems to be the going rate ... we are going to charge our first 10 customers only $50 - you provide the pictures, any comments that you want included, back ground information, and the music you want it put to, otherwise we'll use a public domain hymn or classical music.

Rhoda is also attempting to start an Etsy business making the cutest T-shirt purses.

Kendra is still working on getting her book fully published.  She's been hard at work getting it edited and polished.  It will be available on Kindle and special order hard copy.

I'm working on setting up my new blog.  This one will rapidly devolve into "just family pictures and news" and the other will be mostly Homeschool interest, not sure if I'll dabble into other topics much.  If you are interested in the second blog - you can contact me or leave a comment (I have to approve them before they will post - so you can say "don't post this" if you just want to send me your email and I'll send you a link ... it will be a few weeks before I get it fully going - as I'll be transfering MUCH of the format of this blog over and deleting it from here.  That is time consuming!

God continues to lay our needs on others hearts and meet the little things that keep us going.  ...  Hardest to handle right now is our electric bills - only $350 this month with our new AC blower installed - I think it would have easily been much higher otherwise.  Even my Dad's house has been very warm, but we turn his thermostat up to 80 during the night so it stays off most of the night.  We only run the dryer after dark, and we hang dry as much as possible.  I think it is exciting when we are blessed beyond our needs - I had been wanting some corn torillias and a small bag of them was in a care package from a friend of a friend clearing her pantry.

Joel is starting 1st grade this week.  He's super excited about his new papers and books.  We are also starting up a little study of the US states and territories from a booklet I found at Target ....  I think it would be awesome cool if some of our friends and family would send him a postcard of some historical event/landmark or something unique from that state.  And it would be super fun for him to see where people live.  We will be doing a 1 - 2 states a week - about every 3 days - and doing it in alphabetical order ... this week (the 8th) we'll do Alabama and Alaska ... the week after we'll hit Arizona.  Then Arkansas and California the 3rd week (22nd).  Finally, the last week of August should bring us to Colorado.  ...  We would welcome anything you would care to contribute - post card - funny story from your child hood - a link to your city/town - or just a "hello - I live in ____".

I really wish we had the ROOM to put up a big map - but I'll do the best I can at pinpointing the places on his tiny map in his book!