Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

With the Phamily Daddy busy with work this week, I'm glad my internet fast was last week. I took some time to rethink the way life is going. More on that when I have my head cleared.

Our church is currently undergoing a huge capital campaign. So last week C. and I were deep in prayer and conversation on how to contribute. This Sunday was a huge celebration out on the fields where our whole church worshipped together, a great feat considering we usually have 5 services and an average attendance of 4,814 people! I can't wait to see how God will work in our church's mission given the current economic state of our country.

While I was out-of-the-loop last week, A.E. and I started some hard-core potty training. We went to the cotton training panties. We had some success and we had some setbacks. We had some progress in that A.E. can tell me she needs to go potty, even if it is a little too late. She's getting there. Thanks to everyone who has talked with me, given me advice, supported me, and listened to my irrational fears about her going to kindergarten in pull-ups.

Our normal routine ensued, "school" on Tuesday and Thursday with Bible study on Wednesday. Thursday afternoon was reserved for playgroup, but we didn't make it. A.E. has become scared to go down for her nap and has started throwing tantrums when I try to leave the room. I'm not dealing with it very well, and today when she asked me to rock her to sleep, I did. She fell asleep in about 3 minutes.

Rocking her to sleep reminded me of our time together when she was a baby. I was a rocker and she was a rocking junkie. I remember crying to C. one night because I was pregnant with H.J., and we were having trouble getting A.E. to lay down without waking up after we had rocked her to sleep. I remember thinking "How will she ever learn how to go to sleep on her own?" Today, after rocking her to sleep, I kind of relished in the fact that she felt so secure in my arms that she wasn't scared and was able to go to sleep easily.

Thankfully she hasn't had this problem at night time.

This weekend, we drove up to Elijay to C.'s parents' mountain house. We enjoyed a cool evening in the mountains and a fun, busy day of activity on Saturday. Our first stop was Grandpa Jones's Pumpkin Patch, complete with Cinderella pumpkins, white pumpkins, blue pumpkins, little pumpkins and a 300-pound pumpkin. Despite the cool weather, the girls enjoyed picking out pumpkins with Nana and Papa. They rode around in a wagon with the selections we made and chased each other in the corn rows.

Then we headed up to Blue Ridge to Mercier Orchards, a place we call the "Apple Barn." The apples and apple cider are delicious, the home decor is okay-some cute things and some really COUNTRY things, but the star of the show is the baked goods section. Their frozen cherry pie-yummy- and their fried apple pies- again, yummy- and the cinnamon apple bread are must eats!

After stocking up on cider, fried pies, and apples, we headed back down to Elijay's own Poole's Bar-BQ. If you've ever driven up Hwy. 515, it's the place with the pigs on the hill. Yummy. They were out of onion rings, but Colonel Poole himself was there in his patriotic suit greeting folks and playing the piano. Yummy BBQ. I need to start taking pictures of all the food I talk about.

Stuffed, we headed over to the Apple Festival. It's a glorified craft show with some games for the kids, a mechanical bull ride, a rock climbing wall, jumpy things for the kids, camel rides (why?), pony rides (this one I understand), clogging-a whole blog could be started about this bizarre tradition, and a petting zoo. The highlights of the day included A.E. getting her face painted like a princess, C. NOT fitting into the train ride (think Elf), and petting a real, live baby deer. So sweet.

We had to head home late on Saturday, so we bathed the girls and made the trip back to the big city in order to get to church on Sunday morning for the big celebration. I'm going to post the pictures tomorrow. See you then!

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