It's Hallowe'en today and the children of the neighborhood are all excited as they traipse (I know that's a word - but how is it really spelt?) up the steps to our front door. The large bag of candy I bought from Sams is depleting.. slowly. I have seen spiderman, cinderella, wolfman, pumpkins of various sizes, as well as those younger teens who choose to dress up as younger teens not dressing up as anything!

You will be interested to know that the dog has been very well behaved and not raced to the door everytime the doorbell rang - maybe she's sickening for something...!

I really should be studying. I have a VLI mid-term tomorrow. My first exam in - do you really want to know how long? - at least twenty years (wow am I really that old?). It has not been easy to get these brain cells working again, but I have thoroughly enjoyed the first half of this term. The Pentateuch contains some incredibly fascinating stuff - how come I've been a Christian for .... that long... and not known that?! And this past weekend's Intensive - the Kingdom of God and Healing - WOW! How can I tell you how much I have learned?

OK in a fifth grade style paragraph I will try (5th Grade paragraph = five sentences)

Derek Morphew is a fantastic speaker and if you want to know anything about the Kingdom of God he's the guy to listen to/read. God had a plan for redemption even as Adam and Eve were getting kicked out of the Garden of Eden (you may have known that, but it's new to me). When God made the covenant with Abraham he made it so he alone was liable should the covenant be broken; the penalty for such being death (what/who does that point to?). We are now/not yet/delayed/future people! - that explains everything doesn't it? and finally: all the plagues Egypt suffered before releasing the Israelites were power encounters directed at the specific Egyptian gods - the Nile being the embodiment of the Nile god Ha'pi (turned to blood), the frog being the god/ess of fertility - and they overmultiplied in the plague of frogs - etc!

OK that just gave you a taster. I can't believe that this course is only two years - what will I do then?

What do you do if you hear God calling you into something and it fills you with terror? Does that mean it's not God, or does it mean that you're just scared, that it's OK to be scared, and you just have to be obedient - but scared?

That's something I'm battling with currently... won't say any more, will just leave you perplexed! - hey why should I be the only one in turmoil?

Here's a picture of the family - it's a little old, one of the photos taken for our last year's Christmas letter. They've all grown taller - except Alan and me!!! most of the children are taller than me now. Watch this space for this year's photo...

Well it's been ages since I last wrote. Life has been very busy - wonderfully busy. We have had friends from England staying for three weeks. Not the same friends. Jon and Oli were here for a week - so the house was full of the life and laughter that fun twenty-something chaps bring, and the kids loved them. Next was a visit from Mary and her daughter Joanna. I lived with Mary and family for a while before I got married, and we have been very close since then.

We did such a lot - Museum of Science and Industry, the Art Institute, shopping, the Botanic Gardens, a tour of Chicago neighborhoods, shopping, breakfast at an all American 24-hour diner, the theatre (Pirate Queen - very good), a Cubs game (they lost - are you surprized?), a high school football game and of course shopping. Phew!

Now I'm busily involved with VLI (Vineyard Leadership Institute) trying to look like a responsible would-be leader! (that's hard work!) I'd never needed to know the significance of a suzerain-vassal treaty before - and now I do! Aren't you impressed? I've been doing so much reading- wonder whether any of it will stay in my brain which, like Winnie the Pooh, does tend to be filled with fluff! Oh well, this is the direction I believe God is leading me, and I am just trusting that He will get me through.

I've started teaching Pilates classes at church, which is interesting. However, of all those people who were so excited and keen to attend many have very valid reasons why they can't, so I am questioning whether after the initial promise of 10 weeks this will continue. I will be disappointed if that is the case, it is such good experience for me because I don't get the opportunity to teach a mat class regularly. Oh well, we shall just see what happens.

Onward and upward!! I have to get back to reading - I'm trying to get through Numbers and Deuteronomy by tomorrow evening's VLI class - racing to catch up as usual!!

Just been home for the weekend which sounds quite boring really. However, I live in the Chicago area and home is North Wales! I left the good old US of A on Thursday evening and arrived in a sunny Manchester on Friday morning. I travelled down to Nottingham for the wedding of a good friend on Saturday afternoon, went to Trent Vineyard on the Sunday morning, spent a day and a bit with my mum in North Wales and came home yesterday. Spent quite a lot of time on the train - am quite amazed how well the railway system works considering all the press I read about the bad side of it.

All you guys working on the railways, take a pat on the back! You did a great job, were able to direct me with humor and wisdom and managed to get me to my destinations on time. Well done! The trains were clean and I had no problems getting a seat even though I hadn't booked. A highly recommended mode of transport - but a little pricey. Can't have everything I guess.

Had fun bringing all the required chocolate back. When travelling out from USA there seemed little difference in the quantity of hand luggage allowed - just no liquids etc, on the way back to the USA rules were much more stringent. There were purpose built boxes on the check in counters - if your carry-on luggage didn't easily fit in one of those boxes you had to check the luggage into the hold. My carry-on was rather flimsy and wouldn't have survived a journey in the hold. So there I was on the floor by the check in counter - suitcase wide open, trying to stuff all my carry-on goodies, and probably well over my legal quota of chocolate, into my suitcase. I did manage it in the end though - no round of applause was offered regardless of how entertaining my plight! It was all worth it when I saw the look of delight on my children's faces after I had unpacked this huge mound of chocolate!! yeay!!! I did something right as a mother, finally! ... It does sound as if the children are all little - easily pleased by a bar of chocolate - however, not one of them is left at elementary school! I guess the methods of bribery have not changed much over the years.

For all those healthy people out there, the chocolate intake will be limited. It has to last until we go over to UK next summer!

I'm just enjoying a quick cuppa. All the childen have gone to school and it's not yet 8.00 am! My youngest went off to his first day at Junior High! And my oldest went off to his first day of his senior year of High School!

It was a long summer, yet it seems to have gone so quickly. They were around for ever, yet for so short a time. And I get to this morning's cup of tea and I sit and think... did I do all that I planned to do this summer? Did I spend all the time with the children that I intended to way back in June? The answer to both is probably not, but we did have some fun times, and we did spend some time together. I guess some is better than none!

It's raining, the children have just finished the washing up. The dishwasher has decided not to clean the dishes! It will make lots of noises and swishing sounds, but the dishes are just the same as when they go in. The kids have thus been recruited to make up for this shortfall much to their chagrin. They are quite good at it too, think they may have found permanent employment!

I have a couple of Pilates clients in a few minutes so I had better run.