Swamped!

I thought that with the ending of soccer season for 5 of my kids, that I would have so much time! Apparently not.
Life has been so crazy this week, that I am really looking forward to Thanksgiving for a few days at home with my family.
Today we had 6 girls over from Kristin's U-9 soccer team for their last end of the season event. I ordered small, size one mini balls for each girl and then they signed each other's ball and ate ice cream. I had bought 4 different kinds and cones, thinking that I would hit every preference. Instead the majority of the girls wanted all 4 flavors and ended up with this big towers of ice cream! It was quite fun, and they are such nice girls that even I had a good time.
This was all following a busy day of driving Louie to the ferry, dropping off 4 of my kids and two friend's kids at their classes, taking Kristin's class to the Bainbridge Historical Museum, taking the younger kids to meet my mom at the Blackbird Bakery for tea to pass the time till it was time to pick the kids back up, deliver them to school, do lunch duty there, race home to feed my own, drop Katherine and Margaret back off for art and circle class, come home to clean house, back out to pick up the girls and buy the ice cream, sweep the house, and greet the team! Whew! Yesterday was just as busy, but was such a delight. The day started out at Keri's house, where she hosts a ladies bible study for a bunch of us ladies, studying Sally Clarkson's "Ministry of Motherhood". We meet once a month, covering one chapter each time. This month was special, a lady from her church had volunteered to teach us all how to make pies. I have made alot of pies over the years, but it was such a blessing to have an older woman give us some tips. I learned that a pastry cloth keeps you from putting too much flour into the dough, making it more flaky and less tough. What a great thing to know! We each walked away with a pastry cloth and a sleeve for our rolling pins. We had a wonderful time of fellowship, eating lunch together and then a pie that was demonstrated. Boy was it good!
Louie flew home from a business trip in Bismark, ND just in time to play his last soccer game of his season. He called me when he got into town and wanted me to come. At first I thought that it wasn't realistic, but then surprised him by going just by myself. The older boys all went to youth group, the middle girls to Awana, and Amber stayed with the little ones so I could go. It was a step into the past because he was playing in Memorial Stadium, the same field that he did when we were dating as college students at SPU, 22 years ago. My buddy Christina was there with her boys, watching her hubby Roger. We had a wonderful grocery bag dinner sitting up in the stands all by ourselves, and were great fans, cheering our team on despite their loss.
Seems everyday holds plenty of action. It will be wonderful to pray with my prayer partner Terri tomorrow. Putting everything at the feet of our Savior, and into a biblical perspective is the highlight of my week. That will be followed by piano lessons for 3 kids, thankfully here. Katherine gets to go with her buddy Vanessa to Leavenworth for the weekend. Ought to be a land of snowy bliss about now. I'm just a little envious. Louie will be away for most of the weekend, running our district's recreational soccer tournament. I'm hoping to get in some hours of knitting. I'm also trying to keep in the front of my mind, our preparation for the Lord's Day.