Much Needed Rest

This long weekend has been long awaited and much enjoyed around the Wulber household! I have been extremely busy with work the past few weeks and Aubrey had an eye doctor appointment on Friday, so I took the day off and we had an extra long weekend. We got some things done around the house and I caught up on bills and other things that were piling up on my desk. Aubrey has been swimming at Papaw and Mamaw's house a couple of time and she playing in the sprinkler at home yesterday. It has just been a very nice weekend. Praise God and bless the families of Veterans who gave up their lives for the freedoms we enjoy! -A

Mother's Day

I know it has been almost a week since Mother's Day, but I haven't had time to sit down at the computer long enough to transfer pictures and compose this blog.  Aubrey got me some garden decorations for Mother's Day and she couldn't wait to give me my present Sunday morning. She even signed the card all my herself! Brandi and I made lunch for my mom on Sunday, but the girls had to do the dishes. We spent Sunday evening with the Wulber family at Auntie Rachel's house. Aubrey loves to spend time with Uncle Nathan and Uncle Russell because she loves the attention and rough-housing time that she gets when she sees them. It is times like these that make me miss Ryan the most. Not only for me, but for Aubrey who is missing the special things that daddies have to give that I don't always have the time or energy to give. Mother's Day has been a bittersweet day the past couple of years. Ryan's first mother's day gift to me, when Aubrey was almost a year old was my dishwasher. I think I will be forever grateful for that gift as I don't have time to wash dishes all the time, nor do I like to wash dishes! I hope you all had the chance to enjoy family time on Mother's Day. -A

The Fruit of the Spirit

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, and peace, patience, kindness, and goodness. The Fruit of the Spirit is faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. We have been studying the fruit of the spirit at church the past three Sundays. The children sang a song for us this morning and those first two sentences are the chorus of the song. It is a song that they sing in their own worship time on Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights and every time I hear it, it gets stuck in my head.

Mike (our minister) has been sharing with us about how we can have unlimited amounts of the fruits - if we choose to take them from Jesus - he offers them always, we just need to be ready and willing to take them. Think about it - who doesn't want more love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control? I don't think there's anyone who could say they wouldn't enjoy having more of those. I think the fruit I need the most of is patience - especially with Aubrey. She is a very independent soul and likes to take her own time to complete each and every thing she does throughout the day. I often require extra patience with her and depending on the day, sometimes run out. This is something that I pray continually for more of!

Our sermon today was about the last three fruits - faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. I should have been taking notes today because I kept finding myself shaking my head and I wanted to share more about what I was learning with you, but I don't remember everything he said. One thing I do know is that we talked about trusting and having faith that God's telling us the truth by sending his son and giving us the Bible.

We also read Philippians 4:4 and then I read on and want to share the passage here (it really spoke to me today) "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things." Philippians 4:4-8

We have a few prayer requests - I have two very busy weeks at work coming, where I will have a different schedule than normal. I pray that Aubrey will be ok in the evenings after having to get up early for several days in a row. I also want to ask for prayer for some good friends of ours.

Thank you all for continuing to pray for us

-A

Star-Studded Chicago Visit

I have just returned from 3 1/2 days in Chicago at the International Reading Association Conference. I left Sunday afternoon and arrived much earlier than I planned to in Chicago, because there was a time change that I hadn't thought about. We had dinner Sunday evening with Greg Tang, famous for his books about math puzzles and mathematical thinking - he is very funny.

On Monday, we had three authors on our panel presentation, and the Two Sisters, famous for The Daily 5 and The Cafe attended our presentation. They were sitting in the back and I spotted them and made them pose for a picture with me. Also have pictures with Janet Stevens and Susan Stevens Crummel and Simone Elkeles, the three authors on our panel.

I met Jane Yolen, Robert Burleigh, and Nick Bruel.

Monday night we had dinner with Holiday House authors and I got to sit next to Laurie Lawlor all evening. We had a wonderful time, but did not get her picture :( Tuesday morning I got to attend a Scholastic sponsored breakfast and heard Mem Fox speak. I talked with Kate Messner. I went to dinner with some new friends from Columbus on Tuesday night. We planned a walking trip to eat and shop down the Magnificent Mile. After our 2 1/2 hour dinner, it was raining and we got soaked on the way to the American Girl store. Nevertheless, I did get some doll clothes for Aubrey's Itty Bitty doll and a shirt for Aubrey. She also got a book signed by Jim Aylesworth. I believe she was more excited about the signed book than the doll clothes. I went to much more trouble for the doll clothes than the signed book!

This morning we had breakfast with Ruth Culham, of Traits Writing fame. I attend sessions and spoke with professional authors, Laura Robb and Janet Allen. I am now extremely tired and still have many bags to unpack! -A