During the 3 1/2 months Anna Marie has been in Washington for her specialized chemo treatments, we set up a schedule here at home to provide Christopher with a support base in the absence of his greatest support.

Anna and Mary are the mainstays of the schedule while I pitch in a bit. One of the girls goes over at 7:30 a.m. to help get children up, dressed, fed breakfast, chores accomplished, and Scripture memorized. Now that it is hot, they also have a morning walk. When the weather was nicer the walk was late in the afternoon.

[Sarah’s note: All the pictures below I took Wednesday, so this is a very current peek into the life of helping at Christopher and Anna Marie’s!]

Christopher does a workout at his home gym in the basement from 10 a.m. to 11 and the children get to play and work out with him so no helper is there at that time.

At 11 a.m., I am there for an hour of school time, and then one of the girls comes over from 12 to 1 for lunch prep, eating, and cleanup. Then I am back for another hour of school. 2:00 to 4:00 is nap time for Danny and Elizabeth and quiet activities for the older three so no helper is needed.

At 4:00, Anna or Mary goes back to supervise children and prepare dinner. One of our wonderful neighbors brings dinner over every Wednesday. What a huge blessing that is! The afternoon helper stays through the evening until the children are put to bed, about 8:45 or 9, and then she heads home. (The day Sarah took pictures, Anna and Mary traded off so Anna could go babysit at Nathan and Melanie’s.)

The girls vary who goes over at which time so that they each get some evenings to be home with us. They have a plan but it changes depending on what they need to get done at home and other places.

Trusting in Jesus,
Teri

“As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men,
especially unto them who are of the household of faith.” Galatians 6:10 

For about a year now, Steve and my normal lunch is a huge salad that is to be the mainstay of our daily menu. Each salad is so large we eat it from a serving bowl.

When we prepared to travel last summer and needed to take salad with us, I discovered how to make salads that could go in a jar, which would fit and travel nicely in a cooler. I have also implemented that same technique to simplify time-intensive salad preparation for home now. With this method, I make salads twice a week, storing them in jars.

For each day, I use two jars—one for greens and one for other veggies. That means on the day I prep 4 days of salads, I need 16 jars unless I am doing it in the morning right before lunch and put that day’s salad right into the bowls we will eat from.

In one of the two daily jars, I put greens. Steve uses kale for his salad. I like a mixture of green or red-leaf lettuce with kale. Since Steve and my salads are different, I use wide-mouth jars for Steve’s and narrow-mouth ones for mine.

In the other daily jar, I layer the veggies that will go on top of the salad when I serve it.

I learned I start with the juiciest vegetable to go on the bottom and work up in dryness to the top. For our salads, tomatoes are on the bottom, then red pepper, onion, celery (for Steve since I don’t care for it), and finally carrots. Those are our top veggie picks, but almost any veggie you like could make a layer in the jar.

To serve, I first empty the greens into the bowl and then the veggies. We also add beans and nuts to top our salads. Lots of great nutrition in those lunches.

We like these salads so much that we are happy to eat them every day.

Trusting in Jesus,
Teri

“I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will
call upon the name of the LORD.” Psalm 116:17

Last fall when his renters left, Jesse decided he wanted to remodel his house and sell it as a flipper. He worked on it until late March when it sold.

Jesse and Anna are renting an apartment in Kansas City. Their plan is to do that for a year. They wanted the experience of living in an apartment and felt like the first year of marriage would be the best time. They will also use that time to see where they would like to eventually buy a house. They decided they wanted to join a church in Kansas City that they like. 

We will miss having them right here in Leavenworth, but they plan to come back for Sunday family lunches and other family events, so we’ll still enjoy seeing them and having them around.

“The mighty God, even the LORD, hath spoken, and called the earth
from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof” (Psalm 50:1).

Gigi turned 88 in the midst of Covid-19. Nathan and Melanie planned and beautifully executed a drive-by birthday party for her. 

It turned out to be an exciting evening here as Anna and Mary prepped Christopher’s children with costumes and then decorated their bikes and a wagon since they would be the side walk part of the drive-by celebrating.

Many friends who drove by decorated their cars or carried Happy Birthday posters, adding to the festivities. There were smiles and laughters, waves, Happy Birthday shouts, and socially distanced conversations from vehicles to Gigi’s lawn chair. Andrew loved running to the cars for any cards or gifts to be delivered to Gigi. 

Nathan wisely set up the cupcake stand just beyond the driveway so guests could visit with Gigi, and then pull forward for the birthday dessert.

We were personally blessed to be part of the birthday celebration for Gigi and also by the outpouring of love for her:

>>From Nathan and Melanie thinking of and carrying out the party, right on the heels of a long-distance wedding trip
>>From Gigi’s friends and family who made the effort to leave the comfort of their homes to drive by (some neighbors walked by) and greet her
>>From Anna and Mary’s investment in making it extra special for Gigi and Christopher’s children. Christopher’s children could have just walked over and said, “Happy Birthday, Gigi,” but the costumes and decorated vehicles made it that much better for everyone.

Gigi is a loved part of our family, her church, and our community. 

“One generation shall praise thy works to another,
and shall declare thy mighty acts” (Psalm 145:4).