They're Baaaaack!!!

"The Neighbors" aka Nathan, Kathy, Graham, Abigail, Joy, Esther, Elijah, Isaac, and Joseph plus one of their cousins drove back into their driveway yesterday evening. They had been away for 24 days, been in 12 states, and traveled almost 3700 miles. Different children and once in a while a parent have come through our door at various times today...checking in, bringing us up to date, and some getting reacquainted with the toys at our house. From all the various tales it sounds like they had a very successful trip. This was a working trip with lots of fun added in along the hi-ways and by-ways. They have done Vacation Bible Schools, Camps, churches, back-to-school bashes, etc. They had a lot of fun camping in a wild life refuge and at a place where dinosaurs walked once upon a time and left lots of BIG footprints...LOTS of great experiences by the sounds of it. They had ministry opportunities in Oklahoma, Texas, North Carolina, and Ohio...and of course all spots on the road between those destinations. After all that time away, they were still recognizable by us. We haven't decided who grew the most! This morning Woody headed off for the Life Care Center per usual for a Monday morning and had Bible study with Jeff. The others that he attempts to visit were either asleep or not in their rooms so no extra visiting today. I managed to make another Christmas ornament so the count is up to nine. I am also working on cleaning the school room--getting it ready for school to start next week. Late this afternoon, I prepared a spaghetti squash and got it in the oven to roast while I made red clam sauce. We hadn't had red clam sauce on spaghetti squash before--very tasty! For dessert we had a homegrown watermelon that a friend gave us--again very tasty. She, well, her husband grew both the spaghetti squash and watermelon. He definitely has a green thumb! I think that we are settled in for the evening. We both have books to read.I did get the one book finished over the weekend. I am now attempting to finish another by Wednesday as it is due then and I would rather finish it than attempt to renew it. I hear the TV droning downstairs so I figure that Woody is multi-tasking. The above is a bit of what we did today to welcome August. Today's temperature lived up to August's reputation--hot and humid. Oh, I almost forgot Woody made two big loaves of zuchinni bread today using zuchinni from our garden...a loaf for us and a loaf to welcome home the neighbors. Lots of good eating around here thanks to gardens.