Update

Whew. What a week. What a month! Not long ago, God granted us several weeks of peace and a very clear schedule. The amount of time He created for me to spend with Him was amazing...several hours a day! How can that happen for a mother of three with a busy husband? It was wonderful, and now I see that it was very needed. I've got so many plates spinning right now, but every single one is a great blessing for which I am very grateful. 

One ongoing saga we've been having is a huge tree in our backyard that has been trying to come down for over a week now. It all started when there was an uprooted pine tree leaning on some other trees between our house and our neighbor's house. There was a dispute about whose land it was on, and therefor the tree was just left there. I prayed daily that God would keep our kids safe from the tree falling on them or our house!

One day last week, Joyce, our good friend across the street, called me over to her porch and said her son Wayne could take it down for us. I was amazed to see that the tree was down in a day! Don't ask me how he did it, because that tree was probably 50 feet tall, but Wayne had it all cut up in logs by lunch time. Our land lady caught wind of this and hired him to cut down another dying, super huge tree in our backyard. And that was when the fun started! 

Last Thursday the kids and I returned home from an errand just in time for naps. We went straight inside and I put all three kids in bed. That's when I walked in the kitchen and heard a chainsaw. I looked out the window and saw Wayne taking a chainsaw to that huge tree! I do trust Wayne, but that was quite a sight, especially when I saw Wayne running away like the tree was going to fall any second! I immediately dragged all three kids out of bed. Poor Davey had just fallen asleep. I opened Mac and Corrie's doors and yelled to get up and run outside! 

We went over to Joyce's porch and sat there, waiting for the tree to fall any second. A hour and a half later, we were still sitting there, waiting. Poor Wayne. That tree just would not fall. It turns out that it was so windy that the tree was blown into some other trees, which were keeping it upright. 

So here we were, sitting in the heat of the day with no shoes, somewhat dressed, and trying to keep sane while I kept telling Mac and Corrie to watch for the big tree to fall. Here was our view of Wayne sawing that thing down:

Mac and Corrie entertained themselves by running and hopping up and down Joyce's little cement path. Mac has got some serious hopping skills, so one perk of the afternoon was getting them on camera. (You can hear Wayne sawing and yelling in frustration in the background)

Finally, I heard a huge celebratory holler and saw some branches fall. Wayne was acting like the tree was down, but it still looked like it was standing straight up. There was a new stump coming out of the ground though. I knew I was delirious, but this looked really strange! Was I seeing things right?

I brought the kids back home and asked Wayne about the tree. Instead of falling down, it just moved right off of the stump and rammed straight into the ground, remaining upright. He assured me the tree would not fall on us and roped it up with chains. "We'll have it down and cut up by tomorrow, Miss Amanda!" he kept saying. Famous last words. 

Meanwhile, we went on with our daily life. Mac has been loving singing to Davey when he is on the changing table. Davey laughs and laughs.

And that night Corrie took forever to go to sleep. At one point, I went in her room to check on her, and she told me she had "babies in her tummy." Apparently I will be having an Elmo grandbaby soon.

The next day during nap time, Wayne had his helpers trying to get that tree down again. They gave it all they had, but that tree just did not want to fall. Instead, it moved forward AGAIN and left another stump in the ground while the tree itself stayed upright. Have you ever heard of such a thing?

Wayne and his buddies chained it tight again to keep it from falling on us, and we continued with life as usual. Some friends came over on Sat. night to hang out and make dinner in our very redneck fire pit. The whole scene was so Front Royal, as we had our babies, lawn chairs, and a half-fallen-down tree leaning by a chain. Our friends didn't even bat an eye.

Mac and Camden breaking sticks to put in the fire:

Mac and Corrie enjoying baby Lillian (if only they could be that gentle and sweet with Davey):

We rounded out the evening by letting the kids play in the water table/hose and eat popsicles in the carport. Peyton looked pretty cute wrapped up in her little towel after we hosed all of the kids down.

Meanwhile, we have still had our broken dryer issue going on. I knew I was truly a Johns when my first thought after realizing we had a broken dryer was: "Hmm, probably just the heater core." I don't know anything about dryers! How did I even think that? Turns out it actually was the heating element that needed replacing. Ellis ordered one from the internet and took the back off of the dryer, intending to fix it right away.

Unfortunately, after leaving for work early Monday morning, Ellis did not get home until Thursday night! It was a perfect storm of call nights and pregnant ladies having really, really long labors. So, there sat our dryer:

I decided to take the kids to my mom's house for a short visit, and it was really wonderful. When we came home, I saw that Wayne had successfully gotten the tree down! Too bad it fell backwards and took out our Magnolia tree along with it. For the past few days, the view out of our window has been Wayne scaling that tree with a chainsaw in-hand, chopping it down bit by bit.

Meanwhile, we took another trip on Wednesday up to see Ellis' family in Baltimore. God granted us a combination of fun, rest, conversation and play. How can all of those things get crammed into just a few hours? Only God. We were so blessed. 

When we arrived, we met with everyone at the pool. Mac and Corrie had a blast with their cousins and LOVED swimming with the water vests/suits I had found in the laundry room (one perk of moving the dryer to fix it!)

Mac and EJ

Bella showing us her trick of blowing water out of her pool noodle

It was so great getting to know Hannah better, whose birthday is just days apart from Corrie's. Loved being with her!

Davey got to hang out with Grandma Johns

After the pool we had the best lunch and the kids all went down for naps. Sue and I had such a great time talking and enjoying each other's company before I went down for a power nap, too. When Mac woke up, he and EJ watched the original "Mighty Morpin Power Rangers" on Netflix. I remember watching that show in 6th grade!

Afterwards all of the kids went outside to play, and Mac and Corrie were in heaven. There is so much adventuring to be done out there! Trailers to climb on, heavy equipment to see, a swing set, and big rocks to climb in the front yard. 

Sue tried really hard to get a good picture of me and the kids all sitting on the rocks. I think she took about 50 pictures, and apparently this was the best one! 

We got home from Baltimore at about 8:30pm, and I saw that Wayne had been working while we were gone. At least now the tree was finally on the ground. So, this was my view yesterday from the kitchen table. Mac's assessment of the view was that it looked like there was a sea witch outside. Where do they learn about such things?

Yesterday evening I went to check a neighbor's mailbox. When I returned, I about cried at the view of our house. Wayne had cut our lawn for us since Ellis was working so much, and this was the first glance I had gotten of it. It felt so wonderful pulling into our driveway with a cut and trimmed lawn. 

It turned out that God had more wonderful blessings in store for us that evening. After being away for so many days, Ellis was so happy to be with Mac and Corrie. He read to them at bedtime and he did such a great job! They learned all about owls and their interesting ears and eyelids. What a gift for our kids to spend that time with daddy.

And later, God had the best evening planned for me and Ellis. We were both beyond exhausted, but we were hungry and wanted to spend at least a little time together. I had not been to the grocery store this week, but we were surprised with a special treat: our banana peppers had come in from our garden and we made our favorite nachos with them. We decided to relax on the couch and read to each other while we ate. We were given a book about Dr. Tom Dooley for a wedding gift and we have finally gotten around to reading it after seven years!

I can't describe in words how wonderful our evening was. We usually sit on the couch and watch TV when we are together, and this was the first time we have read to each other like this.

My heart was so full and so at peace. What a sweet evening! Before I knew it, I heard Ellis saying, "Are you asleep?" Whoops! Guess I was a little more relaxed than I thought!

So, it seems that now our week has come to a close, and so have some of our sagas. Ellis' work saga seems to be over, even though he just found out he is on call all weekend, too. The dryer is fixed, and this morning I saw that the tree is looking a lot less precarious (but I don't think I can let the kids out in the yard to play yet).

We made it to WalMart this morning, and I think we have found an arrangement that kept us all sane. Just as long as we don't need too many items!

And lastly, Davey has gotten amazingly mobile with his walker this week. When Mac and Corrie were his age we lived in carpeted apartments, so I am not used to seeing a 6-month-old getting around so much. Here he was this morning all the way down the hallway and making his way into Mac and Corrie's room!

Whew. I guess this post represents our week pretty well, actually: long and full of good things.