Weekly Wrap Up - The Grateful Week

Happy Friday everyone!   I hope you have all had a good week and will enjoy some downtime with your family over the weekend!

This past weekend was the girls' youth group's pool party.  This was Lindsey's first time attending, as she just moved into youth this month.   Before they left, I gave them all the reminder pep talks, "sunblock", "don't swim right after eating" and the like.  What I didn't think to tell them, was what to do in a water emergency.    Both girls can swim, but Lindsey is not a strong swimmer, or confident either.   The party was at a private home, that didn't have ropes to mark the shallow end from the deep end.   The group has gone there for years, and it never dawned on anyone to share with the new kids where those to areas of the pool meet.

You see where I'm going here, don't you?

Lindsey was standing in the shallow water, and took one more step, not knowing that she was standing on the edge of a 8 foot drop.   The suddenness of it all, combined with the deepness of the water sent her into a panic and she was immediately in trouble.   Olivia, who I've always taught to keep an eye on her sister, saw that Lindsey was in trouble and went in to get her.   Lindsey, still in a panic got her arms wrapped around Olivia...more like around Olivia's arms and neck, to where now, Lindsey was in trouble, and drowning her sister too.  Olivia's incredibly strong legs propelled both girls closer to the side of the pool, but  not close enough, as they continued to sink.   With one last thrust she was able to push herself up far enough to get one arm loose and out of the water, and thank God one of the other middle school girls stretched out from the side of the pool and caught Olivia by the arm and pulled both girls to safety.

You cannot imagine the amount of gratitude I have for that other child, and to God for His mercy
 and goodness in bringing my children home to me.  How horrifically different my life could be right now.   Never take your children's presence for granted.

This was our third week back to school and not a school book was opened.  Instead, both girls worked Monday, Tuesday and Friday providing childcare (and getting paid REALLY well) for those volunteering for our huge fall children's clothing consignment sale.   While that may not count as "educational" it really was, as they have learned to care for multiple age children at once, mastered their diaper changing skills and realized the gratification of receiving a paycheck at the end of a long week.   The goal was to work on school work Wednesday and Thursday, but between catching up on laundry and  grocery shopping it didn't happen.   We did however read through our vast pile of library books about the medieval times.

Linking up with the Weekly Wrap Up.