Church Planters Retreat

Tom's parents arrived Sunday afternoon. The kids were quite excited and Ella talked non-stop for the first 30 minutes of their arrival. That evening we had intentions of getting to bed "on-time" but circumstances didn't allow that. A family in our church had city sewer back up in their basement leaving 4 inches in their basement. Tom went over to help get the water out of the basement and Tom got home around 11:15. He was gone for over an hour. Later that night the family's insurance sent people out to dry out the basement and get the clean up started.
Monday morning after breakfast we left and met up with another church planting couple and went up to Brainerd (2 hours north of us) to Cragun's
for the annual Evangelical Free Church North Central District of Minnesota's Church Planters' Retreat. Tom & I always enjoy this retreat. It's time away from ministry and the kids, plus we get to have great fellowship with other Christian couples who are doing the same kind of ministry as us; planting churches here in Minnesota. We ate good food, swam, sat in the hot tub, ice skated, slept at night with no interruptions from kids, talked with many other couples. We came back Wed. afternoon. That evening after supper, Tom & I went to the Love and Respect study (You can watch a clip of the DVD series at this link. The Pink and Blue is a good one). When we left, little Elise was almost beside her thinking that we were leaving again, not realizing that we' back yet that night after she was asleep.
Today was kind of relaxing not too much going on for me. Ella & Emmeline got to go to Annie's house after lunch along with Juliana and make Valentine crafts. The girls always love to go the Annie's house. Ezra & Elise slept the entire nap time, which allowed me total quietness and I finished a book I started last night after the study called Prairie Rose by Catherine Palmer.