Tuesday. What a day. God's mercies are new every morning. And His mercies of grace never cease to amaze me, to humble me. Last night as I lay suffering the worst pain yet with my throat & ear, remembering the chaos of the day, the pains of the day, the disorder & confusion; wanting to be able to sleep in--to draw only my children around me & do what I wanted--but unable to because Jon Cordes would be back, Mallie is with us, Sisi & Bethany wanted to come over--as I lay there discouraged & dreading the morrow I may have prayed for grace. And waking at 11:22 p.m. & 6:30 a.m. to phone calls for Mallie. The Lord kept reminding me of His sovereignty & my need to submit to it with grace & humility. And He gave me grace to do it. I woke this a.m. before six. Got up when Mallie's phone call woke Grace & got ahead of everything. All the children were groomed & fed before Jon ever came & with David off early to mow 3 yards & the children back in their routines. And the sun was out so they could play outdoors. And I changed B & K's schooling to simply reading a fairly long passage of their choice to me out of their Bibles. Took David to Arnolds' at 2--he would help Dean w/yardwork--& picked up Bethany who would help me with the children at Mountain Maze while we waited through K & S's piano lessons. We had supper at 5:30 after Lili took Sisi home (who'd come just before 2) with the Arnolds' kids (so they could go out) then David & I returned to Arnolds' to put Tabitha to bed. My throat is getting better I think & I'm going to sleep before ten. I'm so sleepy. Jon will be done tomorrow & it looks so nice.

Blessed is every one who fears the LORD, who walks in His ways. Psalm 128:1