A great day.

We started the day off like any other, Bible, prayer, breakfast, chores, and a Beautiful Feet lesson. We are absolutely loving Beautiful Feet, by the way. Half-way through our lesson I realized it was September 11th. Instantly regretting that I had not planned out some lesson of remembrance for this day, I decided to wing it. I stopped reading King of the Wind despite the protest of my children. I googled some pictures of the Twin Towers and described to them what I remembered from that fateful day. We talked about the heroes, then talked about the families that were left behind. We talked about what it means to be a martyr. We talked about that email that went around about the guy who was saved because he stopped to buy a band aid on his way to work at the towers and then we talked about what providential means. We talked about daddy and the military and what their role is in defending our freedom. Right as I was running out of ideas Dad called from work and told us to get in the car, they were having a special lunch at the galley for September 11th. Perfect! So we went and enjoyed King crab legs, ribs and bbq chicken, and more teaching of what happened on this day 8 years ago.

We were the last ones to leave the galley and my curious children were amazed by the conveyor belt thingy that carries away dirty dishes in a galley. By now I am ready to head to the door. Everyone is staring at us, as they always do, it looks like 10 people just had a food fight at the table we ate at. These people are waiting for us to leave so they can close up and here we are making a scene around the dirty dishes. My husband is awesome, he adds to my embarrassment by picking the children up to let them stick their head inside and get a better look at the thingy that is taking our dishes, one by one, into some curious unknown abyss. It was all I could do to keep them from climbing into it (including my husband). I feel like the workers are staring at us, and I am thinking enough is enough, lets go. But no, my husband asks if we can go inside the kitchen to have a better look. Yes, they are definitely staring at us. I am secretly agreeing with what I imagine is going through their minds, they must be crazy. One lady finally nods. Not waiting for any other answer Mr. Pilot busts through the door of the scullery and gives us a grand tour of all of the machines. He is an expert after all, since he had to crank (that means he had to take a turn working the galley for 3 months when he was on the ship). No one said a word to us as we enjoyed our impromptu field trip.

Next, we ran over to the commissary to pick up a few odds and ends. We did our math lesson while deciding which was the better deal, the baby carrots or the regular carrots and other practical problems. Then, in the check out line, we had our lesson in character training. There was a little old lady in front of us at the checkout struggling as she unloaded her cart onto the conveyor belt. Dad nudged Boy to help her empty out her cart. Boy didn't even think twice, he just did as he was told. The lady sang him praises and was so grateful, it made Boy's dimples show. When we were about to leave the manager of the store came to us and asked if she could borrow Boy. She took him off to the side and told him how she had seen what he had done and how impressed she was. What a reward. Then she slipped him $2. Now his dimples were blushing. He rushed over and was just beaming from ear to ear as he said "thanks for telling me to do that, dad." How fitting for our current memory verse, Ephesians 6:1

When we got home the children were eager to finish up our Beautiful Feet lesson, so we did. Then Boy brought me a dead fish and asked why it smelled funny. Then we learned how to build a trebuchet just because we felt like it.

The day carried on just like that, unrestricted by mounds of laundry or dishes, not limited to pages in a workbook restrained by a clock on a wall.
Sometimes the old way of thinking creeps in and I wonder if I am "doing it right". I am far from perfect and sometimes we have bad days. But I have my feet set upon a Rock and I know, my God is Sovereign. We are teaching our children when we sit in our house, when we walk by the way, when we lie down, and when we rise up. His grace is sufficient.
Yes, this was a good day.