I really liked this day. A lot. Gabe and the girls and I had the awesome opportunity to share a little about our upcoming Cambodia trip and Asia’s Hope at Union Chapel, my mom and dad’s little country church in West Liberty, Ohio.

We got to the church really early, so Mom left her Sunday School class to come chat with us. After about 15 minutes, I saw my Grandpa (Mom’s mom) walking up the sidewalk. “Oh! Grandpa came!” I said, at the exact same time Livi was saying, “Is that Grandma??”

“It’s Grandpa,” I said. “What are you talking about?”

“I just saw Grandma Taviano drive by!” she said. “I know it was her! It was her car and her face!”

I turned to Mom. “Did you invite Gabe’s parents?”

She said no, but she looked guilty. They had invited themselves. How fun! It was really cool to have so many of our loved ones together as we shared about our trip. The girls each read a verse about caring for the poor and oppressed, then Gabe talked, then I talked (20 minutes total).

What was really, really cool was to hear how many of the church folks had been praying for Gabe after his heart attack and how thankful they were to God that he was alive and with them this morning. So awesome.

And all of my new (and old) Union Chapel friends, I know I promised you a post with lots of links to helpful information about all that God is doing in Cambodia. Can you give me one more day for that? I’m so tired, and I have to get up before the sun tomorrow to drive two hours to a speaking engagement. THANK YOU.

After church, we all headed to Mom and Dad’s for Dad’s no-sodium meatball/vegetable concoction and salad bar. Then Grandpa entertained us (at my request) with his mad piano-playing skillz.

Let me just brag on my grandpa for a second. He’s 85 years old, and by the time December 31st rolls around, he will have played 240 gigs this year in nursing homes, retirement centers, and what have you. TWO HUNDRED FORTY. In ONE YEAR.

52 zoos in 52 weeks?? Pbbbbbt! What’s that??

And get this. You WILL NOT believe this. He has anywhere from 800-1000 songs in his repertoire. AND HE KNOWS THEM BY HEART. He doesn’t use music. AT ALL.

That is insanity.

So Gabe’s mom requested three different songs that were favorites of her mama’s, and of course he knew them all and played them on the spot. And then he played a couple of his favorites. Then a jazzed-up version of Jingle Bells that Mom requested. And then a Carpenters song, because our parents are old.

And he told us lots of stories of when he was young, like how the ice man used to come and deliver a big block of ice that they’d keep in a wooden box (i.e., icebox) that kept their food cold.

And he told us my favorite story about the 90-year-old woman that flagged him down after a nursing home concert when he was packing up his keyboard and said, “I wish I would’ve asked you to play my songs.” So he asked her what her songs were, and she told him, and he played them, and she said, with tears in her eyes, “You know my songs. Nobody knows my songs.”

Can you imagine?

Then Grandpa, Rock, and Janelle went home, and Gabe and I went for the windiest walk of our lives (Gabe’s up to 28-minute walks now–woot!). Then back to church for the Annual Thanksgiving Dinner. Gabe saved his entire daily sodium allowance for this scrumptious meal (and borrowed a few from tomorrow).

We chatted and laughed and prayed with these sweet, huge-hearted folks, and then we did a little fire brigade line thing where we passed all their Operation Christmas Child boxes from one person to another and loaded them into a pick-up. Oh my word. The church probably has 60 people on any given Sunday, yet they filled what had to have been over 100 boxes. So awesome!

And they took a love offering for our trip and Asia’s Hope (above and beyond their regular offering). Amazing.

We came back to Mom and Dad’s for an hour after the dinner, and Gabe and Dad fell asleep watching Top Gun, while Mom and the girls and I played “No Way!” (i.e., Bull Crap) and Spoons.

Then home, girls in bed, Gabe in bed, my turn next. I’ll be up before I wanna be in the a.m., but at least I get to share some more about Cambodia with some really awesome gals in Bluffton, Ohio.

Have a great week, friends!

Not sure what I was thinking when I typed that title. Life after a heart attack? What do I know about life after a heart attack?? Maybe I should type a bunch of ????????? and call it a night. I’m already in bed. Oh, my bed.

We’re home! Gabe is home!

Speaking of Gabe, the general consensus is that he looks amazing, and me? Well, not so much. Awesome. Who had the heart attack anyway?

Tonight has been emotional. And good. I’m holding up well. And also losing my mind a little bit. Lots of tears from the girls. I didn’t mean for them to know about the Cambodia thing, but Livi was on my computer all day reading all the Facebook comments–”I’m praying!” and “Happy Birthday!” And she read my blog post.

We had an amazing conversation in the van on the way to pick up Gabe’s prescriptions. She told me that God tells her things. I’ll share more later with her permission. Powerful, powerful stuff.

I brought Gabe home at around 7pm (Monday). Got him settled, my parents brought the girls back from trick-or-treating, Livi and I ran to get Gabe’s meds (then ran back out later because we forgot the aspirin that he has to take every day for the rest of his life). Had some emotional conversations. Ava rubbed Daddy’s head a bunch, and Livi and Nina took his feet. Gabe’s going to love this.

Finally got them in bed and they conked out immediately. Gabe’s asleep beside me, snoring like usual, and it’s not hard to pretend that everything’s just exactly like it was three days ago.

But then I remember the 6 pills he has to take every day for at least a year. And that one of them cost more than the car payment we were so glad to almost be rid of.

And I remember the circulation socks he has to wear. And that he can’t drive for 2 days. Or have “relations” for 5 (and for those of you who asked–and it was MANY–that is NOT what caused Gabe’s heart attack, you little stinkers). That he has to start his new exercise regimen with 4 minutes of walking per day. FOUR. That he has to cut salt and fat out of his diet. Salt is my love language.

But I’m confident that he’s going to get healthy and in shape and lower his bad cholesterol and raise his good cholesterol and have a stronger heart than ever before.

And God is already doing some jaw-dropping stuff through this. He is just nuts like that.

The doctors still don’t know what caused his heart attack, but they have a great plan in place for making sure (as best they can) that it doesn’t happen again. Speaking of, there was a rainbow in the sky right before Gabe had his heart attack, and tonight when I was gathering our stuff at the hospital and going out to pull our car around for Gabe, there was another one. A double one. It was like God was saying, “Ease your mind, girl. This won’t happen again.”

Please keep praying about Cambodia. I was reading through the Psalms this morning while Gabe was getting his echo done. I just read every verse that I had already underlined. Out loud. One of those verses was Psalm 119:32–”I will run in the way of your commandments when you enlarge my heart!” I didn’t add the exclamation point. It was already there. And guess what I had written in purple ink right beside the verse (and don’t remember writing).

Cambodia.

Believing big for God’s glory to be manifest in ways we can’t even conjure up in our puny little brains.

Speaking of puny little brains, mine is fried. Thanks so much, friends, for everything. We’ll have to reschedule the big birthday blog bash I had planned for today. Going to go sleep away the last 20 minutes of my 36th birthday.

36?!? What in the what?!?

For those of you joining us for our Book of James Read-Along (We start Wed, Sept 7, and EVERYONE is welcome!!), we’re going to introduce ourselves here on the blog tomorrow.

It’ll be low-key, super-easy, just a quick way to get to know each other a tiny bit before we start reading this really cool book of the Bible together. More details tomorrow.

We spent Saturday at Gabe’s parents’ little cabin on the Miami River. It was delightful and relaxing and all kinds of fun. Don’t hate me, but I love my in-laws.

Aren’t cousins fun?

Gabe, Rock, & Tug lugged these bad boys (the rocks) from the neighbors’ to adorn their cabin.

My girlies showing off their guns with Papaw.

Love these two.

And these two.

Three- (and four-) legged fun with sleeves cut from Papaw’s t-shirts.

See you tomorrow for our Getting to Know You Read-Along post!

A new season of our lives begins tomorrow. Livi starts her first day of 5th grade. I know it really hasn’t hit me yet, because the notion of me having a 5th grader is just nuts. I remember 5th grade vividly. (ish).

After preschool, kindergarten, and first grade at a Christian school, then 2nd-4th grades being homeschooled, I started 5th grade at a public school (then moved the following summer and did 6th-12th at a new public school).

(I also graduated from college in three years, spent my last three months of it teaching in Japan, substitute-taught in Ohio half a year, got married, subbed in Indiana half a year, taught in Indiana for a year, taught in Cleveland for a year (minus two months), subbed in Columbus for half a year, had a baby, and moved 10 times in our first 10 years of marriage.)

Does this put my restless spirit into a bit of perspective?

Where was I?

Oh yeah. I remember 5th grade. And now I have a 5th grader. That’s crazy talk. Livi is excited about her first day, and I’m excited for her. I’m not looking forward to watching her walk to the bus stop without her sister though. I’m a big proponent of sisterly togetherness, and I’m already feeling the pang.

She says she wants to be homeschooled next year. I think I like that idea. But, for now, I know that this is where she’s supposed to be. And she’s gonna do great.

Ava. Her online classes don’t start until August 29, but we’re going to jump in tomorrow morning with some school stuff. Our goals? Work on multiplication facts, spelling, and she’s going to read out loud a bunch to Mom.

I’m really looking forward to this year with her. Out of all my girlies, she’s the hardest one for me to figure out. And, ironically, she just might be the most like me. Go figure. Just goes to show that I just don’t get me. And after all these years.

She’s excited to be taking French. A foreign language was optional (it takes the place of Music–glory hallelujah!!), and she could choose from Spanish, German, French, or Latin. I was all about the Spanish, but she wanted something more exotic, so French it is. The cool thing is that Cambodia used to be a French colony, and some of the older folks still speak some French. (The guy I sat by on the plane last year spoke French.) Maybe she’ll get to put it to use.

And Nina. My baby. She starts kindergarten on the 24th. Goodness. She, too, wants to be homeschooled next year. We’ll see. I can’t decide how I feel about her going to school. I don’t feel super-emotional at the moment, and I think it’s for a couple of reasons.

1.) It just seems temporary. Two-and-a-half hours each afternoon (practically preschool) and then she just might be back home with mama next year.

2.) Her co-teachers are absolutely unbelievable. I mean, seriously. Like, I know they’re human and everything, but in my eyes, they can do no wrong. Livi and Ava loved them, and Nina and I volunteered in their rooms last year on Wednesdays. And I feel like I’m just loaning Nina to two dear friends for the afternoon so she can socialize with other little people and be a complete teacher’s pet (did I just say that out loud?).

So, yeah, that’s what’s going down, starting tomorrow. I’ll be honest. There’s a little twinge of regret that I may never, not ever, get that alone time I kind of crave. I was all set to have three hours to myself every afternoon, and my 9-year-old decides she wants to stay home and keep me company.

Sigh.

But I’m so grateful. I love my daughters. I love my husband. And I’m excited to see how this school year unfolds for us as a family. We leave for Cambodia in four little months and have lots to keep us busy until then. God is good.

Counting my blessings tonight. And praying for a good start tomorrow.

Anybody else starting a new season sometime soon?