I have been having some weird issues with my computer lately.  I finally bit the bullet and called a guy who had been recommended on Facebook.  He came over and took a look at it and determined that he was not able to quickly diagnose the problem so he took the laptop home.  He told me he would get in touch with me when he got it figured out.  Friday passed, Saturday passed and Sunday morning rolled around.  I still had not heard from him and I was getting a little nervous that my computer was really messed up.  He called after church on Sunday and asked if he could come over.  As he walked in the house I told him I was nervous that it had taken so long and he kind of laughed and said it was the most frustrating computer he had ever worked on!  I told him I was glad I could give him the challenge.  Being a computer engineer, he knew what the problem was but could never figure out what caused it or how to fix it.  None of his tinkering and changing settings, etc did the trick.  He had to basically reset the whole computer to the factory settings.  When I asked him how much I owed him, all he would say is 'let's just say I worked on your computer 2 hours'.  He told me later that with the exception of work and sleep, he did nothing else but mess my computer!  So glad he did not charge me his actual rate!  Now I just have to go back and reinstall some programs that got deleted.

The really cool thing, and yet another way God showed up, is this guy is a college student and he fixes computers and tutors.  He had some great insight into how kids learn, techniques, etc.  He was excited to hear I homeschool (him and his wife have no kids but want to homeschool one day).  He connected with Benjamin and said that he was Benjamin 12 years ago.  He seemed to totally understand Benjamin and some of the issues we were having with homeschooling.  I am not real sure yet, but hoping to somehow plug this guy into our homeschool week.  If not tutoring math, then introducing Benjamin to computer coding, etc.  I asked this guy (Dustin) how he felt about tutoring in writing and he said 'I do it, not because I enjoy it but because I need to' (in ear shot of Benjamin) and then told me that his wife is a lit major so she could totally help in that area if needed.  I think Benjamin is really excited about the possibility too.

There is a annual festival in a nearby small town.  The missions committee at the church has a booth selling ribbon fries.  Wanting to make sure I introduce my kids to volunteering and serving others, Benjamin and I went last year.  He had a ball.  The two of us helped out this year.  Benjamin got to run the 'cash till' and help with drilling/cutting the potatoes.  He really wanted to fry them up in the oil, but I decided probably not the smartest.  Here is him with the drill cutting the potatoes ~ a really nifty way to do it.

We recently had a hard rain storm blow through.  Did not last long but brought lots and lots of rain, wind and hail.  It happened close to sunset and of course I did not have my camera but it was beautiful.  Fortunately, someone posted a gorgeous sunset photo.  It looked like the sky was on fire, but just gorgeous lighting.

We currently have a forest fire about 20 miles from here that is burning and visibility is less than a mile right now.  It is between 6 and 8K acres and they have not had much headway in getting it under control.