Officially, school only just ended a couple of weeks ago (July 10th-ish). Practically speaking though… they were done weeks earlier, but with the uncertainty of COVID-19 hanging over their heads in terms of whether they’d have to return, what other work they’d have to submit, etc.

The balance of July was really a true break.

Unlike the past three years when there were trips to North America planned, this was our first “stay-at-home” July since then. It kind of felt good actually.

Now… we’re beginning to switch ever so slowly back into “thinking about school” mode. However, we’ll save that… let’s look at the week.

Project with Dominic Continues…

Two weeks ago I told you about a project I was working on with Dominic. He’s taking over our home office to have his own room and we opted to make him a bed / desk combo. This piece that he’s “staining” is a storage unit that will sit under the bed. I put “staining” in italics because it’s actually a stain / wax product. Once you apply it and it dries, you rub it with a cloth or a soft brush and it gives you a waxed finish. SUCH a nice product to use!! I’ll let you see the finished product when it’s all done, but we made some good headway this week.

Heatwave

The month of June was much nicer than last year. July, however, made up for things somewhat.

While the temperatures were fairly reasonable for most of the month, this image reflects the rainfall deficit for the month. Regions in the dark red colour (we’re there) saw 70% less rainfall than normal. We received between 5-6mm (1/4″) of rain over the entire month. As temperatures soar to the high 30s this week… the ground is just getting harder and harder.

Check out the toll-free “heat-wave support” phone number. You wonder if they did it on purpose to have so many sixes…. “666” + “66”. Just to reinforce the “heat factor” perhaps? 😉

Bible Quizzing

Today is the national Bible Quizzing, semi-final tournament for 2020. I can’t give you results yet because it only begins at 2:30pm our time but I’ll let you know next week.

(If you follow our kids on Instagram, you’ll likely know sooner)

Dominic is the sole member of the Châtellerault team and has worked very diligently all year. This afternoon, he’ll go head to head with the winning church’s team from last year – Villiers-le-Bel. All of his matches will be 1 vs. 3 – him against larger teams.

Say a prayer if you would. It’s quite an accomplishment and either way, we’re very proud of his efforts.

UPDATE:
He won two of his three quizzes, thus qualifying for the national finals. Hooray, CONGRATS & praise the Lord!

Besides Dominic…

Just so you know that the rest of us still exist (lots on Dominic today), lemme give you highlights on the rest of us:

Timo has been a big help to Liz by helping with meal prep as well as gathering and peeling apples. We’ve probably had 100kg of apples on one of our trees this summer. It’s an early fruiting variety and a lot of the drops are un-useable but we’ve been able to use some and will get the remaining ones off the tree in the coming days. Liz has begun making cakes & apple sauce for us to enjoy throughout the year.

Sophie has been doing some more writing: a bit of editing on Book 2 of her Grey Flame series as well as another project. She will be acting-coach for Dominic during the tournament today.

Liz continues work on another translation project for Liane Grant’s The King’s Translators / French Literature Cooperative. Under Liane’s coordination, the cooperative has produced French translations of over 40 apostolic printed resources. That’s just incredible and Liz is thrilled to be part of the effort – it is, after all, what her university studies were in. She will also be one of the judges for today’s tournament.

Me… well, I’m getting ready for a week-long session of Bible School teaching coming up in two weeks. I’m also finally making good on a promise that I make each summer, to get ahead in planning classes / activities for the school year. Besides teaching at the business school and the nearby university, I’ll also be teaching a 3 week English course to nursing students as well.

I guess to some extent, we’re all enjoying the calm before the proverbial storm that will be September.

Thank you for stopping by today. Let what you read, inform your prayers for us and for France.