The Hanson Crew

I just love Spring!  And I love that Spring arrived early this year.  The grass around here is very green, flowers are blooming on trees and in the ground, and I can hear my children playing outside almost everyday again.  Pure excitement!  The one thing I don't look forward to when it comes to spring, is all the planning for the fall.  We received our enrollment papers for school back in February.  All Kindergarten round ups and testing is well underway and all of the decisions are needing to be made by April for school.... This year we have been actively praying about our fall.  Right now, Jonathan attends preschool 3 days a week and our other 3 kids attend a great private school 3 days a week.  They are home with me the other 2 days working for many, many hours on school work.  John is a part time teacher at the school which helps us pay for part of our tuition for the 3 to attend there. It's very hard to write and say outloud, but next fall, all of our children will be in

Our crew took Grandma Peggy to St. Louis with us this past week for a couple days while John was out of the country. We went to the free Children's Science on Tuesday. Enjoyed the pool at the hotel Tuesday night. Visited the free St. Louis Zoo bright and early Wed morning. We ended the afternoon visiting the Arch. We walked through the museum, walked around outside and then took the tour to the top. That was a little scary, but great once we got up there. Here are a few pics of the trip...

Half way done with the trip. We can't wait to hear all about it when he gets home...off to St. Louis tomorrow for a mini-Spring Break adventure of our own.

John and his team made it to El Salvador late Thursday night and have been ministering to a church and school there.  They are sharing their testimonies, preaching, doing a VBS there, and building a children's church in their building.  Yesterday they were able to do some street evangelism.  John is most excited about his ability to speak Spanish there.  He had been practicing before he left and he told me yesterday that he is able to make friends with the people there and actually have conversations with them.  He also said it feels like they have been there for 2 weeks even though it has only been 3 days.  One of the girls on the team is writing a blog while she is there, if you are interested in reading her story too: http://hopeforelsalvador.blogspot.com/ .  It's been nice to talk, chat, or text with John while he has been gone.  Things at home are going very smooth, but not so well at work.  I am trying to help there the best I can before the kids and I venture to St. Loui

The kids and I took John to the airport this morning so he could board a plane for his first mission trip. We are all very excited for him. He is going with 19 other friends from our church and school to El Salvidor for 8 days. He will arrive at his hotel tonight around 11 pm. Please pray for his trip and their work their on a church and school. We will post more pics from his trip as he sends them. Here are a couple pics from the airport... The kids and I have a few fun things planned next week while he is gone and they are on Spring Break from school. I will post some pics of that time too soon...

I really haven't been working on covering my chairs for a week. I am not sure where the time goes. The kids and I have been enjoying playing outside alot this week. It has been so nice here. In between school work, running around, and church stuff, we are usually outside. But before all that beautiful weather, I found time to reupholster my dining room chairs again. I think I do this once or twice a year and actually enjoy it! The old fabric gets pretty disgusting, almost to the point of not wanting guests to use them...this fabric was a great deal! Only $4 for both yards. I am hoping that this one lasts through the summer...