an unexpected break

The Lord is so good! This week Matt and I have thoroughly enjoyed a very unexpected break from his classes and my job teaching. Due to left-over hurricane winds which hit Louisville Sunday the power has been out throughout the city this week. While that is not a "good thing" in many ways, school was canceled as a result. Our power was out from Sunday through Tuesday, but came back Tuesday afternoon upon our return from the mall (specifically the food court where we sat and charged our cell phones near a fake plant!). We used flashlights and candles to see and went to sleep pretty much when it got dark on those first evenings. Once our power returned, we pretty much felt like vacationers and decided to see more of Kentucky than we'd been able to since we moved here.
Matt is a wonderful husband, and went with me yesterday 3 1/2 hours away to explore an Amish community in Western Kentucky, very close to Missouri's bootheel (sp?). We enjoyed seeing their homes and even arrived back in Louisville with some Amish goods... homemade and very fresh banana nut bread (Matt's favorite), two handmade Amish baskets to give as gifts to each of our moms, and a spaghetti squash which I've always wanted to try.
So the week has been incredibly restful, peaceful, and full of joy which is exactly what I'd needed after becoming so worn out from teaching. Pray that I will continue to rest in the Lord and pursue my joy in Him, even when teaching begins again Monday.

a tree we saw in a near by neighborhood

(I'll work on adding some pictures soon of the damage we saw throughout our city, as trees and power lines went down everywhere.)