Moving Week

Howdy all!!

Since it is moving week, I am going to take a short break from blogging so that I can get everything done!!  I will blog short posts just to keep you updated with the process, but otherwise I will be back next Monday!

See ya then!

Guest Post Movie Review - Rise of the Guardians

***Farm Hunting Update - Wow!  Yesterday was sooo crazy!  I told you how AcCOWntant's dental crown broke and he had to get it fixed on Thursday, well, yesterday at lunch the temporary crown broke.  So...he headed back to the dentist's office and they put on another temporary crown.  When he finally got back to work he took a bite of a soft sugar cookie and it broke again!!!  :)

At that point we just had to laugh!!

The mortgage company keeps calling us asking us how they should do certain things.  How in the world would we know??!!  Crazy day!

Then to top it all off, last night DD's 3 and 4 snuggled with me in bed as we all fell asleep.  I awoke to #4 throwing up all over #3!  We had the biggest mess I had ever seen!  Honestly, we all ended up covered in it...YUCK!!  I should have grabbed my camera to document that one!!!  :)

And again, we just had to laugh!!

So we are still waiting to hear from the appraisal and the mortgage company is still trying to obtain a piece of paper that should be extremely simple to get.  But...my God is still in control!!***

Guest Post Movie Review - Rise of the Guardians

We have a guest post today!! My oldest daughter is heading off to college next year to study her passions of math and science. 

But she is also a brilliant writer and avid movie watcher so here is what she thought about Rise of the Guardians....

Rise of the Guardians

Rise of the Guardians is an enjoyable story with a creative perspective on classic characters. It has many beautiful messages and touching moments. It teaches about self-sacrifice, laying your life down for others, and overcoming fears; and granted everyone in our family a few laughs.

The villain, his nightmare horse minions, and some of the scenes could be frightening for children. Also, religious overtones are blended with mythical characters (Santa Clause, the Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, etc.). These religious aspects include references to listening to the Man in the Moon when he speaks, the Man on the Moon giving Jack Frost his magical abilities and bringing him back to life, and the mythical characters watching over the children of the world. Though the mythical creatures guard the children of the world, they can only do so if the children believe, because, if they stop, the they will lose their strength.

These are the only issues that our family found with the movie. Despite these,  and with a little clarification for the younger set, our whole family found “Rise of the Guardians” to be an enjoyable and appropriate family movie with deeper lessons as well.

Plugged In Movie Reviews offers more in-depth reviews at pluggedin.com, as does Dove Reviews at dove.org.

One of THOSE Days!!

Ever have one of THOSE days??  Yes?  Me too!  In fact, I had one on Tuesday :)

You know how the day went........

I woke up already feeling a bit off kilter.  Less than two hours into the day we had spent $200 to have a garage door fixed that we did not even know would need fixed. 

It seemed to get better, but then halfway through the day Farmer Willie calls to inform me that as he was eating lunch, a sandwich no less, a crown on a tooth cracked in half!  So he was heading to the dentist that afternoon.

Dentist says we need to fork over $300 to get it fixed!

Then realtor calls, while hubby is in the dental chair, and says the mortgage company forgot to order the appraisal!  Now, they had told our agent on Tuesday of last week that it was all taken care of and they told us the same thing last Wednesday!  FRUSTRATING!!

Then the mortgage company sends us an email saying that they can't get our VA certificate of eligibility and we need to call the VA.  Of course we got the email at 5pm, when they closed!!

At this point I was done and ready to just crawl into my bed and try to pretend the day was a dream! 

But then I thought, if I let my bad day end this way, where is His glory?  How am I showing faith and obedience by crawling into bed and pretending that the day did not happen?

So....I tried to focus on the blessings that became more apparent because of the trials! 

Here is how I saw God during that yucky day!!

• We had the money to get the garage door fixed.  We might have had to give up a couple of fun things we had planned, but thank the Lord we were ABLE to have it fixed.
• We found a nice and fair priced man to fix it for us and he was able to fix it early in the day.
• AcCOWntant actually has a job to go to and eat his lunch at, even if that lunch broke his crown.
• AcCOWntant had food to eat for lunch.
• We have good dental insurance, so instead of paying $1000, we only had to pay $300. 
• Again, we had the money to pay for the dental work.  May have had to give up a couple more fun things we had planned, but my hubby has his tooth fixed and is not in any pain.
• Though they told us that the appraisal could take up to two weeks after it was ordered, our appraisal officer called later that evening and did the appraisal yesterday.
• We are still working on helping the mortgage company get the certificate.  We can't get it ourselves because the VA requires the lender to do it, but we are staying in touch with them to make sure it gets done.  But we are THANKFUL for the VA loan program that gives veterans help in purchasing homes.

So in the end, many of the issues were solved before I even went to bed that night!  The ones that were not....well, I will remember that even though I don't really have a lot of faith in our lender at this moment, I do have faith in the Lord and He is the one I look to!!

Menu Monday!!

***Farm Hunting Update - This weekend was a weekend of destruction!!  Remember the wall that started like this?

 

Then when we knew it had to come down, it became this...

Our great graffiti wall!!

Well, this weekend it all ended!!  We put our goggles on, grabbed our hammers and went to town!!

Some enjoyed this more than others....

But in the end, we found the garage door!!!  (though we did not find the ceiling rails or track :()

So to summarize our update.....1 Wall + 4 Girls with goggles and hammers = FUN day!!!***

Menu Monday

Monday Breakfast - Whole Wheat Banana Muffins/Eggs/Melons
Monday Lunch - We usually meet my mom for lunch on this day!
Monday Dinner - Sandwiches/Fruit (We have deep cleaning as a family after dinner on Mondays. We have found that if we all work together, we can get it done in about 1 1/2 hours and then we have a special "clean house" dessert!!)
Monday Snack - Mix of nuts, seeds and chocolate chips

Tuesday Breakfast - Eggs/Whole Wheat Biscuits/Hash Browns with Peppers/Citrus Fruit
Tuesday Lunch - Tomato Soup/Grilled Cheese
Tuesday Dinner - Chicken Enchiladas/Brown Rice/Black Beans/Avocado Slices
Tuesday Snack - Sonic Happy Hour Run for Slushies

Wednesday Breakfast - Whole Wheat Waffles/Peanut Butter/Strawberries
Wednesday Lunch - Cheese Quesadillas/Salsa/Tortilla Chips
Wednesday Dinner - Fettuccine Alfredo/Green Beans/Salad
Wednesday Snack - Peanut Butter Balls

Thursday Breakfast - Cinnamon Bread/Cream Cheese/Strawberries
Thursday Lunch - Sandwiches/Fruit
Thursday Dinner - Egg and Turkey Sausage Burritos/Fruit
Thursday Snack - Peanut Butter Balls

Friday Breakfast - Yogurt/Granola/Fruit/Nuts
Friday Lunch -Turkey and Cheese Wraps/Carrot Sticks/Grapes/Organic Chocolate Bar
Friday Dinner - Baked Chicken/Steamed Broccoli/Mashed Potatoes
Friday Snack- Popcorn with Fresh Mozzarella

One Month - Roll With It!!

Mornin'!!!!

I can't believe that it has been one month since I started this blog!!  And I can't believe that in that month we went from deciding to start looking at property to buy to packing up to move in less than two weeks!!  It has been a crazy whirlwind!

We are still waiting for the VA to come and decide to do the appraisal, but as soon as that is done, we are closing and wrapping it up!

In the meantime we are packing.  Ummmmm, not so fun!!

For the first couple of days, we were smitten with packing.  The big boxes all around, the noise of ripping the packing tape off of the roll.  Yes, we were on a moving high.  Now....not so much!!

Remember how awesomely organized I had our back room?  It was full of beautifully labeled boxes.  There were some Christmas boxes pushed to the side, but all in all it looked like we were packing pros!!

Now it looks like this...

I kid you not, about half of the boxes have now been UNPACKED!!!!  We will remember something that we need and oops!  I already packed it!  Then we go dig through the boxes :)

The nice stack of empty boxes waiting to be used has now become the things that forts are made of!!

Yes, packing is fun for a day or two, but then life resumes and it becomes a bit of a pain!!

We have had a nice month though and I have already learned some lessons!

1. Be careful that you don't pack things you need :)  Whatever made me think I could get through our last two weeks of school without our schoolbooks??!!
2. When you are moving, you must be okay with a messy house!!  The first week I tried to keep everything neat, but it eventually started to drive me CRAZY!!  So...now if you come over, you might find a box set aside in the bathroom that is only half packed because life interrupted me!
3. Casual entertaining!!!  This is a biggie!  We love to have people over and did not want to give that up just because we are moving.  So, we had a caroling party last night.  It was very informal, but soooo fun!!  My house was a mess and I asked everyone to bring their own words to the carols and a snack to share.  It was a great time of fellowship and no one went away mad because my house was not up to par!!

     4.  Did I mention don't pack things you need??  :)
     5.  Patience!!  NOTHING seems to happen on schedule when buying a house.  Or should I
          say NOTHING seems to happen on my schedule when buying a house, but I rest in the fact
          that it does happen on God's schedule and His is perfect!!
     6.  Learn to live life around the uncertainties and incompletes.  I usually don't function well when
          dealing with uncertainties, but I had to learn! Otherwise I would have a month of uselessness!!
     7.  DON"T PACK THINGS YOU NEED!!!  Oops, did I mention that already??!!

Along with these lessons have been some sweet moments...

• DD #3 has been trying to wake up before me (which is pretty hard because I tend to get up early!) and pack boxes.  At first this was frustrating because she was not doing it "my way."  But I had to stop and look at the blessing that she was bestowing upon me.  And I can figure out what is in the boxes when I unpack them at the new house (or possibly here if I keep packing things I need!).
• We are converting our garage room back to a garage so we are knocking down a temporary wall that we put up.  This has allowed us to engage in the art of graffiti!!  Sooo fun!!

• The town we are moving to has a legend of an alien ship crashing nearby.  To commemorate or move, my hubby bought us this ornament

These are just a few of the sweet moments that have occurred in the chaos that we are now calling life!!

So, my overall lesson for the month is to roll with it!!!  When you know God is in control, the best thing to do is to just hand Him the wheel and sit back to visit with him!!

What Is It Really About? - In The Family

***Farm Hunting Update:  Well, we spoke with the mortgage company yesterday and everything is good to go except for the appraisal.  Since we are getting a VA loan we don't have a lot of control over that.  We should hear something within the next week.  Once that is done we are heading to closing!!***

What Is It Really About? - In The Family

Today brings a close to our series on determining and applying your family's purpose for Christmas.  We have looked at how to apply it in your home, and in your community, and we conclude by looking at how to apply it within our family.

Applying our purpose within the family is often left in the dust during the holiday season.  We get caught up in doing things with our family, but we forget to do things for our family besides buying gifts.  And while gifts are definitely a way to give, there are so many other ways and opportunities that, to just stop at gift giving is a waste.

How you apply this principle will be very different for each family because each family member has different needs and desires.  But the goal is to make yourself more aware of opportunities that come up.

One thing William and I try to do is watch closely for any child needing extra attention.  We have a belief that if a child feels they need more attention, then they do.  It might not make sense to us as maybe we spend all day, every day with them and we feel like we show them tons of attention, but if they think they need it, then they do for one reason or another. 

So we watch the girls for clues that they need more attention.  Some of the clues that I have noticed is that they pull away when someone else is being praised (there are heart issues that cause this as well, but either way it demands more attention).  For kids that are around elementary school age they may try to sit in your lap or cuddle more often, sometimes even seeming to behave in a way that you don't think is appropriate for their age.  Sometimes they just come right out and say it!!

It is easy for us to get caught up in all of the activities, be it good activities, and leave family members feeling left behind.

Make a point each day to show your children and husband that you are thinking about them.  For my family, this usually involves touch, be it a back rub, snuggling on the couch or just talking while I gently touch their shoulder. 

I am not a very touchy person so I have to make an effort to do this since it is not my natural response.  Yet it seems that everyone else in my family is naturally touchy!!

Get enough sleep!!  Nothing ruins a fun time quicker than tired parents or children!!  I know that it is hard to stay on your regular night time schedule, but it is important to try.  Fatigue also causes your immune system to slow down and you want to keep everyone healthy!!

Now, this one is hard for me, but we try and continue eating right.  I know that we throw in some special treats and meals and that is a-okay!!  But don't make it an everyday occurrence as you will end up with a sluggish family and a bunch of tummy aches.

Slow down and notice all of the love letters that the Lord leaves you and your family throughout the day.  If you will just take the time to look for them, you will be amazed at the many ways the He has put in place to remind you of His presence.

My final tip is one we have talked about before, but is sooo important!  Make sure your family maintains individual time with the Lord each day.  If you are too busy for this, then you are too busy!

My family is one of the greatest blessings that the Lord has given me.  I hate to think of them feeling devalued because I become too busy to deal with or bless them.  So begin each day with a song (my favorite way to wake them up!!) and a prayer and end it with a kiss and a prayer because each day with our family is a gift.  And that is one gift that we want to appreciate and treasure daily!!

What Is It Really About? - In The Community (Part 2)

***Farm Hunting Update - Cold Feet!!  That about sums up the last couple of days for me.  Lately when I start thinking about what we are doing, I almost can't breath!  What in the world are we thinking leaving the safety of our little house here?  Leaving our neighbors, friends, doctors, pharmacy, grocery store, dentist??!!

I have found myself thinking "Oh, maybe the appraisal won't go through!!  Then we don't have to move."  Shame on ME!!

God has a plan and with that plan, He provides the strength.  Not only to get through the process (which involves a lot of waiting and unknowns, which I DON'T like!), but He will also provide new doctor's, new grocery stores, and the knowledge we need to raise our family where He leads.

So I am taking a lot of deep breathes lately!!  And a lot of praying!!***

What Is It Really About? - In The Community (Part 2)

Before I so rudely got sick and had to miss a day, we were looking at how to celebrate our Christmas purpose in the community.  Today I want to show and tell you about our Christmas Kindness Countdown.

I got the idea somewhere in the wild blue yonder of the Internet several years ago.  Some people call it Random Acts of Christmas Kindness. 

My brother teased me last year when I called it that because he said it wasn't so random when I planned it a couple of months in advance!  Gotta love advice from little brothers!!

Anyway, it is an advent calendar of sorts.  Each day we go and pull an activity card.  On the card is listed a way that we can serve the community.  Here is a picture of last year's:

We cut little borders out, glued them on the cute brown bags and put in a card.  The card contained a verse and listed something that we wanted to share with the community that day.  The cards we used last year looked like this:

So every morning, during breakfast, one of the girls would pull the card out for that day, and read the verse and activity.  Then sometime during the day, we would go out together and serve in whatever manner listed.

This year, being that we are in the middle of packing and moving, I needed a countdown that was easy to move.  We talked and thought, thought and talked, looked on the Internet at ideas, and thought and talked again, and this is what we came up with:

We took two 12 X 12 pieces of scrapbooking cardstock paper, attached them with ribbon and the added the small pockets.  The pockets were cut from patterned scrapbooking paper and then the girls and I hand-sewed them onto the brown base.

Our stitches are no-where near perfect, but we had a good time doing it and I know that ever single stitch that went into it was full of love and excitement about serving our community!

The next thing you do is make a list of 24 activities that in some way or another serve your community.  Most of ours cost little to no money, but there are some that we have had to save up for in order to do. 

Some examples of our activities are

1. Drive through your neighborhood and pick 4 houses to stop and pray for.  Then sneak up to their door and tape a Christmas Kindness card and candy cane on it.
2. Write a letter to a US soldier serving overseas.
3. When you are eating out leave an extra, extra large tip along with a Christmas Kindness card.
4. Make a dessert tray for Daddy to bring to work and share.
5. Go to Dollar Tree and tape 5 baggies somewhere in the toy isle.  Each baggie should contain $1 and a Christmas Kindness card.
6. Gather food for a food pantry and deliver.  Call ahead and see if they need any help sorting.
7. Bring a $5 Starbucks gift card to a Salvation Army bell ringer.
8. Collect food and various products for the local animal shelter and drop them off.
9. Write a letter to the local police department thanking them for their work.
10. Buy 10 Starbucks $5 gift cards and hand them out at the mall to random people.

There are many more that you can come up with, the list is endless!  If you have not had the time to save money and can't do some of the more costly ones, keep your activities within your current budget.  There are so many ways to serve that you can always come up with 24 to fit any budget.

This year our cards had to be a bit smaller so they look like this:

We don't have the room to write the verses out, so we will be looking them up!

One tip that I have learned over the years is to really plan which days you want to do each activity before you stick them in the calendar.  If you have plans all afternoon one day, you might want to do one of the activities that takes less time.  If you know you will have a large expenditure that week or need more time to save for some of the more costly activities, schedule ones that cost little to nothing.

I have also started keeping a master list so that I know which activities are coming up!  This helps with the budgeting and time planning too.

Last year we were blessed so greatly by doing these activities.  When we went to the mall to hand out the Starbucks cards and I was amazed at the kindness that a little $5 gift card brought out in others.  After people got over the initial shock of realizing that we wanted to give this to them, expecting nothing in return, they would often share things about their lives with us.  They always went away with a smile and a prayer of blessing.

Another one that was really neat was when we gave the Starbucks card to the Salvation Army bell ringer.  We actually had a lot of trouble finding a bell ringer to give it to.  There was not one at our local grocery store, we drove around the local outdoor mall and could not find anyone.  Finally, driving back home we had to stop at the store.  Then we saw someone there.  She was definitely NOT there 10 minutes before, but we parked, prayed that the Lord would use the gift in the way He saw fit and we took her the card. 



She started to cry and thank us profusely for the gift.  We then went into the grocery store to pick up what we needed, checked out and headed to our car.  Our entire time in the grocery store was not more than 10 minutes.  When we headed out, she was no where to be seen.  The red bucket was gone along with any trace of the lady.  We joked that the Lord transported the person that He wanted to receive the gift from another location!!  :)

You see, in my experience, I have found people receive in different ways.  Sometimes others receive our service in kindness and thankfulness, like when we handed out the Starbucks cards.  Other times people receive it with hostility, or they refuse to receive it at all. 

But you see, our task is not to make them receive it in one way or another, it is just to give and serve all for His glory.  Our reward is not in the smiles and thankfulness of the people, but in the knowledge of the fact that our Saviour can look down on us and say ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’ Matthew 25:21.