Waiting

It is really hard to wait sometimes. Wait...let me correct that...it is just plain hard to wait...all the time. In today's world we are use to having things given to us so quickly that I think we tend to forget how to wait. So, right now, I think God is giving my family a good lesson in waiting. We are still waiting to see what will happen with our move to Texas. No one has even looked at our house, we have not heard one word about any interest in our house yet and it is getting harder to wait. Now is a good time for satan to start putting doubts into my mind.

"Are you sure this is what God
wants you to do?"
"Are you sure you are suppose to move?"
"If this is really what God wants for you,
then why isn't something happening?"

It is amazing how when you are going through a "waiting" time the bible seems to make a little more sense. I can understand a little better how Eve could be deceived. I mean, satan is good at twisting thoughts and bringing doubt into your mind. Even though weeks ago I really felt like God spoke to me through others that we are on the right path, and even though there are still people who are telling us that they think we are on the right path, it is still easier to start to disbelieve we are on the right path. It shows me how easily we can doubt that God is with us, how the Israelites must have felt when they would doubt God. We have all read the old testament and wondered why couldn't the Israelites just trust God and move like He wanted them to, but we don't know how much time passed from when He gave them their instructions and when they actually were suppose to do what He wanted them to do. Was it just enough time for them to start to doubt? Just enough time for them to wonder if they heard Him right? Just enough time for satan to spread his lies...his feelings of insecurity among everyone? I am still reading through my bible and I am trying to fight against the whole doubting thing, but it is a daily battle. So, until we know more, we are just going through our regular motions as if we were just going to stay here. Our kids are still registered at school. We are still involved at church, we are not backing out of any of our regular life right now. We are just waiting....

The weekend turned out great!!!

Well, the weather did not stop us from having a great time this weekend after all. Dwayne did grill out on Friday and we had a house full of young adults. My goodness, it was so nice to see these kids again. It was pretty much the whole group of kiddos we use to hang with, except one girl and she was out of town. We loved having them over, but quickly discovered how old we are when 12:30am came around and they were still here...lol. We asked them how late they usually stay up and we got answers like...3am, or all night. But they were kind to us, they all left and let us go to bed.

Saturday was a good day of getting some chores done around the house, then off to our first graduation open house of the season. We were invited to enjoy dinner at the Pfohl house and took them up on the offer. The only bad thing was, after staying up late on Friday and getting up early on Saturday, I was crashing fast Saturday night and we did not stay long.

Sunday, we enjoyed a good sermon, came home, worked on the yard stuff, Sari planted lots of seeds, and had our friends the Clouses over.

And then a very lazy Monday. We knew we should be working on something, but we were too lazy to want to do anything. But we did make it over to ANOTHER friends house for dinner.

I told Dwayne last week that I wanted to hang out with someone different every day of the holiday weekend, and we did! It felt good to be around and to enjoy so many different personalities. One thing Dwayne and I try to do is to invited people to our house, sometimes it is hard to make the effort to have people over, but this is one area we try very hard at. It has been hard to have anyone over lately, just because of all the work we have been doing on the house, but we are finally at a stand still with that, so we may as well enjoy all the company we can.

Maybe no cookout?

Rain? Why today?
Looks like I will cooking inside...
not Dwayne cooking outside tonight.
This drizzly rain does not seem
to be going away...
Oh well...it should be nice
the rest of the weekend...
:)

Time to break out the grill...

We are having a group of young adults over tonight from our old Union Chapel youth group days. In their honor we are breaking out our grill for the first time this year. We probably would have done it sooner, but Dwayne has to go and get the grill since we left it at a friend's house at the end of the grilling season last year. I am so ready for him to be using the grill again. I will be making my bacon wrapped hamburgers, homemade hamburger buns and cookies. It will be so nice to hang out with these kids again, we don't get to see them that much anymore. It feels good that they still want to come over and see us, now that they are in college and out in the world more. We will miss a few of them, because they are either out of the state or already have other plans for tonight, but we will have the majority of them here. We spent a lot of time with these kids, we played lots of paintball with them and even did a weekend camping trip to a paintball tournament with them. Now that is a weird story, you will have to ask about it sometime. Anyways, this is a great way to kick off our Memorial weekend. We are looking forward to the long weekend. Have a great weekend everyone!

An Ode to Risk...

I was just looking through images for a picture about risk, because I realized I don't use very many pictures and I was curious what would come up...

Very silly....I know...Just wanted a laugh today...

Risk...

Ok, this has been a full week of talking about risk. Dwayne is being bombarded with lots of information about risk, he is reading "The One thing you can't do in Heaven", he has been looking up information online, then the sermon...all about risk. I enjoyed a bible study on Monday where we talked about a woman in the bible who took risks, Rahab, we talked about others who have taken risks in today's world and in the past. Talked about if we would take those risks, if we would want our children to take risks. Our small group discussed the sermon last night. Through all this I keep thinking back to a book that Dwayne and I read some time ago, I can't remember the name, but I just kept remembering a section where it talked about Jesus praying in the garden. It talks about Him praying for us not to separate ourselves from the world, but prayed for us to be protected from the world. Anyways, I have kept thinking about this, I keep talking about it to others about it as we talk about risk, but I never knew the exact verse. So, today when I was reading my daily online devotional, what chapter is being used? The one I have been thinking of, so I went to biblegateway.com and looked it up and here it is...

John 17:15
"My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one."

This has always been a reminder to me, especially when I am thinking and praying for my children. So often our first response is to protect our children, keep them safe, build a separate world for them, let them only experience what we think is good for them, but some day...no matter what we do, they are leaving our house, they are going into the world, they have to be equipped to handle the world and the world views. We really need to be working on helping them build a strong faith, showing them through our actions that we can live for Christ in the real world, remind them when they are having a hard time dealing with other kids or teachers at school that they need to stop and think what is causing this person to act this way, what is their home life like, do they know God, and how can they show Christ to this person in their own actions. It is so much easier to think this than it is to live it. I fail so often, but just when I think I am really messing up, then one of my kiddos will say something or talk about how they are handling something at school, and it feels like they are getting it somewhere. Now, I am just wondering how God wants me to take risks...more risks.

Cooking Again...Finally!

I am finally cooking again. The house is mostly done, I have a few things I should be doing, but for now we just have to maintain a clean look, which can be really hard with kiddos. So, I made dinner for some friends this weekend. A young guy that Dwayne and I have mentored for years is getting married next month, so he and his bride to be came over for dinner on Friday. A quick meal of enchiladas for them with Sari's famous Rice Krispie bars...who can go wrong. It was nice to hang out with them, even though I was so tired, because I had been at Mindy's house all day doing a rummage sale with her. I loved being at someone else's house for a whole day, and it was really nice chatting with Mindy.

Saturday...Angel Food...waking up at 5:30am, waking up Brighton and Dora at 5:30am, heading down to the church to do a little volunteer work. Sari got up around 6:30am to start the rummage sale at our house. The kiddos and I get home around 8am to help Sari out. After spending a cold morning sitting outside with the rummage sale, I head into the kitchen to start my "Thank You" dinner for Matt and Patty. Patty did an awesome job of taking care of my kitties while we were in Texas for spring break and I was just now getting around to fixing her dinner. I had the menu all planned, had all my recipes in order, but one. I knew what dessert I wanted, but I could not find the recipe anywhere...I searched all my favorite sites and could not find it. So, I finally called my mom and she emailed it to me. It is an easy, fabulous cake. It was a fun night. On Sunday we had lots of leftovers....including this wonderful cake....

Tagged!

Tammy has tagged me on her blog. I am not sure who I am going to tag, but here are at least the answers to the questions.

1. What were you doing 10 years ago? In 1998 I was preparing my oldest child for kindergarten, and starting the process to work at home for the company I worked for at the time.

2. What are 5 things on your "To Do" list? This is an immediate "to do" list: Finish this post, go out to my garage to clean so more, cut my son's hair, cut my hubby's hair and then crash for the night (maybe play some wii.)

3. What are 5 snacks you enjoy? Hershey almond chocolate bars, chocolate chip cookies, snickers ice cream bars, double chocolate brownies and Hershey almond chocolate bars(I really like these).

4. Name some things you would do if you were a millionaire. Pay off everything that I owe, set it up so that I could send my kiddos to school and then find out where some of the best places to give to would be.

5. Name some places where you have lived. In Virginia when I was really young, then Eaton, New Castle, and now Farmland.

6. Name some bad habits you have. Putting things off that need to be done, sitting down and playing on the computer, ignoring other responsibilities when I am working on big projects or reading.

7. Name some jobs you have had. Babysitting, tutoring, restaurant, Target (favorite job ever), inbound telephone sales, advertising ad runner, and medical coder.

8. Name those whom you are tagging: I have no idea yet...I may have to add that in later.

Official!

We finally have signs in our yard! It is really weird to step out and see a for sale sign in my yard. Honestly, I thought we would live here forever. We really like our location. Dwayne loved working out in the garage and I loved all the new pieces of furniture he was making. We have just really enjoyed fixing the house to suit our needs. Some days this all just seems like a weird dream to me. But no matter what...the signs are out in the yard and it is real now.

A lazy day...

Do you ever have those days that you just seem to do nothing? They usually come after an extended time of working hard, you meet the deadline, and then you just crash. Like for some odd reason, your body just says....Nope...Not doing anything today. I kept thinking of all kinds of things that should have been done yesterday, but I was not able to actually motivate myself to do any of them. I did go visit a good friend yesterday, that was good. It was just nice to be out of my house. I even went to an A/V meeting, that took a lot, I really just wanted to stay holed up in my house. I really like my A/V meetings. It is nice knowing what is going on before things happen, just to sit and trade ideas on how to make things easier or run smoother. Also, it just builds some great relationships if you meet regularly with those you volunteer with, I really enjoy it. I was reminded last night that I have it very good at this church, that I probably won't be this spoiled at whatever church we go to next and that we should just stay here. People just don't know what they are missing when they don't volunteer somewhere in the church, you really get to know people better, you feel more connected to the church and it is just so much fun. I have WAY too much fun volunteering. And in the A/V department it is a great group of volunteers!!!!!

But today it is back to work. Tobi and I will be heading out to the garage, packing, sorting and just going through lots of stuff. I really am hoping to get rid of some stuff that is just not needed anymore. Right now with the house being so empty it makes us think, maybe...just maybe, we have way too much stuff. Even Tobi has been picking up on this, since I have narrowed her down to just a few toys. She has been playing with a small tea set that she is loving, so I think we are going work on getting rid of all those extra play dishes that she really does not need any more. I really love watching her learn that we don't need everything under the sun to play with in order to be happy. Less IS More...

Meeting Over...

Our meeting with the realtor is over. We have now officially listed our house. We are done with the major renovations. Now, I am down to touch up paint around the house, cleaning out the garage, organizing what will actually go with us and what we will sell in a rummage. One cool thing about all this getting the house ready to sell, is seeing how little we can live with in the house. I am really wanting to get rid of a lot of stuff before we move. I have about a week to sort things out before I take everything over to Mindy's house for a rummage sale during Farmland's whole town rummage sale.

Meeting with the realtor today was a reminder that this will really be an act of God for us to sell this house. It is just because houses are not selling real fast around here and they are not selling for much. But we really don't have to worry about it, because it is in God's hands. Once again it reminds me of Gideon in Judges 6-7. Just to make sure that He got the glory, God took down the number of fighting men to make it look impossible for them to win.

Judges 7

1 Early in the morning, Jerub-Baal (that is, Gideon) and all his men camped at the spring of Harod. The camp of Midian was north of them in the valley near the hill of Moreh. 2 The LORD said to Gideon, "You have too many men for me to deliver Midian into their hands. In order that Israel may not boast against me that her own strength has saved her, 3 announce now to the people, 'Anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.' " So twenty-two thousand men left, while ten thousand remained.

4 But the LORD said to Gideon, "There are still too many men. Take them down to the water, and I will sift them for you there. If I say, 'This one shall go with you,' he shall go; but if I say, 'This one shall not go with you,' he shall not go."

5 So Gideon took the men down to the water. There the LORD told him, "Separate those who lap the water with their tongues like a dog from those who kneel down to drink." 6 Three hundred men lapped with their hands to their mouths. All the rest got down on their knees to drink.

7 The LORD said to Gideon, "With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the other men go, each to his own place." 8 So Gideon sent the rest of the Israelites to their tents but kept the three hundred, who took over the provisions and trumpets of the others.

Whether we move or not, we know that we are in God's hands...that is all that matters to me.

Tomorrow...

So, tomorrow will be the true test. Tomorrow the realtor comes back, looks at our house and tells us if we are ready to list. Then here comes the true test. How long will it take to sell our house, will we even sell our house, and is it even possible to sell a house these days? I am very nervous about all this, because this is a big leap of faith that our house will be sold this summer. I feel like we have been obedient to God by doing all that we could before even putting it on the market. But still, the whole unknowing thing is really hard.

Sometimes I feel like Gideon, like I keep asking for a sign, God keeps giving them, and then I ask for another. I now can look at that story a little differently. We always look at Gideon and think...Really now, how can you keep asking God for a sign, after all if He told you to do it, shouldn't you just do it. That is easy for us to say, we read the next few verses and we know how it all turns out, but he did not know how it was going to turn out, he was nervous. Even though I feel like God is telling us to move, but what if I am not hearing right, what if I am wrong...Can I set out a sheep's skin and see if it will be wet or not? That sounds like a pretty sure sign, right?

Turning 15 tomorrow...

My oldest turns 15 tomorrow. Tonight she will be having a small party with about 7 friends. With a menu of Chilli Dogs, Mac and Cheese, punch and birthday cake...how can you go wrong? Our plans of eating outside might not work with this rain coming in today, so that means I better be cleaning up my kitchen. I still need to find something to do with the other kiddos, so that they will not bother their sister too much. It is going to be a fun night!