Ready to sew!

I finally finished Dwayne's coat for our re-enacting. I hope to get a picture of it on him, but because it is made of wool and it is so hot outside, he really doesn't want to have it on. Today I begin his pants. I am not a great sewer and I am even worse I trying to follow pattern instructions and unfortunately, these instructions are not real good, because they are a rough draft that I picked up for free last year at Mississinewa 1812. Lucky for me I took pictures of the pants they had on display last year, so with those pictures and the pattern pieces I have, I am hoping to be able to basically put the pants together. I will post a picture of them when I am done, if I am brave enough. Dwayne is building us an awesome rope bed, so that we will not be using cots this year, which means we should be more period correct inside our tent. This will mean if we want to, we can leave our tent flaps open for people to look into our tent.

Well...off to sew...tons to do, Brighton will need a coat, Sari and I need capes, Dwayne wants a new waistcoat (vest), Sari wants a new dress, and I would like to make Dora a dress as a Birthday surprise.

Awesome Griller!!!

Dwayne out did himself on Saturday night. He grilled us some wonderful corn, squash, chicken and hamburgers. The corn was sooooo good. All he did was put it right on the grill for about 30 minutes, the husk and silks came right off so easily and it was very good. Tobi and Brighton were going to town on it, I only wish we would have made more. After the wonderful dinner, I headed off to watch a band contest at Winchester. I got to sit with Jill and Joe Cunningham. I am so glad I had someone to sit with. Besides, Jill has more knowledge about bands than I do, so she could point out the difficulties of the music and other things that I know nothing about. I like that, because to me they all sound fairly similar. Our band placed 2nd overall, Great Job Hagerstown!!!! Now it looks like another week of band practices, last week of violin lessons until September and for the most part, a much quieter week here at home. I am sure I will be working out some time with friends for Dora and Brighton, since my house is sooooo boring...lol.

Busy Week...

I feel like it has been forever since I blogged last, but it has only been 3 days. For those who are wondering...no we have not heard anything new about our house. Who knows what will happen next, but for now...nothing new.

The band has been doing well, and that is all that has been going on at our house. Sari had tutoring early Thursday, I had to run a friend's kiddo into Muncie, come home and take Sari and Sara to band, and then head over to Jay County myself to watch the band contest. Fifth place Thursday, fourth place last night and who knows about today, I will be leaving for that band contest here soon. Dwayne went with me last night, but he will be staying here with our kiddos tonight. It has been really neat watching her perform. I have video that I could share, but I think she wants to do that to her own blog.

We did end up with a bit of a scare yesterday. Dwayne was having Brighton and Dora destroy an old mattress box springs, Dora got a little frustrated at it and decided to stomp on it. Well, she ended up with a nail going into her foot, so that was a quick trip to the Dr.'s office, nothing bad, he cleaned it up and gave her some medicine in case of infection. She took it like a trooper, in fact she was a little disappointed that she did not have to have a shot...lol.

Cousin Week

This week is cousin week at my Mother-in-law's house. Every summer she tries very hard to gather up all her grandchildren and have them at her house for an entire week. This should mean that I get an entire week without my lovely kiddos. LOL...yeah, right. Not my kiddos, something always comes up and since I am only 15 minutes away from her house...I go over there. This week has been even more messed up. Since my children are getting older, that usually mean there is more going on in their lives than just being able to relax in the summer. Sari has band every single day this week, Dora had violin lessons, and well, Tobi just doesn't want to stay every night. On Monday, I had to drive Sari and Brighton over in the morning, since they had youth group the night before and did not stay the night Sunday night. Back over at 2:30pm to pick up Sari, Dora, and Tobi, Dora for her violin lessons, Sari to drop off at the school to catch her ride to band, and Tobi because she didn't want to stay. Then, back over at 6:30pm to drop off Dora, since the house was being shown and it gave us somewhere to be, Tobi decided to stay, back over again at 10:30pm to drop Sari off to spend the night, pick up Tobi, who thought I was gone way too long, to stay the night back at home. Tuesday, Tobi stayed with me all day until I went over at 5:15pm to pick Sari up for band, then Tobi stayed with Grandma. Back over again at 10:30pm to drop off Sari and to find out that Tobi has decided she would like to stay the night...WOOHOO! So, now this Wednesday morning...no kids...my first and only morning of cousin week with no kiddos...yea! This is all short lived, because of course at 5pm I will be picking Sari up yet again to drop her off for band, then she will stay here tonight, since tomorrow, Friday and Saturday are band contests. So far, I have driven over 140 miles in 2 days of my week off...lol.

I hate Ants!!!

I have been finding these tiny little red ants around my house. They will randomly scope out some little piece of food and then there will be tons of them. I will spray bug spray on them, get them all cleaned up and then days will go by without seeing any sign of them. Then *BAM* out of no where there will be tons of them again. They are driving me crazy. Today I found them in a bag of cat food. They really seem to like the cat food. I spent an hour cleaning them out of the cat food this morning. I would have just thrown the food away, but it was a full bag and that is just a waste of money. Anyone else have problems with these little pests?

On another note, no...we have not heard anything more about the house. The house was shown again last night. Not sure who to, but it was shown. I spent all day yesterday either driving kids to music things or cleaning. I am ready for a little break today.

Thank you!

We still have not heard anything more about the house, but I really want to thank everyone for the wonderful support I get when I talk about all that is going on with us right now. It is nice knowing we will be missed if we move, but it is also really nice knowing that we have support from everyone if we do move. We still feel a peace about moving, although the closer we get to school starting, a little more anxious I feel just because I worry about my kiddos, and we are still good with staying as well. I truely believe this is in God's hands. This is all just a learning experience. Part of me keeps wanting to think about how much easier it would be just to stay, just ignore the possibility of moving and figure out a way to just stay, but then deep down I start to think, if I push this and stay, what blessing...what ministry...what opportunity could I be missing if we move? What kind of things could my kiddos be missing if I keep them here instead of following God's plan? How in the world can I justify staying if God is leading us else where? I can't. After all the praying Dwayne and I have been doing, I think there would be some kind of hint that it was not God's plan for us to go, if the house sells. We both feel very strongly that if the house sells, in this bad housing market, at the price we have to ask for, then it is God's will for us to go, and go we will...

On a side note, last night was Sari's first every marching band contest. She is marching with another school with some other Monroe Central students. It has been hard, not only is she learning how to march, she is learning a new instrument as well....a huge bass drum. I will not tell how well the band did, I will leave that to her to post on her own blog.

waiting...

The offer was made, it was low, we expected that, we have come back with our counter offer...now we just get to wait...and wait...I am just loving all this waiting these days. :)

Still Nothing...

Now 2 days have gone by this week and we have not heard anything about any offer on our house. Either it is taking them a long time to decide what to offer or they have changed their minds, but what ever the reason, I am going just a wee bit crazy here...

A tiring, but good day!

It is amazing how cool it can be to belong to a good church family. I spent a wonderful morning in the A/V booth running slides for both services. I love doing this, I try to make sure everything runs as smooth as possible, although I usually mess something up. Pastor Debbie sung a wonderful song during offering in first service. It was speaking to me so loudly that I was almost trying not to listen, but I still heard her. Pastor Jeff did a great job preaching, he seemed a little more into his sermon in second service. Then we got invited over to a friend's house so the kiddos could swim. I had a most needed chatting time with two wonderful women. I can not say how needed that was for me. Then this evening I spent with the youth group. I love just chatting, it felt good to talk to some teens I have not talked with much lately. It is great to hear the kids having a good time. It was neat to hear them pray at the end of group time tonight. Awesome! I am exhausted now, and my poor hubby is still working. He has been working ALL day. While the kiddos and I got to play, he has sat at his desk on conference calls all day and programed. I am sure he will be ready for a break sometime....ummmm...probably next week, not tonight.

Second Showing...

So, we have now had the house shown for a second time on Thursday to the same people that saw it on Tuesday. It is now a waiting game, you would think I would be getting really good at this whole waiting thing. I am been thinking like Jonah these days, God you want me to go? Do I have to? The only difference between Jonah and I, is that I am willing to go, I learned from him and I don't need to spend anytime in the belly of a great fish, I will just go. But it is still hard. We have not had an offer yet, we have just heard they are preparing to make an offer. Not sure what the offer will be, we really have no bargaining room with our price...that is our price, take it or leave it, so we will see...

Ironing...

Lots of ironing being done this week. Yep, every time I wash 100% cotton material have to spend hours ironing out the material. It is this hours of prep work that makes laying out the material for patterns, cutting the material and sewing the material so much easier. Kind of reminds of raising kids, all the prep work of discipline in the early years makes raising older kids so much easier. Most of my disciplining these days is more like a reminder of what they already know. But doing all that prep work in the beginning is hard to do. Ironing is just takes so long, feels like there is no end to it. Disciplining kids in the beginning is hard too, feels like you are just being the meanest person in the whole world. But it makes a huge difference in the end. Just looking at all the nicely ironed material that is just waiting to be laid out flat and easily ready for patterns to be set upon, so that it can be made into something nice, is so cool. Also, watching my older children grow, ready to do what they have been taught is right, knowing that I can hand them off to others and they will be respectful to them, and just watching them make decisions on their own, VERY COOL.

So weird...

So, how weird is it that just after I blog today about how I only have to wait 4 more months and we will be able to say we are staying, that we should get a call asking to show our house tonight? Yeah, we had to leave our house for a short time while someone came and looked at it. It is really weird to come home to your house, knowing that a stranger was just in it...lol. It is still in God's hands. It just seems like He likes to keep us guessing right now...

4 months to go...

Ok, I can't help it, it must be the humanness in me, but in just 4 months our contract for selling the house will be up, things will be decided and we will be able to get back to normal. The kids are really wanting to bring some things back inside that had been all packed up. It will be nice to make long range plans without saying, if we are still here. I have been trying really hard to be patient and just wait things out, but the longer it drags on the harder it is. It would be harder to move at this point than it would have been, say back the first of June, but I would still move if I thought that was what God wanted us to do. Dwayne and I have been wondering if this was just a good time for us to purge a lot of unneeded items from our house, to learn to live a little more simply, and to just be prepared for what might happen next. One cool thing about all this is that I almost always have a fairly clean house, not as much to pick up, so we have been able to have more people over for Sunday afternoon lunches and stuff. We are still waiting to see what the final plan is, but if things keep going this rate....looks like we will be staying in Indiana.

Sunshine...

What a beautiful week we have had!!!! The weather has been wonderful. My oldest kiddo left for band camp on Sunday, my son join the ranks of Jr. High Youth group, he was so excited and then we started out our week. Monday, Dora and Brighton went to play at the Clouse's house, so I offered t cook up dinner for us all, which meant a quick trip to Winchester to pick up just a few items. I decided to drive my litte ghia, so much fun, fun that is until the battery in the middle of Winchester, thank goodness for my wonderful hubby, who drove over to save me. We had a wonderfully relaxing evening with our friends. The kids have spending their days else where this week, which has give me ample time to work on Dwayne's new 1812 great coat, pictures will soon follow, I should finish it today.

The funniest thing about this week was Sari coming home from band camp last night very RED! Her comment was, "I thought there were places the sun just could not touch, but no, the sun knows no boundries." She was very tired, and she looked so much more grown up last night. It is kind of sad watching your kids grow up sometimes, knowing that they are increasingly learning how to make it out in the world without you. But it is a good thing too, when you get to see them making good decisions. Obviously a little more sun screen would have been a wise decision for my daughter this time...lol.

This summer is going by so quickly, I can't believe tomorrow is the 4th of July. We still have no takers on our house, so at this rate it is looking more and more like we may just stay here. As I have been meeting new people and enjoying hanging out with old friends, I am good with that. We are good with where ever God places us.