Two days ago, a big hurricane hit the east coast of the US. We were one of the less fortunate ones who lost power during the storm. Luckily, we have a generator, (thanks to Y2K worries) so we are able to stay in our house. We have the heat hooked up to the generator as well as a few other appliances such as the sump pump and freezer. It actually hasn't been as bad as I would have thought.
We've all slept in the family room since that is where the heat is. We've played lots of board games to keep busy. We've showered at the YMCA and our church. We ate at the church and enjoyed a meal at Hometown Buffet.
I've been reading a lot of Janette Oke books lately and many of her stories are back in the "olde" days when the fire needed to be started every morning, the items that needed to be kept cool were stored in a cellar and so on. It's felt a little like being back then except that we get to escape every now and then to civilization. The only bummer is that we have no way to cook food or even heat up water in the house so that has been a major pain.
Right now, it seems like we will still be without power for a few days. Our neighbor and our house are the only 2 on the street without power. That means we are low man on the totem pole for getting fixed.
So here we sit... in the dark...
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Monday, October 15, 2012
Carving Experiments
When my husband was doing construction full time, he knew he didn't want to be fixing up houses forever. We had talked about investing in a small CNC machine (computer operated cutting machine) to start to make cabinet doors and other wood objects. We took a portion of our tax return and bought a machine. Unfortunately at the time, it was on back order and wasn't expected to be in for a few months. They had predicted we would receive it in May. During the months that we waited, my husband got a full time job. The machine finally arrived mid-May and we were so busy trying to finish up left over construction projects and starting a new job that we didn't have any time to dig in and play with it.
Then my son and I finally decided to pull it out and try to use it. We faithfully watched the instructional video and started to set everything up as needed. Then, we realized we were missing the cutting bits... an essential piece of making the machine run. My husband contacted customer support and had some replacements on the way. Once we got the new bits, a few more weeks went by.
At last, about two weeks ago, we got it running. We've essentially did a bunch of trial runs just to see how it worked. Then last week we created something worthwhile to give as a gift to my cousin at her wedding. Tonight we had our first SALE! We made a plaque as an anniversary gift for our most faithful customer.... my mom.
So... all that to say, here are some pics of our creations.....
Then my son and I finally decided to pull it out and try to use it. We faithfully watched the instructional video and started to set everything up as needed. Then, we realized we were missing the cutting bits... an essential piece of making the machine run. My husband contacted customer support and had some replacements on the way. Once we got the new bits, a few more weeks went by.
At last, about two weeks ago, we got it running. We've essentially did a bunch of trial runs just to see how it worked. Then last week we created something worthwhile to give as a gift to my cousin at her wedding. Tonight we had our first SALE! We made a plaque as an anniversary gift for our most faithful customer.... my mom.
So... all that to say, here are some pics of our creations.....
(up) Playing around with doing pictures. Realized we need to use wood with a very light grain.
(up) This is the untrimmed and un-edged version.
(up) Ditto for this one. Didn't actually get a picture of the finished product.
(up) Our first sale!
Friday, October 5, 2012
Happenings
Wow, I hadn't realized it had been so long since I wrote. Often I think of a bunch of stuff to write on here, but I seem to never make the time to sit down and do it. Well today had a funny moment, so I'm here. But, I'm going to save the funny moment for last. Ha, just to hold you in suspense.
It's been busy as usual, but all in all things are going well. My son turned 10 this year and since it's kind of a milestone birthday, we decided to throw him a birthday party with his friends. He is really into Legos, so it was a lego themed party. We had 23 kids present, which was kind of nuts. We played lego themed games.... 1- broken up into teams, they had to scoop a cup full of legos and fill up a bucket at the other end of the drive. The first team to fill up their bucket won. 2 - We packed legos into a jar and they had to guess how many legos were in there. 3- We had a building contest. Who could build the tallest freestanding tower in 1 minute and then in 4 minutes won. The kids had a blast. We also made a lego cake, which came out really cute. Thanks to my hubby who finished it when I got to the end of my nerve with it. Here are some pics...
It's been busy as usual, but all in all things are going well. My son turned 10 this year and since it's kind of a milestone birthday, we decided to throw him a birthday party with his friends. He is really into Legos, so it was a lego themed party. We had 23 kids present, which was kind of nuts. We played lego themed games.... 1- broken up into teams, they had to scoop a cup full of legos and fill up a bucket at the other end of the drive. The first team to fill up their bucket won. 2 - We packed legos into a jar and they had to guess how many legos were in there. 3- We had a building contest. Who could build the tallest freestanding tower in 1 minute and then in 4 minutes won. The kids had a blast. We also made a lego cake, which came out really cute. Thanks to my hubby who finished it when I got to the end of my nerve with it. Here are some pics...
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We also started building a treehouse. We cleaned out the garage and found some very long 2x4s that would work nicely with some trees we had in the back yard. We also had some left over 6ft fence pieces that my dad has been hanging onto from our old house that would work nicely as the floor. The kids and I were going to tackle it ourselves, but when I started asking my husband questions about what screws to use, etc.... he kinda got involved and wanted to be present. Ha, funny how that works. It's starting to take shape although we aren't done yet cause it definitely needs sides, but we let the kids get up there for a view. With 4 boys in the family, how could you not have a treehouse, right??
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Last week, my son's friend's mom stopped by to see if we wanted an old electric 4 wheeler that they were getting rid of. My husband and I had never been interested in them because we thought the kids should actually use their legs and muscles to get around, so we decided not to purchase one. However, if someone's going to give it to us for free... well I'm up for that :) Only 4 of our children are small enough to ride it and the battery doesn't last too long (takes 14 hours in between charges). So that means each kid gets to ride it for about 6-7 minutes a day. I don't think that will affect their muscles too much :) They've been having a blast with it. They gave us a really nice helmet with it also so everyone is staying safe! We're thankful for the blessing/gift.
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The last update prior to my funny story....(Yep, still holding out)... is that we finally got everything moved around as I had mentioned in one of my previous posts (I love change). Actually I take that back, there are still about 3 pieces of furniture to move, but we'll eventually get to those. The nice thing is that we were able to get our "school room" in order and start using it a few weeks back. It's been nice to keep the school books, etc off the kitchen table, so we can actually sit down and eat lunch without having to clear everything. I also commandeered my father's white board that he uses occasionally for bible studies to the school room. Unfortunately, I wrote on the board yesterday with a Sharpie!!! ARGH!! I've been working at it since then trying to restore it. Luckily there were suggestions out there on the web for removing permanent marker!! Here's a pic of the kids working- (pre-marker accident).
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And now to the story... As I mentioned before, we've been doing a bible study with our kids every morning. Last week sometime, we started reading the Proverb of the day with them. Well today being the 5th, we read Proverbs 5. Word to the wise, maybe not the best proverb to read to younger children. Within the first few verses, we hit adultery. My son who was reading finished the verse, and I thought he would just continue, but he didn't. He stopped and asked what adultery was. I gave a very PG rated answer, something to the effect of people who are not in a marriage relationship doing things that married people are allowed to do. Or people who are in a marriage relationship doing things with someone other than their spouse. I kind of smoothed it over (although I'm sure it created some questions in their heads)... and on we went. Much of the chapter is on the adulterous woman, so we didn't even have much to expound on. Then we got to talking about the "wife of your youth". Verse 19 was the kicker.... "Let her breasts satisfy you"... umm okay. Let's have daddy finish reading the chapter and pre-screen the verses. Then I opened my mouth at the end to try and offer some explanation and decided... nah, let's just let that one sit for now. My husband and I were just looking at each other like "Okay... how did we get HERE!". Ahh the joys.
So I hope you got a little chuckle out of that one. Also hope you like the pics as an addition this time. Hope all is well with you and yours.....
Saturday, September 1, 2012
School: Week 2 and Answered Prayers
Ok, so week 2 of school has come and gone. It was another monumentally crazy week trying to get assignments done. The kids started getting some graded stuff this week. My kids are pretty capable of getting A's and B's, so imagine my surprise when someone got a D and an F on two separate assignments. I was pretty shocked, so I went into "fix it" mode trying to figure out what was going wrong. I'm pretty sure that all of the time being spent with the first grader who cannot read assignments was taking it's toll on the others. I started spending more time with the boys to make sure they were understanding the lessons, etc. As a result, my daughters assignments weren't getting all done. Additionally, we went to the fair on Thursday, and the time counted towards school. Which was great, except that we still had to "make up" the work for that day, which by Friday meant about 5 overdue assignments for my daughter on top of the 4-5 she already had for the day. I spent Thursday evening in a kind of panic trying to figure out how we were going to make this work for us. I was feeling strongly that we should switch back to traditional homeschooling (where we pick our own curriculum and drive our own schedule) but felt bad. My husband said it wasn't a "bad" feeling. He thought I was being convicted in the other direction. I just felt that we didn't give the e-school a fair chance. But honestly, going a few more months and coming to the same conclusion was only going to put more of a strain on learning since we would have to switch curriculum mid-year.
So in the end, we made the decision to switch back. I sent an email to the teachers and the asst principal explaining why we were leaving and initiated the withdrawal from the school. Much to my surprise, all of my angst was for naught. Two of the three teachers replied back with understanding and wished us well on our endeavors. Almost didn't seem like a big deal to them at all. They must have a bunch of first time families that leave within the first few months. That's the only thing I can figure.
So we filled out our notification forms and ordered some curriculum and we'll be well on our way.
Speaking of ordering curriculum... I have some praise reports to announce. Much of the decision for going to an e-school was financially based in the fact that we didn't have any money for curriculum. Then early last week, we were approaching the end of the month and some of our bills were not paid yet for August. My husband has a full time job, but unfortunately that money does not cover all of our necessary living expenses. He does side construction work to make up the balance, but the timing of those payments arriving can be sketchy at best. I had planned in late July for what money I expected to come in and it had still not arrived by early last week.
Additionally, my husband had this job left over from when he was doing construction full time that he had still not received full payment for because the home owner had outstanding issues with the work. I didn't even count on that money because I had already counted on it twice before in June and July and it had not come through.
As I mentioned in my last post, we started a bible study with our family and to end each session we lift up our prayer requests. We have prayed with the kids before and seen answers to prayers, but we wanted to show them more formally on paper that God was indeed providing for our family and answering our prayers. One of the items on our list was for new tires for our 2 vehicles.
I'm sorry I'm bouncing all over the place, but I'm trying to set the stage for the awesomeness of what happened. So many things all came together in this one week it's kind of crazy. So bear with me....
We needed tires for the vehicles last winter and couldn't afford them, so we squeaked by and did not get them. When tax money came (which is how we usually make bigger purchases), winter was practically over and we needed the money for other things. So we didn't buy them then. But we really DID NEED them this year. There wasn't going to be any squeaking by this year. It's been in the back of our heads, but like I mentioned we added them to the list of our prayer requests just two weeks ago.
I also received prayer for the money to come in from a Monday night book study group that I was going to.
On Wednesday, just two days after receiving prayer from the ladies, we got a check for a job that would cover the August month bills. We were also able to pay for swimming lessons for the kids which was also on our prayer list for the fall season. Then on Friday, my husband received his normal paycheck. I mentioned to my father that we would have money for him (we live in their house and pay rent), he acted surprised. I realized that it was not quite September yet, and then realized this was a third paycheck for the month. We budget on two paychecks a month, so a third is always some "extra" money. We always hope for "extra", but it never seems to end up that way, so we hardly ever count on it ahead of time. Well this unexpected surprise ended up allowing us to purchase some curriculum so that we could make this switch in schooling.
Then today... it FINALLY CAME TO AN END!!! Hallelujah! The never-ending job is finished!! We even collected $$$ for it. We lost quite a bit for a number of reasons... but we still walked away with enough. This money will allow us to put tires on one of the vehicles.
We still have one more outstanding invoice, which we were told should be paid early next week. My husband also has 3 jobs lined up for September. We'll have to figure out the best timing and what money should go for what, but it appears as though by the end of Sept we will be able to afford tires for the other vehicle as well. It almost feels to good to be true.
Well there it is... quite a long one. Hopefully you stuck around for the ending. I feel so blessed. Even when things are bad I know that God blesses us and is an awesome God, but it really is easier to say when things are going well.
My favorite line from a song is "Every blessing You pour out, I'll turn back to praise", which come from the story of the 10 lepers cleansed in Luke 17. So I praise Him for every blessing he has poured out!!!
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OK total side note. I think I'm going through puberty again. LOL, okay not really, but seriously... I have had major cramps again... I thought those weren't supposed to come back after having kids?? And my face definitely looks like that of a teenager??? Could this be pre-menopause???? Seriously don't know what's up with that, but I'm considering going to a dermatologist AGAIN!!
Ok enough ranting.... back to praising...
THANK YOU LORD!
So in the end, we made the decision to switch back. I sent an email to the teachers and the asst principal explaining why we were leaving and initiated the withdrawal from the school. Much to my surprise, all of my angst was for naught. Two of the three teachers replied back with understanding and wished us well on our endeavors. Almost didn't seem like a big deal to them at all. They must have a bunch of first time families that leave within the first few months. That's the only thing I can figure.
So we filled out our notification forms and ordered some curriculum and we'll be well on our way.
Speaking of ordering curriculum... I have some praise reports to announce. Much of the decision for going to an e-school was financially based in the fact that we didn't have any money for curriculum. Then early last week, we were approaching the end of the month and some of our bills were not paid yet for August. My husband has a full time job, but unfortunately that money does not cover all of our necessary living expenses. He does side construction work to make up the balance, but the timing of those payments arriving can be sketchy at best. I had planned in late July for what money I expected to come in and it had still not arrived by early last week.
Additionally, my husband had this job left over from when he was doing construction full time that he had still not received full payment for because the home owner had outstanding issues with the work. I didn't even count on that money because I had already counted on it twice before in June and July and it had not come through.
As I mentioned in my last post, we started a bible study with our family and to end each session we lift up our prayer requests. We have prayed with the kids before and seen answers to prayers, but we wanted to show them more formally on paper that God was indeed providing for our family and answering our prayers. One of the items on our list was for new tires for our 2 vehicles.
I'm sorry I'm bouncing all over the place, but I'm trying to set the stage for the awesomeness of what happened. So many things all came together in this one week it's kind of crazy. So bear with me....
We needed tires for the vehicles last winter and couldn't afford them, so we squeaked by and did not get them. When tax money came (which is how we usually make bigger purchases), winter was practically over and we needed the money for other things. So we didn't buy them then. But we really DID NEED them this year. There wasn't going to be any squeaking by this year. It's been in the back of our heads, but like I mentioned we added them to the list of our prayer requests just two weeks ago.
I also received prayer for the money to come in from a Monday night book study group that I was going to.
On Wednesday, just two days after receiving prayer from the ladies, we got a check for a job that would cover the August month bills. We were also able to pay for swimming lessons for the kids which was also on our prayer list for the fall season. Then on Friday, my husband received his normal paycheck. I mentioned to my father that we would have money for him (we live in their house and pay rent), he acted surprised. I realized that it was not quite September yet, and then realized this was a third paycheck for the month. We budget on two paychecks a month, so a third is always some "extra" money. We always hope for "extra", but it never seems to end up that way, so we hardly ever count on it ahead of time. Well this unexpected surprise ended up allowing us to purchase some curriculum so that we could make this switch in schooling.
Then today... it FINALLY CAME TO AN END!!! Hallelujah! The never-ending job is finished!! We even collected $$$ for it. We lost quite a bit for a number of reasons... but we still walked away with enough. This money will allow us to put tires on one of the vehicles.
We still have one more outstanding invoice, which we were told should be paid early next week. My husband also has 3 jobs lined up for September. We'll have to figure out the best timing and what money should go for what, but it appears as though by the end of Sept we will be able to afford tires for the other vehicle as well. It almost feels to good to be true.
Well there it is... quite a long one. Hopefully you stuck around for the ending. I feel so blessed. Even when things are bad I know that God blesses us and is an awesome God, but it really is easier to say when things are going well.
My favorite line from a song is "Every blessing You pour out, I'll turn back to praise", which come from the story of the 10 lepers cleansed in Luke 17. So I praise Him for every blessing he has poured out!!!
________________________
OK total side note. I think I'm going through puberty again. LOL, okay not really, but seriously... I have had major cramps again... I thought those weren't supposed to come back after having kids?? And my face definitely looks like that of a teenager??? Could this be pre-menopause???? Seriously don't know what's up with that, but I'm considering going to a dermatologist AGAIN!!
Ok enough ranting.... back to praising...
THANK YOU LORD!
Monday, August 27, 2012
First Week of School
Well we made it through our first week of school. We decided to try an e-school this year. An e-school is an online public school. The children are given curriculum and computers and assigned a teacher, but the parent is the main learning coach and work is submitted online. I knew it would be an interesting first week as you try and settle into a new routine and also start something new. Luckily I went into it expecting a challenge. My kids spent roughly 7-8 hours a day last week completing school work. It was insane and overboard. I have a friend who does the same school we do and she has 10 kids. I FB'd her a message to find out how the heck she does this. I also posted some messages on the boards of the school to get some tips. Apparently many parents cut out a lot of the busy work that is provided as part of the lesson.
Okay I can handle that... but then comes the challenge of looking at all the lessons before the kids do to weed out what needs to be done, etc.
I used to be a programmer. Many times as a programmer you would have to "fix" someone else's code. You would have to dive into the code, figure out how they are doing it, find out where to rewrite what they have and not mess anything else up, make changes and hope that everything still worked. It was always easier to start writing with fresh new code. That is what it has felt like a little bit this first week. I am digging in someone else's lessons to figure out what works and what I can change. I'd almost prefer to write my own from scratch... at least then I know what's there and what's not.
It hasn't all been bad though. The teachers the kids got have been very helpful and they are nice. I haven't had any complaining about having to do school (although we've ended up in tears on a few assignments because they were challenging). The school is very organized and all the classes/lessons/assignments, etc are laid out ahead of time so you can move at your own pace. The online live sessions have been cool and the kids have really enjoyed being online with their class. I appreciate the structure that is there. My daugter is loving all the one on one time she is getting with me because it is necessary. (This is something I may have pushed off under other circumstances)
I'm hoping that over time it will become easier. We did manage to finish school today by 3:30, so it was an improvement.
That's the school story. Another thing we started last week was a family bible study every morning. My husband is home at 8 AM and it was a good time for waking everyone up for the school day, so we have enjoyed family times of worship together. This has been something I always wanted to do and could never figure out logistically when it would fit. So glad it has worked for now.
I guess that's pretty much all I'm going to share for now. Toodles...
Okay I can handle that... but then comes the challenge of looking at all the lessons before the kids do to weed out what needs to be done, etc.
I used to be a programmer. Many times as a programmer you would have to "fix" someone else's code. You would have to dive into the code, figure out how they are doing it, find out where to rewrite what they have and not mess anything else up, make changes and hope that everything still worked. It was always easier to start writing with fresh new code. That is what it has felt like a little bit this first week. I am digging in someone else's lessons to figure out what works and what I can change. I'd almost prefer to write my own from scratch... at least then I know what's there and what's not.
It hasn't all been bad though. The teachers the kids got have been very helpful and they are nice. I haven't had any complaining about having to do school (although we've ended up in tears on a few assignments because they were challenging). The school is very organized and all the classes/lessons/assignments, etc are laid out ahead of time so you can move at your own pace. The online live sessions have been cool and the kids have really enjoyed being online with their class. I appreciate the structure that is there. My daugter is loving all the one on one time she is getting with me because it is necessary. (This is something I may have pushed off under other circumstances)
I'm hoping that over time it will become easier. We did manage to finish school today by 3:30, so it was an improvement.
That's the school story. Another thing we started last week was a family bible study every morning. My husband is home at 8 AM and it was a good time for waking everyone up for the school day, so we have enjoyed family times of worship together. This has been something I always wanted to do and could never figure out logistically when it would fit. So glad it has worked for now.
I guess that's pretty much all I'm going to share for now. Toodles...
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
It's Not About Me
I'm in a funk. When everything from the day finally slows down in the evening, I get these minutes to myself, time to think... and the war begins. I've been having this internal struggle lately about what I feel God has called me to and what I "think" I want to do. I say "think" because the reality is the grass is greener on the other side and if I was truly doing those things, I wouldn't be any happier. For sure. And yet, I feel so discontented by my current situation. Sometimes there are good days. But all too often I'm driven by the in the moment frustration and think back to "brighter" days.
My son has been dealing with similar issues. He would like to do what he wants, when he wants and how he wants. In this family, THAT is just not possible. I keep reminding him, "THIS IS NOT ABOUT YOU!!!" Life is not about what YOU want! Yes, sometimes life stinks! But it really isn't about making US happy.
So as I sit here in my funk, I take a dose of my own medicine. This is what God wants for the betterment of my children and my family. It's about time I let go of some of the pride and selfishness that is in my heart and faithfully and cheerfully serve my family. It's not easy but I know blessing will come from it.
It's so good to have a God that reminds us of these things. The good thing is when I get in these funks, it really does draw me to Him. I need Him for strength. I need to rest in his presence to be recharged. I need to continue to learn to trust Him. I need to remember that Jesus was a servant to all. I need to remember, it's not about me, it's about HIM!
My son has been dealing with similar issues. He would like to do what he wants, when he wants and how he wants. In this family, THAT is just not possible. I keep reminding him, "THIS IS NOT ABOUT YOU!!!" Life is not about what YOU want! Yes, sometimes life stinks! But it really isn't about making US happy.
So as I sit here in my funk, I take a dose of my own medicine. This is what God wants for the betterment of my children and my family. It's about time I let go of some of the pride and selfishness that is in my heart and faithfully and cheerfully serve my family. It's not easy but I know blessing will come from it.
It's so good to have a God that reminds us of these things. The good thing is when I get in these funks, it really does draw me to Him. I need Him for strength. I need to rest in his presence to be recharged. I need to continue to learn to trust Him. I need to remember that Jesus was a servant to all. I need to remember, it's not about me, it's about HIM!
Thursday, August 2, 2012
3 AM
It's almost 3 AM and I am STILL AWAKE. Had to run the kids to the eye doctor this morning and didn't have my coffee beforehand. Got back around lunch time and after eating lunch, I felt so sleepy. I decided to take a nap... which felt great! Woke up about 4 PM and then had the brilliant idea to have my cup of coffee then. Anytime I have coffee after noon it affects my sleep. So here I am.....
Crazy thing is my eyes feel tired and the rest of me is not. Hopefully, the rest of you are all slumbering soundly in your comfy beds and can pray for me in the morning when you read this and I have to venture out into my day with my children. As a matter of fact, pray for my children :)
Crazy thing is my eyes feel tired and the rest of me is not. Hopefully, the rest of you are all slumbering soundly in your comfy beds and can pray for me in the morning when you read this and I have to venture out into my day with my children. As a matter of fact, pray for my children :)
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