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My life is very uneventful as of late. We’re beginning to settle in and find a routine that works for us.

I keep trying to think of things to blog about but the most I get from each idea is just a few sentences before I bore myself to sleep. If I can’t stay awake long enough to write a full post I’m smart enough to know my writing will undoubtedly have the same affect (effect?) on you.

[Quick aside: does anyone have an easy way of remembering which of those words should be used when? They trip me up every time and even after I've googled their meanings and usage I always seem to forget.]

Unless of course there are readers out there with insomnia. Let me know and I’ll be more than happy to help you out. In fact, this post may be all you need.

…Anyway, one of my favorite things to do in this house is to read my Bible each morning in my recliner. You know, the one I wanted so badly in the furniture store a few years back, the same one that Julian decided was to become his once it entered the house, yeah that one. Well I reclaimed it when we moved in here and now it faces out to the backyard overlooking the deck, trees, and hills. It’s a beautiful view that reminds me to start the day and my quiet time with thanksgiving.

My day needs to start that way during these uncertain times. Especially if I’ve made the mistake of watching the news before heading off to bed the night before. I’m tired of hearing that the sky is falling. It’s working my last nerve to think that a liberal (fiscally and morally liberal) democrat may be running this panicked, lost nation in a few months. Sadly, the alternative doesn’t make me feel all warm and fuzzy either.

After a stretch of about a week or so where I began to feel the stress and strain of the drama-loving media’s 24/7 blathering, I decided I needed to keep the television off and turn on His Word more often instead. It’s helped tremendously! it’s so easy to forget that it’s the lost world’s viewpoint I’m hearing and not that of someone who truly knows Who’s in control.

God will never leave me nor forsake me no matter how many historic dips, twists, and turns our economy, government and climate take. He is in this for the long haul and I’m sticking as close to His side as possible. It’s where that warm, fuzzy feeling can be found after all.

Tags: faith, god's faithfulness, stress

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We’ve moved into our own home.

After hoping, praying, and waiting for eleven years, we own a home again.

Those are sweet words to say and for those who’ve known us through the waiting process, I hope they are sweet words to hear too.

Eleven years ago this past summer we lost a beautiful home in Temecula, California. The housing market had slumped and we weren’t the only people experiencing the pain of foreclosure. After the close of my business and the rise of our variable interest rate, we found it impossible to keep up with the payments. The day Julian and I faced this fact, it was like a weight was lifted from our shoulders. Still, hindsight is 20/20, as they say, and I would never advise anyone to walk away from their home. If I had to do it all over again, I’d have fought much harder to keep it.

I never, for even a moment, thought that it would take 6 moves, 5 rentals home which came with 5 very different landlords, and eleven years of patience before God would give us more than we could have imagined. In fact, I had a friend in Wisconsin, smarter than I wanted to admit at the time, that told me it could take ten years before we owned our own home again. I’m pretty sure I was secretly mad at her for a week. How dare she not have greater faith than that?!

Yet even after I’ve said all that I can’t help but ponder the journey. The eleven year journey in which God strengthened my marriage, our family and my faith. The journey that taught me so much about God’s faithfulness and my bend toward selfish, sinful manipulation of a God who, thankfully, will not be moved by such methods.

I think about all of the people He brought into my life because of our “gypsish” tendencies.

I am incredibly thankful for the journey. Incredibly.

On the day we were packing the moving truck with all of our worldly possessions or at least those that would fit, I told anyone who had ears to hear that this move was the beginning of a financial miracle.

$50,000 in debt with the IRS and another nearly $100,000 of debt from credit cards, child support and unsecured loans, a miracle was definitely needed. But the miracle that God gave us was so much more than financial. He brought me home from the work force and provided solely through Julian for the first time in our lives. He gave us the courage to teach our children at home until high school age which has given each of them such a solid foundation with which to face the world that hates the God we so love.

No, I wouldn’t advise anyone to walk away from their home. It’s a harder road than it seems. For us though, God used for good what at times felt like it might kill me.

And if this new home is any indicaton of what He has prepared for us in heaven, people… heaven is so gonna rock!

Tags: financial loss, financial uncertainty, foreclosure, miracle

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In Wisconsin, while there were many, many deer, they usually kept hidden. On several occasions, I’d see them far off in the distance in a farmer’s field while driving. They stayed far enough away from human activity that seeing them was exciting. Hitting them with the car late at night on a cold, icy road was exciting too. Not that I’d actually know.

They are shy in Wisconsin and fast too. If you came near them, and when I say near I mean is-that-a-deer? near, they took off running.

In Texas, the deer have a whole different attitude. They don’t give a hoot how close you get, they ain’t budging. I’d swear they know exactly when hunting season begins and don’t plan on taking cover until the day before the shooting begins.

The other day, we pulled up in the car very close to these little guys, there was a group of about ten to twelve. Since some of them were blocking the road, we yelled for them to move. Nothing. One baby looked up, almost ready to go, when it was quickly chastised by the rest of the group.

So hubby stepped on the gas and hit one.

I kid! But we should have, there’s just something about a deer with attitude.

They seem to taste better.

Tags: deer, pics

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Today is Saturday and according to our Realtor’s original plan we were supposed to close on the house yesterday.

The thing is, we still have not been told of an appointment time, worse, we have no firm commitment for even a particular date of closing. Someone has to have dropped the ball and now I’m just praying we will close on the house next week.

Drats! Drats! Drats!!

I so wanted the extra time this upcoming long weekend afforded to start the cleaning, painting, and fixing process. I’d also like to have my stuff surrounding me again.

This “life-on-pause” thing I’m in the midst of is making me crazy. I think it’s driving everyone around me bonkers too. Or maybe I am?

Press the PLAY button already would ya? Somebody?! Anybody?!

It’s not living out of this for the last two and half months that’s pushed me over the edge:

Really it isn’t.

And it’s not like I haven’t been to visit all our stuff at the storage units. Well, once.

I’m pretty sure my stuff misses me as much as I miss my stuff. The file cabinet tried to be stoic although I knew down deep it felt empty without me. But we all agree if necessary we could all live life without each other. It might be hard but we could do it.

We just don’t want to do it. We want to be together again. My sofa misses my behind. It didn’t actually say so but it was giving me that vibe.

This life on pause thing is harder than I thought it would be.

Tags: life on pause, living without stuff

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I’m not sure if I ever told you this but if so you’re just going to have to hear it again.

My kids are THE best.

God was so good to Julian and me when He chose these three to be ours.

For the last two months we’ve been staying with friends while we attempted to make the state of Texas our new home. Our kids are intimately acquainted with all that a cross-country move entails. They know that it takes a while before you feel like where you now live is home. They know the feeling of shifting allegiances from your old school, sports teams, and burger joint to the new. This moving thing, they’ve done it before. A few times, in fact. And I have to say, they’ve done it well.

This move though was the first time they had to wait months before they even began to settle in. We had no idea exactly where we would end up. Our search for a house took us as far as even a few hours from where we are staying. Hours would have meant a different life than the one they were already beginning to get used to here. They didn’t complain though. Instead we heard from them, “Just go where God leads you.”

They’ve accomplished something else they’ve never done before. For the last two months they’ve managed to live, nearly complaint-free, in a 12 x 14 foot room. All.Three.Of.Them! Think about that for a minute or twelve. Niko is eighteen, Kyle is 16, and Chloe is 12 and they have been nothing but patient and hopeful as they lived together in that one small room. They actually get along better today than they did when this adventure began oh so many weeks ago.

The moral of this story is the same one I’ve told countless times before. Pulling the rug out from underneath our children is an invaluable tool for the parent who will dare to use it.

I’ve seen this happen each time we’ve moved.

They grown, people. They grow up a bit and they grow closer too.

And that my friends is just one of things we as parents are supposed to be helping them do.

Tags: change, growth

5 Comments »

find someone else on whom you’ll stay.

or

How I got healthy on my summer vacation.

It’s been over eight weeks since I had chocolate chip cookie dough, fresh from the oven, still warm and gooey fudge brownies or even a piece of bread. I’ve been staying as far away from white flour, white sugar, and white rice as I possibly can. They aren’t nutritious no matter how you slice ‘em.

I don’t go overboard and avoid ketchup because it contains some modicum of sugar. No, I stay away from ketchup because I’m not fond of the taste. You can add potatoes to that short list too.

I started eating better the day after we arrived in Texas. I was planning on starting a day later than that but was encouraged, well more like bullied into it a day early. It’s exactly what I needed or I may never have started.

I had complained to a friend that while changing in the hotel bathroom on the move down I had seen myself  without clothes, in fluorescent lighting, in a floor length mirror no less, for the first time in literally years. It was a fifteen second horror flick that left eyes burning. I still have nightmares. Ugh!

I refused to weigh myself before I started this new eating plan because I was afraid it would be a number far beyond what I had ever seen on a scale, even higher than when I had carried another human inside of me. Okay, actually I knew it would be. I kind of wish now that I had. I’d like to know exactly how much or how many peoples worth of weight I’ve lost. All my pants are loose and that’s the only thing I have to go by.

Beyond the benefit of weight loss I just feel so much better. I want to eat like this from now on. That’s why I didn’t call it a diet but an eating plan. The problem is, it seems to get some people bent out of shape when they see me refusing to put something in my mouth that they enjoy eating. That in itself won’t stop me from eating the way I want but I’d love to come up with a planned response that helps people deal with it better.

“I’m allergic or it makes me sick,” besides being a lie would make me sound a bit like a hypochondriac.

“I don’t like it,” makes me sound too picky.

“None for me, I want to look like Angelina Jolie before I turn fifty,” sounds stupid and impossible.

“Old women like me aren’t supposed to eat anything enjoyable anymore,” might work unless it’s an old woman like me offering the poison.

Eating to live rather than living to eat is a hard thing to manage in a country where food is abundant and nearly a worshiped idol at every gathering.

I guess I’ll just stick with my famous, “No thank you,” and put up with the weird looks for now.

Tags: aging, healthy, weight loss

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I love the words “drastically reduced” even more than free most of the time.

Reduced says, “I have to, have to, have to get rid of it but I believe it has great value so I want you to be willing to pay for it just to show me you feel the same about it and you WILL take care of it.” Free says, “We both know that I should be paying you to get this stuff out of my sight but maybe you’re on cold medicine and aren’t thinking straight right now so you think you’re getting a deal here.”

The word FREE in most circumstances - free from the bonds of sin and shame, not included of course - is linked to things like this and this and oh yeah, this. Yes, you saw that correctly, someone is giving away a used birthday candle. Don’t bother though, ’cause that one is mine. It’s only an hour’s drive away at the most.

But this! This is a freebie worth mentioning and downloading too. I want to put the graphic in my sidebar but it’s just too darn big so I’ll place it in a post and hope my readers, okay Aunt Edna and Mom, whatever, find it anyway.

[Edited to add] It’s been so long since I blogged regularly that I totally forgot this: Hat tip Annieblogs.com

Tags: free, junk, music

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A few years ago, when my boys were young and MySpace and Facebook were just becoming popular, I signed up for both in order to keep an eye on them. I needed to know how they worked so that I would be able to protect my children online.

It wasn’t just about getting all up in their business, I never even got involved in using them. Really, I just made sure I was acquainted enough with the new technology that I could setup guidelines for them to follow.

Eventually I deleted those accounts.

Now I’ve been hearing a lot more about Facebook use by old people like me. With the recent move, I started thinking I should give it a try in order to reconnect with old friends. I’ve moved quite a bit in my life. Texas is the fourth ( and final!) state in which I’ve lived. There must tons of people out there in the world missing me, right?

I signed up for a new Facebook account last month and quickly began thinking of old friends’ names and plugging them in the search bar.

Nothing. Seems that old people who know me do not yet know Facebook.

And so my account sits, void of friends and looking pretty much like the account I had years ago that I never used. In an attempt to garner a bit of mercy from my two boys who have acquired hundreds of friends on this stupid website, I sent each a simple message. Here’s Niko’s response:

So I did what any self-respecting, fully in charge mother would do, I grounded him. It only took two days for him to become my friend.

Now I have to work on Kyle.

And it just might be time for Chloe to get a Facebook too.

Tags: facebook, friends

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The bank accepted the offer. Praise God!

We will be moving soon.

I can’t wait… but I guess I have to, again.

Tags: thankful

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