The past ten days have flown by with my parents here and then my sister, Jen, from South Dakota. We’ve enjoyed our time with family, and the kids have certainly enjoyed the week with my sister too. In the past ten days, Roger and I got away for an overnight; we took a family day to the beach; we visited a new church last Sunday; the boys have worked a lot for the neighbor; and we have gotten a little rain! Praise the Lord!
Garett told me the other day that one thing that North Carolina does not have is medium sized bugs! He said that it seems like the bugs are super little, like lots of annoying gnats, or the bugs are large sized, like big beetles and spiders! I guess I kinda would have to agree! When it is dry, we have lots of the tiny annoying gnats. They go away for a day or two after it rains, and it’s pleasant outside in the evenings. We are blessed to live on a property with trees so we do get somewhat of a breeze in our yard.
Jen arrived at our house last Thursday, and we’ve been enjoying spending time with her. She bought most of the kids school supply list as well as contributed to their school bill- we are so thankful for her investing in our children. She’s played lots of games, helped with yard work, and done lots of grocery shopping with me. It’s been a good week, and she has a long drive back ahead of her.
On Saturday night, we spent some time discussing which church we would visit on Sunday. We’ve been here for five Sundays. The first Sunday, Roger was working so the kids and I visited a church. The second Sunday, we were visiting Roger’s family in South Carolina, picking up Garett’s car and visiting my aunt and uncle. The third Sunday we went to the church associated with the school. The fourth Sunday, we were staying with my Aunt and Uncle for Saturday/Sunday as my parents were heading back to Wisconsin. And then the fifth Sunday, we visited another church. One challenge is that often church websites are outdated, as well as their Facebook pages. So when you check out either of those for information and the last post was from two years ago, it’s not exactly inviting to visitors. Anyways, we did a google search for area churches and came up with a bunch. We decided to visit “Miller’s Chapel” as it was about nine minutes away, the information seemed to be fairly up to date, and it said that they were a P. F.W.B. Church. I know what F.W.B. Stands for as it’s an abbreviation for Free Will Baptist. I wasn’t sure what the “P” stood for, but we would find out. We pulled into the parking lot a little before 10:00am for the service. The pastors name on the sign was not the same one that was listed on the website, but it was a man so that was a good start! Here’s a suggestion- if your church congregation is not meeting in the main sanctuary, it would probably be a good idea to direct visitors to which part of the building they ARE meeting in! Anyways, we found the spot. We stepped in and we were warmly greeted by the people standing near the entrance. The pastor introduced himself and told us to help ourselves to the snacks before the service began. It wasn’t snacks- it was like a meal! Sausage biscuits, muffins, chips, drinks, etc! The boys always seem a bit shy around food when it’s around people that they don’t know, but Emma has no such qualms. She spotted a juice box and a sausage biscuit, and she was happy. The boys took a minute, but the cans of soda caught their eye. Great! Anyways, we found a place to sit which wasn’t a challenge as there were plenty of open seats! We settled in and people came and said hello to us. The church was friendly. And the service began with a children’s devotional up at the front, which none of our kids were comfortable with going up to the front. Then they had some congregational singing which was to lyric videos. I completely understand that not all churches have accomplished musicians to help with music, so I can appreciate the fact that they had found a way to worship through song. Then the preaching began, and it was long. Those cans of soda and juice boxes had made their way to the bladder section! The preacher used his ipad (and I’m not against technology in church), but it would’ve been nice if he had asked the congregation to open their Bibles to certain passages of Scripture. Maybe it’s weird, but I like to use my Bible at church! Towards the end of the service, we found out what the “P” stood for- Pentecostal. The pastor had people that wanted prayer to come forward to the front, and then those that wanted to went up to lay hands on them and to pray. But not one at a time, everyone at one time. Clearly God can still understand us if we all pray at one time, but it can be hard to focus or is that just me?! Anyways, to close this story, we won’t be going back. There are a lot of other reasons that aren’t listed here, and I think there are people that are serving God in that church. Roger and I just don’t happen to think that it would be the best fit for our family. Moving on…
Roger and I left on Sunday afternoon for an overnight get-away. The kids are almost old enough to stay by themselves overnight, but since none of them have cell phones and no one drives, we aren’t there yet. Roger and I didn’t really have any big plans other than to spend time together and exploring the state of North Carolina. We went up the coast a ways and visited an old fort, we walked along the beach, we ate at a quaint restaurant, and enjoyed our get away. We came back on Monday afternoon as we were taking a family day to the beach on Tuesday. On our getaway, we spotted 100’s of these shade tents along the beach. We thought that getting one of those would help make our Tuesday beach day more enjoyable if we weren’t frying in the sun. However, $250.00 is more than we wanted to pay for some beach shade! Roger figured that perhaps he and the boys could improvise.
Monday afternoon found the boys and Roger rigging up a shade tent. Roger had this old parachute, and after looking at the design of the shade tents that were so expensive, they came up with a plan. Using a piece from our tent, part of the parachute, a tent spike and some paracord, they came up with a beach shade tent. We would have no problems finding our on the beach, but maybe we should get to the beach early so no one could see us setting up our redneck shade tent. Just Kidding! We headed to the beach around 7:00am. It’s just over an hour to the beach, and it’s an easy route. The kids were excited about the day, and we had packed plenty of snacks, water, Gatorade, and more snacks! We found a spot to park (not hard in the morning) and set up our place on the beach. The kids were delighted to feel how warm the ocean water is/was and it’s hard to believe that this is the same frigid water on the beaches in Maine. Roger and the boys set up our shade tent, and we will need to make a few modifications for next time. However, it worked out for our adventure, and it was free! There were probably about 60 of the shade tents that we could see by the time we left, and as far as the eyes could see they were up and down the beaches. Could we have spent the money? Yes, but then the boys would’ve missed out on improvising, being creative, managing money and resources well, learning to not be embarrassed when things look different, and a whole host of other lessons. We had plenty of shade, learned that we can make a few changes to make it better, and enjoyed our morning at the beach. Emma is not fearful at all of the waves, and we just had to remind her that she needed to be by Roger or Garett. She did lose her googles and that was a bit hard, but she still went back out. I’m thankful that Roger was able to take Tuesday off of work so that we could have a valuable family day making memories.
The boys have been working hard for the neighbor. They do all kinds of odd jobs including picking melons, hauling trash to the burn pile, selling cantaloupe and watermelon and whatever else needs doing. Last week they spent several days selling melons. One of the boys came home and announced that he’s never been called “sugar” or “honey” so much in his life! Haha! Chandler is not intimidated to ask anyone at the gas station if they want to buy a melon, and together they’ve sold quite a few! The lady at the gas station has been kind to the boys and told them that they could have free re-fills on drinks while they were working. Then the boys came up with this game. You get one gulp from the cup if you don’t make a sale, but you can get two gulps from the cup if you sell a melon! Sounds like boys being boys! They come home with all kinds of fun stories and it’s fun to listen to them as we sit around the dinner table. We are thankful that they had this opportunity this summer, as it’s provided them with some money to earn as well as a time when we don’t have any friends in the area, so we are thankful!
Garett and Chandler both start drivers ed next week. It’s a full week of class, but then it will be done. The course is offered for free for students that are going to school in that county whether private, homeschool or public. It was an unexpected blessing to find out that they could take driver’s ed for free. It’ll be a bit of a wait before they can do driver instructed time behind the wheel, but we are just taking this one step at a time.
We appreciate your continued prayers for us as we prepare for school that will start in three weeks! Garett’s class is taking a trip to Washington DC in September, so we are praying that he will have made a good friend by then. The boys have all be going to soccer practice, and they will probably all make the soccer team. Chandler was undecided if he wanted to do soccer or cross-country, but for this year, he’s decided to do soccer. They’ll need to keep up their grades to play, and I have a few that are concerned about that. Please pray that the transition to a new school, new classmates, new teachers, new rules, etc., will be as smooth as possible both for them and their parents!
We are still looking for a church “home”, so please be in prayer for that also. Thank you!
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