A Year of Giving Thanks!

 

November is always a fast month, but this year it felt even faster than usual! (Perhaps that has to do with the fact that I’m getting older, and time flies faster!) This Thanksgiving Day was a bit different for us, as it was just our family spending the day together. I’m certainly not complaining by any means! 

As we look back over the course of the year, I can reflect on so many blessings that God has bestowed upon our family. 2021 was a year unlike any other, and there have been high point and low points for all of us. But through it all, God has been faithful. 

January: Garett and I were able to go to Haiti on a medical missions trip with Parakeleo International. It was a busy, full, and exhausting week, but what a blessing to see God at work. The US team will not be going to Haiti in January 2022, but I am so thankful for all that God continues to do around the world. 

February: We used up our winter break from school working on the house, and we are so thankful that we did! We poured in hours of time into new flooring, painting, and moving things around in our house. At the time, we didn’t know that God would want us to list our house in a few months, but His timing is ever perfect. 

March: We continue to see God’s hedge of protection around our school, church and families, as we are able to continue with in-person learning for our students. What a blessing to be able to attend school in-person! 

April: This year (2021) we were especially thankful for our Resurrection Sunday services. How thankful we were to be together in person to celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ! I am so thankful for salvation, hope in Jesus, and the promise of eternity spent with my Savior! 

May: Our capacity restrictions were lifted just in time to have our Patriotic Program! I am so thankful for the United States of America. I’ve seen and heard things that I never would’ve expected to in the last few years, but I am still thankful to be an American. Our Founding Fathers made huge sacrifices for our freedom, and I refuse to just throw it away. Liberty and freedoms are quickly being stripped away, but for as long as I am able, I will endeavor to be a Patriot of this country that loves America and loves Jesus, as well as raise up the generation behind me to be the same. 

June: We made it! School is over for another year! We are thankful for Garett’s 8th grade graduation. My parents came out for the Patriotic Program and Garett’s graduation. They took the boys back with them to Wisconsin so that the boys can attend camp and spend some time with them. My friend, Hannah, invited me to take a fitness class with her, and it’s been such a great experience for me. It’s provided an opportunity to interact with others in our community, an outlet to relieve some stresses, and an opportunity to grow stronger. I am thankful for the health that God has given me. 

July: We are all happy to be home! I went out to Wisconsin to pick up the boys, and we are thankful for our home in Maine. Roger made some difficult decisions regarding his job this month, and we spent much time in prayer. I am so thankful for a personal relationship with Jesus in which we can cast all our cares upon Him! I’d have never survived without prayer!

August: Back to school preparations are underway! We had many teacher positions to fill this fall, and God filled all of them with just the right people! I am thankful for the opportunity to work with some amazing teachers and friends. We have our share of struggles, but God continues to work in and through us and the school. I am so thankful that our children have had the opportunity to attend this Christian school for the past six years. 

September: I am thankful for my students. It’s a new year with a large class of kindergartners. I pray for them often that they will grow up to love God and serve Him passionately. Also, this month, God makes it clear that our family will be leaving Maine. As hard as change is, there is such peace in knowing that God goes beside us and before us. We talked with a realtor, and we will be listing our house on September 29th. It was a crazy month as we had just started school, Roger is getting ready to take the job in Michigan, and we are getting our house ready to list. My specific prayer for this month was that God would sell our house before Roger needs to leave for Michigan which is on October 5th. 

October: I am thankful for God’s blessings and answers to prayers. We could feel the prayers this month as our house was under contract within five days of being on the market! God did “exceeding abundantly” this month in answering our prayers. God provided an apartment for the kids and I for the school year through some dear friends. God provided housing for Roger in Michigan. God provided a storage company that would bring a pod to our house to load. God provided us with an amazing realtor to walk us through every step of our house closing. God provided financially when we were unsure if Roger would get paid for training at his new job. God provided sanity for me when it seemed like everything was getting crazy. God provided rest when He knew that I just needed to be able to sleep. God provided my children with extra forgiveness for a parent who was low on patience and grace. 

November: I’m thankful for family. I’m thankful that Roger is home for a few days, and that God made it possibly for him to get home a day early. I’m thankful for every moment that we can soak up together knowing that God will continue to carry us through. I’m thankful that the boys will have the opportunity to play soccer three time a week through these winter months. (God provided a miracle in allowing that to happen for them). I’m thankful that we have a church family with whom we can gather for a night of “Pie and Praise”. I’m thankful for our children, and I’m thankful that God has specifically created them for this era in history. We serve an amazing God- how can we not sing His praises?! 

Happy Thanksgiving! 

House Appraisals, Moving, Michigan!

 Every time I let two weeks go by without writing on the blog, I feel behind! (Story of my life these days!) November is always a fast month with Veteran’s Day, Thanksgiving, and events leading up to Thanksgiving and then it’s December before I can blink! I’ve never been this far behind in Christmas preparations, but since I couldn’t tell you where our Christmas decorations are if my life depended on it, it’s not something I’m going to worry about too much at the moment! 

Two weeks ago, on November 1st, we started back to school after having a few days off due to sickness in the school. I found a note on my desk along with a gift certificate to Dunkin Donuts! That was an especially encouraging way to start back to school! I’m thankful for good co-workers, laughter, lots of prayer, and friendships to encourage us through the rougher moments. 

We’ve almost completely finished up moving out of our house in Warren. I have a few trips to take to the thrift store this week, but the storage pod is full, and we are tired! Garett said that Dad would’ve packed the storage unit differently, and I definitely agree- but since he’s not here, just be careful when opening the door! We got almost all our earthly belongings in an 8x16 storage pod, and we found a lot of stuff that we definitely did not need! The boys and I have taken numerous trips to the dump, we’ve given away a lot of stuff, and we’ve paired down on a lot of what we own. And still, I probably couldn’t tell you exactly what is in most of those boxes in storage as it’s all a faint daze! I thought that the last ten percent of packing a house was hard, but come to find out, it’s actually the last three percent that is hard! The three percent that doesn’t fit anywhere, and I second guess myself so much on whether or not I’ll need something through the winter, but oh well! It is what it is! 

We live in town now for the rest of the school year, but the parking lot is empty on the weekends, so the boys have picked up street hockey, riding bikes and also riding bikes to and from school. One morning this past week, Chandler ran to school as his bike was there (at 6:30am). Then he rode his bike back from school to ride back to school with a friend! But the friend forgot to come so Chandler rode back to school on his own. I just had to laugh at all the trips to school! It’s nice that the boys are old enough to bike to and from school on their own, and it burns off some energy for them. 

We’ve had some significant rainfall lately, but it’s always nice when it doesn’t rain during school hours! On Friday, we were a bit short-stafffed, it was raining, and it felt like a long day. Sometimes when we come home, the boys spread out and find their own things to do out of each other’s space for a while and sometimes they do things together, and sometimes one of them will plop themselves down at the kitchen table to talk for a while. I LOVE the fact that they want to talk to me, but I’m not alway crazy about the timing! Sometimes when we come home, I’d like a few minutes to decompress too! But this past Friday, one of my sons sat at the table for a while sharing some of his frustrations with me. Rain, no gym class, substitute teachers, naughty kids, that makes for a long days for kids too! My child asked me “why is it that teachers are so quick to remove privileges on account of naughty kids, but we can’t earn an extra privilege because some kids are consistently doing the right thing?’ Um…I don’t have an answer! Consistency is hard for parents, teachers, all of us! I do think that we (teachers/parents) are trying to raise up kids that will do right regardless of what those around them are doing. Character is doing what is right even when no one is watching! However, I also think it’s easy to get bogged down by children that are disrespectful, interrupt, and rude. It’s easy to make a blanket statement, “You are all so naughty, or blah, blah, blah” But I know from my own parenting experiences (and it generally holds true in the classroom also) that generally it’s not ALL the kids making bad choices. It’s just that the kids making the bad choices are the loudest! 

Report cards came out on Friday, and Roger and I were happy with the report cards. The boys and Emma have been working hard this past quarter, and while they didn’t all make honor roll, that’s okay. Travis and I spent some time on Thursday working on an essay that he hadn’t done very well on. Wyatt told him all the things that he needed to fix, which didn’t necessarily help matters, but he meant well. Travis got the assignment orally, but writing it down was a whole new issue! We made it through, and Travis got ready to hand it back in. But then on the way to hand it in, he managed to spill something sticky on it! Ugh! I’m thankful for grace and for the teachers patience with our children! Each of the kids had positive remarks on their character and work ethic, and I just praise the Lord for that. I fail so often in pointing our kids to Jesus, but the positive remarks on their character are encouraging to my often weary heart. 

We are on the final (almost to one hand) countdown to Roger coming home next week for a few days! We are very much looking forward to this short visit. Our house appraisal happened last week and our water filtration system goes in next Tuesday. The house appraisal was a huge answer to prayer, so many thanks for all those who prayed for us on that! My next prayer request would be that perhaps we could close next week while Roger is here as that would be fantastic! 

A few other praises and random thoughts from the past two weeks: 

1) We are able to get mail at our apartment! My dad sent us a letter, and then one day when the boys were out in the parking lot the mailman asked if they were the Robertsons. The kids replied “yes”, and he brought us mail the next day. I love mail- especially when its not junk mail! 

2) Chandler had the opportunity to go deer hunting one morning this past week. He got up to go to exercise class with me at 4:30am, and then I dropped him off at our house in Warren with his bike. It was a drizzly, wet morning, and I had school to teach. I told him that he could ride his bike to school when he was done hunting. We are kinda old-fashioned in the fact that our kids don’t have cell phones, and they’ve survived just fine thus far! Chandler told me approximately what time he thought he would be at school, and I asked his teacher to text me when he arrived at school. Chandler is a responsible boy (most of the time), and I think we’ve done a fairly good job of teaching our children how to look out for themselves. Anyways, Chandler hunted for several hours, and he even had the opportunity to shoot at a buck. The arrow went into the tree directly above the deer, but it was an exciting experience. Then Chandler had to bike to school, which is about 11.5 miles. It’s not usually a hard ride, but it was raining. Chandler said he hadn’t even gone a mile when his feet were soaked as well as his clothes. He told me that he thought about turning around several times, but he knew that he had said that he would be at school around nine am. The only thing to do was to keep biking! He made it- a few minutes before nine am. Thankfully, he had dry  clothes at school, but Chandler said that it was a bike ride he won’t forget for a very long time! 

3) My friend, Claire, made supper for our family on Friday night. And on Wednesday, we had come home with leftovers from hot lunch! Not having to cook for two nights this week was an unexpected blessing! I am thankful for friends, food and generosity. 

4) On Saturday we spent a good chunk of the day hauling stuff to the dump, dropping items off at different places, and working hard! Chandler came with me on the first trip to the dump, and we explained that we would be back a few more times with other random items for the dump. We had this fiberglass boat in our yard that has a hole in it. Chandler was convinced that we could put the boat in the back of the van and haul it to the dump that way. Um- nope! It totally did not work like that, and Garett ended up hauling it around the yard and then into the woods. Maybe someone will use it for a garden bed who knows! But anyways, it was a humorous experience to watch the boys try to figure out a solution! We took the treadmill to a friend, gave the grill to our neighbors, gave the lamps away and I think we are down to trying to figure out a plan for one dresser and the piano- not too bad! 

Thank you for all your prayers and love for our family. These days are often long, and I feel ready for bed by around 7:00pm. I haven’t been sleeping that great, and I’m kinda “peopled” out sometimes. I’m not an introvert by any means, but I do need solitude and silence. On Sunday morning, a friend of mine asked how I was doing, and I said that I was weary. She replied, “Then go. You have an hour while the kids are at Sunday school. Go get some quiet time”. I felt about thirty seconds of guilt, but then left. I drove off down to the water with just my Bible, coffee and some quiet time. It was an hour well-spent. It’s easy to be consumed with “doing” sometimes it’s much hard to just “be still”.