Church Adventures, Life and Freebies!

 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 One challenge is that often church websites are outdated, as well as their Facebook pages.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!

One Month?!

 Today marks four weeks since we’ve moved to North Carolina! On one hand, it seems like it’s been a really long time, and on the other hand it feels like yesterday. Roger enjoys his job, and it’s been a good fit for us. We’ve tried out a few churches, but we will continue to do so. There are a lot of churches to visit, so it can be overwhelming!

This past week was a busy and full one as my parents drove from Wisconsin to NC to see us. While it’s closer than Maine, it’s still a hike. We were happy to spend the week with them as the boys enjoyed working on projects with my dad, fishing, tinkering with the dirt bikes, and lots of other things. My mom worked with Emma on some school work which was not Emma’s favorite thing, but it’s good for her. We did get some rain this past week, so we are so thankful for that. It’s been a dry summer here, so every little bit of rain brings a tiny sigh of relief from the farmers that are wanting to harvest crops in a few weeks. 

Three of the boys continue to stay busy working for the neighbor. This past week they had the opportunity to sell corn in our small local town. They enjoyed it, and Garett said he much preferred it to picking squash! The farmer parked his truck in a gas station lot, and the boys would take turns asking the customers pumping gas if they’d like to buy some corn. An older gentleman came up and offered the boys a job stacking wood, and the boys were a little confused as they already have a job. The man told him that he has had such a hard time finding workers and if the boys wanted to stack wood, he would pay them. Well, none of the boys have a cell phone, and they knew that they weren’t just going to go off with someone! I suggested to the boys that next time (if there is a next time) they could suggest  that the person call their parents to see about work. For now, the boys are plenty busy with working for the neighbor. Another man gave the boys a $20.00 tip because he said that there are way too few young people out working and it was good to see boys working! Needless to say, it was a fun experience for the boys. Our small local town is a little bit like stepping back in time as everyone seems to know each other, and when the neighbor dropped off the boys, he just told them to go into the gas station and call him if there was a problem. Roger and I are working hard at teaching the boys to be independent, wise and discerning, and part of that comes with learning to figure out problems on your own. The boys didn’t have any problems or concerns while selling corn and they came back happy from their interactions with people. (It won’t always be that way, so we are thankful for a positive experience for them.) Also, I highly doubt the boys would’ve sold as much corn if they had been sitting there looking down at a cell phone for three hours! I do not have a problem with technology, but the more we can teach our future generation to actually INTERACT with people, I think the better we are preparing them. 

We went to the western side of the state on Saturday to visit with my mom’s sister, Lisa. My parents stayed there for two nights, and then left early this morning (Monday) to head back to Wisconsin. My parents and two of the kids left around 8:30am on Saturday morning to head to Lisa’s. I puttered around a bit, cleaning and packing and left around 10:45am. Roger had been planning on going with us, but he was on call this weekend. That meant he needed to be within two hours of the airport, and we would be farther away than that. It’s wasn’t ideal, and I don’t like being apart as a family, but all the kids were excited about seeing their second cousins and swimming in the pool. We ran into a lot of traffic on the way to Lisa’s house, and it took longer than anticipated to get there. When we turned onto Lisa’s road, I noticed that the brakes were making a funny sound as in a grinding sound. Great! It’s 4:00pm on a Saturday evening and the brakes on the van are bad! I didn’t know what to do, but thankfully God always has a plan. My uncle, Ryan, has a garage where he works on cars (much nicer cars than our minivan!). Ryan’s employee was getting ready to leave for the weekend, but he agreed to look at the brakes and the rotars and the brake pads were bad. Thankfully, he was able to find a parts store that had the right parts, so Lisa and I went to pick up the parts for the van. God’s timing is always perfect. By the time we came back with the brake parts, John (the employee) had the van hoisted up and was ready to put on the parts. Thank the Lord! It would’ve been a challenge to find a place to take the van on a Saturday evening, and it wouldn’t have been good to drive home with the brakes grinding. I don’t like situations like these as I find them stressful and overwhelming, but God always shows Himself strong. We ended up safely at Lisa’s house; my uncle was able to get the van fixed with the help of John; the parts store had the parts; just a lot of “God” moments! We are thankful!

We went to church with my aunt and uncle on Sunday morning, and we enjoyed the opportunity to worship with other believers. Their church service is at 9:00am as the building that they are meeting in does not have air conditioning. The church people were friendly and kind, and it makes me long for the opportunity to become rooted and grounded with a church family again. We will keep at it, but church shopping is definitely not on my list of fun things to do! 

The kids and I headed back to the east side of the state on Sunday afternoon. I had gone with my Aunt Lisa to visit another aunt that is currently in a nursing home. It was a quick visit and then back to get packed up and headed home. It’s about 3.5 hours, so it’s a bit of a hike. But it was good to see family, say good by to my parents, and see my sister (Jen) who is coming to our house in a few days. 

It was a busy week but full of memories.  I’m thankful for all my dad’s work on various projects around our house, and my mom working with Emma. We are blessed! 

Adjustments and Praises!

 It’s hard to believe but we are going to be wrapping up our third week here in North Carolina on Monday! We’ve been busy working hard at painting, cleaning, getting the air conditioner installed, having a water filter installed, visiting family, and so much more!

Roger has been busier than we anticipated with this years fire season, but the locals are saying that it’s the driest year they’ve had in a while. So hence, there are more fires. We’ve had to adjust our schedules somewhat as Roger leaves for work around 9:00am, but hasn’t been getting home until after 7:00pm. We make it work. Roger and I often have time for a walk in the morning, and we just eat supper later so that we can all eat together as a family. 

Updates from the past week: 

Last Wednesday (6/29), Emma had a flare-up of Lyme’s disease. At least that’s what I think it was as it happens every once in awhile. It’s the same symptoms, and it doesn’t often last long. She gets a low grade fever, a  bad headache, joint pain and sometimes throws up from the headache. She was down for the count last Wednesday, and it’s hard when your child doesn’t feel well. She was pretty miserable and tired for the day, but seems to have bounced back again. 

Last Thursday, the three younger kids and I made a trip out to Roger’s work. It was fun to see the airplanes, his office and get a taste of what happens there. 

Last Friday, (7/1) we traveled to South Carolina to visit some of Roger’s family. It’s just under a four hour trip, and we thought that Roger would be able to get off around 5:00pm. Surprise - he was able to get home just after seven! We had planned on leaving on Friday night, and we decided to go ahead and still leave on Friday night. It would be a late night, but then we would have all day Saturday to spend with family. On our way, we did stop at Buccy’s- anyone familiar with that chain? It’s a gas station that boasts to have 100 pumps and the cleanest bathrooms! We were all in awe of how larger the convenience store was and yes, the bathroom were clean! 

We spent the day on Saturday with  some of Roger’s family. Three of his sisters who live in Canada had come down for a visit as well as two cousins. It was a full day of sunshine, food and talking! The boys spent the day swimming for a while, then running around to the front yard for a game of baseball  with their cousin, Landon, and then back to the pool with some eating in between! Emma enjoyed swimming with two of her cousins, Charity and Karis. Travis ended up with a pretty bad sunburn and Garett had gotten some sun too. Chandler tends to just turn browner, Wyatt didn’t get a sunburn, and Emma just a little. I always seem to forget to put the sunscreen on Travis, and he burns first and then tans the rest of the summer. It was a good day, and I know that Roger was happy to have been able to spend some time with three of his sisters, parents and his brother, Nate. Some of his family we haven’t seen in several years, so it as good to re-connect. 

On Sunday we went to pick up Garett’s car. Yes, he has a car but not a driver’s license! My brother-in-law, Josh, sold Garett a car and the car was in South Carolina parked at Josh’s parents house. I accidentally typed in the wrong address so when the gps told us we had arrived we were actually still 40 minutes away! It messed up the schedule of the day a bit, and I felt badly about inconveniencing Josh’s mom, but with the price of gas, we needed to accomplish as much as possible in one long trip! Josh’s mom, Debbie, is also a friend of mine, so I would’ve loved to have visited a while longer, but we needed to keep going. She gave us some duck eggs to try, and the kids were excited about trying those. We talked a little bit about the challenges of finding a church “home”, and how both hard it is to sometimes feel connected with people. It was a short visit, but we are thankful to have Garett’s car picked up. It had been a tight squeeze in the mini van until we picked up the car as Roger’s brother had given us a grill. We were excited about that, so we definitely wanted to squeeze it in, and we did! But it was a tight squeeze! 

Sunday afternoon found us in Newton, NC as we visited my aunt and uncle there. It’s been a few years since I had been to their home, and it was a fun afternoon of swimming, fellowship and of course, eating! A few of Lisa’s grandkids, my second cousins, came over and the kids enjoyed the time together in the pool. We had thought about staying overnight, but after two nights away from home, we were all ready to get back to our house. And since Monday would be the 4th of July, we decided to head on home. It’s about 3.5 hours from my Aunt Lisa’s to our house, so we got started back home around five pm. The boys were so excited about the little dirt bike my Aunt had given them. It wasn’t running, but the boys were optimistic that they could figure out the problem and get it running again. Roger managed to squeeze it in the mini van along with the grill and three of the kids. Garett’s car also had three dining room chairs in it, so Roger adjusted those so that two kids could ride with him. My aunt had a couch that she wanted to give to us, but Roger said that there was no way that was going to fit too! We already looked like we were moving with the way the vehicles were packed! Travis made the comment on the way home that it felt like Christmas! He said, “We got dining room chairs, a grill, and a mini bike! This is so cool!” It didn’t matter to the boys that the dirt bike wasn’t working, they were excited about the prospect of figuring out the problem! 

This 4th of July was probably one of the most boring in my life, but it is what it is! We are not familiar enough with the area to know what events might be happening, and we do not know anyone in our immediate area. We spent the day working on house projects and reminiscing of past 4th of July holidays. Next year, will be different, Lord willing. The boys spent most of the day puttering around with the dirt bike. The drained the fuel, cleaned the carborator, cleaned the fuel lines, checked everything over and by the end of the day, it was running! Roger did give them some directions, but for the most part Chandler, Wyatt and Travis figured it out themselves. They are excited to have another little dirt bike around here, and it’s a good place to have one. Even Emma is learning to ride the little dirt bike. We have a Coleman mini bike and now this one that is smaller. The boys have plans to save their money and buy a “real dirt bike”. A few years ago, a dear friend of ours gave money towards the boys buying a dirt bike, and they were able to purchase the Coleman mini bike. It’s given them hours of fun as well as hours of work as they’ve fixed the chain, replaced the pull start and a bunch of other things. It’s fun to see them excited about these things, and it’s good to know how to fix your own junk, I mean, stuff! 

The boys have been working for our neighbors for the past week and one-half. It started out with just Garett working, but after a day, Chandler went down to ask if he could work too. After both boys working for a few days, the neighbor asked if the other brothers wanted work also. Travis was so excited that he could hardly contain himself at the thought of a “real job”, and Wyatt is anxious to get out of his cast so that he can start working! They’ve picked corn, squash, bagged wheat, picked blueberries, weeded gardens, and a bunch of other things. The neighbor has been good to them as they get fed lunch, snacks and drinks while they’re employed. What a blessing for the boys to be able to have a job! It’s hot, sweaty and hard work, just the right kind for growing boys. We are so thankful for each one that prayed with us that the boys would be able to find a job. God is so good! 

We’ve officially enrolled our children in a Christian school in the area. It was a matter of much prayer and discussion, but we’ve moved forward with paying the admissions fee and having the academic testing done. Whew! We’ve committed to this year. Please, please continue to pray with us and for us as the boys and Emma adjust to a new school. Academics are BIG down here, and I was a little (okay, a lot) concerned about how the testing would go. Some of my kids are not great test takers, we have one child with a diagnosed learning challenge, and two more that are probably borderline. I sent out a few text messages on Wednesday asking a few of my close friends to pray for the kids testing on Thursday morning. The kids arrived for their testing at 9;00am on Thursday morning. The secretary had already told me that the test was on the computer and that the kids should bring a book to read as they’d have to wait for their siblings. It was a long morning of testing about 2.5 hours! However, they all survived and the first thing they said when getting into the van was, “I’m hungry!” “That was soooo long!” “I dont think I ever want to do that again!” “Where can we go for a snack?” Alrighty then! The administrator had told us that he would call us sometime Thursday to let us know how the kids had done on the testing. It was a long day of waiting, but all we could do was pray and leave it in God’s hands. Around 6:00pm, the administrator called me to discuss the testing. While some of the kids have lower scores than we would’ve liked, the school is confident about placing each of our children into their anticipated grade level class this fall- THANK YOU, JESUS! Whew! So now we begin the process of being the new family in a new school, but God goes ahead of us and before us just like He has all along. I am going to be a TA at the school, and what exactly that looks like, I have no idea! I just know that I want to be a blessing, serve, and this is a great opportunity to get connected in the school and stay involved with our children’s education. Lots of learning curves ahead of us, so please continue to pray! 

We’ve been in desperate need of some rain, and the farmers around here have been concerned about their crops. It’s been a matter of much prayer in our household as we’ve taken time here and there throughout the day to stop and pray for rain (and school). Last night we got almost an inch of rain, so we are rejoicing in God’s goodness! We do need more rain, but we did get enough to stave off the imminent danger of failed crops. Please continue to pray for more rain. At this point in time, we will just deal with the nasty mosquitos that are likely to come as we get more rain- we just need rain! 

We’ve learned a lot in our 17 days here. It’s a different culture than where we came from, and its going to be a huge help for the boys and Emma to take Spanish language lessons at the Christian school. We have eaten more pork meat since moving here as pork is the cheapest meat. You can find a Mexican restaurant anywhere…we could go to a different one every week for the next 52 weeks probably! People have been friendly and pleasant to deal with (mostly!). Almost every town has a recreation center that includes a baseball field, play ground, tennis courts, basketball, and a walking trail. We’ve been given an abundance of squash from our neighbors, but also sweet corn and potatoes so we’ve been having a lot of those. We COULD buy all part of the pig at the grocery store and chicken gizzards and chicken feet too, but I’ve chosen to leave those for others that might enjoy that type of meal! 

Through it all, God has been good and faithful. We are settling in and adjusting. It’s not been without it’s challenges, but God continues to direct and provide. We just need to rest in WHO He is and WHAT He will continue to do. Thank you for your prayers! My specific prayer list would be as follows: 1) For our family as we continue to adjust and adapt. 2) For more rain 3) I need to find a doctor that will look at Wyatt’s hand and decide if it has healed. 4) For the school year (spiritual growth, academics, relationships, etc). 

Many, Many Thanks!