November is over, and now it’s starting to feel like the mad dash to Christmas break! My dad has been gone on a missions trip to the Dominican Republic, and my mom spent the week visiting her sister and family as well as time with us. My mom folded lots of laundry for me, matched socks, and played many games with the kids. It was a good week, but it went by quickly.
The Saturday after Thanksgiving, a friend reached out to me to tell me that she was getting rid of some Christmas decorations. She asked if I would be interested in any of the decorations either for our home or the school library. We gave away a lot of our Christmas items when we moved to North Carolina, and the school library could definitely use some new decorations! Roger and I went over to pick up the Christmas decorations. We stayed for a visit and spent some time just talking with this friend. Christmas can be such a hard holiday on some people, and it’s good to be reminded to spend some extra time in prayer for friends that are hurting or grieving. When we came home and unpacked the decorations, we were thrilled to find that there was a very nice Christmas tree in the mix! We’ve ALWAYS have had a real tree in our 17 years of marriage, but Christmas trees are expensive here, and we weren’t sure about buying one. However, this tree is perfect for our house, and it was fun to decorate for Christmas while my parents were here. There was also a smaller Christmas tree, so the kids had a fun time putting on all the random decorations we’ve collected over the years on that tree.
My dad was leaving for the DR on Monday morning, and on Sunday afternoon, I got a text from the missionary that my dad was going to be going with. They asked if I could help my dad get some information printed so that he could easily enter into the DR. After finally managing to get the paperwork filled out and completed, we needed to print it. However, last Sunday was a very windy day and the power went out at our house! Now what!? Well, thankfully, we could run the internet off the phone and Roger dragged out the generator to plug the printer into the generator cord! We looked like totally red-neck folks but we managed to print the paper! Whew! My parents headed to Raleigh to check into the hotel, and Emma was excited that she was able to go with Nana and Papa. Since my dad’s flight was so early on Monday, they went to Raleigh on Sunday afternoon. I was happy that Emma was able to have some one-on-one time with my parents. The boys enjoy all kids of outside activities with my dad, but Emma isn’t interested in deer stands, hunting, or shooting at targets. Thankfully, we were able to mend all relationships with our neighbors after Chandler shot the deer on the other neighbor’s land. My dad ended up helping the boys move the deer stands, and I think they might have ended up with a better spot than they were originally. They also met a new neighbor who was extreme helpful in them figure out where to set up the stands. It was a blessing to have a neighbor help out the boys and give them a few hunting pointers.
On Monday morning, Chandler woke up with a rash on his skin. Apparently he had gotten into something while out in the woods. I didn’t think too much about it as the boys are always getting into something. However, by the time basketball practice was done on Monday evening, Chandler’s forearms were swollen and the skin was very irritated. Clearly, whatever he had gotten into wasn’t going away, and we needed to have a doctor look at his arms. So Tuesday morning found Roger and Chandler waiting outside a walk-in clinic in a near by town at about 7:15am. The clinic opened at 7:30am, and when they went to sign in for an appointment, the secretary told Roger that they weren’t taking any new patients. Say what? The walk-in clinic isn’t taking new patients?! I thought that was the purpose of a walk-in clinic. Roger was told that Chandler could come back in January to see if they were taking new patients then. Um- Chandler would have his skin scratched off by then! So they went to a different walk-in clinic. At that walk-in clinic they discovered that there was already about 20 people in line! Roger remembered that there was a clinic in our local town that opened a little later. So they headed there. Thankfully, Chandler was able to be seen by the nurse practitioner who prescribed prednisone and a cream for his skin. Roger picked up the cream and Chandler put it on. Roger had planned to take Chandler to school, but the cream caused his skin to start to “weep”. Clearly, he wasn’t going to be able to go to school like that. So he took Chandler home. A teenager on prednisone was a crazy week! Chandler is like the energizer bunny without a steroid, so he was really eating us out of house and home this past week! He was irritable, unable to sleep and ate so much food I don’t know where he put it! However, we made it through, and his skin does look a lot better. We are thankful that we found a clinic to go to and that Roger was able to adjust his work schedule so that he could take Chandler.
Friday found me with a passel of kids to take home after school, which I absolutely do not mind in the least! Garett and Chandler had a basketball tournament for part of the day on Friday, so they were gone to that. Typically we go to all their games, but I had already planned a “baking for Christmas” evening with a few friends. Since I wasn’t going to the game, I ended up taking a few extra kids home with me as their parent was at the game. The kids had a great time running around in the yard and playing while I got ready to make a huge mess in the kitchen. Laura and her sister, Suzanne, arrived around 5:45pm with Suzanne’s son, Eli. Two of the other kids that I had brought home had already left, so there was just seven kids left. Laura, Suzanne and I made so many sweet things that we probably were close to a sugar induced coma! We made peanut butter balls, dipped Oreos, gingerbread cookies, caramels, dipped pretzels, reindeer pretzels, Christmas toffee, and I don’t even know what else! It was the perfect day to do it because we had to stay up late anyways waiting for the boys to get home from the basketball game. It was a late night, but such a fun night! Wyatt, Travis and Emma were thrilled to have friends to play with, and it was such a fun night of laughter and fellowship!
Travis said on Saturday night that “We used up all our Saturday!” And he was rather dismayed about it! We went to watch the boys play in the basketball tournament on Saturday morning. It was a longer day than anticipated as all the games started later than they had anticipated. The boys ended up losing the game, so that was disappointing for them. The boys have learned a lot this season, but the late night are really late nights! We aren’t a late night family, so that’s been a total adjustment. I’m thankful that they’ve had this opportunity to try, but I’ll be curious to see if they try out next year.
This past week we also received a really big blessing regarding Emma’s school bill. When we moved to North Carolina, we discovered that the state of North Carolina offers an “Opportunity Scholarship” that will help pay for a student’s tuition bill. However, while we met the financial qualifications for the requirements, we didn’t mean the other requirements. A student has to be entering K, 1st or 2nd grade or be from a military family or be adopted or have been in a public school for at least a semester. Well, we didn’t meet any of those. God provided a job for me though and we’ve been slowing working through paying off the school bill. My parents and sister, Jen, have also given generously towards helping us with their tuition. Late September we made the decision to move Emma back to second grade. Once we made that decision, I decided to see if we could apply for the opportunity scholarship for the second semester of school. We received a reply almost immediately that we were eligible to receive at least a portion of the scholarship and we would be notified if funds became available. I didn’t think much about it after that, but then at the beginning of November, we received an email stating that Emma qualified for 90% of her tuition fees for the second semester! This was a huge, huge blessing to our family! Then we received and email stating that if our child had been enrolled in the same school since October 1st, we could ask for a tuition scholarship for that semester. I sent the email, the school secretary helped with a few phone calls, and a few days ago we were notified that Emma would receive 90% tuition assistance for this school year! Praise the Lord! While God has always provided, and always right on time, this tuition assistance does help relieve some of the financial concerns regarding the school bill. When the kids were enrolled in Maine, we received a significant discount since I was teaching, as well as the Christian school there had a policy that any family that had more than four children, the fifth was free. That worked out well for our family with five children! God has always been faithful and this past week was just another reminder of His goodness to us. So we will continue to pursue our children having a Christian education as we continue to trust Him to provide while we budget and work at it also! God is good.
This has seemed like a long week, but tomorrow is Friday! Friday is my favorite day of the week. It’s the day that I anticipate all the many projects that I’ll accomplish over the weekend, which I never complete the list! But it’s still my favorite day of the week.
As we prepare for Christmas, we are looking forward to some family time, making memories, and enjoying a few days off of school. We’ve started a devotional book for Advent season and it covers some of the many familiar Christmas carols. We are only a few days in, but we are enjoying it. I love music, and I am so thankful for music. We pray that you will enjoy this Christmas season. Take some time to read through the Christmas story in the Bible. A helpless babe - and the Savior of the World!
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