Update: I started the post on the way to Wisconsin, and I’m trying to wrap it up on the way back to North Carolina. This post will feel a little “muddled” and messy, but I don’t really want to go back and change the subject and verb tenses in what I already wrote! :) Jen, Emma, Wyatt and I arrived in Wisconsin on Wednesday afternoon, and we froze for the entire time we were in Wisconsin! It was cold while we were there, and I no longer have the jackets and winter gear to be dressed for the elements. I went for a run on Thursday afternoon, and I was quickly reminded that it’s been a minute since I’ve run in 26 degree weather!
The other three boys and Roger arrived in Wisconsin on Sunday afternoon, and the boys spent lots of time hunting this past week. We ended up with five deer total over the course of the week, and I am very thankful for that as it’s meat in the freezer. Wyatt got to shoot his first deer on Friday afternoon, so that was exciting for him. The older two boys are definitely more into hunting than the younger two. I’m pretty sure that Travis came along with his older brothers last weekend because he wanted to miss two days of school rather than the opportunity to go hunting! Wyatt had decided to stay behind until Jen and I and Emma left on Tuesday afternoon as he wanted to play in Monday night’s basketball game. We left on Tuesday afternoon, and we drove until a little after eleven pm. We turned around to leave Wisconsin around noon on Saturday afternoon. It was a quick visit, but I’m thankful for the opportunity to visit with my parents, and spend time with my family. My dad recently had an “unsettling” doctor’s report, and it was good to visit with my parents. Every time we visit, it is a reminder that we are all getting older and that time is fleeting.
A few highlights from the trip would include the fact that Chandler got a really nice buck on Wednesday morning. Garett had sat in that exact stand the previous two days, and he decided to switch stands with Chandler on Wednesday morning. Of course that was the morning that Chandler got the buck! Chandler ended up with two does and a buck. Wyatt shot an anterless buck, and Garett got a doe. Travis didn’t shoot at anything and neither did Roger. Garett and Chandler both missed a deer earlier in the week too, but we are thankful for a safe and successful hunt. It was a long and tiring week for the boys as they got up every morning at 4:30am to go sit in the stands for a few hours. They would come home and eat, process any deer that had been shot, and then go back out in the afternoon for a few hours. My dad has invested some time, energy and effort into making a few nice deer stands. I always tell the kids that times sure have changed! When I was a kid and went hunting, I had to sit on a metal tree stand in the woods that barely held me, and I remember dropping my book out of the tree stand and just having to sit there and count leaves! Now the boys have the opportunity to sit in an enclosed stands and a few of them even have a little heater in them! Times have changed! :) I’m thankful that the have the opportunity to hunt, but I’m more grateful that they have the opportunity to spend time with their dad and Papa in this way. They made good memories this past week, and I know they’ll look back on these moments with fondness. We are coming back to North Carolina with tired minds but full and grateful hearts. I’m thankful for my parents and their investment in the lives of our children.
One of Emma’s highlights from the trip would be getting a pair of Ugg boots! Now if you don’t know what those are, no worries! (I didn’t know until Emma told me about them a while ago) There’s a sweet dear lady who attends my dad’s church, and she loves on Emma. She was chatting with Emma over Thanksgiving dinner, and it came up about these Ugg boots that a lot of kids in Emma’s class have at school. Emma mentioned that someday she would like a pair, but her mama had said that they were too expensive (true story!). Well, this dear Grandma decided to get Emma a pair of Ugg boots. She gave Jen some money to take Emma to the store to pick out a pair of boots. Emma was over the moon excited, and when we took her to the store, Emma tried on several different pairs. I liked the black pair, but Emma picked the traditional brown pair. The boots cost about $65.00 on sale, which is more than I’d ever pay for a pair of shoes for a growing girl! However, Emma came right back to my parent’s house and asked for a thank you note to write to Miss Mary. I’m pretty sure Emma will get her use out of those boots as she’s hardly taken them off since she got them!
I had a short, very short, visit with one of my best friends on Friday morning. It was the fastest hour and forty-five minutes of the entire year. We rarely talk on the phone, and we aren’t even good at texting each other, but somehow we always fall back into quick conversations when we get together. I’m thankful for Jenna because we always have conversations that make me think. We don’t have superficial conversations, and we talk about things that really matter in life- personal relationships, our relationship with Jesus, deep personal struggles, and laughter and tears. It was a balm to my soul to sit and visit with Jenna, and it was a reminder of how deeply I’ve missed her. We would’ve needed about 24 hours to catch up, and we got less than two, but I’m thankful.
Roger mentioned on Thanksgiving day that he is thankful for his job. I don’t think I’ve been as thankful as I should be for his job, and it was a reminder that God has been so, so faithful. I didn’t want to leave Maine, but it was a necessity. Roger ended up in Michigan for about nine months while I was in Maine with the kids. The job in Michigan ended abruptly, and God quickly steered us to N.C. What I envisioned and what has been reality have been two very different things! However, God provided a job for Roger that brings him home every night. The job provides for the needs of our family, and maybe, just maybe someday N.C. Will feel more like home. The area that we live in is very much a culture of “born here, raised here, married here, and plan to die here”. It sometimes feels hard to make meaningful relationships because everyone already has enough friends, and truthfully, we don’t always fit in. We have created a few friendships with others, and friendships take time to grow…and I’m not always very patient! While the boys may fight and scrap with each other, they do have each other. Our family has become closer in the past few years, and I’m beginning to have a sliver of hope that maybe they’ll end up liking each other! We, as a family, are very thankful that Jen has moved to North Carolina. She’s invested in the lives of our children in an irreplaceable way, and I’ll forever be grateful for God’s mercy in moving her into our lives on a daily basis. We have so much to be thankful for on a regular daily basis, and sometimes I fail to be as thankful as I should be. My heart is filled with selfish tendencies that tend to outpour of me and into our children. Whew- if ever I see my shortcomings, it’s when I look at our children! I want them to be like Jesus, but so often I fail to point them to Jesus. I do know that He is the only One that can change hearts, and I have a child that I am find myself praying for more often. These teen years can be hard, and did you know that by the time a child is fourteen they will have mostly decided what they will believe in for the rest of their lives?! I have no time to waste, as I desire to help our children grow in their personal relationships with Jesus Christ. I am thankful for Roger. He’s a faithful and patient man, who loves his family with all his heart. He sacrifices for us on a regular basis, I am so thankful for his consistency. I am blessed to be his wife.
Thanksgiving is behind us now, and with just a mere three weeks til Christmas break, it’s going to be a wee bit crazy! The older I get, the faster time seems to fly. And I just want to hang on to all the memories, but it’s easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of the season. I’m doing an Advent devotional book with our family, and I’m praying that our children will grasp the importance and significance of this season. There’s a lot of shiny, sparkly babbles dangling in front of us every day during this season, but I want to make sure that we spend time with Jesus.
The post below was written on the way TO Wisconsin:
Here we are almost through November, and it’s been a crazy busy month! Although to be fair, I feel like that is often my opening statement when I’ve gone a while without writing a post! I would love to do a better job of keeping up, but the truth of the matter is that I am often tired after a day at school- shocker!
In the past month, Roger and I went on a cruise with some dear friends of ours; we had dear friends from Wisconsin visit us; we started basketball season, hosted a book character day at our school library, made lots of lesson plans, started some Christmas baking, and did a bunch of other things that I have no hope of remembering!
The day that the boys wrapped up their soccer season is the day that Roger and I left along with Laura and Justin for a six night cruise in the western Caribbean. Some would say that it’s not ideal to cruise during the hurricane months of September and October, but I’m here to say that we had a fantastic experience! We had beautiful weather, the cruise was much cheaper because it was during hurricane season, and the ship was a great one. I’d definitely cruise again during hurricane season. Yes, I know that some people do have rough seas experiences, and that definitely could have happened to us. But since our anniversary is at the beginning of September, and we usually can’t get away to celebrate til after soccer season, I’ll just continue to take the cheap cruises and pray hard for nice weather! Roger and I are the most un-loyal cruise line people as we don’t base our trips around cruise lines, destinations, or the ships. We base it off what is cheapest around the time we’d like to go! This time we cruised with Carnival Cruise Lines, and for this particular cruise, it was nicer than the Royal Caribbean cruise we went with last time. We visited the ports of Ocho Rios, Jamaica as well as Grand Cayman and Cozumel, Mexico. My favorite stop was at Grand Cayman. It was very clean on the island, and it felt like a very safe environment. We did not book any excursions at any of the ports because this was a trip on a budget, but you don’t always have to have a plan to have a fun time! I kinda wanted to go snorkeling at one of our stops, and we were able to do that at Grand Cayman. We got off the ship and wandered around, and about a half-mile from the port, we came across a little dive/snorkeling shop. Justin asked about the cost, and the cost was $15.00 per person to snorkel for as long as we’d like. Yes, please! The water was beautiful and warm, and we saw so many colorful fish! It was one of the highlights of the trip for me, and I wouldn’t mind going back some day. Has anyone ever cruised with Margaritaville at Sea? They offer “free” cruises for emergency responders, which Roger is, and I’m tempted to check into it. Dreaming of my next cruise is always a fun things to do, but meanwhile, we are back in the thick of reality!
We came back from our cruise on a Saturday, and we jumped right back into the craziness of the winter sports season. The following weekend after our cruise, we had our friends, Jared and Beka, come for a visit for a few days. We don’t see them nearly often enough, and it was so good to catch up on each other’s lives for a bit. The hours went by way too quickly, but it was a reminder of how dear these friends are to us.
Our school library hosted a “Book Character Day”. This is our third year doing this event, and it’s always a fun one for the students. The students that are in fourth grade and up have to bring their book along with dressing up as their character. The younger students just get to pick a book character. The character can be real or fictional, and it’s so fun to see their creativity. I was “Anne of Green Gables” this year. We have the students go around in a “parade” on the outside of our school building, and the parents get to see all the costumes. It a fun, quick event that is relatively easy to do! I’m thankful for my library assistant, Jennifer. I know she’s taken on a lot this year as it’s been a challenge to balance lesson plans for both art and library. She’s been a blessing to me this year, and she has stepped up many time to help me prepare and plan for our library lessons.
Of course we also had a very important presidential election that took place in early November. This was Garett’s first time voting, so that was a special moment for him. His one question after doing early voting with me was “Why can’t the people writing the referendums use plain and simple English?” Haha! Well, I’ve also wondered that a few times over my voting experiences. Most of the time, not all the time, but a lot of the time, I feel like I can safely vote “no” on the referendums. I don’t want anything that states “ a million dollar bond over x amount of years”…that’s code for “your taxes will increase to pay for this”. Although, there was a referendum this time that we did want to vote “yes”on (at least in my opinion). I do think that you should need to be 18 years old to vote and that you should be a citizen of the United States of America. I’m very, very thankful for the opportunity to vote, and I think it’s a privilege that many American citizens take for granted. Garett has put in a request via the Senator’s office to attend the Presidential Inauguration, but I’d be shocked and amazed if he was able to get tickets to attend. But I think it’s pretty cool that he wanted to attend. We will see.
One person that I am also thankful for this Thanksgiving season would be my art assistant. Kaycee has put up with many, many crazy ideas as we teach art to 230 kids on a weekly basis! It’s important to me that our students realize that Christmas is not all about “getting”, so we try to help our students create an ornament that they can give at Christmas. This means craziness as we mixed up salt dough for our kindergartners thru second graders to make ornaments! But Kaycee supports me in this crazy adventure and just smiles and mixes more dough for each class. I didn’t know who would be my art assistant when I took over teaching art two years ago, but God brought Kaycee into my life. I pray that I’ve been able to pour into her, support her as she raises young children, and pray over her and her marriage. As I teach my students the names of God, or tie in Scripture to art projects, Kaycee and I have had many conversations about God and His Word. We need people to mentor us, and we need people to pour into. There are days when I know I exasperate Kaycee and drive her crazy, but I am thankful for a great co-worker. Sometimes it’s easy to feel not included as “just a specials teacher” as someone recently told me, but yet God gently and kindly points me back to what matters right in front of me and that’s pointing my students to Jesus on a daily basis.
In closing, we have much to be thankful for on a day to day basis, and when we take time to reflect back over the last year, we wouldn’t be able to remember all the goodness that God has bestowed upon us. May we have a grateful heart this season, and I’m praying for opportunities to show others the love of Jesus in tangible ways this Christmas season. I’m open to suggestions!
I know that I shared this song in a post not long ago, but I really have enjoyed this song.
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