Birthdays, Soccer, Cross-Country, Life’s Crazy Adventures!

                                                       Happy 12th birthday to Travis 

 Week #2! This week was Travis’s birthday, Chandler’s first cross-country meet, two soccer games, parent/student orientation, and a day of subbing in kindergarten! We are not bored, but we are definitely in the balancing stages of life as we juggle a lot of events and activities. 

There are things that we really, really like about the school, and of course, there are things that we aren’t crazy about. Just as the church is made up of imperfect people, so are Christian schools and ministries - I know because I’m definitely a part of the imperfectness! I would love to say that we’ve adapted and adjusted and we feel like we are fitting in, but the truth is that hasn’t quite happened yet. Travis is in sixth grade, and he’s been struggling with loneliness. Wyatt is in 7th grade and he’s struggling with were he fits in. Chandler is in 9th grade and he’s feeling overwhelmed by schoolwork and homework and it feels like Algebra 1 is kicking our butt! Garett is a whole new kettle of fish as we try to navigate through his IEP, what that looks like, and what would be best for Garett. Emma likes her teacher and she hasn’t found the school work to be too hard yet, but she has asked every night to go back to the school in Maine. So yeah, we are adjusting but we are not adjusted yet. Please continue to pray for that transition to come. I’ve been staying busy with prepping in the library, working in various classrooms, and trying to figure out which way is up these days! I realized that menu planning is going to be imperative as we are going to get really tired of quesadillas! Thankfully, it’s a quick meal, but I don’t want to eat it for five nights a week! Maybe one of these days, I’ll get my act together and make some freezer meals to  have on hand. 

Chandler ran in his first cross-country race on Monday. I was expecting there to be more teams and more students participating, but it was a small race (probably about 50 boys). I have a study hall that I cover the last period of the day, so Emma and I barely made it to the race on time, but we did! In my cross-country years, the girls ran first and then the boys had their race. For the event on Monday, the boys went first. It was a humid day, but the school cross-country teams did very well. The boys had runners 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, so that was exciting. Chandler won his first cross country race, so he was excited about that. He also didn’t realize how tired he would be on the way home! Haha! I very much remember those days of running, and how the adrenaline crashes and leaves you exhausted shortly afterwards! It was a good experience for him, and we are thankful that he is able to participate on the team. Thankfully, Roger was able to pick up the other boys from soccer practice so that was helpful. 

Tuesday was also a long day as the boys had their first soccer game. The team is pretty large as there are 17 kids on the team in grades 6-12. They are playing varsity level teams with students in grades 9-12, so there are some big players on the field. Travis really didn’t get any playing time at all (a minute at the end) and Wyatt had a little bit more. They were both disappointed, but we are working to remind them to be faithful and that they have several more years ahead of them. Garett and Chandler played almost the whole game, so they were very, very tired. I don’t usually make comments about the reffing styles of the games, but this was a rough one. It’s confusing to the players when the ref doesn’t know which side is getting the throw-in or who kicked the ball out of bounds. We didn’t win the game, but they did score, so that was exciting! Hopefully, they’ll continue to improve throughout the season, and I’m excited for them. Playing sports has provided an added incentive to keep on working on their homework and grades. 

Wednesday is the day that we get to come home earlier than usual, as there are no sports practices on Wednesdays. We were able to be home by 4:00pm and that was quite nice. The church we visited on Sunday does have Wednesday night services, but they were having a church meeting on committees and budgets. It was nice to be home a little earlier, and I ended up needing to go to Wal-mart to pick up a few groceries as we did not have enough to make it through the week of school lunches. It’s going to take a bit to figure it all out. 

On Thursday, I had the opportunity to substitute teach in Kindergarten. Kindergarten is one of my favorite grades, and I was happy to be asked to sub in there. Someday maybe I’ll have the opportunity to have my own classroom again, but for now I’m happy to have the opportunity to sub on occasion. I also filled in for after school care. The school offers after-school care for those parents that are unable to pick up their child at 3:00 pm. There is a charge associated with this service, but there are still quite a few kids that need this as an option. So, while the boys had cross-country practice and soccer practice, Emma and I hung out with the after school kids on the playground. It didn’t pay to go home after soccer practice as there was a parent/teacher orientation meeting @7:00pm. Thankfully we had already made plans with Travis to celebrate his birthday on Saturday- there was just not enough time in the day on Thursday! We attended the meeting which was basically a meeting telling the parents what was going to be required of them and their student. It wasn’t exactly new information, just stuff that’s already in the handbook but most people don’t read. Garett did win a $25.00 voucher to be applied to school expenses, so that was nice! Chandler said that he was praying the whole time that no one would pick his name because he didn’t want to walk up in front of all those people! It was a late night, but thankfully Friday was just around the corner. We did manage to sneak out for a snack between practices and the meeting, but we are looking forward to a meal around our table on Saturday night and a few gifts for Travis. 

Travis is 12 today! (Thursday) So the boys are now 12, 13, 14, 15 for the next week. We are so thankful for our sweet youngest boy. Travis is a hard and diligent worker. School does not come easily for him, but he works hard at it. He is a blessing to have in our family, and he’s quite funny at times. My prayer for Travis this year is that he will be able to understand his school work, find a special friend at school, and keep working on becoming the man that God wants him to be. I sure do love that boy! 

The boys had a soccer game on Friday night also, and Roger has been able to get off work a bit early so that he can watch them play. Garett and Chandler are both starters, and Wyatt has gotten some playing time, but Travis is still waiting for his turn. It’s disappointing for sure, but they are playing teams with  players in the 9th-12th grades. The team played hard, and they really worked together, but they still lost 0-1. We are looking forward to the day when the team will win a game- well, we hope and pray that will happen! 

Saturday was a day spent at home! Hooray! Our house likes us to be home to cut grass, take care of the garbage, and do laundry. The boys have really stepped up in helping out with laundry as their school clothes are limited, but we did spend part of the day doing “catchup”. We did have a special family meal to celebrate Travis’s 12th birthday, and he opened his presents from his Aunt Jen, us, and Wyatt bought him a birthday present also. Travis asked for tractors and farm machinery for his birthday. I love that he hasn’t outgrown wanting to play with farm toys, and he and Emma can spend hours playing “farm”. Every once in a while, Wyatt will join in too, and I want to keep them little a while longer. Wyatt said that he wanted to get a birthday tractor present for Travis because he wanted to play with the tractors too.  It was a low- key day, but we need those kind as the weeks are busy with sports and activities. 

On Sunday we visited yet another new church. I’m telling you that I did not expect finding a church to be this hard! We were invited to visit this church, and while I think it would be an awesome church for some folks, we probably aren’t in that category. The message was sound, the people were friendly, but it’s probably more conservative (often can come across as legalistic) than we’d like to be. I have nothing against hymns, but I don’t want an only diet of that. I’m happy to dress up for church, but I’d also like to know that I’d be welcome if I didn’t choose to wear a skirt or dress to church. I’m thrilled for people that love that church, and the pastor was welcoming. However, we will keep looking. We’ve visited more churches than I thought we would and yet nothing seems to say “welcome home” and the peace that Roger and I should both have is missing. Please continue to pray for us in this. We have another invitation to visit another church this weekend, and we will probably visit there. We know that God is faithful, and we know that He has a plan for us. We continue to wait and pray. 

We are beginning another week of school this week, and it’s a full one with one away cross-country meet and two away soccer games. We are doing our best to be at all of the kids games, but it’s a challenge! But it’s also very important to us as parents to support our kids in these endeavors. 

                                                                          Cross- Country 

                                                                                Soccer

Thank you for your love and prayers! It’s been a week of adjusting to “new” things all the way around, and it’s exhausting! We are thankful that God brings us through each new adventure, and that He continues to know exactly where we are and what we need. 

First Week!!

 We made it through the first week of school! It might have only been one and one-half days, but it counts as the first week of school! Whew! We also had our first cross-country practice for Chandler on Monday, as well as parent/teacher meetings on Tuesday. Wednesday was our last day of teacher in-service, and school started on Thursday for the students. 

Chandler has decided to run cross-country as well as play on the soccer team, so he has some very busy weeks ahead of him! We met the cross-country team on Monday, and Chandler participated in the practice. There’s not a lot of time before their first cross-country meet as it’s actually tomorrow (Monday!). Chandler hadn’t run a 5k in a while prior to Monday’s practice, but I figured he would do okay. He’s kinda a natural runner as long as he eats enough healthy nutritional foods  before running. He did great in Mondays practice and ran a 5k in under 20 minutes. It’ll be interesting to see how the rest of the season progresses for him. It works out nicely that he wants to do both sports as cross-country practice will be directly after school and then soccer practice is from 4:30-6:00pm. It makes for some long days, but we are happy that the boys have the opportunity to be involved in these sports. We are excited for the boys, and they are going to be having a week full of activity with having a cross-country meet and two soccer games this upcoming week!

Roger had been planning on coming with me to the parent/teacher meetings on Tuesday, but he was needed for fire patrol. Fires have been relentless this summer as it was so hot and dry in July. Emma wanted to go with me to meet her teacher, but when she confound out that I was going to be meeting with all the kids teachers, she decided it would be too long! And it was kinda long! It was good to meet each of the boys home room teachers, but we know that school will be an adjustment for the boys as they will be rotating to different classrooms for each period. The boys had the opportunity to work for our neighbor and two boys stayed home with Emma. The teacher in-service days have had me away from home more than I would like, but we did make it through. Thank the Lord! I’ve also been working in the library, putting together bulletin boards, copying papers, organizing papers and whatever else needs doing as we prepped for the school year. 

On Wednesday we had our last day of teacher inservice and the pastor of the church brought the sessions for the staff/teachers/volunteers. It was a good time of discussion, interaction and getting to know many new faces. At the end of the in-service, they honored the school staff with a special luncheon. The administrator and pastor gave out gifts to the new staff which included a nice travel mug, a cookbook, a gift card, a gift of money and some pens. It was an unexpected and very sweet way of welcoming the new staff on-board. I wasn’t expecting to get a gift, but it was very nice. 

Generally, going back to school is one of the hottest weeks of the summer, but this summer in August has been unseasonably cool. I’m sure another heat wave is coming, but having the weather in the low 80s has been a change! 

Our first day of school was on Thursday, and thankfully, it was a half-day. Everyone was up early from nerves and excitement, and we were at school earlier than we needed to be. The high schoolers and middle schoolers are in a different building, so we walked over there to drop off the boys first. The boys were intimidated and nervous, but also excited and eager to start. After we dropped them off, Emma and I walked over to meet her teacher. Emma has been looking forward to meeting her teacher, and her teacher eagerly welcomed Emma to school. Due to the rising cases of covid, the students were greeted outside by the teachers. It made for some chaotic moments, but by 8:05am, the front of the school was empty and all the students were inside. I helped in a few classrooms with unpacking school supplies, handing out tissues, and showing students where the bathrooms were at. The morning flew by with lots of activities, and then around 11:00 am I got a phone call while working in the library. The middle/high schoolers were having an abbreviated schedule on Thursday so that they could at least meet the teachers of their classes except for 7th period. Garett’s schedule was a bit different than the other 10th graders, as he has a different math class and he’s in Spanish 1 because he can’t take Spanish II without taking the first class. Anyways, Garett got off track in the first period. His home room teacher is the one that is teaching Geometry, but Garett can’t take Geometry yet. Garett told me that he thought he was in the wrong class, but he didn’t know where he was supposed to be, so he just sat through geometry, which meant he missed the Physical Science class he was supposed to be. The morning just went downhill from there, and Chandler’s teacher was the one who called me around 11:00am asking if I knew where Garett was supposed to be at this time. Much of the confusion came about due to the fact that the administrator’s assistant had been sick the week before school started so the teachers hadn’t received Garett’s new schedule. When I followed the school secretary over to the building and found Garett, he still had a smile on his face but lots of confusion as well! Garett did make it to the last period for the correct class- hooray! We are thankful for the teachers who tried to help him, and for the teachers that made him feel welcome amidst the confusion. God is good and faithful! Thankfully, school was done at 11:30am, and there were no sports practices, so that was nice for all of us! Emma had a great first day, and while the other boys were overwhelmed by all the newness, they did very well. Travis is already nervous about falling behind in his subjects and not passing, so if you could ask the Lord to help Travis have calmness of heart, we would appreciate that greatly! 

Friday marked the second day of school, but also the last day of this first week! Garett did much better with the schedule, and he made it to all of his classes. He did have a rather disheartening experience in one of his classes, but we will hopefully be able to resolve that quickly. Perhaps I’ll write about that next week how God orchestrated that event to help Garett…we are still praying and waiting to see what the outcome will be. 

I spent the day on Friday helping out in various classrooms, hole-punching papers, cleaning, doing recess coverage, and working in the library. I’m not an experienced librarian so I have a lot to learn, but I know that I do love reading and books. Hopefully, I’ll do a good job at it and help the students learn to love reading also. It’s overwhelming, for sure, but as I often remind our children -it’s not my job to worry about it. It’s my job to do my very best. 

On Friday afternoon, we had multiple sports practices that were happening after school. Chandler had cross country practice and he quickly realized that he had not had enough nutrition during the day! He looked like jello while he was running, and it was clear to see that he didn’t have any energy. However, he did learn a valuable lesson, and he will probably be doing a better job at packing his lunch in the future! Roger was able to get off work a little early so he brought the boys home from soccer practice, and Emma and I were thankful for that! Wyatt came home from the second day of school with a terrible migraine, and he spent a lot of time on the couch that evening. Thankfully, he seemed to bounce back on Saturday. 

We re-visited a church today. It takes a little bit to figure out if a church is going to be a good fit. We’ve visited churches that we’ve known after the first visit that we wouldn’t be re-visiting, and then there’s some churches that take several visits, conversations, etc to decide if it’s what God has for us or not. We wanted to be involved, settle down, and build relationships, but we also know that we don’t want to rush into anything in haste. Every time we move, there are different factors that are involved in choosing a church. The last time we needed to make a church move our children were 9,8,7,6, and 3. It’s quite a bit different with the boys all being old enough to be involved in a teen group or assisting with various jobs around the church. Please continue to pray for us. The kids did all seem to like the church we re-visited today or are they just tired of looking?! We attended Sunday School today, and while the Sunday School lesson was okay, it wasn’t great. We’re not trying to be picky, but we also know that if something seems “off”, there’s a good possibility that it actually is “off”. 

Anyways, I often find myself becoming “weary in well-doing”, and it’s a reminder that God is still working on me. He is faithful even when I am not. He loves me even when I’m not lovely. He’s faithful even when I’m unfaithful. He’s the God of the impossible, and I can rest in that. 

We are thankful to have made it through the first week. The teachers seem to be excited about the school year, and we are praying for each of our children to “grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” Thank you for praying for us! 

Birthdays, Teacher In-Service, and Changes

 Last Monday Emma celebrated her 9th birthday, and this Monday we are three days away from the start of school! I’ll be honest and tell you that I don’t feel like summer break was long enough this time. It was/is such a transitional time with moving, settling into new routines, finding a new school, looking for a church home, and everything else. I feel tired, and we haven’t even started the school year yet! I’m reminded that God has brought us this far, and He will continue to direct and lead. 

Last Sunday (8/7) we re-visited a local church in our area. It is close to home- that’s nice. The people are friendly- also nice. Several of the people that attend are actually people that live on our road- nice too. A few things that we aren’t crazy about are holding us back, but sometimes things that we aren’t crazy about aren’t doctrinal issues and sometimes they are doctrinal. We will probably have the pastor and his family over for dinner to get to know them as well as ask a few questions. We continue to wait and pray as well as visit other churches. 

As I mentioned, last Monday was Emma’s 9th birthday. I can’t even believe it! This girl celebrated her first birthday in Wisconsin, her second birthday in Arizona, her 3rd-8th birthdays in Maine, and her 9th birthday in North Carolina. It’s completely different raising a daughter than raising sons, but we do know that we still want her to grow up to love Jesus and serve Him with her whole heart. We had a simple birthday dinner for her, and then everyone had to rush off for sports practices. After sports practice we came home for ice cream cake and gifts. Emma enjoyed the Lego set the boys bought for her as well as a new lunch box from Aunt Jen and nine dollars from Nana and Papa.  Emma received a birthday box from her friend, Lucy, on Wednesday, and that was a really special surprise. It was kinda weird not having anyone over for her birthday dinner, but we haven’t made any close friends yet. We know a few people, but not people that we have established relationships with yet. It’ll come, it just takes time. 

Often on the kid’s birthdays, I ask them a few questions. Below is Emma’s birthday interview: 

Favorite color: rainbow

Best friends: Lucy, Olivia and Story 

Favorite food: shrimp and salmon

Favorite sweet: ice cream cake

What do you want to be when you grow up?  Answer: a teacher

Where would you like to visit? Maine

Favorite thing to do: gymnastics or go to a trampoline park 

Favorite activity to do with dad: fly in the airplane

Favorite activity to do with mom: shopping

 Favorite Restaurant: KFC and Dunkin Donuts

Favorite teacher: Mrs. Davis

Favorite Bible story: Jesus dying on the cross and rising again 

Our children are each so special and unique, and we thank God for them daily. It’s been a transitional year for them too, and we still have several major transitions- please continue to uphold them in your prayers. God is so good. 

I started teacher’s inservice on Wednesday. I know that I’ll be the librarian this year (soooo much to learn) and I’ll be doing a study hall. I’m not sure what else I’ll be doing, but doing a variety of things will give me an opportunity to meet a lot of people. We had three days of in-service last week, and two days this week. I’m not a huge fan of leaving the kids alone for six hours a day, even though they are fine. It’s just not my preference. For the past five years in Maine, we had multiple friends that the kids could go play with during in-service. Perhaps next year will be different. This week was a little more challenging altogether as the boys were needed to work on the farm for the neighbor. I ended up asking two boys to stay home so that Emma wouldn’t be by herself (obviously) and we’ve been getting by. Roger has been very busy with fires that aren’t supposed to be in existence as it’s not fire season! However, it’s been so dry that Roger has had to put in extra hours and he even was called in on Sunday due to a fire. 

It’s been a bit crazy around here as we try to figure out everyone’s schedules! Once school starts then the boys will be done working on the farm, and we will have school and sports to figure out. Chandler is planning on running cross-country and playing soccer. He wants to try anyways. It works out for Chandler as cross-country practice is right after school and then soccer after that. It’s going to make for some long days for our children, but one thing that they’ve been excited about is the opportunity to play sports. My prayer is that they will be able to adjust, maintain their grades, and that this will be a wonderful life experience for them. The four boys are playing on the same soccer team, and the soccer coach has been thrilled to have the four boys join the team. Chandler has his first cross-country practice tonight, and he’s looking forward to that. The sports season starts off with a bang as they have their first cross-country meet next Monday, and a soccer game on Tuesday with practice on Thursday and Friday. Emma and I will be doing lots of reading and hanging out together while the boys practice and compete! We are excited about this for them though, and I do think that so much can be learned through sports. I played sports in my middle school and high school years as well as in college, and I learned so much through those experiences. I’m excited that the boys will have opportunities for other coaches to mentor them as well as the boys to learn to work together with others (and yes, there are people more annoying than your sibling!). 

This past Sunday the kids and I visited another church. The people were friendly and kind, and the pastor preached a message on the power of our words. The songs were ones that we were familiar with, so that was nice. The thing that was a little disconcerting was how quiet the congregation sang the songs. I don’t mind a worship team, but sometimes it seems like the worship team overpowers the congregation singing and then no one seems to be singing! I don’t think there’s a need to be obnoxiously loud, but since God created singing, it brings Him delight when we worship Him with song- so sing! When you look around the congregation and only some of the people are moving their lips, it’s a bit concerning to me. Are they not singing because they don’t know the words? Or are they not singing because they really don’t think it’s that important? Or do they really not believe that there is “power in His name”? Just a curious church person over here! One of the boys made the comment on the way home about how he wasn’t sure if he was supposed to be singing when the overhead said to “please stand and sing” because no one around him was singing! Just goes to show you that yes people are watching, so worship and praise His Holy name! 

We are going to be having parent/ teacher meetings tomorrow. This is an opportunity for the parents to meet their child’s teacher and for the child to meet the teacher. Emma is excited about meeting her teacher, but the boys said that they would meet their teacher on Thursday. (They have the opportunity to work tomorrow). One benefit of the teacher in-service has been the opportunity to get to meet some of the teachers ahead of time. Roger is hoping to take off tomorrow morning so that he can go with me to meet the teachers, but that remains to be seen. 

Thank you for your love and prayers! 

Fun Moments! Driver’s Ed?

 Two weeks?! That is all that is left of summer break! We start back to school on August 18th. Part of me is ready for the school routines and structure of the school year. The other part of me is overwhelmed with all the changes that I see looming in the near future. I’m once again reminded that I am not in control, and that God is already at work. He’s at work by confirming that I’ll have a job in the school where the kids are enrolled. He’s at work by a family member giving a donation towards our very large school tuition bill. He’s at work by giving us a home and togetherness. Regardless of how I may FEEL on the day to day, I know that God is working. 

We’ve been busy per usual! Both Roger and I are now officially residents of North Carolina. I took Travis and Emma with me to the DMV two weeks ago, and it was quite a lengthy wait! They did very well waiting in a small space with about 7 other people ahead of us in line. As we were finally called, I noticed a little sign that said to please not bring children to the DMV…oops! Too late now as we had already waited and it was our turn. Thankfully, the DMV lady didn’t make any comments other than to say that my kids were better behaved than some of the customers that came to the DMV. Once it was our turn, it didn’t take long to complete the process. I’m very much a list oriented person, so I had all my paperwork ready to go and I was even able to register to vote! Finally after about an hour of waiting, we were back in the car and on our way! As we began the drive home, I picked up my drink that had been in the car and proceeded to take a drink. “DON’T DO THAT!”, Emma shrieked from the back seat. What in the world?! Emma proceeded to inform me that she READ the signs at the DMV. “Mom! The sign said, ‘Do not drink and drive!’ I don’t want you to go to jail!” Travis was gaping at Emma like she had lost her head, and I was quickly trying to process what was happening. I realized that she had been reading the signs about drinking and driving and the consequences of driving under the influence of alcohol. Whew! Now that I had that figured out, I could address the confusion! I explained to my distraught daughter that it’s okay to drink water, tea, soda, etc in the car, but not alcohol. It was a bit confusing for a moment, but we figured it out. I did have a good chuckle with Roger later as I explained what had happened on the way home from the DMV. And go figure- the next day Roger went to the DMV, and he didn’t have to wait at all! 

My sister was here last week, and she bought a pool for the kids. It’s one of those ones that’s not terribly, terribly expensive, but expensive enough that you want everyone to take care of it and be responsible! The pool was  supposed to arrive on Monday, but by Monday afternoon we still didn’t have the pool. Fed Ex claimed that it had been delivered, but where?! We contacted our neighbors and no one on our road had seen the 200lb package. Seems like a weird thing to go missing! We decided to wait until the next day and then call Fed Ex. Roger called on Tuesday afternoon and gave them the tracking number. They informed him that the tracking number was wrong. While I was trying to get the right tracking number from my sister, our neighbor called. She said that the pool had just been delivered to her house by and enterprise car rental truck! Um-okay! It was all around confusing, but the pool has been set up and is now in use! It’s cold right now, but with the temperatures consistently being in the 90s for the past week, it’ll warm up quickly! We still need rain, so if you’re wondering about that, please keep praying for rain! 

We visited yet another church on Sunday morning. This one is in the opposite direction from the school and about 13 minutes away. I will say that this was the friendliest church we’ve encountered, and the preaching was good. Both Garett and Chandler had positive things to say about the sermon, and Emma went off to children’s church on her own. Roger and I were a bit baffled by the taped off pews as who’s still doing that?! But then people seemed to just ignore the taped off pews and sit down anyways. Many churches have gotten away from passing the offering plate for the past few years, but this church took up a formal offering which didn’t seem to jive with the taped off pews. The music was good albeit a bit different. The congregation song was “Raise a Hallelujah” (which we had sung at last week’s church) but it was followed by “Blessed Assurance” (the hymn). Those aren’t two songs that I would’ve imagined going together, but it’s fine. I can appreciate a church that doesn’t throw out the baby with the bath water so to speak when it comes to music. Not ALL newer Christian music is inherently bad, nor do I think we should ignore all the hymns either. Probably a weird opinion to have, but this isn’t the place to have a discussion on church music! We appreciated the friendliness, the sound doctrinal preaching, and the role that the church seems to be trying to have in their community. We will probably re-visit the church again in the near future. 

Garett and Chandler have been busy with Drivers Ed this week. How are we here already?! It’s been a full week of classes for them from 8:00am to 2:00pm. The first day of class was a bit of a mad house as about 200 cars seemed to be pulling into the high school to drop off kids for drivers ed. The instructions were to stay in your car until you spoke with the drivers ed instructor. I figured that there would be about 25 students taking drivers ed- not 200! Thankfully, we were early and were able to get in the driveway of the school. The boys said that the instructors made it very clear that no nonsense would be tolerated and that all cell phones had to be turned off. Garett said that out of the 200 kids there were probably about 7 kids that didn’t have cell phones. Chandler says the number is closer to 5 that don’t have cell phones! Seriously?! I knew we were “weird”, but that means 192 kids ages 14-15 have cell phones! Wow! I’m not opposed to technology, and Garett will have a cell phone someday, but no wonder technology is an addiction. This week 4 kids have been dismissed from drivers ed because their phones were on when they were supposed to be off! We do plan to allow Garett and Chandler to have cell phones, but not until we are prepared and equipped and we’ve had a serious discussion. Since those things haven’t happened yet, we will wait. The boys will be glad to have Drivers Ed behind them, and so will I! The county is a bit behind on getting students through their six hours of behind the wheel with an instructor, but at least we are making progress. One big blessing for us is that drivers ed is free for our kids! It’s free for students attending school in that county, and since the boys will be attending school in the next county over, they are able to take drivers ed for free- how awesome is that!? 

Emma’s birthday is on Monday. How is it possible that she will be nine years old?! Emma and I are probably the ones that have struggled the most in recent days. She’s missing her friends, and I’m missing mine. The boys are off busy with working, fighting with each other, and eating, but Emma and I are feeling a little “off”. We miss our friends. We will adjust, but it’s been a long week. Emma’s been a bit emotional about not being able to have any friends over to celebrate her birthday, but we are taking everything one day at a time. God brought us this far, He can certainly bring us friendships. We are trying to come up with some fun ideas for her special day, but so far nothing is popping into my brain. Regardless, we will celebrate the fact that Emma is nine years old and we are thankful for the gift that she is to our family. God is good. 

I will be starting teacher in-service next week, so please be in prayer for that. I’m going to miss teaching my own classroom this year, but we are so thankful that I’ll be able to work where the kids are enrolled in school. Also, please continue to pray for our children’s adjustment to a new school. Pray that God will be glorified through their lives, that they would grow in their relationship with their Heavenly Father, and that they will be a good friend and find good friends. 

Due to the lack of rain, Roger has been working fire patrol more than we originally anticipated. It’ll all balance out later when he can take off a few days here and there, but it looks like he will be on call this weekend for fire patrol. The job has been good, and we are thankful. There’s always a few challenges along the way, and please pray for him to have wisdom and patience. 

As always, thank you for your prayers and love. 

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!