Preparing for a Move

We are in the process of preparing for a cross-country move, so school has been suspended.  We are using this time to purge, clean and otherwise prepare for our move.  It is always fun getting ready for a move, okay maybe I am exaggerating slightly or even a bunch.  I think it can become tedious at times.  It is no fun going through all the last minute preparations and purging that is necessary to move.  In our case, we are blessed to have packers and movers come in to deal with some of the tedious stuff.  But then we are left with the task of cleaning and making sure the house we are leaving meets the landlord’s standards.

Some landlords spell out very specifically their requirements in the lease.  One of our landlords required us to have the carpets professionally cleaned.  Other landlords have been much more vague, which makes it a lot harder to satisfy them.  It is no fun having to guess at what expectations the landlords might have.  Nor is it fun to be out part of a deposit because we did not know what requirements the landlords had.  So we try to be proactive and work towards meeting expectations.

Since the military is moving us, we are limited on the amount of weight we can move.  As a result when we go to try to find a new home to rent, we are planning on loading a lot of boxes into our twelve passenger van and leave them in Texas.  Of course, these boxes will primarily contain books since books weigh the most.  Then when the packers come we will not have those books to worry about.  In the meantime, I am trying to get rid of as many books as I can that I know we will not use again.

So what is going on in your world?  I would love to hear from you.

 

2016 is Fast Approaching

     Christmas is over and we are on our way to a new year.  This means it is time for me to begin setting up my new planner for the new year.  This year I am using 2 new planners. One is the Corie Clark Daily Planner and the other is the Living Well planner.  I am excited about both of these planners.  Here are some pictures of the cover and inside of the  Corie Clark planner.

A New School Year

I love homeschooling most of the time.  I refuse to exaggerate and say that every minute of every day is perfect.  Nor am I willing to say that planning makes everything perfect.  I have a general idea of what I want to do when.  This year, I have even entered almost every single class in its entirety in Homeschool Skedtrack, an awesome online virtual homeschool planner that is best of all……FREE!  I love the fact that it will automatically adjust the schedule to whatever lesson is the next one that is due.

So on the subject of adjusting – sometimes life happens and you have to go with it.  We started school in July.  I planned to take two weeks off in August – one to go with my husband while he went to a work seminar (we took our daughter with us for that one), plus the week after so we could go to Williamsburg with our family and celebrate 23 years of marriage.  Now for some 23 years may not seem like a lot, but for me it is a milestone.  You see my parents separated right before their 23rd wedding anniversary.  So I feel like I have cleared a hurdle.

But those plans changed to include a third week when my husband decided to take off extra days from work.  With this change came lots of work, as you can see in the picture above, we put up/canned, preserved or other wise put in mason jars and sealed a bunch of vegetables.  Since this picture was taken, we have added more vegetables and some fruit.  Now we are going to add Chili and Spaghetti Sauce to the mix, along with Vegetable Soup and some other kinds of soup.  We added a pressure canner to our kitchen as well (Oh how I love what that can do for our family).  For the very first time this year, we canned potatoes, corn, tomato sauce, sauerkraut and green beans.  I love being able to just go to our shelves and grab things for our meals.  And oh the fresh made sauerkraut (made by our hands) is amazing to eat.

Our children helped with these endeavors.  They shucked corn.  They help peel potatoes and apples and tomatoes.  They fill in where they are needed.  So to me, they are getting Home Economics, Cooking 101 and Life Skills all rolled into one neat package.  Then my husband had to go have a pre-cancerous spot removed from his face last week – so that kind of threw a monkey wrench into life.  So next week, we will be saying hello to several of our new classes.  By the middle of October, everything will be in full swing – of course having three children with birthdays within less than two weeks will make that month interesting.  But we homeschool year round, so I am not too concerned.  Everything I want to get done will eventually get done.  But all too soon our children will pass from our home in to the lives God meant for them to have.  I want to be able to look back and see that we lived life rather than being so caught up in keeping to a schedule that the schedule dictated our lives instead of the reverse being true.

I would love to hear from you about what is going on in your life

LOTS GOING ON

Well there has been a lot going on here lately.  Dennis turned in his re-enlistment packet and we just received notification last week that it had processed.  So either tomorrow or Wednesday he and I will go to our battalion in Williamsport so he can be sworn in again.  We have been doing school around here.  We have had some snow and some days with warmer temperatures.  We have also had some really cold days.

We have been to North Carolina so he could renew his drivers license and we could visit Dennis’ parents.  While we were there, we were also able to see his brother, his wife, his daughter and her husband along with meeting our only great-niece.  Plus we were able to see another one of his sisters.  We attended church at our home church and went to a dinner afterwards at a sister church for Dennis’ uncle and his wife for a Pastor Appreciation day.

On the homeschooling front, we have begun preparations for Jacob’s graduation this May.  He will be taking to the stage at the CHAP homeschool convention to receive his diploma.  It is exciting and somewhat sad to think of our firstborn graduating and moving on to his next phase of life.

On the church front, we have begun having services with two other families on Sunday afternoons.  We have a meal first and then someone does a devotional/sermon.  This coming Sunday, Jacob will be giving the message

.

New Year’s Day

So it is the start of a new year with endless possibilities.  For this year, I have chosen my main word of the year to be “create” and I shared yesterday why.

But I have chosen two other words as well.  I have chosen “delight” from the verse Psalm 37:4, “Delight thyself also in the Lord: and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart”.  I want to choose this year to delight in the Lord, in my family, our church, our homeschooling and life in general.

Another word I have chosen is “faith” from the verse Hebrews 11:1, “Now faith is the evidence of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen.”  This is one of Dennis’ favorite verses to preach on and I love hearing it.  It speaks to my heart and my soul.

Finally another word I have chosen is “trust”.  I know in the coming months with Dennis reenlisting and preparing to also enroll in the seminary for his masters degree in divinity and the possibility of an impending move from PCS orders, trust is going to become important.  I love the verses found in Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.  In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths.”  I loved hearing this verse in the movie, “Flywheel”.

So what is your word and/or verse for the year?  I look forward to hearing from you.