A new week...

Sometimes, you don't just need a new day to start over, you need a new week.

Last week we started our week off with the stomach flu. Stephen got sick late Sunday night. At first we thought it might be that he overate at dinner. That theory was quickly shot down as he was up every 20 minutes or so. It was so sad. It lasted for about 5 hours. It was a long night for mommy and daddy too. In fact Aaron got up and headed in to work over an hour early. (And he goes to work early as it is.)

Well, I tried to work from home on Monday. I was able to get some things done as well as take a nap. :)

Tuesday we headed out for school and work as normal. Tuesday was one of those crazy days. Alex had a basketball game at 4:00 on the east side of town. Aaron had a game at home at 6:00 and I had a meeting at 7:00. Fortunately, we all seemed to be doing OK, just tired.

Then it all changed. Aaron started to feel sick. He decided to spend the night in the basement so that I could sleep. That was such a thoughtful thing to do, until Emma woke up and got sick. So I was up most of the night anyway. Aaron and Emma seemed to have a bit more severe form of what Stephen had but it still only seemed to last for about 5-6 hours. But by then they were so drained and tired.

I tried to work for a little bit in my office on Wednesday morning but was so tired that I headed home. I took a nap, did a little disinfecting and then did a little catch up on work. I am so thankful my job is flexible and I can move my hours around as well as work from home.

Thursday we once again all headed off to work and school. Emma didn't want to go, but she had not been sick for 24 hours and was not running a fever, so it was off to school. It was great to sit in my office and actually be able to work on those things that I couldn't do from home. On Thursday's Emma stays for daycare and I generally pick her up around 3:00. Well, at 2:00 my phone rang and the nurse said she was coughing and now running a fever. UGH!! So I picked her up and we waited for the boys to finish their school day.

By the time we got home, Emma no longer had a fever. And Alex had a game so we all headed to a town about 45 minutes away. We went to Friendly's for dinner. As we were finishing, Jackson headed to the bathroom and when he came back he said his stomach hurt. OH NO!!! Well, he was very upset that we wouldn't let him get ice cream but we didn't want anything else in his stomach on the ride home. Fortunately we made it and he didn't end up getting sick.

Friday I couldn't take Emma to school since she had a fever within the past 24 hours. So after we took the boys to school, we came home, cuddled on the couch and watched Tangled. Aaron got done at work early and so I headed into work after lunch. Again, it was nice to get some prep work done for Sunday that just could not be done at home.

This was Homecoming weekend at the school. So Friday afternoon and evening was filled with basketball games, followed by the alumni game and the Homecoming court and coronation. Saturday, Aaron and I helped serve at the Homecoming banquet. It was fun to see all the kids all dressed up.

It was such a long, tiring, and crazy week. While there were definitely highlights, it was one of those weeks you would like to forget or at least fast forward through.

I am thankful for a new week. I hope that this one is less eventful (at least for those "unplanned" events).

New House Pictures

Here are pictures of the inside of our new rental house.
Some of the rooms still need a little more work, but for the most part we are getting settled.
I will try to get some outside pictures this week and get them posted as well.



One of two entrances from the Front Porch. Nice area for coats and backpacks.
The Laundry room door is directly across from this entrance.



This is the other entrance. This is the original entrance to the original house. (This house is old and has been renovated and added onto a number of years ago.)




This is the Kitchen with eat in area.



The living room. The TV is to the left of where I was standing.



Emma's room.

Jack and Stephen's room.

Master bedroom.

Alex's Room. (We have permission to take the wallpaper down, which we may do at some point.)



The "Kid-Cave"



This is the Dining room, however we are using it as the computer room.

Christmas Pictures (Finally)



Our very simple Christmas tree. It has no decorations on it. Knowing we might move at any time during the holiday forced us to keep things simple. Not a bad thing at all.



Emma enjoyed a very "Girly" Christmas with lots of Rapunzel stuff and a new dollhouse.



We enjoyed a quick Christmas Eve visit from Aaron's parents. They headed out on Sunday after church to go on vacation as a 40th anniversary celebration.

Jack got KNEX Mario Kart race tracks. He got an add on as well.

Alex got a laser tag type game. Grandma and Grandpa thought ahead and got extra guns and targets so all the boys can play. The boys are looking forward to hiding the targets in our new yard and playing outside with it in the spring.

Lot's of building of tracks. (Stephen got a race track too.)

  

Stephen got a reflex punching bag.

And of course our traditional Jesus birthday cake. This is the true reason we celebrate Christmas. There is no gift that could ever compare.

Chapters

I often think of life in terms of chapters (maybe because I love to read). We spent last week closing a chapter of our life and beginning the next. We don't know how long of a chapter we just started, it might be relatively short or maybe it will last for awhile.

This past weekend we moved from one rental house to another. It is a bit ironic to me that it coincided with New Year's.  New house, new organization of stuff, new drive to work/school, new landlords, etc... Also a new resolve to truly clean out the "stuff" in our lives and get rid of what we do not need.

As we were moving boxes that we had not even opened since moving to Pennsylvania 16 months ago, it became apparent that we were just moving a bunch of "stuff". Stuff that is not necessary for our everyday lives and just takes up space. While there are a few boxes that have been relatively untouched over that time that we will keep (mostly pictures and books) most is just "extra weight" in our lives. So we have a plan to have a garage sale and then to arrange for a local organization to come and take whatever is left.

All of this has gotten me thinking in light of the typical discussions and comments on resolutions. I know that for myself I don't typically make resolutions on January 1st. I do however like to set goals for myself. I recognize the importance of setting clear and appropriate goals. Any goal needs to be attainable but also needs to be challenging to accomplish. For example you can't set a goal to lose 100 pounds in 6 months. That's not attainable. You also can't set the goal to just lose weight. It's not clear enough. But you could set a goal to lose 8 pounds in a month. This is possible and for most would create a bit of a challenge. And sometimes, a goal needs to be tweaked along the way depending on reality. Also, short term goals are better than long term. We need to be able to "see the end of the tunnel".  While it is OK to set a goal for the year, that goal needs to be able to be broken down into smaller goals. For example, a goal to read the entire Bible in a year is more easily attained when you have a daily reading plan. You have a daily goal that helps you accomplish the year long goal. Finally, when goal setting have a reward in mind. If your goal is to lose weight, make the reward a new outfit or accessory. If your goal is to read the Bible in a year, buy yourself a new Bible when you accomplish the goal or a new devotional.  Give yourself something to work for in addition to the sense of accomplishment in reaching your goal. It helps with motivation.

Now to tie in the goal setting and the chapters of our lives; when you are given a new chapter in life, what do you want the story to reflect when the last part of the chapter is written? For me, tangibly speaking, I want to move a lot less stuff. I want to value what I need and use regularly and let go of the things that are just taking up space. I want my home to reflect love and care of people rather than material things. And my reward for doing this will be less muscle aches when we have to move again. So for this chapter of my life, my goals will help write the story.

What about you? Is this new year bringing a new chapter? Or are you in the middle of a chapter? No matter which category you fall into, you have the ability to affect the story by the goals you set. Maybe your goals are related to health, maybe toward family relationships, maybe to being more like Christ, or maybe to all of those things. Come up with a plan that has clear, attainable goals and go after them.

Imagine if we all sought to be more like Christ, the chapters of our lives would have ETERNAL impact. Now that would be amazing.

He is NEVER late!

Well, our prayers have been answered. I can say, it definitely wasn't in the way and form that we anticipated and hoped for, but answered none the less.

We were looking for a long term rental (a year or longer) and we found a short term (4 months, then month to month), as this house is actually For Sale. However, God's fingerprints are all over this and so we know that He has a bigger plan.

We found out about this property on Wednesday, last week. Due to some mixed up information we couldn't make a connection to the owners. However, we received the owner's information (correct this time around) less than 24 hours later from someone else. We saw the property Friday. We decided to move forward, but due to Christmas we were unable to finalize anything until yesterday.  And now we are planning to move this Friday and Saturday.

We have often commented that God rarely shows up early (in our terms), but He is never late. With a week to spare on our current rental agreement we were provided for in amazing ways.

We are really excited about moving. This house has 4 bedrooms which will help the brotherly relationships between the boys. If we happen to be in this house for more than the four months, we will also get to enjoy the pool and hot tub. Plus there is about 2 acres of land with a creek, perfect for boys to play and explore. (I am sure Em will be right there with them.)

We were so blessed over the past week and over the past few months during this process to see the body of Christ rally around us. We had so many people praying, encouraging, and providing house tips. It is a blessing and such an uplifting experience to be loved this way. We are so very thankful for all of those who walked beside us.

We know that there a quite a few uncertainties as we move forward. There are no guarantees that we will be in this house for a long period of time and that we may be looking to move again in just a few months. But we know that God is in control. He has a plan and will guide and direct us no matter what the future holds. He is good!!

Please Pray

I don't know how many people look at this blog, but it only takes a few to urgently pray.

Some of you know that for the last four months we have been looking for a new rental house. Our current location is small for our family and the ages of our children. (Basically we need another bedroom so we can split up the boys a bit.)  We also have had a number of problems while being in this house, mainly water and mold issues.

We have been actively looking for another house. We have looked at many. We have been excited about two. In the one situation we look back and realize that God was most likely protecting us from a problematic situation with the property management company. The second one was so recent we don't yet see why God allowed it to fall through for us.

We believe that our God is big. He is sovereign and has a perfect plan. We also know that He is aware that our current lease in up in just 10 days. (We might be able to get an extension, but are not 100% sure at this moment.)

God has done some absolutely amazing things over the past week in our lives. We have tangibly seen Him work in ways we were not expecting. He is so very faithful. Yet here we are with a huge need that just doesn't seem to be changing. We don't understand why God hasn't provided, we don't see the plan He has for us but we will choose to keep trusting.

Please join us in praying that God will provide in a mighty way, something that can only be attributed to Him and Him alone. We believe that 10 days is plenty of time for our God to work this situation out.

So much to be Thankful for...

Last week we headed to Indiana to spend the Thanksgiving holiday with family. (I will try to post some pictures later.)

We spent an evening with our best friends. The kids enjoyed hanging out and playing, while the adults talked and played cards. It was so good to be with them. The evening went by way too quickly.

On Wednesday we headed to Chicago to have our Christner Thanksgiving meal. We enjoyed the opportunity to be with our family and to meet our newest family member (niece and cousin Clara). The food was excellent and the company even better.

Thursday we had our Maxson family Thanksgiving meal, minus my brother's family. Again the food was amazing, but it was so fun to be together.

After the meal, our kids went to Uncle John and Aunt Laura's for their annual sleepover which includes watching The Polar Express and drinking hot chocolate. Aaron and I headed out to Walmart for the early Black Friday specials. We didn't get what we went for but at least we survived.  It was CRAZY. People can be so controlled by their desire for material things. It was sad. On a happy note though we ran in to a few people we haven't seen in a long time.

On Friday we headed to Indianapolis to celebrate Christmas with the Maxson side of the family. My brother is currently doing a trauma rotation in Indy and so we were able to be with him and his family. It was so good to see everyone and spend some time together.

Saturday we hung out with our families and just enjoyed each other's company.

On Sunday we traveled home. Last year we got stuck in holiday traffic on the turnpike and so we opted for another route this year. Due to a few accidents though, this route ended up taking just as long. We sat in slow or stopped traffic for at least two hours. But we made it home safely.

It was cool to see God's hand in our trip home. We made a 10-15 minute bathroom stop that was unplanned. Had we not stopped we would have been to the first accident site around the time it occurred. And while stopped in traffic the best thing happened...Emma asked how to ask Jesus into her heart. We talked and prayed together. I love how God works!!

We were reminded often throughout the past week of God's faithfulness and goodness. We are truly blessed by God. We have so much to be thankful for and this past week reminded us to take the time to thank Him for those blessings of life, family, love and safety.