Decisions...

With all that is going on in our life right now, it seems like we are constantly seeking God's will regarding decisions that have to be made.

Although it's often hard for me to be patient, it's also a really exciting time of waiting before God and allowing Him to truly care for us.

We are now in the midst of another big decision.

Yesterday I was sitting and praying when something hit me.

It was a thought that had actually never entered my mind before - and it really threw me for a loop.

It was the simple thought that maybe it is NOT the best decision for my husband to stay here once his time at the church is finished. Maybe, in fact, it would be wiser for him to go ahead and move to NY to begin pursuing a job there and to begin getting to know the people of the town.

I'll admit...it was hard for me to even bring myself to mentioning this possibility to Donn. The thought of being left behind to sell, pack and manage the house by myself (well, with the help of 3 little kids) is enough to make me sick; but maybe-just maybe-this would be the best long term option for all of us.

We had initially been assuming that we would all stay here until the house sold and Donn would just get a job here in the "meantime". Don't get me wrong; we would love to all go to NY right away; but the cost of carrying the bills there and also the house here are just not feasible for now.

With just Donn going (and not all of us in tow) he could easily stay with his family and live rent-free for a bit.

Nevertheless, with this turn of events, our world has become a little more complicated. We have not made any official decisions yet but the more we talk about it, the more we both realize that it may be for the best. Yikes...it may be best for my husband to move to NY in just a few weeks!! Ahhh!

Who knows how long it would last...we know we would see eachother when we make the trip there for Christmas, but beyond that it would just be dependent upon the house sale here.

I realize that to some people, it may be no big deal to think of separating the family for a bit. However, during our early years as missionaries with the sports ministry, Donn often spent almost a month at a time away and we have since said that we would never want that to happen again. It's a hard life and it's particularly hard for a family that does so much together. We have already cried at the mere thought of it.

And yet; just because it may be painful doesn't mean that it may not be God's will.

And so, again Iwould love your prayers if you feel led. It's just one more chance to surrender on this journey that has already been such a blessing to our family. I am excited to see how God will answer this time! :)

Green Tea...

Monsoon-like rains are pelleting the window and I just arose from a little cat nap with my 4 year old snuggle bug...

Life is good.

I've taken on subbing a bit more these days (at both our church pre-school and another daycare in the area). I'm really enjoying the time there and am actually finding that staying "busy" is helpful since it keeps me from thinking too much about the house sale (or lack thereof).

However, I must admit that this afternoon I am one tired Mommy and I almost welcomed the rain as an excuse to lay down with the kids.

And so now, here I sit with green tea by my side, cozied up in my favorite sweatshirt and sweatpants and thanking God for His goodness...

Despite the fact that life may not always go the way I had planned - I need to remember to pause and thank Him for all the good things in my life...

...for cozy sweatpants, warm tea and sweet little cuddlebugs by my side. Does it really get any better than this??

Welcome To....

Day 3 of my 23 month old NOT taking a nap!!!

Grr!!!!!

'Nuff said.

I'm BAAAAACKKK!!!!

Thanks to an amazing friend who had an extra computer sitting around the house, we are now back in business!! :) Not that I have anything brilliant to say but at least I can say it now! Long live ALWAYS TALKING!! :) Have a great weekend!

Technical Difficulty

Just a quick FYI.

Not that I have throngs of fans or anything, but nevertheless I figured I'd let you know that I won't be blogging very consistently for a while.

Our personal computer crashed (again - 2nd time this year) and obviously, a computer is just not in the cards for right now.

I will do my best to blog as I can get to a public computer, but with 3 kids that is also not an easy feat either.

Please keep checking back though! Don't leave me now!! :)

I feel like one of those stupid computer commercials -
"I'm a PC..."
Of course, if I was a Mac I probably wouldn't keep losing my computer to viruses!! Argghhhh!!

Trick Or Treat!!

We had a blast trick-or-treating and going to a local Fall Festival! Sure, the rain was a bit of a bummer but that didn't seem to deter the spirit of three kids hyped up on sugar! :)

Manna...

“He rained down manna for the people to eat. He gave them the grain of Heaven.” Psalm 78:24

There are times when my faith is lacking.
There’s no way around it – my heart knows that God has a plan, but my logical head just doesn’t understand how He is going to ‘fix’ the problems.

Yesterday was one of those days.

Ironically, yesterday was also November 1st…You got it – Bill Paying Day (gasp).

Since the house contract fell through and the reality has hit that Donn will soon be lacking a pay check, while at the same time needing to pay our mortgage, we have been forced to take a hard look at life and prioritize in a major way.

I have always been a pretty well budgeted person, but there is always room for improvement so yesterday I sat and did some major pondering.

After paying the bills I had literally hit rock bottom. I sat and sobbed at my desk as I looked at the money left in our account and calculated how far that money would last once the paychecks end…Gulp.

I then grabbed the grocery list and faced a harsh reality.
I couldn’t spend a dime from our bank account. Not one dime.

Sure, there is still some money in there – but I can’t justify spending it when I know what we’re potentially walking in to.

I reached into my wallet and looked to see how much cash I had on me.

$11.

Hmmph…that’s not gonna go too far.

But I felt God saying, “Try me.”

And so I vowed that for this week I wouldn’t spend any money from our account for groceries. I’ll use the $11 and trust God for the rest.

So last night, me and my $11 went to the grocery store. With my list prioritized into “must haves” and “maybe haves” I walked the aisles of Aldi.

Now, let me just stop and say that for me to publicly admit I shop at Aldi is a pretty big deal. Over the years I have grown to love Aldi and it has saved our family some major moolah. However, it’s certainly not the most glamorous place on the planet and bagging my own groceries took some getting used to. Needless to say, I went to Aldi with my list in one hand and my calculator in another (oh yes I did!!). I sat and calculated every purchase I put in the cart!

Even during my college days I never once did that!

As I got to the bottom of my list of “must haves” I realized that I wasn’t going to be able to get a few things…cereal, shampoo, tissues…those would have to wait. I literally prayed a little prayer of “God, we could use some cereal and shampoo…I guess toilet paper would work fine for tissues.”

Then I paid my whopping $10.46 bill and went home.

Today, as I sat with some of my amazing friends in bible study, we all laughed as I recounted my story of shopping with $11 and a calculator. We prayed together for God’s direction and provision as we make this transition and I felt this absolute sense of God’s peace.

And wouldn’t you know; God showed up.

One of my friends looked across the table and said, “You don’t happen to need cereal do you?”

“WHAT!! Are you kidding me?? That’s exactly what I need!”

Apparently she had encountered a great deal and had a ton of extra cereal that she just couldn’t pass up!

And, of course, because God is so good, when my friend brought the cereal to my house later in the day, she also filled a bag of other items that she had found when she was bargain shopping. Go figure, there was a bottle of shampoo and a box of tissues in there!

And, that’s the reason why I hate it when I start to doubt God’s goodness in my life.

He saw the tears I shed yesterday and he loves me despite the lack of faith that I can sometimes display. Not only does He still love me, but He also decides to wow me with His absolute provision for what I need (and don’t even need).

And that’s the manna that God provided for me today. Sure, it was in the form of cereal, shampoo and tissues, but there is no doubt that it was directly from God Himself!

Now - if I look outside and see some white bread stuff falling from the sky…wow- that would make for a great story! :)After today, I would say that anything is possible! He’s just THAT good!

My Manna From Heaven!

Good Morning America

You may remember this family.

I showed a clip from their website on my blog a few months ago.

They are the Loecken family and they sold their huge suburban Atlanta home in 2007 in order to buy an RV. They have now been travelling across America encouraging people to get out of their comfort zones and serve God. Every place they go they serve in the community and spread the love of Christ.

I'll be honest, when I first read about them I thought they might be a bit weird. However, over the past few months I've had quite a few interactions with them and I can't get over how "normal" they are. They are a real family, with 4 kids who just love the Lord and have decided that living for Him is really what it's all about.

I am thrilled because they will be with us in just a few weeks speaking to our youth and serving alongside of us in our community!

And guess what???? They were on Good Morning America this morning! :)

CLICK HERE FOR GMA VIDEO
Way to go Loeckens!! Way to go God! :)

Hamburgers!!!

I took a little break from our recently hectic life to step back and focus on the important things...

HAMBURGERS!!!!!!!!!!

Brekyn's big preschool Halloween party is tomorrow and I'm in charge of the snacks!

TRICK OR TREAT!!

Have a hamburger cookie!

In case you're dying to make a "Hamburger" all your own; here's the deal:

The "buns" are sugar cookies with egg spread on the top and sesame seeds over that (then just bake following the directions)
The "hamburgers" are either the large peppermint patties OR I used chocolate covered marshmallow cookies (cuz they're WAY cheaper) - FRUGAL MOMMY HERE!
The "lettuce" is green colored coconut.
The "ketchup" and "mustard" are icing and are used to glue all the pieces together.

VOILA!! Hamburgers for the person with a sweet tooth!

When I know I should trust...

What do you do when you know you should trust...

You know you have to trust...

You know you want to trust...

BUT you're really struggling with the reality of it??

Those are the questions perplexing me at the moment...

Since the house sale has fallen through we have been thrown into a spin of re-listing the house, re-cleaning the house, re-budgeting and reevaluating the plans we thought had been set.

Donn resigns at church as of November 29th so we are now having to seriously look at the possibility that we could in fact be unemployed and yet still have a house payment to make.

That's a scary place to be when you have been in ministry your entire life and "savings" are not something that you've amassed a great wealth of.

At the same time, because the man who backed out of our house contract had an inspection done, we're now aware of some of the "problems" that came up with the house.

Unfortunately, being aware of them means that we now have to either disclose them to any potential buyers or we need to fix them immediately. Even more unfortunate is the fact that the inspection turned up some bad siding so we are now having to re-side 2 major portions of the house this weekend. Luckily I have a studly hubbie and some good buddies who can do that sort of thing, but obviously every dime spent right now means even less to carry us through when the paychecks stop coming.

And so I sit.

I sit and pray a lot...

I sit and beg God to fill me with the peace that He gave me the day this all first happened, and I sit and remind myself that we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that this move is ordained by God.

There are no doubts in our minds. God told us two specific things:
1) That we are to move to NY to start a much needed ministry in a very dark area and
2) That the end of November was the time for Donn to resign from church.

That is what we've known all along.

This was all part of God's plan. It's just my heart and head that need a bit of adjustment time as the weight of it all sinks in.

And yet I've been reminded in many ways today that God is not worried a bit about the things of this world. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills. He has a perfect buyer set for our home...He could still choose to sell it before the end of November if He wants to.

HE KNOWS.

And again I find comfort in that fact.

He's already walked this path...He knows the rocks and valleys that lie in the way and He's making the way clear even as we speak. It doesn't mean that we won't have to climb over some boulders or pass through rough waters as we walk this path - it simply means that we will come out on the other side exactly as He has planned.

And again I remind myself that in these times when I know I should have faith; I may need to just crawl up in my Father's arms and beg for Him to give me the faith to trust and believe in His plan.

Amen.