O my darlin...

"O my darlin', o my darlin', o my darlin' Clementine." Our little Kristiana says these words EVERY day lately, as she has completely fallen in love with Clementines. She has to eat one every day, and asks all day long to have one. When we first introduced Kristi to Clemmies earlier this month, we sang the song for her, and now she often asks for the fruit by just saying the words to the song. Or else she says, "Clementine. Want clementine. I like clementines." It is so funny and makes us giggle every time!

Kristiana has also been saying "thank you" very often, and it is so endearing. It melts my heart and I feel like all this etiquette I am trying to instill in her is starting to pay off!

I am off to grade final exams for my class...

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas, friends and family! I hope that you have had a blessed Christmas time, indeed. We certainly have enjoyed being with our families, and we're grateful to live not far from them. That makes traveling to and from gatherings so much easier. It was so much fun to have Kristiana be more involved in Christmas this year. She has loved seeing Christmas trees and lights, reindeer, snowmen, Christmas stockings, presents, ribbons & bows. And we have been reading to her the Christmas story from various story books. She keeps talking about Baby Jesus, Mama Mary and Daddy Joseph. It is precious.

I sang at church on the 23rd - the Angel Recitatives from Handel's "Messiah" and a neat piece called "Rose of Bethlehem." It really helped me to begin to experience the true meaning of Christmas to have that chance to sing about my Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. When I was in college, we had a Messiah sing-along every Christmas season. The students would audition and sing the solo portions, and the audience would sing-along. It was fantastic! My first solos for the Messiah sing-along were those Angel Recitatives, so anytime I get to sing them, I get really excited, as I have such fond memories of singing them in college. And for me, I really can visualize the whole scene layed out before me...I see the shepherds...I see the fields...and I see the angels! It is really awesome.

The text of the recits is as follows...may it help to bring you into the true meaning of Christmas...

"There were shepherds abiding in the fields, keeping watch over their flocks by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them. And they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, 'fear not! For behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, which is Christ, the Lord.' And suddenly, there was with the angels, a multitude of the heavenly hosts, praising God, and saying..."

And then the choir bursts in with this most amazing angelic moment, "Glory to God! Glory to God in the highest! And peace on earth."

What I think I love most about all of that music is that it is so scripturally based, and God makes the words new every time. It is as though they jump off of that score and come alive in the minds and mouths of those singing, and hopefully in those listening to. Handel was so brilliant. I'm glad that God blessed him with such gifts, and that his works are still being performed all over the world today.

New House

Hello there! I'm writing to you from our new house where we've been busily putting away our belongings and trying to figure out where to place everything. It has been a fun adventure so far. Erik has been painting a lot, and things are starting to appear brighter around here! This morning, he started painting our dining room a lovely golden yellow, and it made me smile so big when I saw that beautiful, sunny color! I don't know about you, but I'm really affected by my surroundings. Bright or soothing colors do something huge for my immediate mood. Our bedroom has been painted a similar shade of sky blue as what we had in our old house, and I love it! It helps me to feel calm when I'm ready to sleep. And we're thinking about painting our kitchen red, which I would love. I keep saying "we," but the reality is, my dear Erik is the one doing the painting jobs. AND, we were VERY VERY blessed to have the help of our parents and other family and friends in this process of moving, ripping down old wallpaper & cornice boards, and unpacking things. There is still a lot to do, but this morning I really woke up feeling like there is a light at the end of the tunnel and we're going to get all of these boxes and projects taken care of in due time.

I hope that you all had a Happy Thanksgiving! I made my cranberry cherry relish to share with my family for yesterday's meal and with Erik's family for today's meal. It is always so good along with the turkey!

May God give you His perfect peace today.

Sad...

I just rocked Kristi and sang to her one last time in our home...and I'm so sad! I will miss this house so much. Erik bought our home just after we started dating. I was living away in the south for graduate school and came home over Thanksgiving to see his new house, and that was five years ago! I liked it then, but I really fell in love with it after we got married and I moved everything into our house. Then it started to become "our" place instead of just a bachelor pad with only Campbell's Chunky soups, pizzas, Healthy Choice "microwaveables" (that's what Erik called them), and ice cream to be found. It took him awhile, but eventually Erik started to like my home-cooking instead of just the microwave dinners he was used to. :) On our two year anniversary, we came home from the hospital with our precious Kristiana Joy. And now she is almost 18 months old! She has grown to know and like her house and to feel comfortable here, just as we do. And now, tomorrow night, we will uproot ourselves from this place that we call home...we will go and stay temporarily with family and then move into our new home...which won't feel like our home for awhile. And I am so sad. I will miss this place that holds so many wonderful "first" memories for us...Erik's first home, our first home as a married couple, the first place we celebrated holidays together, the first home for our daughter...such wonderful memories indeed! This home will always hold a special place in our hearts and we will miss it dearly. I'm sure that our next home will also hold special memories...memories that are yet to be made. So, we anticipate that now with joy and yet mixed emotions of leaving this current home behind. I've been praying that this house will be a blessing for the next family that will live here, and that God will use our next home as a place of blessing everyone who enters. For it is He who has provided for us. I have a hard time with change, but I'm learning that "this world is not my home, I'm just a passin' through."

Lots to do!

This is a busy week for us as we move this coming weekend. We loaded a pod this past weekend, and we'll still need to load another pod or a truck this next weekend! I can't believe how much stuff we have, even after we cleaned out a ton of things before putting the house on the market. I'm hoping that we can go through it again as we get settled in our new house, and maybe we can get rid of even more. Erik keeps telling me that just because we're moving to another home doesn't mean I can fill it up with more stuff! Of course the reality is, even if I try to not collect a lot, there will be stuff...kids just seem to attract stuff...big toys, small toys, clothes in every imaginable size, diapers, wipes, blankets, cribs...it is neverending. I try to keep on top of things and go through the clothes every month or so to store the clothes that no longer fit and bring in the new sizes that fit.

Well, back to being a pod person. I need to do some more packing for the pod!

new layout

I'm just trying out this new blog layout that I got for free from Pyzam! However, it deleted all my links to other sites...bummer! Oh well, it looks cool, I think.

Got it!

We found out Friday night that our offer was accepted for the other house! SO, we close on our current home and that new home on November 12...two weeks from today! I cannot believe it. It is still pretty surreal. Lots to do here...

It must be from God though. We really are starting to see different reasons why this is the right time and the right place to be moving to.

Sold & Offer In!!!

Well, I can hardly believe it, but we finally decided after much thought and prayer that we should sign the final ammendment paper for selling our home! And in the same day, we heard that the house that we liked had an offer come in, so we decided to put an offer down on that house! We'll know probably in a few hours if our offer was accepted. So, our home is sold now, as long as the closing goes fine on NOVEMBER 12th, and that is the day that we would hope to close on the other home as well. I can't believe that it is 2.5 weeks away. I have some work to do! We have some packing that will need to take place and then the cleaning of course. Here we go...hopefully...I shouldn't get too excited until we find out if our offer was accepted or not. If you happen to read this tonight and would like to pray for that offer, that'd be great.

We had our boiler worked on today. Remember, this is a 1923 house...but our repair guy said that it was one of the WORST boiler situations he had seen as far as it being very dangerously dirty. Good thing he came, right? He started working on it but will have to come back one more time to do a good cleaning on it. There goes another chunk of $$$ down the tubes...but we're so glad that it will be in good working order for our last few days and then for the new people.

Hope ya'all are doing well...blessings...and thanks for the prayers!!!!!

fires...

You know, as I sit and think about this whole house thing, I'm reminded once again that there are so many people who don't have a roof over their head. Such a real example of all of that are all of the people in California who have been evacuated from their homes or may end up coming back to no home.

I'm so stuck in my own world sometimes that I easily forget how others are suffering...Oh Lord, please forgive me and help me to remember to be compassionate towards those who are suffering...and please be with those people right now in California who are without a home or missing a loved one due to these fires...please help the fires to stop.

Thank you to Adrienne for the reminder about the fires...I read your post and was inspired to stop being so selfish...

It's not over 'till it's over...

Well folks in my blogosphere, here's the latest news from my world...

As I wrote last, our home was sold subject to inspection last Tuesday. However, at the inspection, the inspector apparently found a whole laundry list of things to fix...I'm talking roughly 25 or more things. And some of the things were absolutely hilarious and we seriously laughed about them. For instance:

1. Tree branches in front of house are to be pruned so as to not touch the house.
2. (re. a project of covering up Styrofoam in the basement laundry/storage area...) it shall be painted a shade of white agreed upon by the buyers.

And there were many more things. Some of the things were truly things that were safety concerns and we should certainly fix them...things with the boiler, plumbing, electrical, etc...but these people wanted ALL of these different projects to be taken care of by licensed professionals...and really, why can't I just hop up on my roof and cut the tree branches myself? I guess that would be something that typically Erik would do, but anyway, you get my point.

SO, what we did is come back and say that we would not fix any of these things, but that we'd give them some more money off of the purchase price, so that they could put that towards fixing things. And they said no, "we're done." Now we don't know what we're going to do, except that we must be patient...and that is THE hardest thing for me right now.

In the meantime, we had gone out with our Realtors who are absolutely dear, and we found a house that we LOVE and it was such a good price for us and would suit our needs and dreams very well. Apparently there is now an offer on that home, so we don't know yet if it will be accepted or not.

It is very probable that if we do not sell this home before Thanksgiving that we'll just take it off the market for the winter and wait until Spring when things pick up again. Then in that time period, Erik and I could continue working on the laundry list and have it all perfect for the next inspector. :)

Our Realtors who have been in this business for over 30 years said that they have never seen such a huge and unreasonable list of things to fix.

God must be teaching us some lessons right now, but it is really hard to swallow that pill sometimes. I had my ideas but He has his..."my ways are not your ways, neither are my thoughts your thoughts, declares the Lord." (I hope I got that in the right order...I think it is from Psalms, but can't remember right now.)

If you would please pray that our house sells in the RIGHT time to the RIGHT people and that we find the RIGHT house, that would be so much appreciated.

Thanks so much...blessings to you all...and may you rest very well tonight.

SOLD!!!

Pending inspection, we SOLD our house two nights ago!!! YEAH!!! Thank you to everyone who was praying for us about this. It truly is a miracle of God that our home sold in this very slow market and at this time of year. So, there were the two offers...one was asking $30K less than our current asking price and then another person wanted to make an offer and was told of the first offer existing...SO, that 2nd person made an offer that was only $5K less than our asking price! And the first people put their offer up $5K making it now $25K less than the asking price. All this to say, we accepted the better offer and we're feeling relieved and blessed!

NOW, we are on a quick search to find somewhere else to live, temporary and/or permanent. If we don't find what we want for permanent housing right away, then we will just rent something month to month until we find the right spot for us.

It's all crazy but good here, and the hardest part is over...or so we hope, Lord willing. Inspection is this Saturday, so if you think of it, would you please pray that it goes well and that nothing too huge is found? We're hoping we should be in good shape, but you never know...especially with this old 1923 cute house.

We'll miss our home a lot...this chapter is closing, but another is beginning. It is sad but exciting all at the same time!

2 offers!!!!!!

We were supposed to meet with our realtors tonight to discuss the offer that came in, but then another offer came in from a showing today! So, tomorrow night we're meeting to discuss BOTH offers. :) This has been such a crazy day...quite a whirlwind. We would greatly appreciate your prayers for the right buyers, the right time, and the right selling price, and then for a place for us to live once we sell this place! If we can't find a house we like right away, we plan on renting something for awhile. THANKS for praying!!!

Oh, and I LOVE teaching voice. It is so much fun to see and hear people improve! I really feel blessed.

Possible offer & Awesome day with church

So, we might be getting an offer on our house but we haven't seen the papers yet or heard what the offer might be! Nonetheless, it is exciting and scary to think about the prospect of leaving this home and starting another...Please pray with us if you think of it.

THANKS!

Also, I had the wonderful privelege of singing with my church choir yesterday for a special 60th anniversary celebration of the church. I had a solo in a new piece that was commissioned for the day, and it was written by a dear friend and colleague of mine. He is SO talented, and the music was just glorious. I felt so honored to be singing yesterday. We truly worshipped God as a church family, and it felt like an incredible bonding experience. Not only did we have a huge special service in the morning, but there was a gigantic concert in the afternoon. It was an awesome day, but geepers, I am super tired out today! After performance letdown I guess! Anyhow, I really felt the Holy Spirit in our midst and it was way cool...

Kleenex is fun!

Who knew that a box of Kleenex could bring so much joy to a 16 month old girl??? This is my child's newest craze...wish I had a picture to share. Now, getting her to learn that you shouldn't destroy all tissues in sight - that is my next mission. :) But for now, it gives me a giggle.

Nibbles on the House

We had a 2nd showing yesterday, and apparently those people are very interested in our house! SO, that's good news. The only bad news is that the people are concerned about our radon levels, as we disclosed that we have slightly elevated radon levels here in our home...but this is a very common problem in our area. We might have to help pay for the cost of a radon ventilation removal system, but that would be okay an we're fine with that should it need to happen.

My dad was joking this morning and said, "Just tell them that the radon comes with the home, free of charge!" He made me giggle...always can get a good giggle from my Dad. He has a great sense of humor.

If you're reading this, would you please pray with us that our house will sell soon? That would be great! It would be awesome if the people who are so interested would just decide that this is their spot. Before their showing yesterday, I was just praying that they would feel God's spirit in our home and feel at peace here if it was meant to be for them. That really helps to pray that way, instead of just praying, "God, please sell our house."

My Little Bug has a nasty cold and cough and I'm taking her in to see the Dr. today. She's been waking up coughing the last few nights...this is the first time she's been sick, which is a blessing, but it is hard nonetheless to see and hear her struggling through this illness.

Blessings to you all...

North Shore Weekend

Hello friends! We just went away for a lovely, long weekend to the North Shore of Minnesota, along mighty Lake Superior. It was SO nice to get away and see some different scenery. It was probably around 50+ degrees all weekend and rainy/drizzly/overcast, but we still had fun and got out hiking several times as well as visited several fun places. Since we were staying in a cabin next to Gooseberry Park, we were able to hike the trails right by our cabin, which was so much fun. Kristi kept saying "hiking, hiking" all the time and loved being carried in her Kelty carrier pack by her Daddy. We hiked around Gooseberry Falls one day, and heard so many different languages represented as visitors from around the globe were there. I think I must have heard Hindi, Swedish, German, Japanese, Chinese and some Texans too...that's almost like another language in itself! No offense to Texas, as I LOVE it there, and miss it like crazy...it was a blast living in Texas. We actually had fun conversations with the Germans and the Texans. I don't know how I end up in all these conversations with random strangers, but I guess I'm usually friendly and it just happens! When I told the Germans that I had been to Germany with my college choir, they wanted me to sing in German. So I broke out into song, "Die Forelle" by Schubert, right there by Gooseberry Falls. Erik just smiles and laughs at me when this song stuff happens on our trips. Everywhere we go I seem to have to break out into song...when we were hiking in the bamboo forest of Hawaii for our honeymoon, I sang there...and when we were in the Swiss Alps a few years ago, I was singing there to the goats and cows on the hills. I just love to sing in nature I guess! Anyway, we also saw Splitrock Lighthouse, which is a very famous and cool place. It was very windy and rainy and cold when we were there so we didn't get to walk down by the lake for the award winning views, but it was still fun to be there. We ate dinner in Silver Bay at what must be the iron miners' favorite little strip mall greasy spoon restaurant. I had yummy fried Walleye, and it was great. On our way home, we stopped at Betty's Pies near Two Harbors and had really good pasties and pie. YUM! It was fun to stay in a cabin and have a fire on our last night! Oh, and on the way up we stayed in Duluth for a night and stopped at the aquarium museum. That was fun! Kristi loved seeing all the fish and the fake moose, as well as the sea otter.

Gotta run...Little Bug is calling for me and needs some attention...I'll post photos soon!

Comments working?

Hi friends! I was just notified that the comment feature wasn't enabled on my blog. Could somebody comment just so I know that it is enabled or not? And if it isn't, could you please email me to let me know? Thanks much!

I love a rainy day...

Did God Create Evil?

***I just found a really neat blog
http://iveysirmans.blogspot.com/ and it is about a little girl who was born with a very rare genetic disorder called anopthalmia. Her 21st chromosome was missing and she was born without eyes. Anyhow, her mama has so much faith and I am very encouraged by what she shares on her blog. The story below is REALLY amazing. It was something that Ivey's mom found somewhere else and posted...I hope you're as encouraged as I am.

Oh, and I got the link to Ivey's blog through another blog that I found, 5 Minutes for Mom. http://www.5minutesformom.com/

Blessings...

Did God create evil?

A University professor at a well-known institution of higher learning challenged his students with this question.

"Did God create everything that exists?"

A student bravely replied, "Yes he did!""God created everything?"

The professor asked."Yes sir, he certainly did," the student replied.

The professor answered, "If God created everything; then God created evil. And, since evil exists, and according to the principal that our works define who we are, then we can assume God is evil.

"The student became quiet and did not answer the professor's hypothetical definition. The professor, quite pleased with himself, boasted to the students that he had proven once more that the Christian faith was a myth.

Another student raised his hand and said, "May I ask you a question, professor?"

"Of course", replied the professor.

The student stood up and asked, "Professor does cold exist?"

"What kind of question is this? Of course it exists. Have you never been cold?

"The other students snickered at the young man's question.

The young man replied, "In fact sir, cold does not exist. According to the laws of physics, what we consider cold is in reality the absence of heat. Every body or object is susceptible to study when it has or transmits energy, and heat is what makes a body or matter have or transmit energy. Absolute zero (-460F) is the total absence of heat; and all matter becomes inert and incapable of reaction at that temperature. Cold does not exist. We have created this word to describe how we feel if we have no heat.

"The student continued, "Professor, does darkness exist?"

"The professor responded, "Of course it does.

"The student replied, "Once again you are wrong sir, darkness does not exist either. Darkness is in reality the absence of light. Light we can study, but not darkness. In fact, we can use Newton's prism to break white light into many colors and study the various wavelengths of each color. You cannot measure darkness. A simple ray of light can break into a world of darkness and illuminate it. How can you know how dark a certain space is? You measure the amount of light present. Isn't this correct? Darkness is a term used by man to describe what happens when there is no light present."

Finally the young man asked the professor, "Sir, does evil exist?"

Now uncertain, the professor responded, "Of course, as I have already said. We see it everyday. It is in the daily examples of man's inhumanity to man. It is in the multitude of crime and violence everywhere in the world. These manifestations are nothing else but evil.

To this the student replied, "Evil does not exist, sir, or at least it does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is just like darkness and cold, a word that man has created to describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God's love present in his heart. It's like the cold that comes when there is no heat, or the darkness that comes when there is no light."

The professor sat down.

The young man's name -- Albert Einstein

***NOTE: My curious husband and I just looked this up on snopes.com to see if it was really Einstein or not in the story...and it was NOT Einstein. HOWEVER, this is still a very interesting and thought provoking read and I'm going to leave it as is! :)***

Back to Blogging

I have been out of touch with writing my blog, and just decided that tonight was the night that I would write again! Life has been so busy lately...well, I guess life is always busy, but it seems like my life lately has been full of much running around and going lots of different places, and doing lots of different things. Sometimes that can be a great thing, and I do enjoy variety, but sometimes it is also tiring and draining.

I am an introverted extrovert, and Erik is much the same. We both love to be with people, but at the same time we really enjoy "alone" time by ourselves, and feel rejuvenated when we have that time. Perhaps since I have been married I have become much more this introverted extroverted person that I am, or maybe it was in grad. school when I had my own apartment for a year and a half. I really liked that time and space that I could call my own. Sometimes I miss that apartment. It was such a cute little place, and I have such happy memories there...lots of friends coming to visit and stay since I was in a different state, dinners and movies with friends...and it represented grad. school, which for me was such a great time in life. At times I really miss being in that time of life, just full of learning and opportunities. But you know what? God has really shown me that my life right now is a really good thing. I love being married to Erik, and I love being Kristi's Mama, and I really love singing random gigs and teaching voice lessons, and just doing all the other things that come along with all those roles. Life is good. We have different seasons and changes, but through the changes, GOD is good, and He never fails. He has never ever failed me yet.

Change is hard for me. I'm anticipating lots of new changes with our home on the market and hoping for a sale, the hope of then finding a different home to live in, and hopefully at some point having more children. What is so neat is that through each change that I have undergone up until now, I have grown as an individual, and I have been forced to give up my selfish nature and trust that God will take care of me. And He has. I know that He will continue to take care of me and my family. I trust Him for that.

Anyway, this has grown into a much longer post than I had originally planned on...but I just wanted to share that God is making me listen to Him and His plans for my life, and our life as a family. It isn't always easy, truly, but I'm slowly learning...

More Hawaii Pictures

This is the beautiful Waimea Canyon on Kauai...the Grand Canyon of Hawaii...so lush! How great are your wonders, oh God!!!!!!!!!! Thank you Lord, for creating such beautiful landscapes for us to treasure and enjoy on this earth. I can only imagine what Heaven will look like...
Mama & Kristi after dinner at a great north shore Oahu restaurant on our last night
GORGEOUS pineapples at the Dole Pineapple Plantation on Oahu...has anyone else ever seen this kind of pineapple before? There was a cool little garden that showed many varieties of pineapples, as well as diagrams of the growing process. I think it takes almost a few years to produce one pineapple. I could hardly believe it! No wonder pineapple can be an expensive fruit. But oh so delicious. We had so much fun eating pineapple chili dogs and pineapple slushy ice cream drinks...can't quite remember what that was, but it was yummy!
Erik, Melody, Melody's mom, Kim & Melody's dad hiking the Kanapali Trail on the Na Pali Coast of Kauai. Erik & I hiked this on our honeymoon 3 years ago, but I think we forgot that it was meant for advanced hikers! Mom, Dad & Kim were all such good troopers! And of course, little Kristi in the Kelty pack did a great job too, except for the last 45 minutes or so. She was exhausted after being in that pack and on the trail for a few hours. We didn't get to do the whole hike, which goes on for miles and miles, but we made our way to the top of the ridge where we could view the gorgeous Na Pali Coastline with its rugged textures. The wind was so gusty that day that we nearly were blown over as we got up to the top! And that is when we turned back.
This is the Hawaiian state bird, the Ne Ne. It is a goose of some sort, and kind of reminds me of the Canadian Geese that we see so much here in Minnesota. I was surprised to see these Ne Ne's walking around near the Kalalau lookout point at Waimea Canyon on Kauai. There was a small flock of them, and they were quite used to tourists as they hardly flinched when I took photos of them.

Possible house offer

We might have a possible offer coming in on our house already, and it has only been on the market since this past Tuesday! Crazy! I'm excited but it is also bittersweet as we love our place and the thought of leaving it is sometimes hard. We're hoping to be in an area with better schools and also a bit more space to grow into. It will be interesting to see just what God has in mind for us. We are praying that He will place us in the right place. If you're reading this, would you please pray with us for the right buyers for our home and also the right home for us to buy? THANK YOU!!! We covet your prayer support over this matter.

Hawaii Pictures

I'm not yet sure how to add text beneath each photo, so I'll just lump the descriptions into one spot down here...we had an AWESOME time in Hawaii this July! We went to see one of my dearest friends in the whole wide world - Kim! The top pic is of me, Kristi & Kim at the fireworks display on 4th of July; 2nd pic - Erik & Kristi & me at the fireworks; 3rd pic - us hiking Kanapali Trail on Na Pali Coast of Kauai; 4th pic - me and my dad hiking Kalalau (?) Trail on Na Pali Coast (sorry I couldn't figure out how to flip it around); 5th pic - Kristi...basking in the lovely waters of Hanalei Bay at Hanalei Beach on Kauai (I think this is where the song "Puff the Magic Dragon" was originated)...she absolutely fell in love with swimming in the ocean and playing in the sand, and of course...sitting in her "boat"...she is sporting her "surfer girl" swimsuit that I scored at Target! If you have not yet been to Hawaii and you ever have the opportunity to go there, I HIGHLY recommend it as a great vacation destination. It is one of the most beautiful and relaxing places that I have ever been in my life. We were blessed to be there for our honeymoon 3 years ago too...it was fun to go back with my parents and Kristi this time! I'll have to post a pic of my dear mom soon. I really didn't get any good photos with her on the trip, which is disappointing. Oh well! Maybe there are some and I just have to go back and look through to find them...

On the Market

Today was the big day! The house officially went on the market today. We have worked for many days, weeks and months to finally be at this point, and honestly it is really bittersweet. Erik & I both love our house, but we do feel it is time to move on to a different spot...hoping for better school district, a house that is not so old as our 1923 charmer so that there are less big projects to do (hopefully!), a bit more space, and perhaps the possibility of living a little closer to grandparents. We'll see where God puts us! It will definitely be interesting. I'm exhausted after not getting to bed until the wee hours of the morning the last few nights, so I should turn in soon.

Pictures soon...

I will hopefully put some recent pics up soon! But for now...here are some pictures from a year ago August! Our little Kristi was just 10 weeks old when we decided to take a family vacation to Colorado. It was SO nice to get away and to see lots of friends and family. The top picture is me and Kristi near Ft. Collins, where we were hiking with some friends. The middle picture is near Aspen, where we were hiking with friends. The bottom picture is the pickles that my mom and I made, and they were YUMMY!!! Every summer, Mom makes pickles, and I always want to help her out if I can. I absolutely love the smell of fresh dill, garlic, pickling spices and cucumbers all coming together. And the finished product is unbelievable. When I was a college freshman and brought my pickles to school, my roomates teased me and said that the pickle jar looked like a science experiment, because there were so many little spices and greens along with the pickles...but that is what makes them taste so great!

Reflections on Treasures...

God has been teaching me a lot lately about the value of treasuring Him more than the things of this world. As we have been cleaning out our home and preparing to sell it, I have gotten rid of MANY MANY things that we do not need. Our society seems to be so focused on things and more things, and I must say, I'm COMPLETELY guilty of being one of those people who likes things. But our reality is, there is just not room to store all these things, nor do we really actually look at or use many of these things all that often. Some of the things that we have been able to get rid of...books, clothes, extra kitchen gadgets or dishes, decorative items...the list goes on and on. There is SUCH freedom in releasing the things of this world!!! We have given away a lot that we just didn't need, and I have taken many trips to the Goodwill in the last few years that we have been married, and Erik has taken some trips, and my mom has taken some trips on our behalf. Hopefully someone else has been able to benefit from our things.

Tonight as I was cleaning off and "de-frocking" our fridge (my aunt reminded me to defrock), I came across a little card that our church gave us this past year. It was titled "Money Matters." There is a great verse on it from Haggai 2:8 which says "The silver is mine and the gold is mine, declares the Lord Almighty." In other words, it is all HIS anyway, so why do we try so hard to hold onto it or invest it in things that don't matter? There is also a statement on the card which we were supposed to read and hopefully adopt as our own. It reads, "I recognize that God is the owner of everything. By His power, I will seek to manage the money and assets He has given me for His glory and the eternal good of others." And then there is another great verse from Matthew 6:21 which says, "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." A great reminder, right?

Lord, help me to redirect my attentions towards you, and remind me that my treasures are all yours. Amen.

Ideas for Cleaning???

Hello there! Our house will be on the market probably this next week and I'm trying to figure out how to keep it clean daily as there will hopefully be lots of showings. I'm guessing I'm just going to have to pick things up all day long as messes occur...brilliant! This is not my typical behavior, the picking up regularly part, but hopefully I will adopt that behavior soon out of necessity.

Erik is painting our basement tonight, so it is going to look smashing soon! We meet with our realtors tomorrow night to do the paperwork and figure out last minute details, etc...kind of crazy!

All that being said, I best be on my way so that I can accomplish some more things tonight before going to sleep.

Any ideas from you blog readers on how to keep things picked up all the time and cleaned??? I like flylady.net for ideas, but sometimes it is just overwhelming. I'm learning that one step at a time is really the best thing.

Cleaning Frenzy

We are trying to clean clean clean so that we can get our home on the market soon! I'm in the deep cleaning mode right now...getting all the lint out of the carpet creases along the walls. Carpet is really not my favorite thing when I can see all the dirt coming out of it! I think that wood or tile floors are great because it is SO much easier to clean. My sweet husband loves his carpet though, because it "feels good in the morning!" I suppose, squishy carpet on the toes is a nice feeling, but what is in the depths of that carpet? Anyhow, I'm kind of a germ freak and I'm learning about how hard it is to keep germs out of our world. Besides that, there are the "supergerms" out there, and if we become immune to them, that will not be a good thing! SO, needless to say, my Little Bug has definitely gotten her share of germs and I'm sure she'll continue to, and I'm learning to be somewhat okay with that.

Seriously though, I do believe that God likes us to maintain our surroundings, wherever those may be. And in my case, it is our home. I haven't been very good at maintaining and keeping up with our home since having my little girl, but I'm starting to get back into the swing of things...especially with the house showings just around the corner.

It has been raining here all day and the weather is so "fall like." I LOVE cooler, Fall weather so much. It has been a good day for relaxing, eating banana sour cream waffles, dinner out with cousins, and cleaning our home. Tomorrow I get to play my penny whistle at our church. That should be fun! And we're hoping to have a date time in the afternoon, so I'm looking forward to our little getaway for a few hours.

So long for tonight...

Jewelry

Ahh...tonight I was sorting through all my old jewelry. It was like a great trip down memory lane as I found my huge white and silver hoop earrings from 7th grade...along with some lovely purple and pink crazy earrings. Bye bye Melody's jewelry, Hello Goodwill! I'm looking forward to making another drop off there soon. I have gotten rid of so many things in the last few years as my dear husband and I have been melding our lives together, and especially as we anticipate a move. It is kind of nutty to see all the things that I have held onto. I'm a very sentimental person, so I'm learning about which things really have meaning to me and which are just truly earthly things. I want to store up treasures in Heaven, not here on this Earth!

Bees

I know that God created bees to help pollinate plants and flowers, but why did He have to create them with a stinging mechanism??? Bees scare me, plain and simple. I'm allergic to bees, and although I've only had three bee stings in my entire life, I have become so afraid of them that I freeze and start crying if they come near me. And of course they do come near me...they seem to know that I'm afraid and that I don't like them, so they thoroughly enjoy sitting on me.

Today the weather is so lovely after a huge thunderstorm passed through last night and the humidity seems to have been lifted from our midst. We decided it would be nice to eat outside on our little patio. It was definitely nice for the first 20 minutes, and then the bees arrived. They must have wanted a bite of our peaches and burritos, or me. :) I did my routine - I froze and I started to cry out of fear of the sting, and I ran inside!!! I'm SO glad that I didn't actually get stung. I think my little girl was wondering what was wrong with me, and so was my husband. He was trying to tell me that I'd be okay, and in the end I was.

I'm looking forward to Fall when the bees will die off or migrate or whatever it is that they do. Now I'm curious and I'd like to read up on my fearsome foe. I'm also looking forward to the gorgeous Fall colors that will arrive in just a month or two! For now, I'm enjoying the lovely, clear summer air.

Kristi Girl and Mama

My sweet Kristiana...she is just a doll and a great kid! We have so much fun together and I am so blessed to be her mommy. This picture is from a few months ago...

new blogger!

Hey there everyone!

I finally decided to hop on the blog wagon as I have thoroughly enjoyed and benefited from reading many great blogs over the last several months. I hope that you enjoy the adventures of me and my family.

Today my dear mom came over and helped me work on packing up, cleaning out, and throwing away things in my kitchen. My husband Erik & I are getting ready to sell our home in just a few weeks and there are SO many last minute details to take care of. I had no idea just how long this process would be, but it is fun to finally be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Once we sell this place, then we can consider other properties to buy. I am certain that God has great plans for us and that since He knows where we will end up living, we can just trust in His plan for us...even though there are certainly moments where it is hard to trust and believe things will work out. But I know that it will work out!

I'm not going to write much tonight as I need to get some rest and I need to finish cleaning up the house before I can go to bed. My little girl is asleep and things are peaceful. I love this time of night!