Friday, July 24, 2009

The Continuing Car Saga

Just so my friends and family don't think i dropped off the face of the earth, i thought i should post something. Not much of anything has been going on around here, it's a very boring summer. Matthew has been hanging out with his friends alot and also working at Mcdonalds for the past week. He is still training and working 9 to 1 but he got his first paycheck for the first two days and he feels good knowing he has some money in his pocket. Erin has been working about 20 hours a week and is training her brother. The annual Middletown carnival has been here for the past week and the older kids have been up there every night that they are not working. Thankfully, the carnival is right up the hill, so they can walk there and back. Rachel and i have been mostly sitting around watching movies and reading books. This weekend she is with a friend for a couple days, and i am sure it is a relief for her to get out of the house. I took her to the carnival on Wednesday and we had a really good time.
Today, i just started really looking for a car for us. It is soo hard to not have a car around, but i am nervous that i will pick a lemon. Thankfully, my dad called last night and gave me some advice and determination to start looking hard for the right car for us. So, for the next couple of days i am going to see what the dealers have on sale on-line and in the paper and then car-fax the VIN numbers to see what is good. Then, i will send the information of some of my favorites to my dad's e-mail and he can help me weed through them. On Tuesday, Steve is off so we will be able to go looking at the ones i have picked out. Hopefully within the next week or two we will have a car. I need to pray to my Heavenly Father to help me pick out the right one. If it was up to me, i would put the money we have down on the 2006 Mustang i saw and finance the rest for 209 dollars a month for 5 and 1/2 years ;) .......just kidding, i am smarter than that.....but what a GOREGEOUS car!!! One day i will have that car, but now is not the right time. I am sooooooo thankful that we have enough money to even buy an older used car at this point. I just pray that i will pick the best one and NOT a lemon. I'm so nervous about making a wrong decision that i kind of froze for a couple days. But, thanks to that phone call from my dad, i'm on fire again to go out there and start looking for the One for us.
So, that is about all that has been going on over here. The Great Car Saga. Once that saga is over, i will be very excited to start school, homeschool, honor society planning and bible studies again. I'm sure in a few months i will be exhausted from a hectic, busy schedule. But, as i have posted here before, i would rather be tired and busy than bored and lonely. Thank you Lord that i have the opportunity to get the car we will need to keep up with our upcoming hectic schedules!! I will try to post again soon about the continuing Car Saga.

Today i am thankful for:
1. My Dad
2. Steve's van and how faithful it's been even though it has not been taken care of as it should be
3. My husband who just came back from a business trip. Absence does make the heart grow fonder.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Trying Times

Well, I was right in my last post when i said that i, unlike my sister, would sit around and waste my summer days and get not much accomplished. It is pretty much what i have been doing. Boring. Of course, there really isn't much to do around here. Well, there is always housework--
always. Can i let you in on a little secret? I hate housework. I love a clean house, but as the years go by, cleaning the same things over and over and over and over gets a bit monotonous. Yeah, i know it has to get done, but it is just not something i enjoy and i usually put it off way too long. So, other than housework, there is not much to do. Espescially since i dont have a car anymore. Being a one car family seems harder than it used to be. That could be because we are so used to having two cars and we have all grown a little and gotten more involved (mostly the kids). It turns out that in order for me to go to the doctor last week to get my hearing back, i had to walk. That's about 6 or 7 miles round trip. Thankfully, it was a beautiful morning. And thankfully, i was able to get my hearing back. But, i found out that i am not as young as i used to be (duh). I don't walk as fast as i used to, and the trip pooped me out for the rest of the day. The kids and I have done alot more walking since then, and it's gotten easier. Walking to the library was really nice too, but of course, i would prefer driving. However, for some reason, my husband has not been able to stick to his work schedule and it is becoming increasingly more impossible to plan anything around it. I just never know when i will have a car available for me and the kids. It's kind of hit or miss situation and i have made a few plans and appointments that didn't work out or had to be cancelled. The whole situation is really trying my patience. Ok, so now that I have shared my whining, what am i going to do about it? We all have school coming up in 6 weeks, two of my kids have a job they need to get to, and i may also have to start working part time. We were going to wait a few months until we could save up enough to buy a pretty good car, but now i am thinking that we just can not wait that long. We don't want to get a car that comes with a car payment, but it is hard to find a car that costs what i can afford that i can trust to not break down on us. As of right now, Erin and I are thinking about buying a car together that we will share. All the money she has saved plus all the money i have saved might be enough to buy a half-way decent car. Of course, sharing a car with my teenage daughter brings with it a whole new set of questions and issues to work out, but for right now, it seems like the best thing to do. I'm not really sure. I will need to pray about it and maybe get some other opinions about it before i make that decision.
So, that is some of what has been going on in my head and in my life since we have come home from vacation. I don't like having to deal with this stuff, but maybe it is a test of faith. And maybe it isn't. But, if it is, I pray that i have been handling it in the way that God would want me to. Well, now that i've written that, i have to say that i probably have not been handling it as well as i could. Thank you, God, for your patience with me as i struggle to handle these things in the right way. Thank you also for your never-ending forgiveness. Please help me to be the same. This is a trying time for me, and if it sounds like i am complaining, i probably am. However, i also know that, in the end, God will work all of this out for the best. And, compared to many other things that people struggle with, it's peanuts. Trying times are never fun, but if i keep my eyes on the Lord and His promises, it seems a bit easier.
Today i am thankful for:
1. God's Word to teach me and guide me and comfort me
2. God's forgiveness for when i go against His word
3. God's love for me

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Vacation Highlights

It has been almost a full month since my last post!! Our vacation in Florida could not have gone any better, and we came home about four days ago. We did so much over the 3 weeks we were there and this post would be way to long if I wrote about everything, so i will just go over some highlights.
One highlight: Spending time with my sister and her family. This year we got to spend more time together than usual and i actually got used to going, going, going every day ;). My sister does not like to waste her day by sitting around, and going out and doing something every day was a refreshing treat for me. I am more likely to waste my summer days by lounging around the house and getting not much accomplished. I like Kathy's way better. Always something to do and somewhere to go. That way, by the time the sun would go down each day, it felt really good to just sit, relax after a hot, busy day, and talk. Being able to talk with my sister in this way was one of my favorite parts of my vacation. I love her so much and am so grateful that the Lord has given me such a wonderful sister and best friend. We went to the beach twice, and i am now a beach lover!! The beaches down in Destin are just beautiful. Very much like to beaches in the Virgin Islands, with white sand that looks like sugar and clear water in which you can go up to your waist and still see your toes. Beautiful!!! It also helped that Kathy and her husband Don are experienced beach goers and know how to pack for a fun-filled day. Thank you, Don, for lugging that heavy cooler full of yummy food and drink (and of course thank you Kathy for making that food). Another thing we did was go to Big Kahuna, a water park in Destin. The kids look foward to that all year and we almost did not get to go, but once again, Kathy and Don came to the rescue--we were very spoiled by them both and i am so thankful and appreciative for all the things they did for us. We also spent a couple of days shopping at various malls and outlets, which was a load of fun and very tiring. But, my sister can always smell a good deal, so we were able to save much money (don't ask how much we SPENT, but we did SAVE alot ;))
Another highlight: spending time with my parents. This year i think we spent less time with my parents than usual (at least it seemed that way), but the time we were together was wonderful. Being able to relax in their screened in porch, watching the kids play in the pool for hours, sitting together at the dinner table eating mom's yummy cooking, sitting outside at night having a wonderful talk with Dad, staying up late to hang out and talk and laugh with Mom, knowing that i could see them whenever i wanted, watching my children laugh with pop-pop and talk with grammy. Well, these are all highlights that i will miss. Makes me want to just pick up and move right now. I have been blessed with a mother who knows me so well (mostly because I am JUST like her) that i don't have to explain myself to her. She just knows. I have been blessed with a dad who I can always count on to lovingly tell me exactly what i need to hear and is such a great example of how i want to live my life. My goal is to be like them when i get to be their age. I miss them already.
Another highlight: I got to spend time with both my cousins--which is a rare treat. Shannon lives in GA and came down for a few days. I got to spend time with her and her adorable son. I got to see what a wonderful mom she is and was able to spend some quality time talking, laughing, shopping, eating, and relaxing with her. After all these years she is still like my little sister (aka-cister) and i love her and miss her so much.
I also got to spend quality time with my cousin Beth. Beth and I have also been like sisters and i love talking with her, laughing with her, driving through deadly storms with her (which we did last week. It was like a hurricane and i could barely see a thing--i was so scared, but Beth talked and laughed and cheerleaded me through it, all while she was "strapping things in" just in case we rolled the car-she made a scary situation into something i will always laugh about when i think about it), sitting outside in her backyard hanging out with her while all her animals roam about and all the kids coming in and out of the house is one of my favorite things to do with her. She is just fun. She has alot of things on her plate, but she doesn't complain. She just does what has to be done and tries to laugh about it. She is the ultimate cheerleader and i love her very much.
Well, this post is getting really long and there is more i want to say, but it's time for bed. Tomorrow is another day. All in all, we had a GREAT vacation, but it is time to come back to the daily grind and deal with all that life has to offer here in DE. I'll post about the various things we have been getting hit over the head with next time, but for now, it's time to sleep.
Today i am thankful for:
1. My family
2. My hearing (which i lost for a couple days, but is now back)
3. Summer