Well, I have finally done it, I've gotten some photos out to share with all of you. This is a mixture of what's been going on with us the past few weeks. Paulie baked his first batch of cookies, Sarah went skating for her first time, time with family on Thanksgiving, our decorating yesterday and our Thanksgiving tree we did this year. Friends of ours gave us a complete Thanksgiving meal for free. You don't see the turkey, it's in the freezer, but that's the pan they gave us, full of the makings for the side dishes. What a blessing that was.
We had a great Thanksgiving with family. Then yesterday we made a meal ourselves (we like lots of leftovers ) with what was given to us. We also decorated the house for Christmas. It was a great day. It's been a great week. I was given a Kitchen Aid Mixer from my sister on Thanksgiving. What a blessing that is. I have a stand mixer, but I really like this one. It's white and has a 300 watt motor, perfect for what I will use it for. The Lord continues to give us blessings and we are so thankful for them all.
I was completely exhausted from this past week, but I am feeling much better now. I had so many things to do this past week, which I did finish, it just wore me out a bit. After a good night sleep, I'm feeling much better. Today is a nice lazy day for us, then church tonight. Tomorrow will be another relaxing day that is needed. Then we'll start lessons again on Monday.
I wanted to save the biggest blessing of all for last. My brother has given his life to the Lord. I found out last Sunday and I still get teary eyed when I think about it. It is such a blessing, and believe me, out of everything we've been blessed with this past week, that is the one that means the most to me.
I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and have a blessed weekend.
Well, first I need to say, this is my 200th entry. Not exactly what I would have liked to be typing about, but hey, it's an entry. I've got lots of pictures to share, and I'm hoping to do that soon. But I really felt like I needed to give you all an update on what's going on with us, so here it is.
First, we are doing o.k. It gets a little stressful at times, especially with not having a full time job. But the Lord is faithful, and He continues to bless us.
Paul has been job hunting every day, and has put out a lot resumes. Lots of people aren't hiring, or getting ready to lay off too, but there have been a few that could have potential. The big thing is that he is thinking of making a career change. Coming from Illinois Paul has always worked in either warehouse or production, in a manufacturing plant. In Illinois, manufacturing plants are numerous. Truly, it is one of the main forms of employment out that way. But here in Idaho, manufacturing plants are few and far between. Because of that we have some decisions to make. Moving is a possibility, though that is on the very far back burner. It's not something we want to do at all, but we know if nothing is around here, we might have to move to a bigger city. But, sorry to all my friends in the Midwest, we wouldn't move back there. We would stay in Idaho, just moving to a bigger city.
Anyway, Paul is such a people person, and he has always enjoyed working with people. So he'll be making a career switch to some sort of customer service/working with people type job. Can you tell we are not sure what avenue this will take us? He has some customer service experience, but it's still going to be a major shift. The biggest thing is he'll probably have to take some college courses with computers and such. He's still job hunting production jobs, but now he's looking for customer service jobs too, since right now we need to take any job available to pay the bills. We are excited about this change, but know it's going to be a pretty big change for us for a while. The biggest change will be that he might have to get a job in retail, because nothing else is available. Working in retail would be good for experience, but it will also change our schedule around immensely. It's great that we homeschool, and that we can change our schedule around as needed, but we, ok I, am a routine type person. I try not to be, but I am. I like my lists, my routines and my schedules, it helps me get things done. If he goes into retail, a lot of that will be thrown out the window. We'll switch around of 'weekend' days to whatever days he has off. Instead of starting school early in the moring, we might wait until afternoon, if he's home in the morning. Things like that. I think Paulie and I will have the hardest time with that. We are such routine people.
I am happy for Paul though. He lights up when he talks about his old customer service type jobs. He really enjoys helping and taking care of people, regardless of what that help is. When he delieverd propane, he enjoyed working with the customers the most. When he was a cashier and meat cutter at the local grocery store in the small town we use to live in, he so enjoyed working with the customers, and they liked him. I use to have people tell me all the time how nice and helpful he was. I do pray that he can find something in customer service soon.
So that's where we are at. It's been very stressful at times, and the change of careers is adding a bit of stress. Plus, tomorrow we are taking Paulie to the doctor to look at a spot on his head. It started a couple of months ago, I noticed it when I cut his hair. It looks like a little pimple or maybe a boil or something like that. It never got bigger or hurt, but now it seems to be inhibiting hair growth a bit. It's making us nervous (me a lot sometimes), so we just need the doctor to look at it so we know what it is. Again, just added stress, but regardless, the Lord is still in control. I need to trust in that and know that He will continue to guide us and show us where He wants us to go. Thank you for your continued prayers, and I'll update again soon. And hopefully next time my entry would be lighter, and include some pictures.
***UPDATE***
We took Paulie to the doctor today and he thinks it might be psoriasis. He prescribed some cream to put on it daily, and then we go back in about 3 weeks for a follow up. Obviously if the cream doesn't help, then it might be something else, but he thinks this is it. I feel so much better now. Obviously if it is full blown psoriasis, that is a life long thing, but with what other things were flying through my head, I think this a better diagnosis. We'll keep using the cream, and I'll look for some natural things too. But I wanted to update on this and let you know it went well. Oh, and this was a new doctor, and he was great. Paulie even liked him too, so that helps.
I wrote a week or so ago about the different stage of my life I'm in right now with my kids in youth group and such, and that stage was solidified even more yesterday and today.
First, yesterday. Paul and I went out on a date for the first time in a few months. We were trying to go on dates at least once a month, but that stopped when we moved out here. We no longer had family to watch the kids. And trying to get the money just to go out was hard enough, finding enough for a babysitter too was almost impossible. Plus the fact that we just didn't know that many people out here. So we have been getting time by ourselves very infrequently this past year, and it shows. I don't know about you, but I need time with my hubby, away from the kids, and away from the sounds of the kids, and that's what I got yesterday. Now that the kids are older, they can stay home by themselves for a bit. We still don't leave them home alone at night, but during the day we do sometimes. So yesterday we decided they could stay home while we go and have some lunch, just the two of us. There is this nice Mexican restaurant that I went to with my friends on Friday night, and I just knew he would love it, so we went there. They have such yummy food there and great service. It was such a blessing to go there, having time with my love all by myself and talking about things other than house, finances and kids. We actually talked about different issues we are dealing with personally, and encouraged each other through them. I haven't had a time like that with him, it feels like years, though I know it hasn't been that long. But it was also the starting of a new stage in our life. I'm mean, we can actually go out for a bit by ourselves, without having to set up babysitting and all that entails in advance. Goodness, I was almost giddy like a teenager yesterday. We are now going to try and do that monthly, at least. Even if it's just getting a coffee somewhere to be able to talk to each other, and spend some time together. Wow, how refreshing.
So I'm sure you're wondering by now what this all has to do with magnetic letters. Well, yesterday was a big step for us, we have (I feel) officially stepped into the teen world with our children. And today, as I was cleaning, I needed to re-arranged and fix the pictures on our fridge. See I am a huge pictures on the fridge person. I just don't like empty fridge doors. Now I don't just have two or three pictures, I probably have about 15 or 20 up there. But they were all messed up and such, and I had some new magnetic strips for them, and I worked for about 20 minutes re-arranging them and getting them all straightened up. On the left side of our fridge there aren't any pictures, but there are what's left over of our magnetic letter collection the kids had since they could walk. I've always had those letters on the bottom half of the fridge for the kids to play with when they were younger. And for some reason, even with moving and such, I would just pack them up to move then put them right back up again. As the kids got older, they stopped using them regularly. Every once and a while one of us would write something funny with them, but over the years we've lost letters too, so that was getting hard. Today, as I was cleaning up the pictures I got to that side of the fridge and looked at the letters and realized it was time to take them down. I talked to the kids, and they were both saying, yea take them down, no biggie. But to me, though I know it was time, I couldn't believe how emotional I was, a couple of tears actually came to my eyes. Again, the realization that the kids are growing, things are changing, and though it's all great and going fine, just like with the youth group, the realization of it smacks you right in the face sometimes. The last of little children things are now gone (though we do still have them and other little toys for when friends come over with little kids) and my children are no longer little. It's a bittersweet time.
Now before you think that this is all a bad thing or I'm having this really hard time, I'll tell you I'm not. I was talking with my girlfriends Friday night and we were talking about kids, babies etc... One of my friends said, "Oh, I'm such a baby person, I love when they are babies." Well, I know, I am not a baby person. I love my babies of course, but I am so enjoying this time with my kids more than when they were babies. I can have conversations with them, and we do fun things together. I can explain all we are going through with different issues, and I can sit and read with them. I am just not a 'baby' person, I prefer this stage of their life. So though the realization that the little child stage is gone, and I am sad about it, I am so enjoying this stage, and I look forward to all the Lord has for us during this time.
Oh and one more praise, my dad stopped by today and said that he and my mom would take the kids for a weekend sometime to give us a weekend by ourselves. Paul and I are already trying to figure out which weekend will work for us. They'll pick up them up on a Friday afternoon, then have them back that following Sunday. Goodness, two whole days with just hubby and me, what will we do.
Thank you all for your concern, sweet words and prayers. Here is a bit of an update of what's going on.
Paul still hasn't been laid off yet. He goes to work tomorrow, Monday, that's all we know. So I guess he could be laid off tomorrow. I'll know more tomorrow afternoon. Again, I am thankful that he is still working, but this back and forth is getting crazy. He has some friends that are trying to get him into a company that the pay would be incredible. I'm a bit nervous about it because to get to the work site would be a bit of a drive. They do have a company bus he could take, but with his dizziness issues before, it makes me a bit nervous. I'm leaving it in the Lord's and my husbands hands. He wants to go for it, I'm keeping quite. I'm trusting that if its not the job for him, the Lord will not open that door. So that's our biggest prayer right now, if this is the job for him, that he would get it and get it quickly. And believe me, getting a job quickly at this place would be the Lord. It's government run, and no one ever gets hired quickly there.
I'm feeling much better. After drinking warm, herbal tea with two teaspoons apple cider vinegar in it, my sore throat went away. It was gone the same day that I started drinking the tea , what a blessing. I've still been run down, energy wise, for the week, and I've only been getting done the essentials. I'm feeling better now, and have more energy.
Paulie did get the sore throat, and he off course won't drink tea, so I'm trying to get the apple cider vinegar in him with his juice, it's a slow process. Sarah thinks she might be getting it, but isn't sure if its the cold or allergies. See, yesterday we went to a friends house to help them move. What we didn't know was that they had a couple of cats. So as we were helping pack and load up the trucks, cat fur was flying ever where. I took Sarah home within an hour after getting there. Paul and Paulie stayed to help, but we didn't realize Paulie has eye allergies to cats. They came home within 30 minutes which his eyes red and puffy. Thankfully we still had his allergy eye drops. So everyone came home, took showers (again) and we washed all our clothes. Sarah took some allergy medicine too. We are all fine now, though Sarah thinks she might be getting the cold. She'll easily take warm, herbal tea with the ACV in it, thankfully. So she should be fine.
I guess that's about it. Today is a rainy day, and we are all relaxing at home, with Paul frying up some yummy smelling potatoes. Then tonight we have a homeschool group leaders meeting. That will be some nice fellowship. I'm off now to eat some fried potatoes and work on some crafts.
Our weekend has been good. I've realized how different our lives are lately. I know that we all go through different stages in our lives, and we are entering a new stage. I've know we've been in a new stage for a while, I guess Friday night it was just solidified in my mind. See, on Friday Sarah went on her first youth group video scavenger hunt. She's been going to the homeschool youth group for a while, simple things. Then she went bowling with them, I knew things were starting to change. But this last Friday, as we sat with the youth group watching the videos they made (boys against girls), watching my 13yo girl having so much fun, doing silly, funny things with her friends, well I knew. I knew we had crossed a line, and we fully entered a new stage in our lives. Please don't think I'm complaining or am down about it, I'm not at all. It's just the realization about it. She had a great time, and can't wait for the other youth group outings this month, laser tag and a double movie, movie night. I'm blessed that she has made friends, and that she's enjoying herself so much with the youth. I'm blessed by her growth in the Lord and what a lovely young woman she's becoming.
Paulie of course can't wait until he's old enough for youth group, though they do have a tween group that will go bowling next week. He gets a bit bummed because I won't just drop him off like I do with Sarah, the youngest child, always wanting to do what the oldest does. As much as things have changed, I am so happy and blessed with where we are going. We are so thankful to have moved out here, and as of yesterday we have officially been here a year . Our school is going the best it's every went, and we actually get to go to some theater plays this year. We are going to see the Nutcracker in December, by a local theater group, and I'm quite excited about it. We've never seen it, and it will be so much fun. There's a couple of other plays we'll be seeing too on other dates. It's things like this we have access to, going with friends from our homeschool group, that continue to bless us. And make me see how great this new stage is.
We went for a family drive yesterday, to an area of the country here we haven't been before. We were just driving down this road, then that road when we decided to take a road we thought would take us up the mountain. It turned out it was a private road, and we couldn't go up the mountain at that point, but what we saw was so exciting. This was just sitting on a fence pole about 15 feet from us.
Yes, an eagle, 15 feet from us, just sitting there, letting us take it's picture. We actually drove up a bit to turn around, then came back and took more pictures. We were so shocked that it didn't fly away.
It was so great to see, very beautiful. All and all it was a great drive, very pretty. And it was just a fun way to 'celebrate' our year out here.
Church was good last night. We are in our new sanctuary, so the old sanctuary is now the fellowship hall. It's so awesome, after every service they have snacks in there, and you can just sit and fellowship with others. Its a great time, and we are usually one of the last ones out of there.
So that's been our weekend. We've had some great weather, the kids got to play outside today. We are watching our sports, and I'm working online a bit and on some crafts. I hope you all have a great weekend.
I finally made the banana bread that I was suppose to make on Sunday. Three loaves at once, which I've never done before. Like I said before, I wanted to make one as a thank you to a friend from Paul's work for a flash drive he gave us, one is for the ladies in the shipping department at Paul's work and then one is for us here at home. It's that time of year I guess. In the fall I tend to bake more, and lots of the things I bake, Paul takes to work to share with his co-workers. They really enjoy it, and it makes Paul feel good to be able to share. So I have the three loaves cooling on the stove top, and then I'll wrap them up and get them ready for Paul to take tomorrow. But that wasn't the only bread I made, I also got a loaf of garlic bread started in the bread maker for dinner tonight. I don't think I've made so much bread before in one day. I just hope they all turned out well. I just took the banana bread out, and it looks good, though you never know until you actually eat it.
We weren't going to go to playgroup today, most ladies didn't want to go because it's cold here. But actually today isn't too bad, and some moms have decided to go. So now I'm trying to decide if I want to go or not. Once I get myself out of the mind frame of going somewhere, it's hard to change it back sometimes. But it's not for another hour so I guess we'll see how I feel about it then. At least the kids don't know it's back on yet, so I don't have them bugging me about it. With only a few good park days left, we might go. It would be good to get out I guess. And up north here, with winter coming, it's never a good idea to waste a good park day. You never know how many more we'll have.
We had our monthly homeschool group meeting last night, and it went good. We had a 'chat' time, where the men and women split up and we just chatted about things for a bit. I like those kinds of meetings. It's always nice to know I'm not the only one dealing with things during the days.
That's about it in our lives, other than the daily things. I guess if I am going to go to the park in an hour, I should get off the computer, and finish up a few things around here. I hope you are all having a blessed day.
We are definitely in fall now, though I'm thankful it took a bit before it got here. We haven't been higher than 70 for about the past week. And yesterday and today we've had lots of wind. Our leaves are changing and falling off the trees already (with all that wind), but it is pretty. Here are a few shots of the trees in the back yard. They aren't the best shots around, I was lazy and didn't go outside, I took them through the screen of the window.
And though it's hard to tell on this one, the top of the tree, the very tips of the branches the leaves are still green, the rest are yellow. Different but pretty.
We are actually going to have to turn on our heater this weekend, probably. They are saying on Friday highs only in the 40's, on Saturday only in the 30's with a chance of rain/snow mix. We haven't had to have our heater on yet, and I was going to wait until Saturday, but then Paul got me thinking that we should try it Thursday night in case there are problems. That way we have Friday to get it taken care of. It's a natural gas heater/fire place and we turned the pilot light off in the spring. Since Paul use to do this kind of work, it's not big deal for him to do it. But he's worried that the electric ignition switch might not work, and he won't be able to take it apart to fix it, it's a different kind of appliance than what he worked on. So we would have to call the gas company. So all that being said, I think it will be good to test it on Thursday night and then we'll be set for the winter.
We had a great time at playgroup yesterday, and we are still blessed to be able to meet at the park. We'll see what happens next week. But it was one of the mom's birthday yesterday, so we all brought cards and such and another mom brought a cake. It was a great time of fellowship, and one of my friends brought me a present too because she had missed my birthday. It was a sweet 'fall' kitchen towel and some homemade raspberry jam. Whenever I have homemade jam it always makes me want to start canning. Even though I don't have the fruit or the canning supplies. It was very yummy, I had to have some last night.
Everything else is the same, and I'm so blessed how well the kids are working together in their lessons time, I just had to share a couple of pictures of them reading together.
I think I'm running out of blog material. Seriously, I have been having a bit more time to blog, but I'm running into bloggers block. OK, well there are some things going on in our lives, but they aren't fun and I don't want to only write about our problems. Lets see if I can list some of the things going on, without sounding down.
First, Paul has been at his job for 1 year now. So that means he now has some vacation time, and he took yesterday off, paid. We had such a nice day together. We did our grocery shopping, then I made some salsa and garlic dip. Sarah made some cookies, we are having a 'munchie' type of weekend. Today is rainy, cold and damp, so I have a bean and ham soup cooking right now. We have church tonight, which we are looking forward too, and the bible study I go to started up again on Thursday. We missed the marriage seminar last Tuesday because Paulie's stomach was hurting him. But the leader let us borrow the DVD, and we watched it by ourselves last night. Some good discussions came from it, what a blessing.
I've been having good study times in God's Word, and it's been great. The Lord is really showing me some great personal truths. The kids lessons are going well, and as usual, things are flowing along.
So the only 'bummer' of the week has been the issue of Paul's raise. Being that he has been there for a year, he was suppose to get a raise. We were hoping for a pretty big raise. But he found out last Tuesday that all raises have been frozen since August. That would have been nice to know a few months ago. Oh, and there is a possiblity of layoffs. We've been through the range of emotions, and I won't bother listing them all here. We have given it to the Lord, and are trusting in Him. We don't know if Paul should look for a new job, with the way the economy is. But then again we don't live our lives based on the world's economy. The Lord is our Provider, and we are just waiting and trusting in Him. Not always easy, but that's where we are at.
Fall has offically hit here, but I'm so thankful for the nice weather we've had the past few weeks. Of course, I do like curling up at home with the family, when the weather is cold out. So that's our weekend plans. I hope you have a great weekend, and I'll try and take some sort of pictures or something soon for some blog material.
This has been a good week. I have to gush on my son for a few minutes though. First a little background. I deal with guilt a lot for not making more food by scratch. My husband is fine with what I make, and says I don't need to do more from scratch, so where does the guilt come from? I read about other mothers doing it, and I feel like I'm not living to the 'standard' others set. I'm not saying it's some one else fault, they never say this is the 'only' biblical way to live. (Well, ok some women think that, I happen to disagree, and I don't read their blogs anymore.) But I use the 'c' word, I compare myself. I compare myself to others who grind their own wheat, make their own bread, never buy boxed anything, and I start feeling guilty and that I'm not doing what I should. I have talked with Paul a lot about this, and he always lets me know I'm doing exactly what he wants me to do, and I make enough things, so I have to keep focusing on that. OK, now back to my son. This morning I decided to make my cinnamon raisin wheat bran muffins. The kids were real excited, and I told them I was trying to decide if I wanted to make our homemade cinnamon rolls too. They of course thought I should, I wasn't sure. Finally, after we finished our lessons, I said, "OK I'm going to go make the muffins and cinnamon rolls." Well, to say they were just excited would be an understatement. I'm in the kitchen, getting the mixings for the dough in the bread maker, then getting ready to mix up the muffins when Paulie says something to me. I ask him to come out of the bedroom if he wants to talk to me because I couldn't hear him. So he comes out, has this sweet smile on his face and says, "Mom, you make the best recipes." He has no idea how much that encouraged me. So I'm going to remember that, knowing that it doesn't matter what other women do. My husband is happy with what I make, and so are my children. I am one blessed woman.
I think I have found a whole wheat bread recipe that might work in my bread maker. I have yet to make a good loaf of whole wheat bread. It never rises real well. But I think this recipe might work. It's written out both for my bread machine, or for my Kenmore stand mixer (which is just like a Kitchen Aid). I've been thinking every once and a while of making bread with the mixer and putting it in bread loaf pans instead, but I haven't taken that step yet. I still like the ease and convience of the bread machine. But I am blessed that I have this recipe that can be made either way. Now I just have to go buy some more whole wheat flour (we are running low). Maybe I'll go this afternoon.
Lessons have gone great today, and the kids are just about done. Then we'll have a real mellow afternoon and evening. I'm thinking of letting the kids have electronic time. See, Paul has a men's conference tonight and tomorrow, so we are a bit on our own. The kids haven't been on the computer much or played video games, so I'm thinking that will be a fun treat for them tonight. We were talking today about what we might do on October 31st, since we don't like being home for the kids ringing the door bell. We learned last year (thanks for the warnings from my friends) that the mall isn't the best place to go because trick or treaters are there. What about the local library, does anyone know if they do. I mean I know the workers will be dressed up, thats everywhere. But will there be a big 'thing' going on? Just wondering if anyone knows. If nothing else, I'll have to go ask them what they do or don't do. We are getting to know one of the librarians, so I can ask her.
Oh, and I finally found some library books yesterday about becoming a librarian, which is what I've been looking for for Sarah. I can't wait to start looking through it and see what subjects we can start working on now. We talked to the one librarian we are getting to know, and mentioned that Sarah wants to be a librarian someday. She got a big smile and the lady said, "Well, when you turn 16, come fill out an application and we'll see what we can do." Sarah was so excited. And I'm happy that at least we have some information to check out.
That is about it I guess. We've had a blessed week, and we are looking forward to a great weekend. I'm going to read some blogs, the I will be heading to the store to get some whole wheat flour, I'm really wanting to try this recipe, can you tell?
I can't believe it, I actually have some time to blog. I finally have my website pretty set the way I want, for now. I still have to add some more content, but I think I finally have the layout like I want it. I put the new logo on my blog if you want to go and look at it. It also has a new URL. I needed to shorten the one I had. So some changes, but I think it's pretty 'set' right now.
Our lessons have gone great this week. We are really in a flow of things, and I'm enjoying it. They seem to be learning, and enjoying what they are doing. I know it's still early in our year, but I'm very happy with how it's gone so far. And I'm surprised with how busy we have been lately. Seriously, I use to think I would like some more things to do. It's all been a blessing, truly. I'm just trying to get use to it all again. We use to be very busy when we lived in Illinois, but that was all for the wrong reasons, it was to please man, not God. This time, though we are busy, we have been very selective and making sure the Lord has called us to do everything we are doing. Plus, just getting use to new things, we were invited to a few parties over the weekend, that kept us pretty busy. Now things are slowing down, so I have time to get use to our new schedule.
The marriage bible study/seminar we are going to at our church was great on Tuesday. It's a 14 week seminar, so it was just the beginning on Tuesday. I think the Lord is really going to show Paul and I lots of things through this time. It's called Love & Respect by Dr. Emerson Eggerichs, and though I've never heard of him before, I like him so far. We get into small groups after the DVD time and have a discussion on what we just learned, that's a great time. We are getting to know others during this time, and that's always a blessing.
This week and next week my woman's bible study has been canceled, the leader is out of town. But I'm actually happy about that, it's giving me time to rest up from the past week we've had.
Now, I have time to blog, and I can't think of anything else to write about. I guess I'll use the rest of my free time reading and commenting on other blogs. Thank you for those who have left a comment on Paulie's blog, he's been thrilled by them. If you haven't made it over there, please stop by his blog and leave a comment. Also, if you could let me know some young boy blogs that are good, I would like Paulie to go to some of them. Thanks for always checking up on me, and sticking with me, even when I'm busy.
This blog is so I can share my journey with the Lord, my journey as a wife and mother, and my journey as a homeschool mom. I pray that you will see the Lord in my life through happy and sad times, and that this blog glorifies the Lord.
This is an award and tag free zone, thank you.
You don't see the turkey, it's in the freezer, but that's the pan they gave us, full of the makings for the side dishes. What a blessing that was.
) with what was given to us. We also decorated the house for Christmas. It was a great day. It's been a great week. I was given a Kitchen Aid Mixer from my sister on Thanksgiving. 
He has some customer service experience, but it's still going to be a major shift. The biggest thing is he'll probably have to take some college courses with computers and such. He's still job hunting production jobs, but now he's looking for customer service jobs too, since right now we need to take any job available to pay the bills. We are excited about this change, but know it's going to be a pretty big change for us for a while. The biggest change will be that he might have to get a job in retail, because nothing else is available. Working in retail would be good for experience, but it will also change our schedule around immensely. It's great that we homeschool, and that we can change our schedule around as needed, but we, ok I, am a routine type person. I try not to be, but I am. I like my lists, my routines and my schedules, it helps me get things done. If he goes into retail, a lot of that will be thrown out the window. 
We'll switch around of 'weekend' days to whatever days he has off. Instead of starting school early in the moring, we might wait until afternoon, if he's home in the morning. Things like that. I think Paulie and I will have the hardest time with that. We are such routine people. 
But they were all messed up and such, and I had some new magnetic strips for them, and I worked for about 20 minutes re-arranging them and getting them all straightened up. On the left side of our fridge there aren't any pictures, but there are what's left over of our magnetic letter collection the kids had since they could walk. I've always had those letters on the bottom half of the fridge for the kids to play with when they were younger. And for some reason, even with moving and such, I would just pack them up to move then put them right back up again. As the kids got older, they stopped using them regularly. Every once and a while one of us would write something funny with them, but over the years we've lost letters too, so that was getting hard. Today, as I was cleaning up the pictures I got to that side of the fridge and looked at the letters and realized it was time to take them down. I talked to the kids, and they were both saying, yea take them down, no biggie. But to me, though I know it was time, I couldn't believe how emotional I was, a couple of tears actually came to my eyes. Again, the realization that the kids are growing, things are changing, and though it's all great and going fine, just like with the youth group, the realization of it smacks you right in the face sometimes. The last of little children things are now gone (though we do still have them and other little toys for when friends come over with little kids) and my children are no longer little. It's a bittersweet time.
Paul and I are already trying to figure out which weekend will work for us. They'll pick up them up on a Friday afternoon, then have them back that following Sunday. Goodness, two whole days with just hubby and me, what will we do. 
So I guess he could be laid off tomorrow. I'll know more tomorrow afternoon. Again, I am thankful that he is still working, but this back and forth is getting crazy. He has some friends that are trying to get him into a company that the pay would be incredible. I'm a bit nervous about it because to get to the work site would be a bit of a drive. They do have a company bus he could take, but with his dizziness issues before, it makes me a bit nervous. I'm leaving it in the Lord's and my husbands hands. He wants to go for it, I'm keeping quite. I'm trusting that if its not the job for him, the Lord will not open that door. So that's our biggest prayer right now, if this is the job for him, that he would get it and get it quickly. And believe me, getting a job quickly at this place would be the Lord. It's government run, and no one ever gets hired quickly there. 
Thankfully we still had his allergy eye drops. So everyone came home, took showers (again) and we washed all our clothes. Sarah took some allergy medicine too. We are all fine now, though Sarah thinks she might be getting the cold. She'll easily take warm, herbal tea with the ACV in it, thankfully. So she should be fine.
He has no idea how much that encouraged me. So I'm going to remember that, knowing that it doesn't matter what other women do. My husband is happy with what I make, and so are my children. I am one blessed woman. 
