Do share...

Tuesdays around here are the highlight of the week. We head to our Precepts class, run our errands, grab some lunch, meet our friends at the park and load up on library books. I always hit the library before we run our errands and the girls will read the rest of the afternoon while we get our things done. They even read as we walk the aisle at the grocery store. The ride home is almost silent, just reading going on in the back seat.

So, what do I want you to share??? Book ideas. We quickly have gone through the library's books and we are looking for more favorite book ideas. Tally loves Magic Tree House books and Tissy enjoys Junie B. Jones (I know, I know...I could find issues with both of those book series but I am focusing on the fact that they LOVE to read.)

We have always enjoyed reading out loud together as a family. My favorite ones were the Carolyn Haywood books (an author from the 30's-70's about sweet family life). She wrote the B is for Betsy books (not to be confused with the Betsy Tacy books).

So...give me some new ideas for book series for the girls to read on their own. We have recently found the Pony Crazed Princess series by Kimpton. But after that, we are running dry. So...do share with all of us in Blogville what books or series of books that you have found and loved. Any ideas???

Shedding some light...

I felt like I left you hanging a little bit with the last post about our family moving on. I wanted to share a few more details and ask you again to pray with us about selling our home.

Chuck has worked in the TV industry since he was in college. He has been able to accomplish so many of his goals in his career. We have marveled at how God has brought each job to him, rather than having to pound the pavement to get the next job. This new job is no different. A few months ago he went to check out this company to see if it would be a good fit for him. At that time, they were very clear about not having an opening for him. "No problem, I just want to check out the area and see what I think," was his response.

Well... as I mentioned before, we have been praying that God would open the right doors and close the wrong ones. After Chuck came back from his visit, he got an email from this new company saying they wanted him to join their team. Not only that but what they were laying out for a job for him suits his strengths perfectly.

This new company does a variety of things and one of them is making DVD-based curriculum for children's church programs. They make things for both the secular and christian venues. They desire for Chuck to come and lead their video production team and help them grow the company.

It is neat to see this whole thing unfold. To worldly wisdom, this seems foolish. Selling right after you have bought a home = CRAZY. We are leaping out in faith on this one. Please pray with us for a contract on our home. Chuck will leave mid May to start this new job and the girls and I will stay here until our home sells. We do NOT desire for our family to be divided in this way and we are seeking God's grace on our situation. With our mustard seed sized faith we are asking God to move this mountain.

As for where we are going... I try really hard to keep our location vague (just for the protection of our family - trying to ward off the crazies). I will give some ideas though... this will be the first time in years that I have lived in a land locked state. We will get out of the tropics and move to an area with "seasons", but not a harsh winter. We've been told that we may run into some country/christian music stars at the grocery store and at church. ***please keep your comments vague about locations***

So... please pray with us as we seek God's face for a buyer/contract on our home. Chuck and I have been getting up and praying together every morning before the day starts. We pray at 6:45 eastern time, if you are called to join us at that time. I know BIG things are going to happen and HE will receive the glory.

This is who I am (I have been tagged)

I am….....me- follower of Christ, wife, mother, friend
I want......to do what’s right
I have.......more than I need, I am blessed
I wish.......that God would bring us a contract on our house before Chuck leaves for his new job
I hate.......feeling overwhelmed
I miss.......my family and friends that we have moved away from
I fear..........someone stealing my wallet
I feel...........like God has big things in store for our family
I hear.........birds chirping and the cows mooing in the back field
I smell........humid air (if you lived in the “tropics” you would understand)
I crave..........good Mexican food (La Hacienda with yummy house dressing)
I search.......the scriptures for encouragement
I wonder......what God will do in our lives
I regret........ever hurting someone’s feelings
I love...........being a Mom
I ache...........when my children or husband hurt
I care........…about our world…needy families, hungry people, orphaned children, lost souls, persecuted pastors, sacrificing soldiers, wasting resources, filling land fills…(my list goes on and on)
I always.........am prepared (my car is the rolling pharmacy)
I am not….…as clean and organized as I appear to be (look inside the cupboards)
I believe.........in God, the Father Almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord….
I dance...........with my kids when we rock out to 80’s music
I sing...............to songs even when I don’t know the words
I cry.................when I can’t take it anymore (I should let those tears out more often)
I don’t always..........put my shoes away when I take them off
I fight........the urge to be honest every time about everything....(bite my tongue sometimes)
I write.........comments on blogs when I visit (even if I don’t have the most creative thing to say) so the person know that someone is out there reading and connecting with them
I never.........hardly ever drive over the speed limit (I am a rule keeper)
I listen.........as closely as I can (but I hate when I get distracted in a conversation)
I need...........to work on getting up earlier
I am happy……by choice. I will focus on the positives in my life and be grateful for them.


I was tagged by my blogging friend. I thought this type of a list was interesting and fun. I want to hear from all of you and I will "tag" a few friends...Greta, Ginny, and Stacia.

This is SO not the person I want to be

I have some confessions to make. I have failed again in the birthday department. My sweet dear sister's birthday is today (technically last night due to Asian time difference) and I didn't send her a card or anything. No cute email. No note or card or gift. Nothing. I knew it was coming (this has been a yearly occurrence for 30 + years) and I let it slide.

Ever since we had our home for sale last year (different home, not this one) our life has been bear minimum. I have spent a year packing, showing a house, unpacking, remodeling and now packing again. It has consumed me and things have slipped through the cracks.

I have heard myself say we don't have the time or energy or money to make a big deal about birthdays and holidays. I hate this. This is NOT the person I want to be. I love my family so much and want them to know how special they are to me. Not just my kids, but my spouse, parents, in-laws, sister and nephews. I desire to demonstrate what they mean to me.

Little example of my chaotic life...in my unpacking, I found a sympathy card I had for my brother in law for the death of his dad last summer. I had every intention of getting it to him to express my concern and it got lost in the shuffle.

Lost in the shuffle. I fear of really knowing what else slipped through the cracks. What other balls have I let drop? I guess it shows how human I am and that though I try, super Mom I am not.

All this to say, Happy Birthday Sis...so glad we could at least talk on the phone and I owe you for one years worth of birthday wishes.

...how does your garden grow?

(you can click on the pics to make them bigger, as if you didn't know that already)

I will apologize right up front for the excessive pictures on this post. I had such a hard time choosing which ones I wanted to use. I know, I know...less is more, but I thought more is more.

We like to spend our time in the garden in the morning and evenings when it is shaded. The garden does get plenty of sun in the afternoon. I added the sun umbrella for the sand pit so the girls could play out here (plus, it looks cute).

Our radishes came up first. And now that it has been a week and a few days...everything has come through the ground. Ohhh, so fun to check it out every morning to see what has grown bigger.

Out of respect for our lovely rabbit, we didn't plant tomatoes (the stems and leaves are toxic to bunnies). We do like to bring Clover out into the garden everyday and let her run around and get exercise.

You can see we added another bench (made by Chuck) and we brought in pine straw to line the paths around the boxes.

Underestimated

I believe I have been underestimating my dishwasher. I am the type to wash the dishes pretty thoroughly before I load the dishwasher. I have learned in the past (with other dishwashers) that this was a necessary step. Today, however, I was in a hurry and needed to get it loaded and started before we left the house. You know when a house is on the market, it must be spotless all the time.

So...I quickly shoved everything in it and did NOT rinse from last nights snacky mess. Dried cheese and all. Alas, everything came out spotless. No mess left behind. No dried on food. Nothing. It was just as good as if I had spent the time pre-cleaning.

So, I think I have been underestimating my dishwasher. I might even owe it an apology for not believing in it. And look at all the time I can save by not pre-washing (if I can retrain myself, that is).

5000

I have been watching the blog sitemeter creep up. I have been waiting for it get to 5000. That may not be a huge milestone for other bloggers, but it's really fun for me! Back when I started I wasn't sure if anyone was reading my musings or not. I began it as a way to process my thought, de-stress my life, and gain some perspective.

My dear friend (and my inspiration) found my blog before I even sent my first email to invite my friends and family to visit. I loved reading about her life and how it was a way to stay connected even though we don't live in the same area anymore. Since Chuck & I seem to keep moving from place to place, I hope my blogspot will continue to help us stay connected to the friends whose paths we have crossed along the way.

I never thought I would make such great blogging friends! I would have never imagined that I could widen my friendships to include people I have never met. I refer to you as my friends because that's what you are. I pray for you when you ask me to. I have rejoiced with you over great events and cried for you during your struggles.

And all of this leads up to The Peapod's 5000th view. I didn't add the sitemeter until a ways into the blogging so I don't know how accurate it really is. (Plus it counts all the times I visit to see my pictures again and again.)

I did think it was kind of fun that I was the 5000th visitor. So let me challenge all of you who come by for a virtual visit, lurkers included, to please leave a comment to let us know who you are and how you found The Peapod. (If you don't have an account, click anonymous and sign your name). I want to introduce my friends to each other. I would never let you be at my house without introducing you to everyone else in the room.

BTW, thanks for being part of my world!

Planting seeds we may never harvest

As you noted from my last post, we are moving on from this great "dream" house of ours. It is bitter sweet. We have fixed it up, not to turn it around and sell it right away, but to stay here. That is the bitter part. We have invested our energy to make it the best we can. When we started thinking about moving on we didn't change our desire to make this home the best that we could. We have spent hours working to hopefully bless the next owners.

We have recently turned the garden from a scary overgrown patch of weeds and dirt (with a frightening garden gate, I might add) to a quaint country garden. The girls have really enjoyed deciding on what seeds to plant and preparing the soil. The best part was putting the seed in the ground and caring for it tenderly. Tally mentioned that we may not be here to see the veggies and flowers grow.

She is hopefully right (our prayer is that we sell in the first month). We may never see the "fruits of our labor". We may never bring in the harvest. The same is true about investing in others. Think of all those who invest their time and energy in someones life and never see that person come to know Christ. For now, we have been called to plant the "seeds" and I will leave the growing and harvesting up to God.

In the mean time, we need to press on with integrity and trust that God has all the details of this move in His hands and we trust Him to bless, when He see fit.

The cat is out of the bag (so to speak)

Well, this is the post that I have been waiting to write. To fill you all in on the details that I didn't tell you last time.

As I mentioned, God has been working in our lives here and I now have some freedom to fill you in. If you have been following our blog for awhile, you will know that we have only recently located to our current home about 5 months ago. We were so thankful to find this home and have so enjoyed living here and fixing it up to make it our own. But... the for sale sign goes in the yard on Monday. We are moving on. (gasp)

I know, I know, grab your cup of coffee and sit down. Chuck's job here in our sunny state has been a great fit and we have enjoyed watching him flourish (awards and all). One of Chuck's deepest desires has been to take his 2 degrees (communication/TV and Bible -- his 2 loves) and blend them into a job. It seems that that God has brought that along.

Our prayer has been that God would open the right doors and close the wrong ones. We have seen God closing the door at his current job. It has been a hard and somewhat painful process. It has been hard to see Chuck struggle and watch his company go through the dip that they are in.

In the past few months we have been praying more fervently about this new opportunity. We both have such a peace about this new opportunity and he has decided to take this new job. It will move us out of the state and into a new one. The idea of selling our home sounds impossible in this market. We have fixed up this home and invested a lot of time, energy and money into our home. But I am reminded that these are all things that we hold loosely in our hand. These are the details that God is sovereign over. I know that I can completely trust Him in.

I will share more about the new job (gotta leave some details for later). But for now, I am asking my dear friends and family to join us in prayer. We are praying for a quick sale on our home. That is the seemingly impossible. But I know that it would be a great testimony to God's faithfulness. It will be VERY hard for our family to be apart for awhile, but we may have to do that.

So, my blog sisters... that is the cat that is now out of the bag.

"Loads" of help

Chuck and I had a meeting with someone the other night and my Mom stayed home with the girls. When we got home close to 11pm, we found that she had done all of the laundry. What a huge help. To see all these stacks of clothes. I love that she does this kind of thing without anyone asking her to. She just sees a need and does what she can. I am so grateful.

girl time

Tonight was a night where Chuck had his buddies over to "critique" videos and the girls a I headed out of the house to clear out for them. I wanted to take the opportunity to hit a few stores that I don't get to frequent. We were strolling through Ross hunting for a few household things and noticed a girl shopping with her mom and she was playing a recorder the whole time. At first it was cute (kind of), but she didn't stop. It was really starting to drive me nuts. How do you shop while a preschool age girl is playing a "flute" very loudly and without stopping. The girls and I started laughing about it. Every department we went to, there was "flute girl".

In the next store we were looking at shower curtains. After finding a sample of one that I thought was cute, we were hunting for it on the shelves. They didn't have it and Tally said (completely seriously) "Let's see if we can find another one that would interest you." **When did my 9 year old start sounding like an adult?**

Fast forward to our drive home and we were talking about the evening shopping on our drive home. Joking about our night and Tally used the word "skoontz" (is that how you spell it?) In case you didn't know...Skoontz: an amount somewhere between a little and a big load. A word the kids picked up from Peep. I love when our family has inside jokes.

It was a treat to have a little shopping night out with the girls. I bet we will have more of those as they get older.

afresh

I love new beginnings.

New day.

New season.
New year.

New beginnings.

Where it all starts afresh.

Where the worries of yesterday are past and the day starts anew. I love that each day starts new and fresh with no mistakes. I love that God's mercies are new every morning. I need to remember that with the grace I have on my kids. It needs to be fresh each day. Not letting yesterdays trials spill over onto a new day.

I think of this when I sit on my back porch and watch the sun stream through the trees. Great place for coffee and peace and quiet. This is the view of the day beginning it's fresh start in my own back yard.

It is like the sun is creeping through just to remind me of new beginnings, new grace, new mercies. Enjoy the lovely reminder.

How to dress my "not so" little ones

I was prompted to think about this from another blog that I enjoy visiting. Dressing modestly. It made me think about dressing my kids. In this day and age, I am finding it harder and harder to dress my kids. When they were little, it was easy and really fun. Baby and toddler outfits were just precious. I still pause to look at preschool sized clothes and think they are too cute. But now that my girls are officially out of little girl clothes, it is getting more difficult to find things for them.

Once you cross over into size 7-14 it turns into hoochie mama wear. To find something that is cute, appropriate, "with it" and not over priced is almost impossible. I often order things from Lands End to outfit my girls. Their clothes tend to cover and not reveal. And I love that I can get size slim for Tissy.

Now that summer is quickly approaching, I am starting to look at swim suits and beach wear. I want to start the trend now with my kids to find something that they like and I approve of. Itsy bitsy bikini wear is going to be hard to say "no" to in the future, if I allow it now.

Don't get me wrong, I don't desire to dress in such a way that makes us look like weirdos. You know what I am talkin' about. We have all seen "the homeschool look". (I hope I didn't offend anyone with that one.) We still want to look sharp and not like we just dressed ourselves from the mission barrel. (Though I am not saying NO to hand-me-downs, we love those).

What I would love to do is make some cute outfits for these girls. Oh...but I hardly have the time to get the needful done around here. So, blogging sisters, where do you shop for you kids? Give me some new ideas. Inspire me. =)


***also thought of CWD kids, I love their catalog, but haven't ordered from them before.***

"Zoo" of sorts

The girls and I spent some time at a local zoo (of sorts). It is kind of like a zoo, it has animals and a few rides and beautiful gardens to walk through. Though it doesn't have all the categories of animals, just a select few. We enjoyed "local" animals on this particular day.

We have been studying turtles and reading Minn of the Mississippi. We were thrilled to see some examples of snapping turtles and marveled at the tortoises

too.

Sometimes it is just nice to be outside and enjoying nature and taking advantage of the spring weather. I find that our learning comes alive when we can see it, touch it, explore it. Much more than just reading about it, or writing about it or drawing it.

(Sorry about the excessive pictures...this is almost like a scrapbook for our family.)

Spring has Sprung

Spring has sprung

the grass has ris

I wonder where the flowers is???

"Do the NEEDFUL"

This is a phrase that we have picked up from our Indian friends (from India). We have interacted with them enough to understand that when they say "Do the needful," it means, "Do the things that you HAVE to do." At first I thought this phrase was kind of funny, like Indian slang, but I have come to love this idea.

It is now a phrase that we use around the house. In fact, the girls each have a NEEDFUL list that they do every morning (get dress, brush teeth, make bed...) They totally understand that there are things that we NEED to do and things that we WANT to do.

For me, the last 2 days were full of NEEDFUL things. I had plans to take the girls to a few homeschool activities and we ended up staying home. Neither of the kids are feeling great, and the needful list was too long. More than anything, I find that I need to keep disciplined and do the things that must get done, even when I have to say no to the fun things. When I make wise decisions, it does help me alleviate stress.

We only had a day to wash the sheets and tidy up before our next company arrives, we have a huge neighborhood yard sale we are participating in, and cleaning and school work were a MUST today. I would rather play and swim and picnic and skate, but I desire to be the positive example for my children and I knew the right thing was to do the NEEDFUL.

Things are COOKIN' and God is WORKIN'

I can't go into details yet, but I do want to share that God is working in our lives here. I know that I have a great support base of blogging buddies and I am seeking prayer for our family as we desire to follow in obedience as God calls. (Details to follow in the next few weeks/months.)

This caught my eye

On our little road trip a week ago, I came across this in a bubble gum machine in a bathroom. I have never seen anything like this. I didn't have quarters so I couldn't purchase one and give it a go. But I thought it seemed interesting.

I do love fresh clean teeth and can't stand any fuzz on them ( I call them sweater teeth). I even keep a toothbrush in the glove box in my car (along with other odd sundries). In fact I am a pretty prepared mother. Extra clothes in the trunk, sicky bag in the back seat and deodorant, toothbrush and Tylenol in the glove box. If you need it, I most likely have it. Fire ant bite, no problem I have benadryl. Spur of the moment picnic, I have a blanket. Mosquitoes, I have bug spray. Too sunny, I have sun screen. It is kind of like a pharmacy on wheels.

I should have run to the car for quarters to try the chewable toothbrush, I am sure I have some in there somewhere with all my things. =)