update

I cannot express how tired I am. It will get worse and then SUDDENLY it should get better. Like labor, come to think of it. ::snort:: I have photos - but they'll have to wait.

Tonight, I only have time to quickly update:

I made it to the gym. I hope to do that daily - but who knows?

We met with the realtor this a.m. We signed papers and settled on a price for our home. They told us we need to remove the storage room (with floor to ceiling shelves) and the workshop from the garage. Most want a 2 car garage. Hmmmph...that was a selling point for US in the house....but after the tools are packed, we'll be removing shelves and walls in the garage.

I called about getting a dumpster here....we are creating quite a bit of mess with all this "stuff".

I cooked dinner.

Mike and I kept sorting...and it looks like a bomb has gone off in here.

I've begun tagging things "storage" - "Japan"....I figure that should be clear to the various groups of packers.

We gave the man who will get a crew in here to pack us for Japan a tour. He thinks we have 8,000 lbs.

I sorted through a bookshelf of cookbooks and got my cookbooks down to one shelf. We may eat beans and rice for the next 3 years. ::snort::

We are trying to get a second estimate for carpet....we simply don't want to put out over $5K for carpet.

I picked up United co-op. Good GRIEF - what was I thinking???? I'm lucky that I didn' t get near what I expected. LOL

I did a few PWOC admin things....and need to do more...but it will simply have to be "good enough". Some seasons are like this.

Back to sorting and packing.

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

~ Coram Deo ~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Mother's Day

When it's Mom's birthday, we (the G kids) hack the blog. When it's mothers day, we hack the blog. Short and sweet: we hacked the blog.

Thank you, Mom, for being a fantastic example and teacher for all of us. Every day you demonstrate love that overflows from your heart. Thank you for being there for us, going the extra mile(s) and pouring yourself into our lives.

Thanks for being who you are!

We wrote this poem for you...I know it breaks every poetic and metric rule for poetry.

"Our Mother has a love for God,
That leaves us awed
She cleans and does the dishes
And cooks food that is delicious
She picks you up when you fall
She is there when you first crawl
She is with you when you drive that first mile
And with you when you walk that aisle
She shows us what is honest and right
She still loves us, even after we fight
She explains to us God's power and might."

We love you!

Have a great mothers day!

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

~ Coram Deo ~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Joyful Mothering!

{Today's devotional is a repost as I posted my musing thoughts yesterday. ::snort::}

“He makes the barren woman abide in the house as a joyful mother of children. Praise the Lord.” Psalm 113:9 NASB (though I know it best in KJV)

Years ago a godly gentlemen pointed this verse out to me. He felt it was a “word” for me…and he was proven correct. He gave it to me during a time when I’d been told I would never carry a child to term, had miscarried our first child and was pregnant with BreAnne. I was skeptical. I did carry Bre to term and have since had 16 pregnancies and am thrilled to be the mother of 9 “children”. On many days God has used this verse to gently remind me to, as we say around here, "adjust my attitude".

Over 23 years ago God began to speak to me about being a JOYFUL mother of children. This goes against the norm of our society. I cringe when well-meaning parents make disparaging comments about children being home for the summer in the presence of their children. Or when folks say ,“You are DONE aren’t you”, or “I would DIE if I had another child”. What are we communicating to our children? I want my children to know that I joy in my calling as their mother and that I praise the Lord for each and every one of them.

A lack of joy really expresses ingratitude for our circumstances. We need to consciously choose to count it a blessing to be training and loving our children. My joy is in being with my children each day – not necessarily in our huge daily accomplishments. ::snort::

As I surrender the day to Jesus, I learn to BE a joyful mother instead of focusing on my never ending “to do” list.

Jackie Wellwood, writing in “101 Devotions for Homeschool Moms”, (Which would be good for any mother I would think and is a book we discussed on SHS years ago) asks some great questions as Food For Thought on this very topic. They are so good that when I decided to write about this verse I REMEMBERED that I had a book around here with some questions on the verse (OK, really I remembered I’d made a list about this in a journal, found the journal and found the name of the book the idea for the list came from ::snort:: ). I plan to make a new list today. Without further ado: Jackie's Food for Thought:

1. Have I accepted my role as a mom and embraced the calling as my ministry? Why
or why not? Does this bring me joy?

2. What are some joy-stealers in my life?

3. Take a piece of paper and number it from 1 – 25. List ways your children bring you joy. Make another list of ten ways the children could bring you more joy if you relaxed a little and let yourself BE a mother instead of DOING so much (example: sit down and let a child tell you what he or she is thinking).

I love that the list focus' on MY attidue and not on what the chidlren can do to "make me" more joyful. ::snort::

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

~ Coram Deo ~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Doing the Impossible

There comes a point in every move where we look at each other and say, "We aren't going to make it." I think we reached that point sometime today, and then worked through it. LOL

I am so blessed that Mike was able to take his CTO (day off from working on Sunday - and ahem he DOES work a full day on Sunday usually leaving here at 8 a.m and arriving home between 7 - 8 p.m. contrary to all Chaplain jokes. ::snort::) and today off. We got a lot done.

Mike and Jared cut, painted and installed some external trim the wind had blown down.

They bagged up wood that the boys had trimmed from trees earlier.

The younger ones raked the yard.

Jared mowed the yard.

We all kept an eye on this project. We are recording our old VHS movies on to DVD's....the girls requested the old classic movies....and they are taped from the AMC channel...do they still have that channel? Anyway, Arielle keeps an eye on the recording because I am sure to forget.

We all took turns watering our new back yard. We need to finish around the tree....and do something in the front next.

Arielle found this quilt. The girls made it nearly 10 years ago. They surprised me with the one you see hanging behind Arielle when I came home from the hospital with Stacia. Each square is on fabric that says something about the person, has their hand print stitched on, their name and birth date. We put the smaller one in storage. The big one comes with me.

I entered receipts into MS money.

I did the impossible....yes, I did. I thought we had 10 bookshelves...we had 13. I kept thinking there is NO way I would get our books whittled down to 3 bookshelves.

A sad sight....

The freebie pile for Mom's Night Out grew dramatically once again.
So far these are the ONLY books going into storage...TOG year 2, some RS, lots of Tom Swift, some piano music...

Here you have our books whittled down to three bookshelves!

All the books are either TOG (year 3, 4 and 1), supplemental books, or somehow school related. Check out all the notebooks on the bottom shelf - really much space would be saved by switching to DE. I've still not decided. See that one empty shelf? THAT is the shelf left for pro-gear, and MY books.....not sure what I'll take. We had talked about storing 2 years of school in Rubbermaid and only displaying one year at a time...I'm honestly not sure we'll have space to store Rubbermaid. If we do that, then we will have plenty of space for my Penn Dutch and Nero Wolfe Collection (which I've still not parted with)....and pro-gear books. Wait they are NOT all school-related....I do have the complete collection of Calvin and Hobbs and Patrick McManus on those shelves. Deja, my SL books were down to 1 1/2 shelves. ::snort::

I still need to go through the cookbooks....and I suppose weed through the pro-gear books. They don't count as weight but they DO have to be stored somewhere. LOL

We also have to figure out what to do about computers....we have 4 desktops and a laptop...and quite a computer lab set up.

This was one of the huge jobs that I needed to do...

The plan was to store the bookshelves....but I find myself wondering WHY if we have no books to put on them. The ones that we kept are tall....solid wood....built by Mike and holding up much better than the ones we purchased.
Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

~ Coram Deo ~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Cherish or Cling?

In Susan Miller's book, After the Boxes are Unpacked, she states,

"To cherish means to hold in the mind, to treasure, to hold dear, to value
highly. To cling means to clutch, to cleave, to hold on to, to grab hold of." page
21.

Isn't this a wonderful distinction? I knew right away that I would have to share the thought. If I had a verse or two it would make a great devotional, don't you think? The idea IS still a Mother's Day devotional - sort of. ::snort:: This is one of those things that is great for those who move a lot to ponder.....but also a great reminder for those who don't move a lot.

Susan goes on to encourage us to:

• Cherish what was!
• Cling to what is and to what never changes!
• Cherish what you left behind!
• Cling to what you brought with you!

Being an independent American, the idea of clinging first appears as weak to me. Honestly, I now believe it is GOOD to both cherish and cling, as long as we get "it" right.

Here are some examples given in the book, can you think of other personal examples?

Cherish:

Distant Family
Distant Friends
Past Memories
Your Heritage
The Job You Left
The House You Loved (Teklanika Drive)
Your Roots
The Place You Left

Cling to:

God
The Bible
Your Faith
Prayer
God's Promises
Your Values
Each Other

I find myself often thinking, "Is this a cherish or a cling?" ::snort::

Things I added to my cherish list: memories of pregnancies that ended prematurely, memories of earlier seasons of family life, summer memories with grams, my comfy furniture, old friends, old ministry opportunities....

Things I added to my cling list: the Word....It seems to be harder to come up with things that are o.k. to cling to....maybe becuase God is really IT.

I'm learning to cling less and cherish more in some healthy ways.

Yes, I recommend After the Boxes are Unpacked. When it was first given to me in Alaska, I thought it was hokey and dorky. Sorry, I did. That was when I'd, "moved a million times and am just fine." Since then I realized that many "other" ladies coming through the chapel were really struggling with this moving thing. They were fragile and seemed unable to attach to others.....and I remembered this book. We started a Just Moved group that was of benefit to many. It still is offered each fall. I picked up the book last week and have been ministered to in each chapter. I'm finally learning to make healthy moves; to cherish and cling....instead of denying and stuffing. ::snort:: I love to give this book to moving friends, with the caveat that I thought it was dorky the first two times I read it. ::snort::

{Hmmm....I scheduled to post this on Sunday, 10 May, but it doesn't seem to fit for Mother's Day, does it? I guess I'll post it now.}

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

~ Coram Deo ~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Super Size Saturday - ROAD TRIP!!!

I'm excited to read the tips that you share with me today! Please don't let me down. Regardless of your family size, if you've ever taken a road trip with children, or went on a road trip as a child, please share your tips for a successful road trip with children.

• License Plate Game
• ABC Game (find the letters)
• I spy
• Audio Books
• Set $ amount each a.m. for treats at gas stations (but this was before we changed our eating plan and before we had 9 children - back when we had 4 and .25 each would buy a nice treat).
• Atlas to highlight as we travel
• Backpack with markers, coloring sheets
• Cheap $ store toys and activities to add to backpack each day when needed
• Carrot sticks are great traveling snacks
• Dried apples are great traveling snacks
• When we are organized we've found picnic lunches at rest areas are a great break on a long travel day....when we aren't the Golden Arches serve the same purpose
• Slug Bug (but this can get out of hand)
• Leave early in the a.m. to have time to swim at night

What about you? Do you have some tips for eating on the road? What about non-messy snacks? What do you do to make the hours go faster? What are some of your favorite audio books for travel? What else can we do to make the thousands of miles on the road a fun family memory to be cherished and not simply an evil to endure? Do you have a top 10 list of things to avoid on a road trip with children? I'd love to hear your thoughts. Write a post (or link on you've written in the past), come back and sign Mr. Linky so we can all read your thoughts.

Super Size Saturday Archives/Purpose

Super Size Saturday Guidelines

Super Size Saturday Schedule - 9 May - 4 July

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

~ Coram Deo ~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Prayers Please

Arielle and I seem to have come down with some sort of flu like yuck. Jared wasn't feeling well last night but has been fine today. I'm praying for the same. Thanks for joining your prayers with ours. We really are in crunch time.

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

~ Coram Deo ~
Living all of life before the face of God...