Constantly Settling... yet Never Really Settled!

This journey of deputation has been filled with amazing adventures and equally amazing challenges. One of the biggest for me lately has been the constant state of transition. We are seldom in one area for more than a week or two - and that includes where we call "home". Since January we have been in Rochester a total of 10 days, and the next longest stay in one location was three weeks in Mississippi when we were "in between" campers.

We are now settling a one bedroom basement in-law apartment that will be "home" for us when we are in Rochester. Boy oh boy it seems huge compared to the camper, but it is still only one bedroom and any cooking we do will be on the grill or in the electric skillet. Savannah commented, "There just isn't any big table to do anything on...!" The largest table that will fit is 3'x2'! Please don't confuse my informing with complaining. It is what it is, but somehow it feels right and very much like home.

However, if any of you have ever moved you know the expected challenges that come with it. One of the biggest things our family faces is, what do we refer to the spaces in the home as? Is this the entry way or back door? Is my purse in the back room or the hallway? The kids beds are also in the living room area, and the main closet is also their clothes closet. When I need them to get something for me, I have to tell them 8 ways from Sunday where and what it looks like...! It is a little exhausting sometimes!

The other challenges are settling the different spaces. Do the bath towels go in the hall closet around the corner? What about laundry baskets? The kids beds are in the living room, but do the dirty clothes go there too? What was once our book cases are now our dressers. What would have been an ottoman is now a table to do school on. And the kitchen and food goods... where do I put the cups vs. the plates? Thankfully (I am really thinking glass half full here...) there is only one place to even consider in this little place... and who needs pots and pans where no stove is?!

What is perhaps the craziest thing of all, it is truly easier living in one consistent,  though painfully small space like the camper than constantly transitioning from place to place. And while there are so many unknowns and uncertainties, the things I do KNOW are what ground me and give me great peace.

Transition, adjust, shift, and manage. Those words describe what my emotions and expectations have been doing. I am an adult with 44 years of life and experiences to draw from and still struggle at times to make heads or tails of it all. I pray my children find a source of God's overwhelming peace and supply for themselves, as truly that is only how this will be OK in the end of it all!

So much to tell...

We have had a crazy several weeks! I will try to catch up all the happenings of our family, such as our trip to South Carolina and an amazing church called Pretty Place, our adventures of moving into my mom's basement apartment, and also the Father Daughter dessert bake off... but all of that will have to wait!

We are currently in Spencer, Ohio for MTS (Missionary Training School) through Good Shepherd Baptist Missions. Our attending this week was completely orchestrated by the hand of God, and believe it or not was made EASIER as a result of us losing our transmission. I know, "HOW?!" but just believe me, it is true. Ask me sometime, I will be glad to give you details!

Anyhow, it is a week long school for missionaries and their children just beginning or in the midst of deputation. There are pastors and speakers with experience and expertise in every facet of ministry, and their combined years of service nearly equal Methuselah's age. We are scheduled to learn everything from Holy Ghost power in ministry, financial planning, goal setting to how not to shoot ourselves in the foot... ministerially speaking! There is a full class schedule from 8 am through 5 pm, and after today, which was Day One... I am SO GLAD the Lord directed us to this school!

Just last night Dan and I found ourselves in a "discussion" and in the very middle of it he said, "THIS is spiritual warfare!" We were going down a path of division and argument over absolutely nothing, and I was so thankful that Dan heard the still small voice of the Holy Spirit and spoke OUTLOUD that this wasn't going to continue!

The very first session was on the Holy Ghost, and how when we neglect and disregard His leading in our lives what may look like a well oiled machine that looks productive to this world is AbSoLuTeLy 100% ineffective for things of God. Busy for the sake of being busy is NOT what our goal is! If it is not profitable for the Kingdom in some way, WHY do it?! What a perfect foundation to start this week!

I will be sure to make good notes and journal this adventure. Our children are participating in a conference of their own while we are in sessions as well, and I am excited to see where the Lord may take them... if they allow Him to. I am buckling in for an exciting ride!

I Wasn't Expecting That...

I have recently discovered Mr Cle@n M@gic Er@sers. (refer here to understand the @!) Don't ask where I have been all their lives.

I vaguely remember my sister telling me of how they rescued her from major rental fees after they cleaned up sharpie marker her daughter had used to decorate the walls of a hotel.

And I have seen the ads for them on TV. How can they be missed?!

But I never really purchased one and put that bad boy to work on anything. Until now.

Living in an almost entirely plastic environment in my little camper (meaning whatever is normally porcelain or stainless is plastic. (Yes, I know. Fun.) Gone are my days of Ajax-ing everything. My mom faithfully instilled in me that Ajax and bleach... truly all you need!

No more abrasives for me. Well at least not cleaners!

I had bought a pack of these erasers thinking they would remove nail polish that had been spilled on carpet, and while they may have been successful if I tried them immediately, 30 minutes after the fact they were not successful. It said "Magic" but I believe powers darker than what I am willing to conjure would have to have been employed. Not going there.

Anyhow, the two pack ended up in the camper after the big move out, and while cleaning the camper I grabbed one of those bad boys and proceeded to clean every surface... almost magic-ally! They are great! I even revived our little toaster that I had though doomed to be varying shades of tan and grey. Now it is white again!

Why didn't people tell me?

I mean they have been selling these for years I think, and surely some of my friends knew of their wonderfulness and maybe just thought I didnt need the help? Maybe they figured I would find out by myself? Maybe they thought I wouldn't like them? After all they are a little pricey if you just look at the initial cost.

After I evaluated my thought process wondering who might have withheld such wonderful knowledge from me, my thoughts went in a completely different direction.

If I got a little miffed about people not telling me about stupid sponges, how upset will people I know get when they end up at the Great White Throne judgement and think, "Why didn't you tell me about this?!"

Oh! that I will tell everyone about Jesus! Truly he IS wonderful and can make all things new. Really new!

Strange where my thoughts run this beautiful Sunday morning. Thank you Jesus for another day to PRAISE YOU!

Words...

This is not an expository of the book of James. If you want an amazing Biblical study of words, the tongue, and their power both to build up and tear down, I encourage you to go there.  


If you are in the mood for a bit of humor and good natured fun-poking at the English language and our electronic management of it... keep reading! 


I like words and am often told I use them too quickly, over exaggeratedly, or in an overabundance. Whatever the case may be, I like them! My daughters seem to carry the gene as well, as one is in college learning how to capture them at the rate of 225 per minute, and the other one, at the age of 8, uses words like "actually" and "lurking" and "inappropriate" with great skill and flair! 


Having home schooled for nearly 15 years now, I've had my share of spelling challenges and writing papers. While great effort has been exerted into getting the males of my home to love the English language and all the joy it brings, I am more and more convinced there is a genetic code that makes one love it. If you don't have it, you don't love it. Sounds cruel and harsh, but that is my theory. I believe one can acquire a love of reading for the furtherance of other pursuits, as this has been evidenced in my hubby's life. He now loves to read, but for the gain of knowing God and His truth. He has never been found looking in the fiction book aisle. 


I think there is a gene for spelling as well. Just a theory! 
I have another theory. The game MadGab is a direct product of voice recognition software. I can't prove any of this. 

Anyhow... Here is a funny poem that is so hard to read! I hope it is hard to read for the majority of people... but something tells me it isn't. 

Candidate for a Pullet Surprise
by Mark Eckman and Jerrold H. Zar

I have a spelling checker,

It came with my PC.

It plane lee marks four my revue

Miss steaks aye can knot sea.

Eye ran this poem threw it,

Your sure reel glad two no.

Its vary polished in it's weigh.

My checker tolled me sew.

A checker is a bless sing,

It freeze yew lodes of thyme.

It helps me right awl stiles two reed,

And aides me when eye rime.

Each frays come posed up on my screen

Eye trussed too bee a joule.

The checker pours o'er every word

To cheque sum spelling rule.

Bee fore a veiling checker's

Hour spelling mite decline,

And if we're lacks oar have a laps,

We wood bee maid too wine.

Butt now bee cause my spelling

Is checked with such grate flare,

Their are know fault's with in my cite,

Of nun eye am a wear.

Now spelling does knot phase me,

It does knot bring a tier.

My pay purrs awl due glad den

With wrapped word's fare as hear.

To rite with care is quite a feet

Of witch won should bee proud,

And wee mussed dew the best wee can,

Sew flaw's are knot aloud.

Sow ewe can sea why aye dew prays

Such soft wear four pea seas,

And why eye brake in two averse

Buy righting want too pleas.

There are also some peeves that people who like language have. Like incorrectly using its and it's. There are dozens of similar stumbling points for many people, and while it seems trivial, it really is a simple thing to correct. IQ points aside, one will appear much smarter by just getting those little details correct!


I wish I had saved the FB posts that griped about peoples bad grammar and in the post used bad grammar! I understand both sides, for on one hand while I notice the errors in others, many of my own errors pass by me! 


So for the sake of brevity, I will conclude this with a few fun links to blogs I like to read. They are down time stuff for me. Things that replace TV and knitting in my life. 


This is Grammar Girl's blog. She is fun and informative at the same time. 


Here is Lillie Ammann, another writer/editor who publishes her tidbits of knowledge and whit. 


I am sure they will thank me for the links, as there will be so much more traffic on their site for all of the interest in this topic! Or maybe not!!