Purely Drivel

*here*

Here is almost free of boxes...

in the house anyway.

The patio is another story.

Here is the biggest home we've ever lived in...

with more closets to fill, more carpet to vaccuum, twice as many windows as our last home and more counters to clean.

But I'm not complaining.

Here is lots of phone calls...

church business, a refrigerator that doesn't quite work and we haven't really given the number out yet.

There's still a lot to wrap up - pictures that need homes, an empty space behind the dining room table that I'm stumped by, and lots and lots of organizing. And with a new home comes a new normal, a new daily order...something I've yet to discover.

All in all, we feel very settled - perhaps the quickest I've ever felt settled in a home.

Here, I have a sense like I've never had before that God has placed us in this home for a reason and a purpose, and I look forward to exploring it.

Here is wonderful.

Here is home.

hmmm...

I clicked on my blog by accident today, and realized it's been nearly two weeks since I updated anything.  

Good grief!

I've had post ideas...meant to find time to sit down and write them...and just haven't been able to.

Why? 

I have no idea.  It doesn't seem like we're that busy, but the days seem to fly.  It's been three months today since we left Florida, and that's just hard to believe.   A few things that have been filling our days...

• We've been spending lots and lots of time at the Little League park, and those bleachers up there are just about killing my backside!  We've only got one game this next week and then the following week off for Spring Break before May rolls around and we've got two games a week plus practices.  Caleb still absolutely loves it and is already talking about next season.  I'm going to have to invest in some bleacher seats!
• The past week has been wrapped around Caleb being sick - first with the croup (and two pointless doctor's visits) and finally with pneumonia and a trip to the Children's Hospital an hour from us.  He played baseball Monday night, while we thought he was improving.  Not quite.  He's on two antibiotics at the moment and is starting to get well.  He needs to get into an allergist, but attempting to navigate insurance and a new pediatrician isn't making that easy.  
• Lots of gym time for me.  I decided I hit the limit of what I could do on the elliptical this week and 
  decided to add in a little running once or twice a week while on the treadmill.
  oh.my.gosh.
  I could barely walk for 3 days.
  It's good to have something new to beat, though - I need some sort of competition to keep me motivated.  I'm at just over 16 pounds and about a dozen inches lost in the not quite 3 months since
  I started at the gym in late January, and the weightloss just keeps getting more consistent.  
• I read Eat to Live last week, and it really made me think.  I'm always looking for new food inspiration, and while I don't agree with everything...I did agree with a lot of what the author said.  I'm hoping to share soon in one of those posts I want to get written soon.  Very much in line with The China Study, but more on the practical side of things.  
• Still vegetarian.  
  Still don't miss meat.
  In almost two months, I've had a few bites of shrimp and a few bites of lamb stew at my favorite Basque restaurant.  My stomach is still happier with me and my energy levels are great (protein - another post I want to get written in the next few weeks!).

And it's beginning to look like God's plan for us is taking shape.  I'm so anxious to be able to share, but there's so much we're still waiting on.   I'm reminded often of these quotes from Jim Elliot:

God always gives His best to those who leave the choice with him.

and

Lord, make my way prosperous not that I achieve high station, but that my life be an exhibit to the value of knowing God. 

Exciting days are coming...and more posts, too!

around here...

 

It's hard for me to believe it's been two months since we arrived home to California.  In so many ways, it feels like it's been a day...and in so many ways, I can hardly remember what it was like to live in Florida.  I think we're finally feeling really settled, though I'm really struggling to find a good creative place and time for writing and working on my eBay listings. 

So what's going on around here?

Well...

• The baby chicks are no longer babies.  They've definitely entered that awkward adolescent phase.  They'll be moving out to the coop soon.  The layers are finally laying regularly - we're getting two to three eggs a day from them.  By the time the chicks start laying, we could be getting a dozen every two days, and I think I need to start researching some frittata recipes!
• Caleb is all about baseball right now.  He's playing Little League for the very first time and loves it.  Yesterday was supposed to be his first game, but he was just about in tears when he found out this week's games were rescheduled due to the rainy weather we've been having. 
• Hanna's been busy with school and has had several chapters of a story she's working on published on Teen Ink ( I'll link it in if it's okay with her later).   She got her part for the drama club production last week.  She is constantly busy with something.
• I've been down for the past week with a stomach virus that just seems to keep hanging on, but I was finally able to get back to the gym today for a short workout.  Trying to get work done, trying to find time to write and generally feeling frustrated the lack of success in both.   
• Tom's still slogging through this semester's classes pile of work.  I don't think he's ever had this much work for classes before, and I'm thankful he has the time to focus on them right now.  He's preaching this Sunday at a church here in Dos Palos, and we're all praying about a possible opportunity that could be related to that. 

Not terribly exciting, but life has found a rhythm again after so many months of stress and upheaval.  We're still waiting to see God's plan unfold for us, and still holding to these words of Elisabeth Elliot's:

God is God. Because He is God, He is worthy of my trust and obedience. I will find rest nowhere but in His holy will, a will that is unspeakably beyond my largest notions of what He is up to.

settling

 
Caleb in Gallup, NM

One week after we've arrived...

• both kids are successfully in school.  It was easy for Hanna - and such a blessing after the chaos and frustration of the past few months.  She's already found a wonderful group of friends, and is starting Drama Club today (lead by Aunt Carrie).  For Caleb...it was a little more difficult, but he's getting there.  We really didn't take into account that he really only remembers ever living in Florida and how uprooted he would feel.  He's getting a few extra snuggles, a little more time, seems to be making friends now and he's doing better.
• almost everything that needs to be unpacked is unpacked.  There are a few random boxes, and a few things I'm still looking for that I'd really love to find.  Mostly, things are finding homes.  As for the rest?  The storage unit is only about 5 minutes away. 
• I've been in the kitchen almost every night, and it feels great.  A batch of stock, chicken pasta, risotto and roasted vegetables, roast pork and a Mexican feast with my sister (all on different nights)...I never realize how much I miss chopping and stirring until I'm out of the kitchen for a week or so.
• 4 days at the gym this week and it's making a huge difference in my energy levels.  In four days, I'm up to 23 minutes on the treadmill with a few running intervals and 5 or 6 minutes on the elliptical.  The goal for now is to get up to 30 and 10, and then steal time from the treadmill and give it to the elliptical.  I'm already craving more. 
• looks like Tom's interview will be next Friday (the 4th?) in Merced.  We're both excited about this opportunity, but not wanting to get our hopes up.  We'd hugely appreciate any and all prayers.

soon...

Photo credit: Hanna Widlund

Too soon, these days are flying.  What seemed like an eternity when we first made the decision to move has in reality been a blink.  The house is more packed than not, see you later's are being said and we have that sense that with every meal out, every stop it might be the last time we pass that way.

Last night was our official going away party, and I have been so overwhelmed by how loved we truly are.  As much as we've felt set adrift by our church leadership, we've been loved and appreciated by the body of Christ in our community.  I can't bear to read the cards and notes yet and from the few I've been able to get through, I'm realizing I just don't know how to say thank you well enough.   I'm hoping I can find time in the next few days to share some of the photos that Tom's mom took for us during the party because I don't want to forget. 

These next 11 days will go so quickly.  A few lunches and dinners with friends, a trip to Universal for the kids, a moving sale and wedding this weekend, more packing...too soon these days are flying.  There's so much I want to share, to say, to write and there just isn't time at the moment.  As much as I dread this change, I look forward to this all being done, to finding a new rhythm and to exploring God's vision for this new chapter. 

Soon...

the year without a Christmas card

 
I love this time of year, when a simple walk to the mailbox brings smiles instead of just bills.

When we were first married, I could never seem to get it together enough to get Christmas cards out.  Once we moved to Florida, about 3000 miles away from most of our family and friends, they became more of a necessity.  And then they became something I found I really enjoyed working on.  By September, I had the starts of the letter rolling around in my head (yes, I'm one of those people) and was thinking about clothes and sites for taking pictures. 

This year, I'm kind of feeling guilty as I make that walk from the mailbox with cards in hand since we decided not to send cards to save a little bit extra towards our move home.

As I've played around with the Christmas letter in my head, it's been a little depressing...

After the amazing highlights of our cross country train trip with my parents in June and my brother's wedding in September, we realized this fall that we would lose our home.  Even better, we found out Tom's position at church was being cut to part time, making it no longer viable for him to continue to work there and we'll be making the move home - with no job - to live with my parents for a while.

Hmmm...just not the sort of Christmas letter I want to recieve!

(and please note - I'm writing in a spirit of humor, even if it's a little dark.  As a friend recently said, "In this situation, you've got to laugh about it or you'll want to slit your wrists."  Again, probably a little dark, but I think there's some truth to finding a bit of  humor in a bad situation.)

Instead, I'm planning on sending out a card when our photos are done and Tom's got a new job.  Sort of a really late Christmas letter/new address card.

Until then, I've been enjoying our last few year's cards...

2007 - they look so little!

 
2008 - the year I gave up trying to get a photo of them together

 2009 - a mad dash last minute stressful shoot at the park

...and  I can't wait to see where the next one will be taken!

The Happy List...

 
Realizing it's been a bit of a bummer around here...so to lighten things up a bit, I thought I'd share a few things that have been making my day brighter:

• We have been overwhelmed with love and kind words as our news has gone out.  I've got to get all of the Facebook notes and emails we've received printed - they need to go in a scrapbook somewhere.  Thank you, thank you, thank you to you all.  And thanks to God for the incredible ways He's been providing and making His love known to us in a more tangible manner. 

 

• This sweater from Old Navy, in a darker brown than they currently have available. I ordered it the day after Thanksgiving - they seem to have the only fit of jeans Tom likes in the whole wide world, and they were on sale for $15 a pair.  So was the sweater.  It came on Tuesday and I've found a reason to wear it every day since because it feels like wearing a warm, cozy afghan.  In fact, I might have worn it to the grocery store this morning with an ancient pair of navy sweatpants.  
  Dear Santa, I'd really love some sort of new sweatsuit-ish type outfit. 
  But not velour.
  *shudder*

• Waiting for me...umm...I mean Tom and I in California.  I have wanted one of these babies for years and can I just say my Mom is awesome?  Knowing it's waiting is going to make that 2800 mile drive a little more enjoyable.
  Side note: Out of all of the colors to choose from, my sister and I picked the exact same one.  We've also bought the exact same pair of shoes on the same day on opposite sides of the country.  I love my sister =)
• Grandma Fee arrives next Wednesday!  There's a lot of stuff packing and organizing wise that I'm pulling a Scarlett O'Hara on...I can't think about that right now. If I do, I'll go crazy. I'll think about that tomorrow...substituting Thursday for tomorrow. 

• Mint M&M's=crack.
  Just sayin'.
• Christmas specials, and kids to cuddle while watching them.  
  Sure, Charlie Brown, I can tell you what Christmas is all about. 
  And I'm in tears every.single.time.
  I love that the kids enjoy treasure these traditions as much as I do.
• Cold weather.  It's been cold.  Like honest-to-goodness-really-cold-and-not-just-Florida-version-of-cold here this week, and it actually feels like Christmas.  We've got a little warm up this weekend, and then more real cold next week.  My toes aren't exactly as happy about it as I am and my skin is going insane.  I need to get this figured out a bit better before I get back to California in January!
  Santa, are you still there?  I think a pair of slippers would be nice too.  Maybe moccasins? 
• My Kindle and it's cute green case.   It's taken me a while to get used to it, but I'm finally hooked.  I love too books - the feel, the smell, the touch - too much to ever completely go e-reader, but I adore how easy my Kindle is on my eyes.  Being able to just download a book from Amazon at home is kind of nice too.
  Santa?  Amazon gift certificates are good too!
• Watching casting come together for The Hobbit, in particular Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins.  Loved him as Tim in the BBC version of the Office and positively adored him in the Sherlock series that ran on Masterpiece Theater (and if you haven't watched that, you simply must!).  It makes me smile everytime I see a new face that's been added to the cast.
• Back to homeschooling...sort of.  Because December is a short month for school and we're only going to be here for two weeks of January, we decided to switch Hanna to the homeschool option offered by her school to save money.  She goes into school one day a week for tests and to work on-campus, and they provide the curriculum.  On her homestudy days, she sets her goals each and I just sort of supervise and hop in if she needs help.  Why didn't I know about this last year????  It's been nice.
• Lots of time to think and process.  I closed up my studio until after the move and I'm avoiding thinking about packing (see above), which has given me lots of time to think...about my faith, about the sort of church I desire, about the sort of pastor's family I feel like we're called to be, about my hopes and goals for the future.  There's so much in my head that needs to come out, and it will...soonish.

What's on your happy list today? 

30 minutes of fun...

 

followed by half an hour of wondering if we were ever going to make it out.

That pretty much describes our corn maze experience!

With Tom away for the high school retreat in southern Georgia, I knew I needed to plan something for yesterday that would:

1. get us out of the house
2. tire the kids out

A little over half an hour from us is Long & Scott Farms, home of a fall corn maze and pumpkins.  Perfect!

And it was fun...for the first half hour.  At that point, I discovered I can get a little bit claustrophobic and Hanna decided she was sort of over it.  Caleb was still quite happy to boss us around lead us on through the 6 acres of corn (Hanna mentioned that he sounded a bit like Uncle Dale - ha!), but when we overheard someone mention we were near an exit, we took it.  All in all, we spent about an hour in the corn maze, and it was just enough for us.

 

We also spent what seemed like an hour picking our the kids pumpkins for this year.

Okay, that might be a bit of an exaggeration.

 

Hanna picked this rather large one pretty quickly, and named it Sputnik. 

Honestly, I don't know when my kiddos started naming their pumpkins but I do find it rather endearing and cute.

 

And then there was the one that couldn't decide.  The one who made it feel like an hour.  Or twelve. 

Sometimes I call him Caption Indecisive. 

But he did finally find the perfect pumpkin, which he of course named Bob, and took it home and spent the better part of yesterday afternoon polishing and carrying it around.  If Bob makes it to Thursday night when we're planning to carve them, it will be a miracle!

Randoms

 

We are still trying to get back in a groove of normal around here.  It's taking a little longer and a lot more work than expected.  I'm trying to find some time for more blogging, but it just doesn't seem to be possible this week.  I'll keep trying. 

A few quick things that have been on my mind...

• That picture is one of my absolute favorite from my brother's wedding.  My parents and my grandparents - between the four of them, nearly a century of marriage (my grandparents accounting for over 60 years of that total).  That's pretty amazing.  I believe the covenant of marriage to be a holy sacrament, and I'm thankful for the role models they've been.  Somewhere in me, there's a huge diatribe about marriage and culture and the church stewing...to be posted soon, maybe.
• It's been a rather rough week since we've been home.  Some issues that Hanna has been dealing with for a long time blew up in the aftermath of our trip to California and we're working through them the best we can.  We're looking at new options for school and praying for God's guidance as we attempt to lead her through a difficult time.  Prayers would most definitely be appreciated.  If she agrees, I'd love to share more about this subject in the future.  I know it's something that many children and adults are living with (and something that Tom and I both have personal experience with), but telling the story will only be done with her permission. 
• 31 days gluten-free.  Wow.  Feeling better a little more each day, although I am still dealing with a few aches and pains.  I have a feeling those may be due more to the stress of what Hanna's going through...but, that stress would normally have done far more damage to my health and caused me crazy food cravings.  I've had not a single craving and my pain level is still far, far below what a good level used to be.  I'm working to slowly remove all of the gluten from our kitchen - not replacing certain items as they're finished up and getting rid of others.  Tom and the kids don't seem to be missing it at all and the cookies and muffins I made last weekend are disappearing, which just encourages me even more. 
• I've been experimenting quite a bit in the kitchen since getting home.  Round one of the quinoa tabouleh - it's not quite there yet.  I think I went way, way overboard on the parsley.  I've also been craving the chicken tortilla soup I had at the Reata Grill at DFW last week, and so far that's been a strike out too.   Next up?  The chocolate peanut butter brownies and fresh pasta from Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef.  You can see photos in this post on Adventures of a Gluten-Free Mom.  And probably that bread too, once I get all of the ingredients assembled.  I actually read that cookbook cover to cover this weekend and was just incredibly inspired.   Even if you don't have to or want to eat gluten-free, it's just a good read. 
• Junior high fall retreat this weekend.  I'm working hard to get excited about it...but it's a struggle.  I'm worried about the food primarily, but am really just tired.  It would be lovely to sleep in for a few days, but I don't think that's really an option.  Maybe next weekend.
• It's feeling a bit fall-ish...or at least Florida's version of fall-ish.  I'm ready to pull out some of my fall decorations and the kids are talking about Halloween costumes.  Caleb has about a half dozen that he's considering, but I think Hanna's settled on early-80's Madonna.  I can't lie.  I 'm a little excited about that.

Time to get a little something accomplished!

*home*

Slowly, I feel like life is getting back to normal.  We arrived home Wednesdsay night after a suprisingly easy and even short-feeling day of air travel, and have been trying to get back on schedule ever since.   After the gorgeous days and cool nights we enjoyed in California, the heat and humidity of Florida has been a bit of a nasty shock. 

Tomorrow, we'll get back to chores and exercise and work and all that other stuff that makes up normal life.  School starts in three weeks, and I'm looking forward to school shopping, meeting the teachers and seeing Hanna's brand new middle school. 

Here's what else is going on...

• I arrived home to find that, once again, my Cricut isn't cutting what I need it to.  I'm so far beyond frustrated with this.  I'm seriously considering selling my Cricut and buying a Silhouette instead.  I need to do more research, but I desperately need something I can rely on.  For now, I'm back to cutting by hand.
• We're looking at some extra-curricular activities for the kids for this school year.  Hanna has been really interested in starting dance, so I'm doing a bit more research.  Caleb's going to start a new 6 week Little Athletes for Christ class at church, and perhaps Kung Fu as well.  I'm already starting to fear that I'm in for a very busy year of playing taxi!
• I'm having trouble finding things in my own kitchen.  I cooked a lot more at my parents house this summer than I usually do, and I keep looking for things in cupboards that aren't actually there. 
• For the first time in 5 years, I forgot to burn a CD of the photos I took while staying with my parents.  I can't believe it!  I do have plenty to scrapbook from I already had printed of our train trip and I can pick up the rest when I'm back out in California next month so it's not that big of a deal...more annoying than anything else.  The picture up top is one of my favorites - the kids and their cousins in the cotton field behind my parent's house.   It's surprising how well one quick photo can capture so many personalities so well!

And one more favorite photo for today...

in all the years I grew up surrounded by cotton, I don't think I ever remember a more gorgeous blossom.