For the Love of Home

When the whole house is affected by sickness, things are run differently.  When the ones who are in charge of taking care of the majority of the clean up are sick, that means Mom has lots more to do.  When one who carries most of the pet responsibilities is out of town for 2 weeks, while the other 2 are sick, Mom has lots more to do, and a very busy time!

I must confess, I have delegated much of the household chores to my kids.  Let me rephrase that, "I have delegated most of the household chores to the young adults in the household."  It is something they are responsible to do regardless because "that's what adults do".  If they lived on their own, they'd be responsible for doing things regardless anyway.  When they were sick, they took Motrin, Acetaminophin, Naproxen, (Not all at the same time) or whatever else they could find to help feel better.  When they started feeling better, they took care of their basic responsibilities.  When they started not feeling well again and dogs needed let out, walked, fed/watered, or the cat cared for, I took care of that along with my own responsibilities.  The walking of the dog was when whomever felt well enough to do so since I'm under Dr's orders not to walk "for now."

I have slathered myself with Essential Oils to keep the sickness away from me because I don't like being sick and I'm going to have surgery on my knee this Tuesday.  (Since I've written this on Sunday and scheduled this to be posted on Tuesday, you'll probably read this after I've been through surgery and home already.)  I would love to be able to make sure it gets done Tuesday.  If it doesn't get done, it gets pushed off until I am better.  I'm tired of not being able to walk around the block, for exercise or for pleasure.  I love to walk, be out in God's creation and pray as I walk.  This is where I use to walk in Pennsylvania~

This lovely road curved to the right and went on and on.  I poured out my heart to the Lord on this road.  It felt good to walk, pray, and let the tears fall as I gave everything over to God.  I always came home feeling much better about whatever was bothering me.  The kids and I loved to take bikes down, walk, roller blade or canoe along this road.  My Mr. G and I use to walk meandering down this road just holding hands.  Occasionally, he took the kids inner tubing or canoeing down the river that runs by this road.  If we could find a lovely country road much like this one that runs along a lovely river here in Georgia to replace this, or something similar, I would love it!  

I've always loved being outside in God's creation.  I've had dreams of going back to South Dakota, Wyoming, and the Rocky Mountains to hike and maybe ride horses again.  I find myself longing for the west.  I do have family out west, so I know I can go see them any time.  I just yearn for the open fields, wide open skies, trees, and wild flowers.  Horseback riding cannot happen right now until I loose more weight (hence the reason this surgery is so important--so I can get to walking again and loosing more weight!).  I need to get the disc in my back checked before I do that type of activity anyway (it ruptured in 2002).  The kneeling in the garden or flower bed has ceased, for now.  The kneeling by my bed has ceased for now too.  It has been replaced with being seated, for now while I talk with my Lord numerous times in a 24 hour period.  

I'm just trying to keep myself well.

Additionally, a week and a half after my surgery, we're going to be blessed with a new puppy.  For 15 years I've prayed for a Golden Retriever puppy.  I've wanted one even longer, at least since I was a young girl.   I remember many friends who have had dogs and I love the breed.  I remember just simply starting to pray about the time my kids were little just to have a good friendly breed for my kids.  In the mean time, we trained the dogs we did have to be good friendly dogs.

I absolutely love God's timing with all of this.  My Dr tells me that after the surgery, the only physical therapy I'll need is to just walk.  Go figure!  So, after I get through surgery, I'll begin simply by just walking around my house for the first 2 days.  I'll try outside in the driveway first, then venture around on the road, building up to being able to walk more, a few feet/steps at a time.  Then when we have our new puppy, she'll walk with me as a type of therapy.  I'll need to walk, she'll need to walk, so it's a win-win situation.  God is awesome!  He's worked all this out wonderfully! 

While I am recovering, much of my daily responsibilities will be tweaked a little.  I know that my kids will pick up much of what I do, with a couple exceptions.  My hubby will pick up the other stuff with things specifically just for me to do.  I know I'll be doing more knitting and crocheting with a wee bit of sewing thrown in as well.  But, that's all good.  I love my home, taking care of everyone in it, loving on everyone and all the furry family too, no matter if I'm laid up or not.  When I am forced to sit more, it helps me to be able to be available to talk with my young folks.  They are around the living room more and they're talking with each other more.

Home...what a blessing! 

A New Job for Mr. G

Monday, February 1st, began unlike any other Monday here in southern Georgia since our move here the end of August.  My Mr. G secured a job that is unlike anything he's ever done "for pay."

Prefacing for a bit, my hubby has a sweatshirt that says, "Mr. Fixit" on it from years ago, probably 20 years would be my best guess.  He's always been tinkering, always making something do on the tractors so we didn't ever have to get a new one, always fixing things himself no matter what the issue--unless he knew it was beyond his realm of ability to do it--whether time constraints or realizing he had limitations to what he could do.  There have been times when he had to rely on plumbers and other fix it guys to come in and take care of those kinds of things, but all in all, he's pretty  much done it all on his own--with a little help from a couple Jr. Mr. Fixits in training.  ;)

In years past, he has worked in the human resources dept of the belly of a navy ship, in a ship yard too, in a paint store, for a power company as a lineman, in a pool store installing pools, pool filters, working in the store itself, and in corrections.  Now, with his experience as a "Mr. Fixit", the Lord has seen fit to tailor make a job just for my Mr. G.  He is now installing and changing filters in a variety of commercial settings.  He has his own company truck, ipad, phone and so forth which is something he is getting use to.

Back to Monday--it started bright and early for me.  I wanted to be sure he had a proper lunch and breakfast because neither of us knew what to expect, so I got up before he did and made sure it was all ready to go.  We could have breakfast and prayer together before he left for his day of work.  What a blessing that time was for both of us in the morning before he left for work!  We were able to talk just a wee bit, pray together about our days' concerns, have coffee and enjoy some peace before our days began.

My days have gone like this--after Mr. G leaves, write scripture verse of the day, read Bible and pray, get kids moving on chores, breakfast, laundry (whoever has laundry that day) and school moving.  After they're off and running on their school work, I exercise, work on my daily chores, and getting other things done.   Then we break for lunch, laugh and be silly together, work on anything Daddy needs them to do, then it is either back to school work, free time, working on some project in the house or exercising for them.  If it is their day to make dinner, they usually start by 3PM.

This week has been a week of growth for all of us.  It seems to have been very busy with lots of things to do every day.  Inevitably, I've come down with a cold.  I'm treating with lots of Thieves and RC oils and diffusing Raven and Lavender too.  It started on Wednesday with a runny nose.  Then it went from there.  I haven't been coughing, oddly enough, but I do feel the thickening in my throat.  I've been putting alternately Thieves and RC on my throat and it is helping.  I put Thieves on my feet last night too when in nights previous I'd put Purification.  We'll see how long this one lasts.  I'm hoping it won't last long, though.  My days have had an added nap in for a bit--even just 20 minutes--with sickness, just to help me feel better.  I'm hoping Mr. G doesn't get it.  Whew!

Why a new job for Mr. G if he's retired from the state of PA?  Isn't his retirement enough to live on?  Yes, it is, but our ultimate goal is to be debt free.  Right now our house in PA hasn't sold (please add that to your prayer list), we have a very small mortgage here in GA that we'd like to pay off in 5 years vs the 10 year loan we have with the bank.  Plus we have some student loans to continue to pay on.  So, as you can see, we're working on decreasing the debt with this move, but need the job for paying 2 mortgages, utilities and upkeep on 2 properties 900 miles apart.  Eventually the house in PA will sell and we can hit the student loans and house payment "double time" and get them paid off quickly.  We're hoping to "owe no man anything but love." in 5 years.  With God's grace and His blessing, we will accomplish the goal of living debt free.

We hope to be able to bless others, help our children get established in their own homes when those times come and in whichever direction they feel God leading them in their lives.  We also hope to be able to go see family more often.  The fact that we haven't done that really bothers me, so with lots of prayer and work at being more frugal, by the grace of God, we'll be debt free, hopefully in 5 years.

If anyone has any questions about how we're doing this, please take a look at The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey.  We've implemented many of the principals in this plan.  I would encourage you to take a look and let me know what you think!

God Bless,

Re-visited Sickness and a Natural Helper

The weekend went off without a hitch, worshiping with church family and friends and a secret sister luncheon on Sunday.  Monday I laid low, decidedly not offering to substitute teach so I could rest.  I normally fill in where I can when needed, so I felt ok letting the coordinator know that I couldn't fill in that day.  I was fine when I got home.  My husband made a wonderful dinner and we relaxed for the evening and went to bed at around 10PM without a hitch.

The next morning, Mr. G. decided to do some decluttering in our bedroom--specifically in his closet.  Without his realizing, the dust filled the air in our bedroom.  I tried staying in the bedroom with him to talk before he had to get ready for work.  I felt every dust particle that came through my nasal passages.  My heart was with my husband, but I needed to leave the bedroom due to the dust, but it was too late.  

Wednesday morning I woke with a sore throat.  This morning I coughed up green phlegm (I know...TMI), so I called the Dr's office.  Usually when I let these things go over the weekend I'm so very miserable and unable to breathe well.  

They called me back to find that they think this is the flu that's going around that shows up like an infection, but turns in to a virus.  I sent a message to a friend of mine to see if she had any suggestions for aromatherapy suggestions that might help.  She made some suggestions and I went on a search for those products on her site.  Suffice it to say that to get better and be healthy it is going to cost a small fortune.  Unfortunately, now is not the time to do so.  As a small bonus, however, I do have 2 of the oils she suggested, so those will be helpful.  

In the mean time, we needed to rearrange the furniture just a little to be able to be ready for the storm this weekend...if it comes.  I needed to move things also for my own peace of mind.  If something doesn't seem like it works well, I do not feel at peace.  We made it to a point where we have everything rearranged to our liking, but there is one more table to clean off.  When the temperature dropped, we needed to close the windows, but that's when the breathing issues began.  It quickly became apparent that I needed to rest.  Knitting and snuggling with a little dog seemed to be a good way to spend the afternoon.