Melancholy Reflections

Yesterday was my oldest son's 20th birthday.  No, I'm not musing about how fast the time has gone.  I am looking forward to watching this young man take life by the horns and conquer it, whatever "it" may be.  He has had quite the long and arduous "mountain" to climb the past few years, so he's looking forward to when we get to Georgia so that he can begin his next chapter, and see where God leads him.

The oldest and the youngest.

This morning I can feel fall in the air here in Western Pennsylvania.  The trees are beginning to take on a yellowish orange hue while the days get shorter and the wee bit of chill is in the air.  In one short week we'll be packing up our earthly possessions and saying "Good-bye" to our home in Pennsylvania.  We've lived in Pennsylvania all of our married life.  We are accustomed to the winters, hurrying to grow and gather the food while we can, then canning and preserving it to assure that we have some of God's wonderful goodness to nourish our bodies through the winter.  I'm sure there will be leaves to rake, but in a different way, with different things to go with those leaves.  Instead of pine mulch, many people in Georgia use pine needles.  Our realtor told us that pine needle mulch attracts cockroaches.  Guess what we're NOT using for mulch?!  Wow!  

Today I will finish packing the living room and pack whatever I can in my kitchen(s).  I am sure my new kitchen will serve us well.  We'll serve others with hospitality and the love of Christ, opening the doors to our home for those who may be in need.  We'll see where God leads us. 

Our new kitchen...the previous tenants were still living in the house.

Looking through the Sun room to the kitchen.

I'm not sure all the changes we will be making in this room, but the first thing is going to be a full size stove/oven.  We do a lot of cooking and baking, so it stands to reason that we add a full size stove.  I'm stil trying to figure out how to use the cubby between the refrigerator and the wall oven.

As we wrap things up here in PA, we are faced with bittersweet thoughts.  Ones of missing our dear sweet friends, but also ones of excitement in the chapters to come.

Please continue to keep us in prayer.

God Bless,

A Day At the Beach & Life Lessons

Weeks ago, we decided that it was time to bless our kids with a trip to the Lake Erie beach that we love the most.  With all of the cleaning and packing we've been doing, it was time to stop, grab a friend, and go to the beach.

Lake Erie when we arrived and set up to relax.

It was such a beautiful day! 

I could barely see to take the picture, but here is one where Mr. G and I were sitting in the shade under the tree.  I take medication that makes me photosensitive, so we spent most of our time under the tree.

After spending over 3 hours in the sun, the kids were sufficiently crispy--even with 70+spf sunscreen--we went to Panera Bread before heading home.  It was something new for a couple of us, something familiar for others and just fun to pick out some neat treats that we don't normally have.

On the way home, my hubby didn't take pictures because he wasn't feeling well, but he did get a couple on our way up to Erie.

Small town with American flags waving.

Lonely old silo

Small grassy area on the hill

The valleys and scenery is breathtakingly beautiful.  I love looking as far as the eye can see and see hills and trees with an occasional splotch of green grassy patch.  It gives me a chuckle.

Upon arriving at home, we found a phone call from our Georgia realtor waiting for us.  We called and left her a message and within 5 minutes she returned our call.  The house that Mr. G put an offer on last week, we had been counter offering with 3 days in between each offer--it's a bank owned/HUD property thing where they get 3 days to reply to an offer.  The last offer, the bank/seller did not accept.  We are taking a step back and praying about how to word another counter offer, if at all.  The bank/seller would not budge on the price, but to come down $1,000.

We need to take a step back, regroup, get some things done here on our house in Pennsylvania, then see if there have been any other offers on this house.  We're waiting 2 weeks, then starting with the offer process again.  If the Lord wants us to have it, then He will make it available.  

For now, we get ready for a "Moving Sale" next weekend.  I'm getting so many things ready to sell so that the things we have to move will be limited and as small as we can possibly get it.  We are selling curriculum, too.

This journey through life is by far the most important time because it builds character, helps us to enjoy our time in the here-and-now, and it makes us linger to ensure the needful lessons are learned--sometimes whether we like it or not.  Our attitudes on the journey can be ones of thankfulness, or selfishness in which case it causes great heartache and stress for those who love us due to our own selfish responses to the unfamiliar.  

For now, though, we rest in God's will.  It's a good place to be.  Learning to rest there is difficult for many, but a very important and integral part of the journey.  I often visualize sitting in the passenger seat and letting God be the one in charge of my car.  How much I actually trust Him is directly related to how much I rest while He is driving.

It feels good not to have to drive this car through life, but to rest and let Him take the wheel.

God Bless,

This Week

I know, it's a very creative title, but I figure that I'd better at least get one post up, creative title or not.  LOL

Since last year, a friend of mine and I have decided that one Saturday each year in June that we would take our kids to Presque Isle in Erie, PA.  Mr. G enjoys riding his motorcycle to Johnstown, PA for the motorcyle rally there with his friends from work, so we usually take the kids and go to Presque Isle.  This year it was a little different since the gear (something or other part) on Mr. G's motorcycle decided to stop working or strip out or something and he came with us.  The specific beach we go to is Beach 10, as you can see in the above picture.  This particular beach has some wonderful views.  We watched a huge barge come in to the port last year and thought we'd see it again, but we didn't.  

The night before, I found out my friend couldn't go, so we invited her oldest to go with us.  Her younger two sons were going to Encampment for Civil Air Patrol and she had to ride along since there was no one else available.  He had a wonderful time!    He's got a heart of gold and is a big young man with the understanding of a college student, but speaks and acts like an 8 year old due to his Aspergers.  My little dog, Biscuit, just loves him!   

Here they are building an "inlet" or a "landbridge", I can't remember what they called it.  You could sure tell though, that it was geography based.  LOL

She was playing in the sand above too, so she needed to rinse off.  (Coincidentally, she wants to find a different bathing suit.  She swam at another friends house and noticed her bottoms, that are underneath her shorts, didn't cover as much as she'd like.  So, we're back to finding another more modest swim suit.) Due to the very cold Spring we've had, the water was still pretty cold.  Mr. G and I decided not to go in above our knees...shivering cold.  We talked about going to the beach when we move to Georgia in a couple of years.  We think the water will be just a wee bit warmer then.  LOL

Mr. G took this picture of me.  

Waiting for someone to drop some food so they can say, "Mine!" "Mine!" "Mine!"  LOL!

There is a 10 mile path around Presque Isle that people rent bikes and surreys and all sorts of neat things to ride around the Isle on.  We may have to come back up some time and rent a surrey for the day.  :)

Lovely view of one of the many ponds filled with wild life.

Driving out of the park.  What beauty!

When I uploaded the pictures I realized that Mr. G was snapping quite a few on the way home and found this one.  It reminded me of the scripture verse above.

I love going through small towns and seeing all the neat architecture.  Another wonderful sight to behold is all the flags and red, white and blue banners.

 Earlier in the week...

Dear sweet sleepy daughter just waking up having breakfast.

The day after his first brace adjustment.  He said it wasn't as bad as he thought it would be.  We can see a HUGE difference in his teeth already! :)

My Mr. G.  

Well, even though my pictures are out of order, the last ones being random, as you can see we're still plugging right along.

Today, after the children return home from work, we'll finish up work on the portfolios for tomorrow's evaluations.  It's been a rough year with Momma being so sick for 3 months out of the year, so hopefully we'll be able to pull it all together for tomorrow.  I think we'll be fine and thankful when it's all over.  Then we'll have a Senior, Sophomore, and an 8th grader!  Wow!

God Bless,

Gearing Up...



I went to bed last night at 12:15AM, so technically it would be this morning.  My body only let me sleep until 4:08AM.  I came downstairs to the chair and laid back for a while to sleep until 5:30.  I kept hearing things, so I got up, grabbed my sweater, clipboard and pencil and headed for the pantry.  I took a good look at what we had and needed in there, the upright and chest freezers as well as the basement kitchen refrigerator. 

Each freezer has a function.  The upright freezer is to hold all of our frozen vegetables, butter, cheese and juice.  The chest freezer holds all of our meat.  The freezer in the  basement refrigerator holds all of our bread items.  The upstairs freezer holds small bags of things that have already been opened as well as my baking yeast.  Each Spring, my basement refrigerator freezer gets manually defrosted.  My upstairs refrigerator freezer gets cleaned out and things used up.  All this in preparation for the harvest.  Once gardening season begins, time is of the essense, so I try to do all these things before things begin.

This morning I am gearing up for my Mega Shop day.  I may go shopping by myself andrequest that my husband do school with the children while I'm gone.  It is good for him and for the children to him to teach them.  I enjoy going shopping by myself every once in a while, but not all the time.  I enjoy the thought that my husband is investing his time in his children.  I spend all day, every day with them.  I love my children, but there is a time when they need to be handed over to their Father for a relationship when they are 2.  Sure, before that time, but it was usually around the age of 2 that my kids were weaned, give or take a few months.  A Daddy is a wonderful asset for a child's life.  He prepares the boys to be men and the girls to be women and how to expect to be treated by potential suitors.  Recently we watched the movie "Courageous".  These principals rang through in the movie.  I'm so thankful for that reaffirmation. 

Today, as I go out, I feel rather melancholy.  I am walking forward, forever changed by the events that have formed my life and moulded me in to the person I am today.  I am leaving the past behind me and looking forward to the future.  My children have but a small amount of time left until adulthood.  I pray that the next few years of their time with us would be fruitful, beautiful and good times to remember.  As I look at the past [leaving it behind, of course] I am just a little sad.  I wish I could go back and hug and hold them a little longer, play with them lots more and pray with them, work with them more.  But, the next few years, I will enjoy when they come up to me and hug me, I'll enjoy when we go for walks, take our school work down to the river, pray with them and work with them, side-by-side. 

Gearing up for today, it is the beginning of a corridor that I always thought I would enjoy--their independence, able to help around the house and do a good job.  I do enjoy it, but I know there are many who are looking forward to this time in their life with eager anticipation.  They're looking forward to it, hoping and preparing for it.  To that I say, wait, linger right where you are a little longer.  Cherish what you have right now at this very moment.  You'll never get it back again and you'll be living with your memories, good or bad. 

In my gearing up, I'll linger a little longer...smile, hug and say, "I love you.  You are a blessing to me."  In all my organizing and planning, it is all for nothing if I don't have love and show genuine love to those around me.