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,

On to the next thing...

Our house has sign put out.  We are still getting things done, in spite of the rain.  Some things that my husband needs to do has be done outside in the driveway, but with the rain and thunder storms, it isn't a good thing.

The front of our house has undergone quite a few changes in the past few years.  A couple years ago this view would have a gang plank approximately where the irises are due to us digging up the foundation to redo the coating.The dirt piles were up so far that no one could see in to our bay window.  Now, we're waiting for lots of wonderful perennials to pop up above the mulch.  We're leaving the large whiskey barrels without flowers because we're taking them with us.  The smaller whiskey barrels will have herbs in them because they're easier to transport.  

This trellis is covered, as is the one on the other side of the bush just out of site, with clematis flowers.  They were in full bloom this year and absolutely gorgeous!  We let the vinca vines take over and fill in the area around the bottom of the bed because there are periwinkel flowers on them and they look pretty.  

In the lower left of the above picture, I see the leaves of my lillies.  As of right now, the clematis has finished blooming, the vincas are spreading, and the lillies are in full bloom.  I should post a picture of all of them.  They're gloriously beautiful!

Tomorrow, Lord willing, I plan to finish my own chores, pack 4 boxes, then get out to my herb garden and get things thinned out.  I'll take before and after pictures.  My oregano and bee balm has decided to take over!  It's incredible what happens when your attention is elsewhere!

I plan to take clippings of all of my herbs with me, along with my perennials.  I love my perennials because I don't have to go to the store and buy them every year to make the yard beautiful.  :)   As I have gathered and grown them, the yard is being filled and I don't have to buy as many annuals.  I still like my petunias and my impatiens.  Those  flowers always fill areas and do so very well when they're cared for properly.

Have a lovely day!

God Bless,

One Down, Two to Go

There are times when life is so extremely busy that you just have to hold on while it happens around you.  This is what happened this past weekend.

We're getting our house painted, getting a few things replaced and updated for the new owners.  While we do that, we've also been cleaning and making food and getting ready for our oldest son's graduation ceremony and subsequent party afterwards.  While many people can't wait to just get this one thing done so they can move on to the next, I love being right in the middle of things, experiencing them to the fullest.

....backing up....

We've been looking for another vehicle to travel back and forth to Georgia a little more comfortably than our current vehicles, but also had enough leg room for our VERY tall children.  My husband found a Chevy Express about 86 miles from here, so we went down to look at it, drive it and possibly buy it on Friday.  Yes, when we should have been cleaning and cooking and getting things ready for the party, we were hung up an hour and a half away negotiating to buy a vehicle.  As God would have it, the van had a little leak that the dealership needed to tend to as well as refilling the AC.  They needed an hour, so we went to have brunchfast in town and did some window shopping.  We loved the van and we were willing to wait.  Once we got on to the road, we made it home by 2:30 and there wasn't time to bake a cake at that time because it was going to be a large--4 box carrot cake.  I decided to make a list for each person so I organized my thoughts to make sure everything got done.  I showered and started cutting up vegetables for the veggie platters while my husband took the kids to get their uniforms for the color guard.  Fortunately I was able to take care of that one thing before we left for rehearsal.

Once we were done at rehearsal, we had to go to Walm*rt to get drinks and a few odds and ends, then home to do more cleaning and lots of cooking.  I wasn't able to get all of the meat cooked, but I finished the chili meat, the pasta, and the cake by midnight.  I went to bed and couldn't sleep much past 5:30, so I got up and started cooking again.  Wow!

I had a time frame to get everything done by 10AM because we had to leave by 11AM for the ceremony.  I was rushing and rushing trying to get everything done.  I didn't make any frosting for the cake, but that turned out anyway.  A dear friend of mine made a scrumptious cake to share, so the carrot cake (the HUGE one) didn't get put out.  So now we eat off of it, but piece after piece gets ice cream on top instead of frosting.  LOL

But, coming back to the graduation, my son Daniel is now a high school graduate!

Here he is before, knowing that he'd have to make his speech first, he was very nervous! 

After the tassel is turned, speeches are done, blessings are given, and he's one happy young man!   And, my daughter is holding the Christian flag to the right in full dress blues. 

After the ceremony there was a reception hosted by all the Juniors & their moms.  We stayed a little later than we ought to have, but that's ok.  I called my hubby when we were on our way and no one was at our house.  We pulled in to the side yard because the driveway was PACKED with cars.  LOL  So, the party began.  The kids changed in to grungy clothes and had a wonderful time taking their friends to the "mud bog" to make sure they were sufficiently muddy.  It seems to be a ritual with our parties, wet, water, mud, you name it, we have it!  LOL  

After friends started leaving, other friends came and we started a campfire.  We swapped stories of our foolishness in high school and after high school all while Daniel was in our company. He was asked by one of my friends if he'll learn from those mistakes and of course, he said, "yes."    

After a while of laughter and story telling about our animals (yes, we get together and laugh about the antics of our cats and dogs---we're so exciting! LOL)  Daniel went in to the house to play his Xbox, then things started winding down.  I realized how tired and giddy I was and was yawning a lot.  I figured it was time to make my way to bed.  It was wonderful to have everyone over!

Now that one has graduated, we get to concentrate on the next one.  Miss HJ (holding the Christian flag in the picture above) will graduate next year, Lord willing.  We already started taking Senior pictures on our trip to Georgia, so we have one down and a bunch more to go.  She'll have just a few subjects to complete next school year, so if she wants to she can get a part time job.  She's excited for our move, so we'll see what happens and where God takes her.  

Such an exciting, busy time in our lives!  

God Bless,

Frugal Traveling

Disclaimer:  This is what we do to save money when we travel.  We don't claim to know all the tips and tricks, but I'll share what we do.

Tip #1:  We have older vehicles that would cost tons of money if we had a large amount of repairs with some mechanic we don't know while away from home.  This is why we decided to rent a van.  We had the peace of mind knowing that if anything happened, it was covered by the rental agreement.  If anything happened, they would bring us another van, we could transfer our things to it, then keep going.  With the distance that we travel, this time it was over 2,500 miles, we know that the amount we pay for a rental is well worth it.  We pay in cash also, and are repeat customers, so with that they gave us a discount and the deposit turned out not only to be returned, but doing the math, it turned out to be more than we paid back in the deposit.  

Tip #2:  I need to stop every couple of hours to get up and walk around due to my ankles swelling.  I love visiting with friends.  We try to plan our trip where we can stop off at friends' houses to visit for a couple hours, hug and laugh, take pictures and visit.  We make memories, share a meal, and miss one another when we leave.  I know many people wouldn't say this, but it has become a blessing to have this small malady because it forces me to stop and visit with friends or stop at rest areas to walk around a bit.  It helps me to see the beautiful area that we would be missing by staying on the interstate.  Topping off every vacation is the stops we make, the people we visit, the love of friends and their wonderful kids making friends with our kids is absolutely unrivaled!  Something special invariably happens with each stop.  This trip was no exception.

Tip #3:  Bring a cooler!  We love stocking the cooler with sandwich making stuff, drinks, yogurt, and quick things like apples, oranges, carrots and things like that.  Walm*art carries premade hogies, salads and other items that we used for meal times and stored them in the cooler.  We saved hundreds of dollars in eating out just by picking up things and eating as we were hungry.

Tip #4:  Bring a bin packed with paper plates, paper towels, wipies, plastic silverware, and microwave safe container.  The lid can be used as a place to set paper plates while making sandwiches.  You don't have to stop for a meal if you're pushed for time, and it is very handy to grab the wipies and clean up really quick.  It's all there and ready to go.

Tip #5:  I comparison shop for about 95% of the things we buy and hotel deals are no different.  We have memberships to a couple deal saving places like HSLDA that we can look up and compare the price of motels.  We also have AAA that we can use.  We can use priceline.com on the searches as well.  This time it took me about a week to figure out which would be the best overall price for our trip.  We ended up staying at the Country Inn and Suites in Albany because they had the best price for having a full breakfast as well as a swimming pool.  This alone was worth the little bit extra so I could rest and not worry about needing to feed everyone for breakfast.  The variety they offered was not just continental, but a full breakfast.  In the end, they discounted our stay.  I'm not sure how that worked out, but it was cheaper than what was initially paid, so we saved money there.

Of course there is a certain amount of organizing we always need to do ahead of time to prepare for all of this.  Setting up a budget is a great way to start.  We knew what we were going to spend and came under that mark by $400.  That is significant!  We will be making more trips in the near future and will more than likely do much of the same thing that we've done, unless we buy a camper which is possible.  When you add a camper in to the mix, you save even more money in motel costs, but you still need to bring all of your own food, plan for all the meals, make the meals, and all that brings.  If you're organized and plan well, you could save lots of money traveling if you're ready to search and do the work ahead of time.

I'm sure there are more ways to save money while traveling, so please share your ideas!

God Bless,

The Road Back to Pennsylvania

We had been so busy looking at houses all over the Albany area that we really needed to rest.  The only problem with that is that our rental vehicle needed to be returned on Friday and we needed to push toward home.

My body was telling me that I needed to sleep and every time I sat in the rental van (Chrysler Town & Country), my feet and ankles would swell painfully.  I ended up just switching between putting my feet up on a pillow on the dash board and falling a sleep, then putting my feet down and stretched out while I slept.  While it was less than ideal, I knew my turn to drive was coming.  It didn't come that first day.  By the time we were 80 miles from our planned hotel stop in Knoxville, TN, we encountered parking lot type of traffic due to road construction.  We stayed in that traffic for a couple of hours, only inching forward every few minutes.  By the time we arrived at our planned destination at 11:00, the hotel parking lot was filled to the brim.  We wouldn't be able to get a hotel, so we got gas, had an emotional falling apart from one of the teens, then pushed on until my husband could no longer drive.  He said he could have made it home, but I told him that I was glad he stopped.  All of us needed to rest, including him, even if it were for only a couple of hours.

I woke up at 6AM unable to sleep any longer.  Mr. G decided it was time to get up and get moving.  We wanted to get home to our own beds.  I started out driving.  I finished getting us through Tennessee and most of West Virginia when I needed to close my eyes again.  We were about a half an hour from the Pennsylvania state line when Mr. G took over again.  It was bittersweet when we crossed over the state line.  We knew we were home, but our hearts and newly made friends were in Albany, GA.  We fell in love with the area and the people and although we have friends that are as close as family here in PA, we are both feeling the strong spiritual pull to GA.

We were about 35 minutes from home when I texted my friend to let her know and to have her daughter let the dogs out.  No sooner did I press send, then I80 turned in to a parking lot, much like I81 did in TN the night before.  Fortunately, just a mile up from where we stopped was the Knox exit.  When we crossed the overpass, it revealed quite a site of miles and miles of stopped vehicles on I80.  We took side roads all the way up to 322, but were stopped for 1/2 hour there as well.  It seems that the "powers that be" had some very poorly executed plans and decided to do construction on all these roads all at the same time, creating such a difficult time of waiting for everyone.  So we took even smaller side roads to get around and through the construction to get home.  We arrived just in time to visit with my friend for a little while, showing her a couple pictures of the houses we found, then she left with her daughter and our kids to go to Civil Air Patrol.

What a whirlwind of a day!  But, I was so glad to be home!

Some things we learned on this trip were that it doesn't matter how inexpensive the room suite situation, my hubby and I still need our own room.  Another thing that would have been nice is one of those George Foreman grills in our hotel room.  We had free breakfast, but needed to feed 3 hungry teens in a hotel suite.  We ended up buying yogurt, salads and large hogies from Walm*rt most of the time and going out to eat every once in a while.  We bought gift cards to help offset the expense months ago and brought those with us, but only used the ones from Subway.  Go figure!  So we'll use the other ones for date nights.  It's all good!  :)

Right now we're preparing for the road back to Albany.  We are looking at larger vehicles to haul our things down to storage and to use afterwards on our property.

We're also getting ready for our son's graduation.  At that, I need to say, "Adios!" and get a second coat of paint on my powder room wall.  ;)

Have a wonderful day!

God Bless,

The House Hunt

While in Albany, we looked for houses all over the place.  All totaled, we put 2500 miles on our rental van.  In 9 days we drove that many miles and I can honestly say that I'm glad to be in my home right now.  I know that this home will only be my home for a short while, but this house is currently my home and I am glad to be here resting and regrouping from our trip.

We looked at eleven houses that were not exactly what we were looking for.  We've seen some interesting combinations of small and large houses on a variety of acreages.  I won't go in to detail about any of them at this time because neither Mr. G, nor myself had that "Ah Ha!" moment together with any of the houses.  Much of what we looked at was either too small, too far away from where we wanted to be, or it was a foreclosure that was priced too high and had too many missing things from the home to make it an option at this point.

So now, we plan to wait a few weeks to see what else comes up.  We will consider going down again in a couple of weeks and look again.  We'll take our own vehicle this time so we're more comfortable and probably take our dogs with us too, or one of us will stay home (most likely me) while the other one goes to look.

We know that God has drawn us to the Albany, GA area for a reason.  We are unsure of that reason, but for now He has made everything possible for that to occur.  We continue to remind ourselves and others that "He's got this."  Everything will fall in to place in His time.

We continue to pray for a house that God has for us and eyes to see it when it is time to look at it.

God Bless,

Day Two--Seeing a Lovely Friend Who is Now a Newly Wed

Our dear friend Caroline just entered a covenant marriage with her wonderful husband Michael in March.  Due to my surgery in February I was unable to attend her wedding shower, or her wedding.  When we found out that she and her new husband were stationed in Fort Gordon, GA, we decided we needed to stop off to see her, hug on them, give them a small wedding gift and just visit for a little while.   Below is Caroline and my daughter, who make it so very apparent that it doesn't matter how long you're apart, when friends reunite, the love and the friendship makes time stand still and you're just thankful to be together again.  What a blessing it was to see Caroline and meet her husband.

Caroline and Michael are so wonderful together.  He is head over heals in love with her and bends over backwards to do things for her.  She being the sweetie that she is, will absolutely love all the wonderful surprises he has set up for her in the next couple of weeks.

What a blessing!  Look at those smiles!  

Once we left, we had a "backroads adventure" getting to Albany.  We were so very blessed by seeing God's creation and although missed a couple turns, we made it safely to our hotel around 8:45PM completely exhausted and ready to collapse in bed.

Day One~Heading South Through the Smoky Mountains

"But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. "The LORD is my portion," says my soul, "therefore I will hope in him." The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him." 

(Lamentations 3:21-25)

It is no surprise (to me) why we needed to go through the Smoky Mountains to get to our friends' the "S" family's house.  We chose to go through the most picturesque area we could to get to their house.  I've already asked Mr.G if we could pull over and take pictures at every turn possible.  He agreed.  What a blessing!

My prayer through this time is that his spirit is renewed and strengthened and God speaks to him, giving him a vision for our future.

Please enjoy the pictures we've taken of this lovely day!

We've also included some pictures with our friends, the "S" family.

I thought I had more pictures than that.  Perhaps they're on everyone's cell phones.  LOL

God Bless,

Albany Bound

It is currently Friday the 8th.  My Mr. G has been retired from his job for almost 24 hours and he is resting today.  He may be resting tomorrow and the next day too, who knows?!   After a job protecting all of us from the dregs of society for 21 years, he is much deserving of a rest.  He needs to rest his mind and his spirit.  He has needed this break for a very long time and it has come at the best time for him.

All that said, our family and home is facing some very important changes in the not so distant future.

We are moving from Pennsylvania to Albany, Georgia.  Through the course of events, the Lord has directed our paths to Albany.  What are those events?  Some of them are blatant, others are subtle.  If you're interested, I will definitely share with you.  It truly is amazing.

What do we plan to do in Albany?  For starters, fix up a house.  During that time, we'll be involved in Civil Air Patrol with our kids, as well as one (or more) of the many homeschool groups in the area, and serving in church goes without saying.

Other things we plan to do is to rekindle the bond that Mr. G and I have for our marriage.  With Mr. G working in the line of work he had been, the issue remained that there has been a great brick wall between us.  We have been married for twenty-five years, twenty-one of those being that he has served as a corrections officer.  That is a very long time for that brick wall in its various heights and thicknesses as well as knocking it down.  Throughout all this time, we've struggled to keep our relationship alive and growing.  Now, we'll be pursuing one another and with God's help, creating greater deeper spiritual connections that have been sorely lacking, having been put on the back burner for so long.  This distance and disconnect is something that occurs with this line of work with many marriages.  Many times out of a sheer survival mechanism, our loved ones who work in these places shut down a part of themselves to simply protect their heart and mind from the horrid events they witness daily.  It is time for us to water our garden.

Now is a time of healing not just for us, but for our children, too.  One of the things that comes out more flagrantly from a person who works with the dregs of society for so long, unfortunately, is anger and impatience.  Our children have witnessed the anger and impatience.  While with time Mr.G has mellowed, with counseling and prayer, he's become more patient and his anger has subsided a bit.  The further away we get from his job, literally and figuratively, the more relaxed he becomes and the walls come down.  I've seen this happen temporarily while we're on vacation over the years.  I suspect that there will be a time of healing and with healing comes regeneration.  With regeneration comes growth.  It is my hope that this experience will bring us closer together now that we're on this side of his employment experience, but I also hope that the Lord redeems the time the locusts have eaten and that Mr. G and his kids can grow together in the repairing of their relationship too.

This is one of the main reasons we're moving to Georgia.  For most of us our move is met with excitement and an air of "let's get-r-done," but for another it is difficult because of leaving friends.  Your prayers would be appreciated for our family through this change and while we continue to heal, repair, and grow.

God Bless,

Beginning to Say "Good-bye"

Today was our last class day at our homeschool group here in Pennsylvania.  I have been so very busy getting things cleaned up, straightened up, painted {I'm the painting person}, and just getting things organized and keeping them organized.   Needless to say, my mind has been so very pre-occupied that I've forced myself to not think about leaving.  I've had to do this to keep moving forward.

It isn't going to last long.

When we have our son's graduation party and people begin to leave, I'll probably lose it.

I'm going to miss every single person.  I've made so many wonderful friends here that have become like family for not only myself, but for my husband too.

Why are we leaving, then?

Simply put, God is calling us to Georgia.  We have many reasons and we get confirmation after confirmation that Georgia is where God wants us to move to with every turn.  We look forward to the work that the Lord will have for us in Georgia.  But, before we move, we'd like to serve one more time here--at our church's Vacation Bible School.

Please continue to keep us in prayer for God's provision, His peace, and His perfect timing.

God Bless,