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,

Homemaking This Week

This week we are detail cleaning the Living Room, Porches, and Pool House.

Yesterday I made sure the walls were dusted with the Swiffer just because it was easier to get everything.  I worked on sweeping the cobwebs and dirt off the front porch and the porch/entry to the Pool House.  My guys took care of the back porch and getting all the cobwebs off the walls inside the pool house.  My youngest son's weekly job is to dust the living room, so that will be done on his day of choice.

Today we did windows in the living room and front porch.  We didn't get to the back porch or the pool house because my youngest son and I went a little further and scrubbed the shutters, moved the whisky barrels to the back yard, and raked along the front of the house.
Tomorrow I'm going to have them work on the back porch and pool house windows while I do some decluttering here in the living room.  As you can probably tell, Wednesday is decluttering on the calendar, so we need to get that done.  If it is done, we tidy.  I have more books to put on the shelf.  I also have a few shelves to make neat, so there is still work to do.

Thursday is detail cleaning the floor in the living room.  That's where we pull everything out, sweep and/or vacuum, probably vacuum the furniture or wipe the walls, and put it all back.

Fridays are "extra" days where I look at my notebook and pick some things that haven't been addressed and do them.

Saturdays are make up days that are built in just for those times when we have busy weeks and don't get to do the needed things in the room of the week.  We usually do Kitchen work that day too, so we don't have a lot of cooking and cleaning to do on Sundays.

This is my calendar where I keep track of the rooms of the week (on the left), what chore to do on which day (on the bottom), and along the right I usually have all my kitchen cooking/baking chores.  Since I took this picture many of the areas have been redone to reflect our lives right now, which is the beauty of it.  But why do this?

Sometimes we have appointments and we're going here and going there.  But things need to be done.  Whoever is home, can go to the calendar and look at what needs to be done on which day of the week and which room we're in and do it for me.  So, the calendar, in essence, thinks for me.

How are you taking care of the details this week?

God Bless,

Snow in Southern Georgia

This morning our daughter called us to the back porch telling us it was snowing.

Yes, indeed it was!

And not long it will be gone.

Things of Beauty Are a Joy Forever

There are lots of beautiful things in my life, not just now, but every day.  I share them with you, in no particular order.

My coffee mug, my wide mouthed quart jar filled with water, my purple mouse and my laptop, things of beauty to me.

A thing of beauty is snapping a quick picture of these two actually "willingly" touching one another laying together in the sunshine on my oldest son's shoes.  (Yes, it's a time to chuckle if you know Biscuit!  LOL)

A white iris blooming in January is unheard of in Pennsylvania!  Ironically, today they're supposed to get a huge snow storm.  I'll stay here in Georgia enjoying my white iris.  :0)

I've been working on putting my mantle together since September, then changing it a wee bit for Christmas, then remembering we had these beautiful oil lamps.  My wonderful Mr. G cleaned them up for me to put on the mantle.  Now all I need to do is paint.  :0)

My beautiful 14 year old faithful friend who is laying at my feet right now--Rustie.

These two laying together is a sight to behold!  Biscuit has been warming up and becoming downright friendly with Gus now that Gus is 12 times his weight.  LOL

Yes, this is beautiful.  It reminds me that even in our own brokenness we can function and provide beautifully for our families and loved ones in spite of our brokenness.

Yes, Trim Healthy Mama is beautiful, life changing, and it goes without saying that the young man to the right of my book who is lovin' on 2 doggies is as well.  :0)

I found an "Amish" goods store in Tifton, GA.  The owner told me they call them "Mennonites" down here.  LOL  

The things of beauty are beheld every day.  This is but a small representation of what God blesses me with.

God Bless,

Post Christmas Decorating

We took all of our Christmas decorations down and put them all away a few days ago.  Shortly after seeing the drabness of no color, I decided to grab my knitting needles and some bright aqua cotton yarn and went to work.  I have my fabric ready to get to work on my dining room curtains, completely with bright aqua in it, so it was perfect!

The needles are size 11 Caspian wood needles from knitpicks like the ones you'll find here:

Just click the picture...

I bought one set of these needles in size 11 as a gift to myself for finishing a large project.  They were well worth the money!  I love how the cotton slides so wonderfully off my needles.

I love decorating my house.  This house particularly is quite the blank slate.  The walls in our bedroom will be a light butter cream color with darker accents.  I just need to work on the sticky stuff on the walls with Goo Gone.  I have a couple areas done, now I need to move on and get more done.  Unfortunately, once I come out of our bedroom in the morning, it is very seldom that I return until evening bed time.  I need to be sure to work on our hide away, making sure to situate it and make it beautiful and inviting for me and my love.  I've found some beautiful things to put over the head of our bed, bought them for us for Christmas and now I just need to find a weathered/antiqued board for the shelf.

Once we get our bedroom painted, these will go over our headboard.  I am adding lovely and beautiful things that celebrate our marriage in our hideaway.  Why?  So it will be a peaceful haven and sanctuary from the world for the two of us to find solace.  I hope to finish the bedroom in one month, complete with curtains, paint, clean, neat and tidy furniture (with the help of my husband ;0) ) and moving on to another room.  LOL

I am so excited to get these changes done.  

To be continued...

God Bless,

Organizing After a Move

Sitting at the (very loved) table with my oldest son and hubby
playing cards with the sweet scent of a "Sweet Potato" candle.

I know that many of you have moved quite a bit more often than I have as an adult.  You could be a military family or your husband or wife's job relocates you every couple of years.  So, this post is probably "preaching to the choir" as they say.  For me, though, it is sweet reflection over the past year's journey, making realizations about myself and my family.

I started decluttering years ago, thankfully.  I have been using the FLYlady method of doing things since September 8, 2001.  That's a very long time!  Now, I haven't been "gung ho" all the time at every single step of the way, but it has certainly helped me to keep most of the clutter at bay.  [Confession:  As I type this, there are papers cluttering up my coffee table that Lord only knows where they come from!  It's all good though because I know that my young adults can go through it and decide what needs to be kept and what needs to be pitched and take care of it for me!]

I began decluttering in earnest preparation for our move south probably in October 2014.  I had requested at that time a firm answer from my husband whether or not he'd be retiring the following May so that I could make plans to either stay or move.  [Thankfully, he chose to retire.]  I started with books.  I knew that once I went through all the books on the book shelves, getting them put in to boxes to sell, it would be easier to pack up the ones that I wanted to keep.  I went through them with the young folks so that I didn't throw away anything that they wanted.  Surprisingly, they released more than I ever thought they were willing to release!  I was so glad!  This was an ongoing process, too.  I didn't do it all at once because I needed to have surgery in February 2015.  Once I felt like doing things, I had the kids bring me more books that I went through while sitting on the floor.  They did the heavy lifting for me, taking the boxes once packed and labelled to the attic to get them out of the way.  Once the shelves were empty, I gave the shelves to a friend to use.  The books we no longer wanted were sold at our homeschool group's book sale and whatever didn't sell went to Goodwill, never to enter the house again!  Oddly enough, there were more books stashed throughout the house that I needed to get rid of too.  I put those in our yard sale.

The yard sale:  We had a yard sale for 2 weekends, getting rid of lots of stuff.  Once that was over, we packed the leftovers up and took them to a storage unit where a local lady stored leftover yard sale times to sell for a charity.  Those things never came back in to the house.  [Are you noticing a trend yet?]

Once all those things were gone, we started to pack up the house in earnest.  We were still finding things to pitch.  I went through every paper I could find to either file or burn.  We burned a lot of stuff from the garage, so it wasn't a big deal to burn more.

We still had a "give away" pile and we found ourselves giving more stuff away still.  The plan was to sell or give away most of our furniture except for a few pieces that were meaningful to us as gifts from grandparents, or they were antiques.  We ended up keeping one love seat instead of giving it away because that friend didn't have room for it in her new house.  It was a godsend, though.  We have seating here in our living room for it! :0)

Once all of our things arrived here in GA, the unpacking commenced.  I found things that I forgot I had, made a home for them and moved on to the next thing.  I also found things that made me scratch my head and wonder "Why on earth did I keep that?" and put it in the give away box.  Every so often we get the opportunity to bless someone with the contents of our give away box.  We had double just about everything since we had 2 kitchens in PA.  So when we heard of a family who needed things due to a fire, we purged even more!  It felt good too! :0)

I am finding that as I go through boxes, I relive old memories of when that item was purchased or given to us. A lot of times I still find myself saying, "Why on earth did I keep that?!"  I'd love to say that right now everything has a home and everything is in it's place, but it isn't.  I have more shelving and storage to buy to make that happen.  I am saving for some nice storage because it will be in my office where those items go.

I know that there will be times when something isn't fitting right where I put it and I'll think about how to do it differently and it will bug me until I figure it out, but eventually it will happen.  Sometimes I will find something that will fit "just right" at a yard sale to help me get something organized.  It is a wonderful way to adjust to fit the new space.

I am also finding that the organizing of my home after the move began "before" the move.  Ten years worth of accumulated stuff was dwindled down considerably in a matter of weeks, but it continues to be dwindled still, as I continue to get through those not so essential items to get things organized and feeling more like "home."

I'd love to show you what I'm doing differently here (for a variety of reasons) than when we were in PA.  I'll save that for the next post, though.  A little hint is given in the picture above.  :0)

God Bless,

Work Steadily Continues

This picture of my youngest son's room prompted my oldest son to do something like this with his room.

This is what his room looked like when we moved in and got all of his things settled.

As you can see, there is a small-ish mural behind the head board and bright dark "pink" trim.  My son decided to go with a dark green and light tan/cream trim.

I think it looks much better than it did! 

The trim is no longer bright dark pink!  It took a couple coats, but it is done!

Within the past couple of days, we've purchased some fabric for his curtains.  Next month and the following month, we're going to use the allotted portion of his budget for new bedding and a new rug for his room.  

In other areas of the house, we're continuing to plod along, slowly at times.  Some things take precedence, like making a leaking faucet stop, while other things--like getting the sticker residue off the walls--not so high on the "to do" list.   

We continue to work on getting the running of the home working better.  The laundry and dishes have been the biggest boon to our existence.  Yes, I know it is that way for most folks, too.  For us though, our laundry room diminished in size greatly in comparison to how things were in PA.  Looking at things now, it has been a blessing.  Everyone keeps their own dirty clothes in their own rooms.  They sort their own clothes in to a small square basket whatever they decide to wash first on their own laundry days.  Their small basket goes back and forth from the laundry room to their bedroom with their clothes and bedding, while their color coded hampers stay in their bedrooms, thus decreasing the clutter in the laundry room.

This is the system we've come up with:

Mondays-Oldest Son's Laundry Day

Tuesdays-Daughter's Laundry Day

Wednesdays-Youngest Son's Laundry Day

Thursday-Momma and Daddy's Whites and Reds

Friday-Momma and Daddy's Blues

Saturday-Towels & Bedding

For now, the kitchen responsibilities are:

Daughter-Washes Dishes & Loads Dishwasher

Oldest Son-Puts Dishes Away

Youngest Son-Wipes counters, Microwave, & Table

Meals:

Breakfast-DIY

Lunch-DIY

Dinner-Momma makes dinner a couple days a week, when I can't due to appointments, Daddy makes dinner, or one or more of the kids make dinner.

This is where we are in our lives currently.  I make meals for my hubby and I for breakfast due to our special diets.  The kids get whatever they feel like having whenever they're hungry.  Our oldest has stomach issues, so we may eat something that does not set well or is unappealing to him at the time, so he waits until his stomach settles to eat.  

Our lives are drastically different than what we've ever done before.  Things continue to change and we continue to work on everything to get the best solution for our lives the way we are now.  We don't do things the same way other people do, I'm sure.  But this way works for us right now, and it's ok.  I'm striving for having dinner at the family table more regularly, so we're moving in the right direction.

Work on the house and our lives continues. It continues to change, continues to adjust, nothing stays the same.  That is as it should be.

God Bless,

2016 Cometh

As I sit here writing, 2015 only has 20 minutes left in it.  We're watching "Lord of the Rings: Return of the King" as the truest of nerdy folks would be, unless it is just us who are ultra nerdy and this is the movie of choice on New Year's Eve.  LOL

The labels you see at the bottom, yes, go ahead and page down, those!  Yes!  Those are already established *goals* that are in place from year to year, month to month, week to week,  and day to day.

But!

(You knew there had to be one! LOL)

I want to infuse my home with whimsical things that make me and others smile.  I'm not a stoically serious person, but I take joy in lots of silly things, and so should everyone who steps foot on our land and in our home.  Yes JOY!  The Lord Himself created laughter, and for goodness sake, aren't we ones to give him a GOOD chuckle by telling Him our plans, so by gosh and by golly, we're going to have some whimsy around here!  LOL

Why don't I make resolutions?  Because they fall away as soon as the end of January rolls around and things get boring or hard.  I'm right there right now with my own weight loss, so I beat the punch by a month!  LOL  I know the holidays have been around, and I know I can rejoice in this fact, but in spite of the holidays, my Wii says I gained .4 pounds in the past 2 weeks.  LOL  Yes, I laugh at that!  I can't believe it has only been .4 pounds!  So, I"m going to look at it this way:  I've had my breakfast and coffee, so that's where the .4 pounds came from!  So, I didn't gain anything!  I stayed the same.  Woohoo!  LOL

You really need to laugh more my dear readers!  I really need to remember that myself....to laugh more.  A merry heart makes good medicine!  Well, I need to remember that!  :)

Well, it has taken me 11 minutes to get this far, so I'm going to sign off and bid you all a warm farewell.

See you next year!  Which will happen in about 9 minutes!

Happy New Year!

God Bless,
Regina

CHRISTmas

This year, our Christmas is going to be a little different.  Simplicity is something I've always craved.  We've gone from overboard years ago when we thought more gifts were needed, to more simple and just giving 3 gifts representing the gifts of the Magi, and this year we're doing needs, keeping it simple.

Why?

We're becoming more and more convinced that the we need to strive hard to keep the commercialization out of Christmas.  This is one of those things that we really want to drive home with our kids.  Christmas really means the celebration of the gift of the coming of our Savior.  What better gift can there be?  So we worship, work together and love one another.

...fast forwarding to the day after Christmas...


I would love to begin Christmas shopping for next year right now.  The only problem is finding space to store said items, and hoping they won't melt by the time Christmas 2016 rolls around.  What about home made things?  Well, here in Georgia, those nice warm things--like wool socks, afghans, and fuzzy jammies--are not needed.  This year at least has seen some high temperatures than normal, but I'm assured that they do get cold here.  So far, we've had the AC on up to today.  Go figure!  I've felt a couple nights that have been a wee bit nippy and just a few days, not even a handful, but mostly it has been in the 70's and higher.

Our Christmas was very quiet with everyone pitching in to do their part for the very simple Christmas dinner after opening gifts.  The gifts were simple this year and I noticed how much thought my young folks put in to their gifts to one another.  What a blessing it was to see them putting such thought in to their gifts!  To me that showed so much more care and compassion than any extravagant gift ever could.  We never told them they had to give one another gifts, they want to.

Today my oldest son has been working on his bedroom painting it.  He's really looking forward to making it his own work of art--something simple, but tastefully done.  He's painting it dark green with tan trim.  He wants to have me make plaid curtains, so we've been looking at fabric for that.  I hope to have the fabric chosen and pulled together with the curtains hung in the next 2 weeks.  He wants to get a rug and new bedding too.  I imagine a new lamp is in order as well.

My daughter has been working on her bedroom off and on for the past couple of months.  She's finished painting (I think), and is in the organization phase.  She's got quite a bit more to organize and put away, but she's been working on that.  She has some important decisions to make here soon, so hopefully she'll be deciding in the next 2 weeks and moving on with things.

Me with my youngest son.  :)  

My youngest son has been taking Gus on daily walks down here for a while now.  I'm so glad he does because it gives him alone time, and time to just look around at where we now live and just enjoy himself.  He needs that.  He and I are in the beginning phases of planning for his next school year.  It's hard to believe he's going to be a Jr!  Today we talked about Bible studies and working on the important things, revisiting topics that need to be done, and reading more.  I'm finding that I need to challenge him to keep growing, to learn more and seek more.  He's always risen to the occasion.



My hubby has an interview for a new position here in GA.  Our plans all along have been for him to start looking for work at the 6 month mark so we can make extra payments and get our house paid off quickly.  We're hoping to be debt free in 5 years, Lord willing.  Then we can work toward helping others, giving of our time, talents, and treasures as the Lord makes us aware of the needs.

I hope all of you have had a wonderful Merry Christmas with all of your loved ones.  I'll see all of you next year!

God Bless,

Me & Pickles the cat

Welcome December

We welcomed December with an 82 degree day complete with glorious sunshine.  Running on a few hours of sleep, the day was very busy going from appointment to appointment, so I could enjoy it by having my arm out the window in my van.  LOL  I finally collapsed at home, with dinner almost ready  by my hubby and youngest son having made "Lazy Lasagna" from our new Trim Healthy Mama cookbook.  It was awesome btw!

The rest of the month promises to be just as busy with the slight increase in appointments, but also a slight increase in other activities, like parades and Christmas parties.

I'm planning to continue with the Trim Healthy Mama lifestyle right through the holidays.  How?  I've been keeping and printing out all those luscious wonderful treats that I find on the internet to make during this time to help me stay on plan, and have cake for breakfast! Yippee!

I would love to say that all of this change is easy, but it isn't. I am finding it extremely challenging, not for myself, but for my kids.  I have 2 who could stand to loose some weight too.  So, my husband and I have quietly decided to loose weight and get down below where they are to create a little "healthy" competition with them.

Here is a lovely picture of our Christmas tree.

2015 Christmas Tree in the Georgia house.

The picture of our tree symbolizes so much!  It is with so much love and appreciation that this picture, in all of it's flawed glory, represents so much of our lives right now.  Allow me to explain:

1).  The tree is beautiful with the decorations, lights, star, and ribbon.  This represents our family's love and work together to bring about something beautiful.

2).  The ribbon stops before it gets to the bottom.  There is a reason for that.  I have a beautiful dog named Rustie who has served us well for 14 years this month.  We love him to pieces.  He is getting older, moves around in a not so organized fashion anymore and when he goes by the tree, we'd rather be sure he doesn't get tangled in ribbon while we're gone.  Occasionally, he's been so nice to us to give us another view of the tree by rotating it for us.  That's why there isn't a tree skirt in this picture and why there is one lonely bulb on the floor instead of the tree.  ;)

3).  The bare, unfinished cement floor....yes, I love it!  It represents sacrifice.  It represents love.  It represents frugality and patience too.  You see, we could have taken our money and finished the floor, but instead we've decided to wait until our house in Pennsylvania has sold before we finish the flooring.  We want to be sure we tend to the obligations we have before tending to the floor.  So the floor takes a back seat.  Why not use a credit card?  Well, we have used the "all cash" system for a very long time and we will continue to use the all cash system not because credit is bad, but because it gives us more control over our money.  We can tell our money where to go.  This is a basic concept that Dave Ramsey uses in his Total Money Makeover program.  This is a basic concept that we're working diligently to pass on to our kids--patience with our life circumstances, and telling our money where to go.  So this floor represents love--as an action word.

4).  The love of books and reading is represented so well in this picture too. I bet you thought I wouldn't bring that up!  LOL   Yes, I have too many books, but I love books.


We are working toward becoming debt free.  This is a step in the journey.  We are selling more of our things and downsizing, decluttering, giving things away too.  The less clutter there is, the less we have to spend time taking care of, dusting, cleaning, upkeep and so forth.

I promise, I will post pictures of our progress.  The thought of being debt free tastes soooo good!  


God Bless,

Mr. G and me