Tender is done with working until all of this blows over. She has been respectful of our decision even though she isn't thrilled with being stuck at home. Robert is still working but will likely be taking some vacation days here and there. I made several face masks and Robert took one for the neurologist and receptionist at his work. It took me about a week to get the pattern right and get the hang of how I'm making them. There is a pocket that you can slip a vacuum bag filter into, if you would like more protection. We have also been prepping a garden. We have all of the grass burned away and it is tilled up. We want to add some compost and then we will start planting seeds. Hopefully in the next few days. The girls have both made routines and goals for this time in an effort to not become depressed and aimless. I am trying to help the boys reach some exercise goals too. As time goes by we just get more and more strict about this social distancing thing. It's been 18 days since the boys have been in a public place. I go to the grocery store about once a week and get essentials but I don't take anything into the house without sanitizing it first and then I wipe down the car handles and steering wheel and such. I am praying about how to celebrate Jesus' resurrection since it looks like we may not be able to gather for Easter this year. Everytime I think about this I tear up. I miss gathering with my brothers and sisters in Christ. Watching a sermon on a screen is no substitute although I am grateful for the pastors that are laboring to still feed us with the Word weekly. I am so sad, missing the church very much. And I long to celebrate Christ's resurrection with them. But we trust the Lord. I am trying to make a cross to put upright in our front yard. And I told the kids that on easter morning I want to rise early and sing the sun up! Also, I recommend the playlist on spotify called CBC Women's Retreat 2019. It has been an encouragment lately!
(With how I'm having to upload pictures now, you can click on the picture and it will get bigger and reveal the caption, if there is one)
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In deciding how to update people I have been confused. There is too much to say, right? So much has happened in the last week. I have been praying about how to encourage others and glorify God with our blog during this time. So, I guess first, I'm going to give a short update and then I will encourage.
Tender is still working at McDonalds. She washes her hands so much during a shift that they are dreadfully dry and I am so proud of her. I make her change and wash her hands again when she gets home. Sometimes she showers too because we are both worried about what she could have been exposed to. Robert is still working as well. His clinic is separate from the main hospital building, but he does have to do testing there sometimes. They are checking everyone's temp upon any entry to any building associated with the hospital and Robert's clinic has had many cancelations because they mainly see elderly people. The boys have been no where public since last Thursday and I am continuing that for the foreseeable future. I go to the grocery store alone when someone is home to watch them. I am not an anxious person by nature, but shopping has caused anxiety in me for the last week. I'm not really freaked out by the germs but I guess just the energy in the store feels frantic and the shelves are so empty. We have only bought what we need. If I get creative our supplies are enough. Beyond all of this our life has not changed that much, to be honest. It's not nearly as drastic as some of you. Here is my practical encouragement to our friends who are with children all of the time and trying to do school at home. This is me speaking, not the Lord, and definitely not your school board. If your child is 8 or below, work for about 15 minutes and then take a break for 15 minutes. Only work on desk type work with this age range for no more than an accumulation of an hour and then put it away even if it the day's work is not nearly complete. Your relationship with the child and their relationship with learning is more important than completing a day's work. If your child is between 9 and 12, same thing except they can handle more like 2 hours of desk type work. Then put it away. For kiddos 13 and up, 3-4 hours of desk work. I beg you, don't make them pretend they are at school. Let them play abcya.com or starfall.com or ask them what they've always wanted to learn and then look up a youtube video on it! You would not believe how fun it is to learn together without feeling like you have to complete something. My amazing sister said that our kids are going to remember these few weeks for the rest of their lives! What do we want them to remember? A mom who is freaking out because she can't complete what the school sent home? Just put it away and learn something together. Read good books aloud together! Pick up Narnia or Lord of the Rings or a biography and live the story together! Neither of you will ever forget it, I promise! And you will be floored by what they learned. O Lord, because you are my shepherd, I need nothing else. You fill my heart with every need and desire I could ever have. You make me rest in the safety of my home, with you. You bring me perfect peace in your presence. You lead me beside still waters for continual refreshment. My soul is restored. What more could I need? Father, You lead me in righteousness in every circumstance for YOUR glory! Even when you lead me, as my loving shepherd, through the valley of the shadow of death, I will not fear. I will be strong and courageous. Not because I am able but because you are with me! I am comforted because your rod will keep me from running away and will protect me from danger and your staff will guide me so I won't be lost.
You invite me to feast with you and there is no one and nothing that can prevent me. Every day you anoint me with sufficient grace to serve you. I will continue to return for grace. You have dealt bountifully with me. I have no fear in your lack of faithfulness. You will care for me perfectly and shower me with grace every day of my life, no matter the circumstance, you are steadfast. Because of Christ's finished work, I have the ever present help of the Holy Spirit. I am never alone. I am with my savior for all eternity, safe and loved. Amen. I am in sore need of updating our loved ones on what is going on around here. So that is what this is. First, weebly (the website we use for this blog) has been messing up a lot. It seems like the main source of difficulty is the app that I used to uploading pictures. Which made things really easy. It just has never been great but in the last few months has really been messing up. So after several weeks of trying to find an easy solution without success I just decided to delete the app and not use it again. This makes posting pictures more difficult and time consuming for me. That is what has gone on there. Here is an update on everyone.
Bug: Bug has regressed with this move a lot. Every night he comes to our room scared. I put an old crib mattress under our bed and I pull it out every night for him to sleep on when he comes to our room. He loves this. But then when I get up about 5:45 in the morning I pick him up and take him back to bed so that he can easily sleep until 7 (which is our kid wake-up time). Bug and Hulk love playing outside in our creek while we do school work. He is talking a lot and he is playing more with his older brothers in wrestling and such showing that he is getting older. Hulk: You wouldn't even know that all these changes have happened if you saw Hulk. He goes with the flow so well. If you ask him he says that he misses Indiana but he has new friends here. Hulk is so cute and such a joy. He simply lives life in joy. Although he is starting to occasionally be annoyed or put out by his little brother, in general, they are besties. Wild Man: Wild Man hasn't made any solid friends yet although he is very friendly and I'm sure that will change. There are lots of girls at our new church his own age, not as many boys. But he is great with girls being friends too. He says he misses some things from our old home. But he hasn't complained much. He finished his formal reading lessons in homeschooling a couple of weeks ago. Now he is reading Boxcar Children on his own every day just getting help from me occasionally. The Boy: There isn't much to share about The Boy. He is a lot like Hulk in that he goes with the flow and is generally pretty happy. He is a lot more thoughtful though. I know he is considering many things but he doesn't share a lot. He reads hours every day. He loves reading and exploring our property. Hurricane: Hurricane is making friends fast. This is attributed to an amazingly friendly youth group at our new church. Our girls are so happy with this youth group, they've never felt more accepted and appreciated! It is made up of young believers and sweet kids that are just happy to be loved by a church body so that overflows out in their own love and acceptance of other kids. The culture of the youth group is more wild than they are used to but so sweet. Hurricane is researching hard core of farming and is chomping at the bit to have cows and chickens and a duck! Tender: Tender has made several friends at church as well and is constantly talking about how much she loves the youth group. She is the oldest girl that attends. After we moved here she immediately started searching for a job. We were too late for dual enrollment this semester so we directed our focus toward driving and a job. A couple weeks ago she finally found a job at McDonald's and started there. And a few weeks before that she passed her permit test and has since been learning to drive. We bought a used little car for her to learn on since our vehicles are so big. Robert: Robert's job is great so far. He is doing well and making progress in resurrecting some of his old knowledge. The clinic he works at has great coworkers. It's been a hard transition for him but he is doing well. Lindsey: What is true about the youth group is true of the whole church. We have never, as a family, felt more accepted and welcomed at a church. The culture is amazing. We were invited over to people's homes for meals more times in our first few weeks here than we have been in the last several years! So getting to know other women has been great. I am attending a bible study on Friday mornings at the church and inviting women and kids over for playdates often. The last few weeks I have been focusing on getting back into meal planning for our home. And I'm working on getting the kids and I into a good routine in the home in general. I have also been sewing a quilt made of all of our favorite baby clothes. And I altered about a dozen of Robert's dress shirts for work. Most shocking of all, I'm ironing on a regular basis. : ) I have not been able to get back into running since we moved. I've gone on a few runs but I typically run at 6am and here, without street lights on a country road, its pitch black and I had to wear a head lamp. And, honestly, it was scary. I could see eyes watching me and hear wild animals and horses would run beside me in the fields I ran by. So, I've settled on waiting until the sun comes up earlier. Ha! Today I surprised the kids with a trip to the Discovery Center in Springfield. It was lots of fun. Okay, I can't think of much else to say. Thanks for your prayers. And we miss our Louisville area friends. Here are some pictures... I have been working really hard to figure out how to tailor Robert's dress shirts. We have accumulated most of these from goodwill or for free from the Southern Exchange and before that The Attic (SBTS lingo there). And Robert does not have an average male body type so they have never fit well. At this job he really needs to dress nice so he has been asking me for a while to figure out how to tailor his shirts. Taking in the sides to make the torso thinner is easy but there were several that he said the shoulders were too broad and he really wanted them brought in. I had no idea how to do that and looked around on line without much help either. Anyway, long story short I figured out a way to do it, correct or not. And then I forgot every time some detail and had to remind myself so eventually I took pictures of the process to help me remember and decided to document it here for future purposes. I cannot stress enough that I have no idea what I'm doing here. It is just a sincere effort with, what my limited experience says, seems like a sucess. |
LindseyI'm the mama and wife. Updating you on our life! Archives
January 2022
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