Making Memories... or Reliving Them??

     The last few trips we’ve taken have definitely been the kind that you remember years down the road. We have plenty of those stories from when I was a kid and my family was on deputation, and now my family is adding to those stories.

     Ours started two weeks ago on our way to a Wednesday night meeting. We had left my parent’s house, and we were stopping for a meeting in Indianapolis, then we would head home the next day. We got about an hour and a half into a four hour trip and then it happened. Our ten month old started throwing up. Now, he’s a baby, he spits up all the time, but this was different. Chunks of animal cracker were coming back up, and he couldn’t stop. I was suddenly very glad that I had been hoarding grocery bags in the front pocket of the diaper bag. So we pulled over and cleaned him and the car seat up. As we started to get back on the road, he threw up again. The next three hours consisted of him occasionally puking and me cleaning it up. We had grocery bags piled around with puked on clothes tied in one or two and vomit clean up in the others. After three days of continually throwing up everything that went in, he finally seemed to be getting better, which was just in time for us to leave for our next meeting. Praise the Lord!

     So, we hit the road the next day for West Virginia. Three hours into the trip, our daughter was incredibly whiney. She’s two, so she tends to be whiney quite often, but this time she was more so than normal. I reached back to hold her hand and it was very hot. So I got out the thermometer and took her temperature. Sure enough, she had a fever. Here we go again. We made it to our destination in West Virginia without a vomit incident, which were praising the Lord for, but the next day we had another three and a half hours to go up to northern Ohio. Well, that morning she had some diarrhea diapers and then that afternoon, an hour into three and a half hour drive, she threw up. A lot. Maybe I shouldn’t have given her three cheese sticks and two glasses of milk that morning.  I’ve learned there is a very large and very smelly difference between a ten month old’s vomit and a two year old’s.  After stopping to clean her and the mess up, we rode the rest of the way with the windows down and the air on full blast to mask the smell. It didn’t really work, by the way. When we finally made it, hubby ended up having to go to the meetings alone because she little girl was still throwing up.

     These are definitely times we won’t forget, and they are reminding me of some similar memories we made when I was a kid. Like the time that Joel (the one who now exists) got carsick and then as we pulled over to clean him up, I believe I got sick and so did one of my other brothers. Then there’s also the time that we stopped at a hotel and I rocketed out of the van as fast as possible and promptly hurled all over the ground next to our van… and also next to a very nice sports car. Then after my older brother got out and saw what had happened, he proceeded to throw up right there as well. My dad may or may not have gone back later and moved our van away from the puke and very nice sports car.

     Ah, the memories! We are now all puke free and my littles are just as rambunctious as ever! And now that we’re home and well, it’s time for potty training to begin… again. Hey, third time’s the charm right? We shall see. This stage has ended up being one for the memory books as well, but that's a story for another time. So does anyone have any tips for me??

Revealing My Sources

Happy Memorial Day. I hope you both enjoy the day off AND remember and thank God for those who gave their lives defending our country and our freedoms.

I've been doing some research over the past week or so for various items that our church has needed for Vacation Bible School, that our ladies have needed for our Ladies Extravaganza in August, and some items of clothing I needed for the summer.

That's a lot of research. And it occurred to me that some people who read this blog might have some resources that would help me. And then it occurred to me that I might have some resources that help others.

So that's what my post is about today. Here are some random websites I've found for various things I've needed either in the ministry or at home. Feel free to bookmark this post and use any of the links I've listed here. I am not receiving any kind of compensation for recommending them and I don't necessarily endorse everything these sites offer, but I've found them helpful and I wanted to share. If you've got any links you've found helpful, list them in the comments. I may occasionally update this with a new post as I come across other helpful sites.

Printing tracts, invitations, announcements, prayer cards, postcards, door hangers and banners:

http://www.calvarypublishing.org/home/ -- they're very helpful and have done a great job with anything we've asked of them. Very reasonably priced, too.

https://www.gotprint.com/home.html -- never used them, but they got high recommendations from a great many people in the ministry.

VBS programs and curriculum (I have not ordered from all of these companies, but these are the ones I thought looked promising. My criteria was looking for stores that used the KJV version of the Bible in their lessons.):

http://hastenhome.com/shop/product-cat/vbs-curriculum/

http://www.vbs.bogardpress.org

http://www.pkpublications.com/products-page/vbs-material/

http://www.thekjvstore.com/church-supplies/vacation-bible-school.html

http://regularbaptistpress.org/vbs/

https://mercyandtruthministry.com/product-category/teachers-resources/page/2/

Modest clothing (I've not shopped at all of these places, so I can't vouch for their quality or customer service. I found most of them when I was looking for culottes, skirts and swimwear):

https://www.junees.com/collections/ladies

http://www.modestapparelusa.com/modest-clothing-for-women.html

http://www.myculottes.com

http://modestyinmotion.com

http://www.1611skirts.com

http://www.far-above-rubies.net

http://meanttobemodest.com

http://fashionbelle.com/modest-clothing-reviews/culottes - this is a directory of websites for modest clothing.

**Keep in mind that my idea of modest may be more conservative than some of the items offered on these websites.

KJV Bibles:

http://localchurchbiblepublishers.com/bibles/

https://www.thekjvstore.com

https://www.christianbook.com

http://www.cambridge.org/bibles/bible-versions/king-james-version#p2oCjhTEq70FH19L.97

Again, bookmark this page for future use. So what about you? Do you have any resources to share? Add the link in your comments. It can be websites dealing with the items above or just anything at all that you've found helpful.

Thanks for sharing!

Four Tips on Selling

Have you ever come across an ad for a yard sale, it has awesome pictures and you just can’t wait to go to it? It’s the moment you see the items that you want and start making plans of what you would do with those items if you had them? Well, that happened to me this week. Tuesday, I was on Facebook and saw this HUGE barn sale that was happening yesterday. I had two whole days to look at those pictures and I got so excited! They were selling a TON of Primitive and Rustic decor. I saw it as a great opportunity to re-decorate my house. Well, my husbands day off was yesterday and we were able to go to it. They had rented a tent and had a pole barn FULL of things. As we walked up, I said to my husband, “I am for sure leaving with something today.” He looked at me frightened and said, “okay.” We started walking around and I started looking at the price tags, this was no yard sale, this was a private craft show. These were not yard sale prices. I became disappointed and walked away with nothing. Sad, right?

Well, from there we went to Goodwill. We love Goodwill! Yes, sometimes their prices can get high too, but we can usually always find a good steal. Not only do we find a good deal from time to time, but it also helps us make some extra money. When we lived in Florida we needed to make a little extra money and so my husband got started buying and selling items. I really didn’t like it at the beginning, until one day at a yard sale Matt came across a pair of Gucci Sneakers. He came to the car and asked me about them. I said, “yes, get them.” He came back to the car with them and he got them for a dollar! Yes, one dollar! So we took them home and listed them on Ebay. Three days later we sold those Gucci Sneakers for $137. After that, I changed my mindset on buying and selling and it was a whole new ballgame! 

Here’s a “How To” on selling stuff:

1. Do Your Research

     - Look up your item and find out how much it is worth.

     - Know your item. Is this a good brand or should I even waste my time trying to sell it?

     - Is this Genuine or a knockoff? There are a lot of knockoffs out there but it’s not too difficult to tell whether it’s real or not.

2. Determine where to sell it and how to price it

     - There are a few options of where to sell. Our go to places are Ebay, Facebook, Etsy and Craigslist. Ebay is for your higher priced items. Etsy is for your homemade things.

     - You can’t sell something on Facebook and expect to get what you paid for it if you bought it brand new.

3. Sell it

     - Take a few minutes and clean the items if they aren’t clean already.

     - Take a good picture. You don’t want to have a background with dirty clothes on the floor or garbage laying in the background. It’s not hard to add a nice background and keep it from being blurry.

     - Have a good description, it doesn’t have to be a long one. It does however need to be well written. It should be very clear, and detailed with no spelling mistakes.

4. Follow through and protect yourself

      - When shipping an item, always include a tracking number.

      - Depending on how much the item is worth, you might want to include shipping insurance.

      - If you have to meet someone, meet in a public place during the day.

      - Try and always take someone with you.

Do you have any tips that you would like to share?

A Knight's Tale

     Tomorrow will be mine and hubby's fourth wedding anniversary. It's incredibly hard to believe that four years have come and gone. In some ways, it feels like there's no way we've been married for four years. In other ways, it feels like we've been together a lot longer than four years. For instance, I never would have imagined that after only four years I would have a two year old and an almost one year old. On the other hand, I do not feel old enough to have a two year old, an almost one year old, and to have been married for four years.

     Our love story is not your typical love story.  You know, love at first sight and falling head over heels. Side note: I have never understood "falling in love" or "falling head over heels". Love isn't a mud puddle that you fall head over heels and splat into, but maybe that's just me. Anyways, ours was not love at first sight, it was "eh" at first sight, and then, I don't remember how or why, but one day we did start talking and then a little over a year later we got married.

     There you have it, "Eh" at first sight turned into marriage and two babies. Through it all, though, my hubby has been my knight in shining armor. When we met, my family lived in Florida where my dad was pastoring, but I had moved back to Alabama and I was living with my old youth pastor, his wife, and their daughter. After "eh" turned into a friendship and possibly something more, my knight in shining armor went and asked permission to date me from my youth pastor and my dad. These days, not many guys even ask the father's permission to marry a girl, much less to date her; and then on top of that to ask two people for permission would probably be out of the question for most guys.

     We hadn't been dating for very long before my knight in shining armor came to my rescue. You see, I was quite poor and I had some debt. So between gas, food, and paying off debt, I didn't have a lot of extra money for anything else. I had a little pay as you go phone that was like a half step above a flip phone. I pretty much used that phone to talk to my mom and that was it... until we started dating. Well, using up my minutes and only being able to call at certain times got really old fast, so my knight decided to rescue me from the stone age and buy me my first smart phone. Needless to say, at this point we knew we were getting married. Nothing like a phone contract for a commitment!

     Six months after we started dating, my knight proposed. Again, he went and got permission before he asked. Sometimes I still wonder how we ended up where we are, especially considering my dad's initial answer was "no" 😲 . After my dad gave permission, my knight set it all up for me to come visit his family since he was going to be there for a hunting trip.  Then on opening day of gun season, after hunting of course, we went out to dinner with his family and some friends. After dinner, he disappeared for a few minutes and when he came back he had my parents on Skype. He asked me to stand up, he got down on one knee, and popped the question. I was so shocked, and I believe at one point someone asked "wait, did she ever actually say 'yes' ? ".

       Two months after we got engaged, my knight came to my rescue again. I had wrecked my car and like I said before, I was quite poor. There was absolutely zero money or credit for a car. For a week I stayed with a friend and she gave me rides to and from work so that I wouldn't lose my job. During that time, my knight went searching and bought me a car! Yes, we were engaged, but we weren't married yet and he did not have to buy that car for me, but he did.

     Four months later we were married, 

and for four years now my knight in shining armor has been coming to my rescue and keeping me in complete awe of him. It's not just the big things that make him my knight, but the little things too. Like taking the kids when they are both crying so that I can have some time. Or the time that he helped me wash out the puked in car seat in the hotel bath tub (That one was just yesterday, by the way). Or all the work that he does every day to provide for our family and to get us to the field that God has called us to. My hubby truly is an amazing man and he's above and beyond anything that I ever could have asked for.

     Right now my knight is fending off the kids so that I can finish writing, but I wanted to end with this question. What are some things that you appreciate about your knight?

   

A Crisis of Identity

 

This is Joel. He does not exist. I would have thought he did. After all, he's lived with us for nineteen years. But I've recently tried to help him get a state ID card, and the Secretary of State's office is not convinced that Joel is ... well... Joel.

Funny, because I sure remember staying pregnant for an extra day so that he would be born on April 2nd instead of April Fool's Day.

But what do I know? I'm just the mother that was induced and then endured many hours of labor before this bouncing, 9 lb, 2 oz baby boy came into the world.

You'd think that experience alone would qualify my word to carry weight, but it doesn't.

The problem, you see, is that, in order to get a photo ID, you need a photo ID. Which Joel would have if he'd gone to the local public high school. Since we're not very impressed with public education, we homeschooled our children. And the only photo ID they have is one that I made for them.

The Secretary of State's office was less than impressed with my desktop publishing skills.

Never had this problem you say? That's probably because you got an ID for your child before he/she turned eighteen. Apparently that coming-of-age age is quite the sticking point.

This is Nick. He's only seventeen, which is why he's able to exist. Last year I took both Joel and Nick to the Secretary of State's office to get them each an ID card. (We're not doing driver's licenses yet because we can't afford them on the insurance.)

You may or may not be aware that certain documents are required in order to obtain a state-issued identification. First, you have to prove your social security number, which you can do with your social security card. Keep in mind, though, that your social security card cannot be used to verify your identity. Or your legal presence. It can only verify your number.

Next, you need to have proof of your legal presence in the United States. I'm not sure how so many people who don't seem to have this end up getting licenses and even federal funding, but that's another blogpost too, and probably a little too political for some people. Suffice it to say, Joel and Nick both have birth certificates proving they were born in the United States. Unfortunately, the birth certificate can only verify your legal presence in the country. It cannot verify your identity.

And here's where we have a problem. You have to prove identity, and in order to do that you have to have a photo ID. Since Nick did not have a photo ID, and since I was listed on his birth certificate as his mother, and since I had the ID to prove that I was, indeed, the woman listed on his birth certificate, they accepted my word for it and gave Nick an ID, which means that the State of Michigan acknowledges that Nick Boyd exists.

Which brings us back to Joel, who does not exist. Joel also had no photo ID. I'm also listed on his birth certificate as his mother, and since I still had the same ID to prove that I was also Joel's mother, it should have been easy for Joel to get a state-issued identification card as well.

Not hardly.

Joel had turned eighteen two weeks before we went in to get their ID's. And since that was the case, they could no longer accept his mother's word for his identity.

Since when do I stop being their mother when they turn eighteen?

Never mind that they had just agreed to issue identity to Nick, standing right next to Joel. Never mind that the parents listed on their birth certificates were identical in every way.

Never mind that I have the grades and the report cards to prove that I taught this non-existent child throughout his life. Never mind that I have the medical records for when Joel broke both his arms and ended up the emergency room in Florida. Never mind that I have the medical records from when Joel took a line drive to the mouth and ended up in the emergency room in Michigan.

Never mind that I have a shot record from the health department declaring his immunizations are up-to-date. Never mind that he's had a legal hunting license in the state of Michigan for the last three years.

Since Joel doesn't exist, he certainly does not teach a Sunday School class at our church for boys in the third through sixth grades. And I suppose he couldn't possibly be responsible for the fact that he has boys saved in his class almost every week.

He certainly doesn't sing tenor in the choir, since he doesn't exist. And I'm not sure who is getting the benefit of his piano lessons, but it couldn't be Joel. Did I mention he doesn't exist?

At any rate, I've collected all these papers and documents to prove that Joel Boyd does, indeed, exist. I'm taking Joel and the documents to the secretary of state's office tomorrow in the hopes that they will also agree that Joel exists. Please pray that things go smoothly and that we can get his identification card.

If not, we have only one option left. They will accept a department of corrections prisoner identification card. But it seems a little drastic to have Joel commit a crime in order to prove his ID.

I'm getting desperate, and I'm afraid Joel will eventually fade away like the character on Back to the Future. So help me out. Leave a comment if you believe Joel exists. We could use the reinforcement.

What I Didn't Know Then..

When you were a teenager, did you think you had life all figured out? Did you think that life didn’t move fast enough because you just couldn’t wait to grow up and be on your own. Well, now that I’m older and looking back there are some things i would definitely have changed about my teenage years.

• My Education- I didn’t make it count when it mattered most. I should have focused more on studying and less on trying to “fit in”. Later in your life you don’t get a career based on if you “fit in” or not, you get one based on the education you have. 

I used to work as a receptionist at a Psychiatric office. One time, I got a call to adjust the thermostat for a patient that was going to come in an hour. Do you think I got that job because I “fit in”? My husband might think so.

• Saving money- It can be exciting when you get your first job and that paycheck is burning a hole in your pocket. Don’t spend it all in one place. Trust me, i’ve been there. Save it! You’ll be so thankful that you did.

For me-it was shoes. I am a serious shoe addict. Do you know Oprah’s weight watchers commercial “I LOVE BREAD. I love bread!” Picture me saying that about shoes.

• Time spent with loved ones- I have lost 2 loved ones within a year. My Grandma and my Daddy. As a young person you think those family members will be around for a long time. Life is short and you need to cherish those moments while you have them. I’m so grateful for the time spent with them before they each passed.   

• Getting involved- I wasn’t faithful to church by any means but I attended youth group in high school. I didn’t take it seriously and I didn’t get involved. In my mind I was “too cool”. It wasn’t until I was married to my husband who is a youth pastor, and we were attending teen camp the first year as a married couple, that I realized I wish I would have been more active in my youth group. Don’t think you’re “too cool” to get involved, because you are not. You need Jesus! 

So, what would you add to the list?

Home Again Home Again Jiggety Jig

     Thirty-four days. That's how long we've been gone on this round. It's been a busy trip, but a good one, and tomorrow we are finally going home! Home... finally... for a whole... three days.

     I have big plans for those three days. Big plans of doing nothing. 

Well, nothing except some cleaning the first day because we've been gone for over a month. But nothing other than that. I mean, except for that and a run to the grocery store because we do have to eat for those three days. That's it though, then I'm done. Well, done aside from doing some laundry. Oh, and the repacking for the next trip. And making sure it's clean before we leave again. And then there's the whole two toddlers thing I have to deal with. Oh, and also the doctor's appointments. Okay, so maybe my big plans are more like big dreams. That's okay, though, because we'll be home.

     We don't have any horror stories from deputation, but even if all of your stops and stays are good ones, there is just something about being home. You get to sleep in your own bed, and your kids get to sleep in their own beds (we bring a playpen and a cot with us, but somehow everyone ends up in our bed come morning). You get to make our own food. McDonalds gets old very quickly, and we have our favorites that we like to have our first few evenings home. You get to wash your clothes as often as you need. Don't get me wrong. We don't wear dirty clothes, we just carry around a bag of dirty clothes until it's absolutely necessary to wash (i.e. no clean undies for the next day). Then we find a place to do so. You get to let your child "cry it out" to go to sleep because there's no one in the room next door that you have to be courteous of. My kids get to cuddle to sleep almost every night, which I enjoy most nights, but they do need to know how to put themselves to sleep sometimes.

     It's just nice to go home, if even for a few days, to reset and recharge for the next trip. After this next trip, we'll be home for two whole weeks. It will be a good rest for us, because once we leave again it will be very busy. I do, however, have actual big plans for those two weeks. Finishing up potty training, sorting through the garage and storage to prepare for a yard sale, not to mention decorating and preparing for vacation bible school! It will still be a restful time for us though because we'll be home. I never thought of myself as a homebody. I love to get out and go places and always be going somewhere, but now I understand there really is no place like home.

     So what about you? Homebody or world traveler?