Christmas the easy way

This past sunday my husband and I concurrently spent about 4 hours on the mac and ipad surfing for kids presents for christmas.  After we'd consolidated our lists of ideas I went to work on amazon.  I found everything we were wanting, save one item.  All included free shipping, again save one.  So for all of our stuff I think it was something in the range of $4 shipping.  I can do that - since I would have spent that much in gas and time running to stores.  

As for the item we didn't find, well, that involved two (count them - two)  edge-of-your-seat-nail-bitting-Ebay-bid-offs - yes, shamefully, my hubby last second out bid the other contenders and is now the proud owner of four die cast Tonka trucks - yippee - and I hope that our almost four year old appreciates the angst and excitement with which those trucks were absconded with!!!

So the boys are done - without the frustrations of the crowds.  Admittedly, I am not a Friday after Thanksgiving shopper by any means.  In fact, when we do shop at Walmart my husband has to coach me on the walk into the store to take deep breaths and relax... deep breaths ... patience ... God's love ... relax ... etc ... etc.  

I think this (amazon) is my new mode of shopping.  Yeah it took a bit of effort - but significantly less effort than the stores and the driving and did I mention my dislike of crowds ...

My other focus this Christmas has been on the true meaning of christmas.  Christ was born, that's what we're celebrating, not the presents, not the man made Santa - Christ!!  In a bit of wisdom I learned from a friend, we bought each boy three gifts - like the three gifts Christ received when he was born and we bought three "family" gifts ( ok they are three gifts both boys will enjoy and mom and dad will enjoy through the indirect result of the boys playing quietly with said family gifts).  So, we'll set out cookies for Santa but we'll hopefully give the best gift we can back to God - that being - our belief in Him and in His Son Jesus who came to earth to die so that we may live forever in God's glorious realms.  Praise God for His faithfulness to His creation.

Blessings as always and may your christmas gifts list include the most important gift you can give ...

It's been a while ... No?

Time to update? I should say so...
Well we had a buyer and went through a few rounds of offers and counter offers and offers and counters ad nauseum. Finally we put our foot down and said here it is buyer - calling your bluff we'll accept your offer of X (even though we thought he was blowing smoke) and it turned out .... He was blowing smoke - so we've moved on and are back in the groove of pristine showings.
We had another showing today - read encouragement. I'm recognizing this first go around as preparation by God. I'm teaching a Sunday school class that is currently studying the Isrealites exit from egypt then their much wonderings in the dessert and their final conquering and moving into etc of the promised land. In all of it - the living under slave rule - the wanderings - the campings and conquests God is patiently teaching them to trust in Him and wait for the blessing from Him in His time. I'm learning and recognizing this in our current state. God is giving us the time - graciously - to prepare, to rework, to frankly wait for the timing of the blessing He has in store for us. I know that we could have made the last deal "work" in a worldly sense but then we would have missed the blessing of God's plan. It's up to Him and I'm sure that He'll let us know when the deal is right and when it's time to move. Dare I say it, I'm certain He'll ... Call us.
Praise God who is good all the time.
Blessings while waiting for the call from Him. Heather

Keeping up is so much easier when there's less to keep up with...

We've cleared our house of all the nick knacks and stuff that make it lived in and that just seem to find their way in during every day life.  It amazes me how much time I save now in  quickly wiping down surfaces and vacuuming floors when I don't have to first move stuff to get to them.  There's something to that old saying "a place for everything and everything in it's place".

We have had several showings of our house in the two short weeks it's been on the market.  Awaiting an offer now ... or maybe it's just been a lot of nebbers / look-see-ers and what have you.  It is encouraging seeing quite a bit of traffic come through ... it means that at least we're priced where people are interested.  

Now I'm just waiting on God's timing to provide the people who should live here next with the showing and the means to - well - live here next.

We found a house that we like very much and that is on a nice amount of land.  It's our standard and will probably be our pick if something happens with our house soon.

We had a professional take down some, honestly a lot, of wallpaper and replace it with a nice neutral paint. 

It amazes me how that transforms the look of a room.  Combine that with cleared surfaces and minimized stuff and wow - I like this house.  It just goes to show how deceiving the staged home can be - once you actually live in it it probably shrinks faster than that little door in Alice in Wonderland.

But I'll play the game and honestly, if my skills are up to par - with enough practice - I'll be able to hopefully - prayerfully continue this minimized theory and not accumulate so much stuff after we move.

Your Pumpkin Is Showing ...

It's been a whirl wind day.  The incongruity of the title goes to show how my mind has been processing ...

It was my oldest sons field trip day to Triple B Farms today - and I went along with several other parents.  It was a really great field trip.  Really fun activities and really informative and still fun for the kids.  Plus the weather was BEAUTIFUL so that always helps.

First we went for a ride on the slides...

Then we went to the Education Barn where Mrs. B of Triple B farms taught us about donkeys and honey bees.  My son goes to a christian school and our field trip group was with a public school.  Since we were two schools in the same group - Mrs. B kept us back to tell us special stories since we were from a christian school.  Like -  all donkeys have a dark mark down the center of their back and a second dark mark across their shoulders - forming a cross!!  And to think that Mary road a donkey to the Bethlehem to birth our saviour ... then later Christ rode a donkey on Palm Sunday - God's great plans...

Second she shared with us after the honey bee lesson to think of how great God made the honey bee and they are just a little bee and how great God is to make them so intricate and so powerful in helping so many foods that we eat grow by pollination like apples and pumpkins.  The sad part is that she isn't able to share these stories with groups that are non christian schools.  Sad that in a free country on a family owned farm, they are not allowed to speak of Christ.  It really saddened Mrs. B too - so touching.

We then had some lunch and then saw the goats that "worked" for their meals...

The kids shouted "pull the rope" and the goat pulled the little feed can up!!

 We walked through the pumpkin patch where familiar characters were "made" out of pumpkins ... here's Noah and his minions ...

And then we took a hayride ...

And I quickly got my phone out to be ready for pictures and had received a text from our realtor that our house would have a showing in an hour - thank goodness I made the beds this morning!

So that's when doing this ...

... picking pumpkins mixed with trying to remember if I'd picked up the runaway socks and I realized that my mornings are going to be MUCH more busy - taking stock of the house to determine if it is showable or if the potential buyers would rather see a pumpkin.

Obviously, prayers are welcome, however I've reserved myself to the fact that if someone is really going to be that turned off by a rouge piece of laundry, perhaps God is leading them to another house or pumpkin anyway.

Blessings ...

Renting a 10X20 Storage Space

I am the proud renting owner of a 10X20 Storage Space - which the Storage place guy tells me is way to big, but that I'm sure my husband, my boys and I can fill up quite nicely.  

We're going to be moving, hopefully soon, so we are storing all of the things that you use on a daily basis and that make a home look lived in since potential buyers want to buy an "un-lived" in looking home.  

Honestly, it is amazing how big the rooms and counters and furniture look when you don't have life spewed all over them.  The realtor took pictures this evening and he was showing them to me as he took each one - boy does the house look nice in still life photos.  

We've got plenty of packing and work and fixing and stress management to deal with soon, but I'm sure that we'll handle it just fine.  In the end it will be worth it.  

I've decided to leave it to God's hands.  He's the absolute best handler of all things and I know that if I try to do this it won't work out near as well as He can make it work out.  

I'll let Him lead my packing, I'll let Him lead my planning, I'll let Him lead our picking of the next home.  He's got it I'm sure and I'm planning on just getting out of the way and seeing where He takes it.  

Won't you join me on this journey and see just how amazing He is.

If the shoe fits....

I was pleasantly surprised today with how comfortable my new shoes were.  They fit well - stayed on when I walked - and they had absolutely no scratchy or "rubbie / rubby??" areas.  Just all around great feeling shoes with good support and stylish to boot (excuse the pun).

Disclaimer- I'd bought them yesterday at a consignment shop - one of my favorite places that has consistently delivered for 10 years now.  If they had been worn, it was very little wear as the sole was without wear - without any wear.  They drew me to them as they were the black dress shoes with a-little-heel that I've been looking for but that have been eluding me.  And they were kind of cool in a stylish way that said - we're a little sassy but traditional enough.  What - your shoes don't talk to you?!

Imagine my amazement when I finally look up the designer of these podiatry accessories sent straight from heaven and find that for a mere $15 I've bought $200 to $400 shoes!!

Wow What a find!  I'm getting over my Eddie Bauer lustings quite easily with such a thrifty find.

May God lead and Bless your shoe shopping as He has mine.  

Coveting ....

I received in the mail this past Friday the new Eddie Bauer catalog.  I almost threw it away because I had visions of the clothes I wore in the high school in the 90s and visions of walking through their store back then - and now thinking - nice quality but just not my style any more.  

Had I tossed it then I would have been better off - because I didn't and now I've been sinning away for the past day coveting every single outfit in that book!  I'm usually pretty predictable in my wearables.  Mostly modern cut Tshirts and boot cut jeans.  Come on, give me a break, I'm a mom of two and for the past year worked in a plant where I had to wear a lab coat all the time anyway.  I think I do pretty good going for the modern cut.  

But gracious, looking through the pages of that catalog - I've never had an experience before where EVERYTHING I saw was something that I said - wow that's my style - I'd feel really comfortable in that.  

So, just musing but the redefinition of Eddie Bauers style is really something to check out.

Blessings for a wonderful Sunday celebrating our God and our Saviour.  And perhaps some prayers that I could get the coveting under control ;-)   Thanks in advance!