Kind of like a Christmas newsletter only it's not Christmas.

It's been more than a year since I've blogged. I looked at the last time...and I mentioned that Jay was going to graduate. Now, Joy is about to graduate. This is going to be a trend. First they were all back-to-back potty-training. Then learning to read. Then driving. And now graduating. And also Joy has a boyfriend, Joe, and their "ship" name is Joysef. They are really cute together. Joy is working at the convent, washing dishes and baking for the nuns. She may go to college in the fall, or something. She really hasn't made up her mind yet.

Jay is planning on joining the Air Force in the fall. He's still working for my parents in Indiana, and still in Civil Air Patrol. I don't think he has a girlfriend, but he doesn't always tell his mom everything anymore.

Sarah has a driver's license and a car and a job, working at Hope Thrift Center with Erick. She still volunteers at Bright Star Equestrian Center and they all just love her there. She's just finished up her Junior year of homeschooling through high school.

Abby, Rachel, and Timothy all go to private school now, at our church's school. Abby is getting famous around her school for her art. She played volleyball last year, but we just don't seem to be really good at sports in this family. She's also about to get her learner's permit. Rachel finished reading through the Bible a few months ago and reads books faster than we can check them out of the library, and Timothy is getting all As and constantly getting awards for being so well-behaved.

Erick does some fill-in preaching, but loves his work at Hope Thrift and has been busy making a new cash register area out of pallet boards. It's gorgeous.

I got promoted at work and will be starting my new position at the State Police in a couple of weeks in an office coordinator position. I've also picked up running last year, and ran a 200-mile team relay last October and I've done one 5K so far. I have two more at least planned for this year. I'm also still involved in Theatre in the Park and will be in Hello Dolly this year. I sing in church choir and still practice my Spanish regularly.

This reads like a Christmas newsletter, I am quite aware. I really didn't even think I'd blog again. I just got on here to find an old blog post that I wanted to put on Facebook, and blogging seemed more interesting than cleaning the bathrooms, which is what I am supposed to be doing right now.

A post about....um...stuff?

I took this afternoon off work so I could get my teeth drilled (sadly, I am no longer a member of the Cavity-Free Kids Club) and since I was just sitting here waiting for dinner to cook and the kids to finish school so I could grade them, I had this great idea that I should blog something.

I really want to write a blog post about learning language. Preferably in Spanish, since I am getting so good at it I am even impressing myself. But no point in doing that since most of my friends wouldn't be able to read it. Maybe someday when I'm feeling a bit more ambition I'll do the bilingual thing--write a paragraph in Spanish, and then translate it to English. But then I'd have to do it in Word and then copy in paste, because I don't have accent marks on my keyboard. But yeah, I'm just so excited about how far I've come in the past year since I graduated from college. I feel like in school, I learned how to put my shoes on and tie them, and this year I've learned to run.

Our cat is pregnant, by the way. We banished her to being an outside cat because we don't want to risk fleas when we are trying to sell the house. She's been hanging with the neighbor cat, who now eats her cat food, and they've invited a raccoon over to share the bounty. Our cat obviously makes poor choices in a mate.

Anyway, back to language. All I want to say is that if you want to really learn a language, I advise two things: Listen and read. I have been listening to sermons as often as possible in Spanish, and in just a few months I have gone from barely picking up a word or two to understanding casi todo (that's "almost everything") that I hear. At least in a sermon. My extensive biblical vocab helps a lot, because I've been reading the Bible exclusively in Spanish for the last year and a half. For someone like me, raised in church, this has made reading the Bible much more interesting. I am the type that reads a book once and then never reads it again, so the Bible...well, I've read it. It's hard to get interested in reading something I've read and heard preached on so often I could do it myself. But this way, in another language, is muy interesante! (That's "very interesting," for my monolingual amigos out there)

Oh, and Jay is moving out Sunday, moving to Indiana to work for my parents. He's all grown up. He was seven when I started this blog. Seven! Can you believe it? He's eighteen. It's true what they say about them growing up so fast. I didn't used to believe it. And Joy just got her first job, working in the convent that Jay was working at. And Sarah is in Driver's Ed. Remember when she used to be afraid of the cat walking down the street in the opposite direction when we lived in Missouri? Remember little Abby, who didn't know the words to say she'd had enough sleep, so she would tell me she was full? She's going to be 14 in a couple of weeks. I remember when I couldn't wait to have teenagers. I will have five by the end of the year. Rachel, who was just a baby when I started this blog is taller than me now, and Timothy, who wasn't even born yet, is ten!

The timer went off on the oven. Excuse me un momento.

You should be very jealous of the food I just made. If I was the type to do so, I would take a picture and post it on Facebook.

I should mention that I am not on any sort of mind-altering drugs from the dentist. I am writing in this disjointed manner because I want to and it's my blog and I can do with it what I want. Y, es lo que quiero.

An announcement

Today Erick made the difficult announcement that he is resigning as pastor of our New Salem Assembly of God. For now, he will not be taking another pastorate, because he has been offered the opportunity to be mentored by one of the pastors at Calvary Temple in Springfield. Although we are sad about leaving our church, we are excited about the opportunities we will have there. We will miss the people at our church, who are like family to us, but know that God is in this decision and that it will be a good step for us and for our kids.

Along with the mentoring program, Calvary Temple also offered Erick a full-time job working at one of their ministries; Hope Thrift Center in Springfield. He began working there part time a couple of weeks ago and will be going full time after his last day, which will be March 22nd. It is a very nice thrift store, with high-quality merchandise.

Since Erick and I are both going to be working days now, this is going to make it difficult to continue homeschooling. However, we really do not want them to have to go to public school. Calvary Temple runs a private school, so we are praying for God's provision to put Abby, Rachel, and Timothy in their school this fall. Jay will be graduated by then, Joy will only have a year to go, and Sarah will be in her Junior year this fall, so they want to finish out their education at home and I think they will be fine doing that on their own.

It's quite a transition for us, but we really want to stay here. I have a good job here with the Illinois State Police, and there's not really any reason to move. The district leaders have invested a lot of time in Erick and me, and we feel this is where we should stay for this next season in our lives. We will probably put our house up for sale and move to Springfield, though, if God should give us the opportunity, since most of our ties will be there.

We will miss the people at New Salem Assembly. They have been like family to us, and I am thankful for the time that we have been here. God has been good to us and we feel so blessed to have been a part of this ministry.

Thoughts on reaching out to those in pain

I have a friend who is going through a difficult time. She recently lost her child after a long fight with a debilitating disease. I have another friend whose daughter is struggling with mental illness. Another friend is devastated by the betrayal of a spouse. My heart breaks for my friends who are deeply hurting and crying out for answers, and far too often, I have nothing to offer them. Why do I come up short, especially when, as a Christian, I know God holds all the answers in His hands?

Unfortunately,experience has taught me that there is no right thing to say. because in those moments, everything I say seems wrong. Sometimes my words can be so clumsy. I've read articles with titles like "12 things not to say to a grieving mother" or "15 things not to say to the parents of a disabled child" and cringed at how many of them I've said. Did I mean to offend? Of course not. I meant to offer peace and comfort. Have I offered trite-sounding platitudes in place of genuine love and care? Probably. I have opened my mouth expecting words of healing to flow, and instead my words sound hollow and meaningless. I'm sorry for your loss. I'm praying for you. God is in control.  I don't know the words to say, or how to express that I care. Sometimes well-meaning bloggers have given me better lines, lines that are supposed to help instead of add to the wounds, but I can't remember them. All I remember is the part that says better to just stay silent and give a hug. So more and more often, I say less and less. And then one day I read another article written by someone who went through a tragic time, and no one in her church said anything to her. Nobody reached out to her, nobody offered her words of comfort, not even trite ones. The silence hurt just as much as the clumsy words.

Is it better to reach out, knowing that I am not going to know what to say, or to play it safe so nobody gets hurt? Will those in pain understand that when I say those things that seem trite and meaningless, that I am trying to reach out because I care? When I hug you and awkwardly say, "It's okay," I know things really aren't okay. It just means that I wish they were okay. That if could, I would make everything okay. That I care deeply about you and I wish I could come swoop down and save the day, but I'm not able to. I don't have that power. Only God does. And I truly do pray that He will.

Remembering Grandma Luper

This is Leona Luper, my husband's paternal grandmother. She passed away last night. I think she was 86 or 87. She always told everyone she was 29 and that she had decided she wasn't getting any older than that.

Even though she was my husband's grandma, she was my grandma, too. I was only 16 when I met her, so I've known her most of my life. My own grandmothers both passed away several years ago, so I claimed her as my own.

Other than the furniture being rearranged from time to time, Grandma Luper's house was always exactly the same. The red and white pressed glass candy dish full of jelly beans or old fashioned hard candies. The glass cabinet full of her dolls. Her lighthouses, filling every shelf and corner. Grandma loved lighthouses and everyone knew it, so every birthday and Christmas she received more of them.

So many memories in that house. The Christmases and Thanksgivings where I was lucky to find a square foot of carpet to sit on, so full was the house of cousins and aunts and uncles and in-laws. My little babies, fascinated with the Scrooge doorknocker that said "Bah, humbug!" and the bells that lit up and played Christmas carols year after year. Grandma sitting on the floor, too, insisting that if it weren't for the kids, she wouldn't even bother with having furniture.

I remember bringing over laundry when we lived across the street and I didn't have a washer. I didn't ask her to fold my laundry for me; I just was hoping she'd let me wash my clothes. But she always managed to get them dried and folded for me before I could get back over there and take care of it myself.

Everything was always the same. Grandma would always talk about heaven, and about how much she loved her Jesus, and that someday she was going to go to heaven to be with her Jesus and see her son John again, who died of leukemia. She would always get tears in her eyes when she talked about heaven. Later, after Grandpa died, she would talk about seeing him, too.

Whenever we'd visit her, she would be so surprised to see us and jump up to greet us with a long, hug and a kiss. She would hug us as if she hadn't seen us in a long, long time, and when we left, she would hug us all again as if it might be the last time. Nobody left Grandma's house without a hug, even if she had just met you that day.

One of my kids remarked that she thought Grandma would live forever. It just felt like that she should. She should always be there, in Grandpa's old blue recliner, watching the Gaithers sing on TV, being ready for us to come visit her, no matter when we decided to show up. She should never grow any older, never act her age. She should always be the forever 29-year old grandmother sitting on the floor playing with the babies.

The funeral will probably will be Tuesday or Wednesday, so we'll be headed back to Indiana. I'm sure everyone will be there. Even Uncle Jim is flying from California. It's been so long since everyone has been together. It's kind of sad that it takes a funeral to get the whole family together.

I'm sure it will sink in eventually that she's in heaven now, with Grandpa and John. I'm sure she is having the time of her life. But we will certainly have a void on earth here without her. Things just aren't going to be the same anymore.

An "I've missed the rapture!" moment.

It's been a long time since I've had an "I've missed the rapture" moment. And to be clear, I wasn't completely awake when this happened, so I was really torn whether or not to post this story here or in my dream blog. I wasn't actually asleep, though, so I decided to post it here, but my mind wasn't fully functioning yet as you will see.

To set up the story, I had grounded my oldest son, Jay, from his iPad last Friday because he was behind on his schoolwork. He had won it in a contest attending some online event at a bible school, and was spending a little too much time gaming and too little time writing chemistry reports. So I took it away, grounded him from everything fun, and locked the offending iPad up in the lock box under the bed. Unfortunately, he had an alarm set for 5:30 a.m. Not just any alarm, but the most annoying song ever composed. The kind that crawls into your brain at 5:30 in the morning and won't leave for the rest of the day.

When it went off on Saturday, I had no idea what it was. I thought Erick was watching a YouTube video in the bathroom while he was shaving. It didn't sound like something he would watch, but whatever. I was trying to sleep. The next time it went off, I thought it was Erick's phone, and I stumbled around in the dark trying to find it and turn it off. Finally, it dawned on my that it was Jay's iPad.

I could have unlocked the box and had Jay turn it off, but I just keep procrastinating hoping the battery will die. Every morning I end up regretting my procrastination.

This morning when it went off, I went to the bathroom and stayed there until it was over. Then I went back to bed. Now this is where my rapture story starts.

As soon as I crawled into bed, I began to scoot over to Erick's side for some early morning cuddling, like a heat-seeking missile. Only there was no heat. I scooted over a little bit more, and touched the other side of the bed. Erick was gone. There wasn't even a warm spot on the bed.

My first thought was, "Oh no, I've missed the rapture!" My second thought was, "Great, now I'm going to have to get beheaded." I wondered if I had missed it because I wasn't really saved, or because of Jay's stupid alarm. Could I not hear the trumpet sound because Jay's alarm was so loud? Or because I had shut myself in the bathroom so I couldn't hear it?

Then I thought, "Wait a minute--if the rapture had happened, Erick's clothes would be in a nice, neat folded pile under the sheets." So I felt around under the sheets, looking for his clothes, but couldn't find any, but then I couldn't remember whether or not he had even been wearing any.

Just about that time I heard Erick cough from the living room. Of course! Erick had just gotten up when I was in the bathroom. He was just in the other room. I had nothing to worry about. I went back to sleep and slept until almost 9:00. Today, I think I'm going to move the lock box to Jay's room and hide it somewhere.

What I did on my summer vacation

Summer was far too short. I haven't even read a single book since I graduated in May. (Did I even blog about that? I could easily click back and see, but I don't really care.) I've been too busy furthering my Spanish abilities and also I was in a play, so I have an excuse. It was an old Doris Day musical called "The Pajama Game." It's about a union dispute in a pajama factory, and the head of the grievance committee for the union falls in love with the supervisor of the factory. So you've got tension, drama, love, and then it all works out and they live happily ever after like every good love story should end. I was just in the chorus.

(Okay, side note. I went and checked to see if I blogged about graduation. And I did. So I don't have to worry about posting a picture of that.)

So yeah, anyway, I was in the chorus, which meant of course that I got to be in all the dances and didn't have to memorize anything. Here is a picture of the cast:

And I also got another job. I don't work in Asset Protection anymore at Walmart, so I can't tell you all sorts of crazy stories about people stealing meat by putting in a fan box or stuffing 77 items in their baby stroller or switching price tags on items. Actually, I never told you any of that anyway, because it's not exactly public information and I wasn't supposed to post it all on the internet. But I do have a lot of really fun stories to tell if you ever want to hear them.

My new job is another job I can't really talk about. I work for the Illinois State Police now in the Firearm Services Bureau, so again, I'm not going to be blogging about that, either.

However, I can tell you about some other fun stuff we did over the summer. We visited my Grandpa Danny over 4th of July, and he's really awesome and has two zip lines and a tree house. I look just like him.

We also had a couple of family reunions and got to see a new batch of nieces and nephews. I figure I have enough now it's okay if I pick favorites, but I'm not telling you who they are, either. (This is a really secretive blog.)

And while we were at my parent's house for Labor Day, we reenacted some old family photos. They were really fun to take. I'll just post the four that turned out the best, since this computer is being a pain and I don't have the patience to wait for them all to load. (It's going to be a stretch for four, but that's my plan.)

This one is my dad with my little sister Vivian (in the red on his lap), my brother David (in the white shirt on the right), my son Jay (overalls) and my daughter Sarah (on the floor.)

Ugh, just restarted my computer because it's running so slowly, and it's still being a pain. It just seems like yesterday this computer was brand new, and that silvery swooshy desktop background felt like something from the future.

So here's the second one picture.

Maybe.

Okay, I gave up and switched to the laptop. Glad that this blog autosaves.

This is my dad with my little sister Robyn.

This is my favorite. In this picture, I am sitting on Erick's lap, and Jay is sitting on my lap. Dad is doing the sideways cheek-to-cheek hug with my little sister Valerie, and my littlest sister, Vivian, is lying on the couch with her legs up in the air.

This is my mom and my little brother Chris, sitting (or perhaps sprawling) on her lap. On the floor is my little sister, Susie. Can you believe I used to change these kids' diapers? And both of them have kids of their own now. I really don't feel old enough for this.

Oh, and talking about being old, my oldest two kids have their driver's licenses now. In fact, Joy just drove off to a Mighty Strong Girls Connections meeting with Sarah and Abby in my car, which I should also post a picture of because it's the newest vehicle I've ever owned, thanks to my new job.

So that's all I'm going to say this time. I know most of this was really random, but I'm not apologizing for not blogging for so long like I usually do. Like I said in a previous post, I don't want to blog just because I feel obligated to. You all get the privilege today of reading a blog post that I actually felt like writing, even though it's a little disjointed and not exactly well-written.

You're welcome.

Reflections on being married for more than half my life...

The other day some of my co-workers witnessed my husband riding in on his motorcycle during my lunch hour just to bring me nachos. Afterwards, they suggested to me that my husband should hold a seminar teaching men how to treat a woman. Sometimes I forget how blessed I am. I take these things for granted and don't appreciate him nearly as often as I should.

Tomorrow we are celebrating our eighteenth wedding anniversary. Our marriage isn't perfect. We've had our ups and downs. My husband isn't perfect. Sometimes he can be really cranky. But I'm not perfect, either. Sometimes I am selfish and spoiled. Just this morning he made me breakfast and brought it to me while I was watching a sweet video he tagged me in on Facebook. Instead of thanking him for the breakfast that he didn't have to make me, I complained that he only made me one egg when I preferred to have two. He immediately took his second egg off his plate and gave it to me.

I suppose I could blame him for being so spoiled. He takes such good care of me that I tend to take him for granted. He goes out of his way every day to care for my needs, from making sure I have a clean towel when I take a shower to telling me every day that I am beautiful.  He treats me like a treasure, and I am so blessed to have him. And yet other times his health problems can make him a real pain.

See, the secret to being married for 18 years is not whether he is perfect or whether I am perfect. It's about decisions. We promised each other before God and witnesses to be faithful to each other until death do us part. And we figured that since we are stuck with each other, we might as well enjoy it. So we take steps to make it work. We hold hands and kiss in public like we are still dating and work to treat each other right. And despite his imperfections, I am blessed to have a husband who works so hard to make happy.

Tomorrow we are headed to Hannibal, Missouri on the motorcycle to celebrate 18 years of togetherness. And we plan to enjoy it. :) Happy Anniversary, Erick! I love you!

Graduation

At last, after five years of hard work, I am a college graduate with a B.A. in Communication Studies from Indiana University East. Last Friday we travelled back to Richmond, Indiana, so that I could walk in the commencement ceremony. I never had a high school graduation, because 18 years ago I was more interested in a wedding gown than a cap and gown, and since Erick and I were pretty much the class of '96, we convinced our parents that a high school graduation ceremony was not necessary. But this time, it was very important to me to walk in that processional, accept my diploma cover, turn my tassel, and bask in the shower of confetti.

My family showed up late, just as I predicted, right in the middle of the prayer, or should I say, the invocation, in which the dignified preacher gave thanks to God for our intellects. Erick and I had arrived the day before for rehearsal, leaving our children with my parents so they could all come up together. They had planned to leave at 2:00...and posted on Facebook at 2:30 they were leaving...and really left at 3:00. Throw in a detour, a Burger King stop, and having to park five blocks away because of limited parking (which I warned them about the night before), and arriving plenty early as planned just didn't happen.

The ceremony was probably similar to other ceremonies. We all made a big noisy fuss every time the words "Class of 2014" were spoken. The new chancellor was adorably short and could barely see over the podium. I got to wear my honors cords and graduated with highest distinction--a 4.0 GPA along with 15 others with perfect grades out of a class of over 600. We sang the IU song, which I had never heard before and has confusing lyrics (what is Gloriana Frangipana?) and my dad (a Purdue fan) sang a parody of it to himself up there in the rafters where they were sitting.

It was fun, it was crazy, I didn't know hardly anyone since my classes were online. I teared up when they asked us to stand if we couldn't have done it without the love and support of our friends and family, and then asked us to turn and wave to them. They all screamed and shouted for me when I crossed the stage, and they also screamed and shouted for any other graduate that crossed if no one else screamed for them.

And now it's over, and everyone wants to know what I'm going to do with my degree. For now, I'll keep writing for Mighty Strong Girls Magazine. It doesn't pay, but it's something that matters, and I have to do something that matters. I'll keep working at Walmart catching shoplifters, because it's fun and it pays the bills. If I get the job at the Illinois State Police that I interviewed for a few months ago processing FOID cards (that's something you have to have here to be able to buy guns or ammo) I'll do that. And I'll just keep walking with God, day by day, and using my gifts to serve Him the best I can.

An explanation of why my blog has been so boring lately

I feel like every time I come post here I start by apologizing for not keeping up on my blog. My life really has been fascinating, but I just haven't posted about it like I used to. This is for a few reasons. First, in many areas of my life right now I can't be as open  as I used to be. In ministry, in my job, even in parenting not everything should be posted for the world to see. Second, the parts where I am an open book, it's easier to post it as a status update on Facebook. When I subtract out the stuff that I'm not going to post and the stuff I already did post, there's not much left that's very interesting. Third, most of my creative writing energy has been directed towards my schooling and my internships. When I come here and blather on without really proofing what I write just for the sake of keeping up a blog, I can't help but be bored by it, especially when other blogs out there are actually worth reading. When I was a kid I kept a diary every day for about eight years. There are entries that say "Nothing happened today" but I felt compelled to write it because I didn't want to skip a day. Then finally, after being married for awhile, I realized that I didn't need to keep doing that. And I stopped. I guess that's how I'm feeling about this blog. Lately when I've posted, it's only because I've done it for ten years and it would be a shame to quit. Do I want to quit? I don't know. I don't think so. I just don't want to post mindless blather just so I can say I kept it up.

My accident, tornadoes, and homeschoolers

Once again I have a day off, and once again I have so many things to do that blogging seems like the least priority. Still, events of the week are slipping by and I need to take just a few minutes to recount some of them before they are ancient history.

We've been taking Jay and Joy to Driver's Ed every day because Illinois laws require it, which really cramps our homeschooling style. Since I work a lot of 2-11s, it works best for me to drop them off there at the high school and for Erick to pick them up. Usually one of the kids drives since they need to get their hours in. Tuesday, a day before my 35th birthday, I stopped by the Petersburg Observer to drop off a press release about a homeschool meeting we are hosting (more about that later). As I was pulling out, I noticed the traffic was all backed from the light. I couldn't see what was going on, because there were semi trucks and oil tankers there, but the light was green and nobody was moving. Instead of turning right, where the traffic was, I decided to just go straight and go down to the next block to turn. When I did, a car coming from the light hit me. I was driving Jay's car. It pushed me into a pole and busted the radiator. The police came out and Erick drove over from the church. I wasn't hurt and neither was the lady that hit me, but both of our front ends were smashed in pretty good. I had to go over and pick up the kids from Driver's Ed and break the news to my son that I wrecked his car. He graciously forgave me. I ended up getting a ticket because it was my fault, too.

Jay is going to part his car out and sell it, and I think he'll be able to make his money back on it. We bought a Suburban from Erick's brother so we would have another vehicle to drive. So overall, it wasn't that big of a tragedy, especially in light of the tornadoes that happened Sunday. They devastated several towns in Illinois and Washington. We were all at church when the storms rolled through. During worship, Erick took off right about the time for offering, and I wondered what he was doing. When he came back, he let us know there was a tornado warning, and he prayed for safety and let us know that one of them was out spotting and that if there was a tornado we were to get under the pews. Then we kept on with the service. We have big glass windows and so we could see it was pretty ugly outside. We had a guest speaker, and halfway through the service the power went out. He was speaking about storms of life, which seemed rather appropriate. Since it was too dark for him to see his notes, he moved the pulpit down by the window to get enough light. After church, we had a potluck, and the food was all still hot. By the time we were done eating the storm was over but the wind was still blowing very hard. It was surreal driving to work because leaves and pieces of corn stalks were dancing all over the road making everything look like an optical illusion. Although there wasn't much serious damage in our area, many places were hit hard.

So as for the homeschool meeting, I mentioned earlier (at least I think I did) that Erick met some other homeschoolers in this area at the library, and we are going to have a meeting at our church tonight to try to organize. We've been handing out flyers and I put an ad in the paper, and we've had a great response so far. I went to a Mom's Night Out with nine other moms last Thursday and we had a great time. We met one family from Colorado with five little ones that live on a farm near here, and our oldest two babysat for them. We are going to watch their farm for them when they go back to Colorado for a week in January. We also met another family last night that owns a pizza place in town. We'd heard they homeschool, so we stopped by with a flyer. They have seven grown kids and ten grandkids, and they just graduated their last daughter recently, but we had a great time talking to them. They invited us to come back with all of our kids and gave us free pizza. It's just been really neat meeting our neighbors here lately!

 

News about our old house, Betty Snellenberger, volunteer fire department, and church play.

I really should be doing schoolwork right now, but I'm tired of reading about the respiratory system of insects. Besides, if I don't ever catch up on my blog I will get much further behind than I already am.

The biggest news is that we rented out our old house in Jasonville. After having it on the market with Hunley for six months and he only showed it one time, we finally listed it on Craiglist for rent or sale. We had so many calls in the first two days that Erick was getting overwhelmed. We took down the ad two days later because we couldn't keep up with the inquiries. The people who are rent it may also be interested in purchasing it, which would be really great. Erick drove back to Indiana last week to show it and sign the rental agreement with the tenants.

In other news, the treasurer of our old church, Betty Snellenberger, passed away a couple of days ago. She has a massive stroke and died a few days later. She was the mover and shaker of that church--the one who kept it going all of these years. She singlehandedly raised $10,000 for a new church roof a couple of years ago. It doesn't seem real that she could be gone and I honestly don't know if the church can survive without her, especially since they still don't have a pastor. They had voted a new one in and then he wasn't able to come after all because of financial reasons. Betty made the best meatloaf in the world, too.

Another thing that's been going on is that Erick joined the volunteer fire department as chaplain. He's going to be going through firefighter and EMT training, too. He has a two-way radio that gets the dispatcher signals, so sometimes that wakes me up in the middle of the night. So far he's only been on one call, though, and I guess it was a false alarm or something.

I've also been working on our church's Christmas play. It is going to be really good this year. It's exciting having people to work with instead of just doing it all ourselves. Everyone does such a great job. It's a Skit Guys play and so its funny and profound. It's called Casting Call and the idea is that it's a tryout for a living nativity. The actors in each role are really, really good. Also, we are going to put a special between each scene, such as an angel dance, a violin solo, a children's choir, and a few songs. I can't wait!

Seeing the Booth Brothers

On Wednesday, Erick took the older kids to my parents' house because they were going to the Student Action Trips with Generation Joshua again. This year they are going to Virginia. So we just have Rachel and Tim with us for the week. When he got back, one of the guys from our church, who is the father two of Erick's sibling's spouses, called to let him know that his mother was dying. So Erick went to the hospital and spent all night with them. His sister and her husband came out and stayed overnight, but because I closed at Walmart that night and opened the next day, I never even laid on eyes on them. The grandmother passed away the next day, but before she died, Erick was able to pray with her for assurance of her salvation.

On Friday (yesterday), one of the other ladies from church took Rachel and Timothy to an event at Lincoln's New Salem State Historic (which is still open even though we are in a government shutdown because it is a state site) for a candlelight walk. They are having another one tonight, so if I have time after I finish my school tonight I would like to go, too.

Then last night, some other friends from church took us to a Booth Brothers concert. They are a southern gospel group, and apparently they've won a lot of awards. One of the guys had lost his voice and wasn't able to sing, so there were only two of them who sang, but they did a very nice job. They used to tour with the Gaithers at one point, they said.

Mark and Pam Fisher, the couple that brought us, have a music ministry, too. They sing at a lot of churches and they are really good. They also lead worship at our church, and singing with them on Sunday mornings is one of my absolute favorite things. Anyway, the Booth Brothers got to one song that people wanted them to sing--I don't remember the title for sure, but it was something along the lines of "Welcome Friends." They said that they didn't think they could do it without their third member, and asked if someone knew it that wanted to sing the other part. Someone called out Mark's name, and they invited him to come up. Mark said that he knew all of the other songs up until that point but didn't know that particular one, so he declined it. They sang it anyway, and just hummed when they got to the other guy's part because they didn't know the words. It was funny.

Afterwards they took us to Cracker Barrel. It was so late by the time we got home--like nearly one in the morning, but we had such a great time. They even bought us one of their CDs so we could hear what the Booth Brothers sound like with all three parts.

Family Reunion

Trying this again...I have a few minutes here at work so I thought I would update from my phone. Blogger has an app although this is the first time I've tries it. Typing on a phone is so slow and auto correct can be tricky sometimes.

Usually at work I bring schoolwork but I didn't bring enough today. I'm in my third week of this semester and although it started out slow I have a feeling it is going to get intense.

A couple of weeks ago we went back o Indiana for a family reunion on erick's side of the family. It was pretty hot and sticky but it was neat seeing everyone. Some of them we hadn't seen in years. He did have one sister who wasn't able to make it due to her husband's health but altogether there were 31 family members as well as two guests. I attached a few of the many pictures I took. We camped out and it rained some but we didn't get too wet. We also played in the creek but I didn't get pictures of that.

Well I think that's about it for now. There is a GenJ trip coming up that we want to go to but we don't know for sure yet.

Our chore chart

I tried a few days ago to use the app on my phone to write a blog post but I never could get it to upload. It wasn't a very long post, anyway--just a few words about the Luper Family Reunion and some pictures. I'm not crazy about typing on a phone anyway. So at the end of this post I'm going to just add some of the best pictures, even though I already put them on Facebook.

But this post is about our chore chart. I have resisted a chore chart for years because I don't like to put energy into making charts that will just fall by the wayside. I've seen my mom and other moms try chore charts, and they just didn't seem to last very long. So our way of doing chores was that every day, I would assign jobs, and then we'd do them, and if one child was finished with their job before another job I'd assign them to help another child until everything was cleaned. Usually I chose the dishes. The kids would usually try to call their favorite jobs (or should I say "least hated" jobs) first, to avoid having to help in the kitchen. I usually gave the younger kids easier jobs, like having Timothy move over the laundry from the washer to the dryer.

Of course, like all kids everywhere, my kids complained about doing chores. They all seemed to be under the impression that they were overworked and had to do everything. If you would ask any of my kids whose turn it was to wash dishes, they would all claim that they had done them last, even though I almost always chose that job for myself.

About three or four weeks ago, I finally decided to make a simple chore chart. I divided the daily tasks into seven jobs. Then I rotated everyone through the list on a daily basis, so that each day a different person would do each job. Erick and I share a job, because sometimes he is home and sometimes I am, and if we are both home we just do an extra good job at our job. It looks like this:

Amazingly, this has worked extremely well. Everyone loves it. The older kids love it because they only have to wash dishes one day a week. Everybody knows that it is completely fair because everyone has the same amount of work. I never have to listen to anyone argue over whose turn it is to do anything. At the very first, we had a couple of arguments over whose job it was to clean up a mess that encroached on someone else's area, such as crumbs from the countertop knocked onto the floor, but after that the arguments died down. Nobody complains if the job load is uneven one day because they know that their day is coming when they get the easy task. I love it because I always know who to hold responsible for something. If laundry needs to be moved over, I can easily check the chart and see whose day it is. If the table needs to be cleaned off, I just check the chart and call that person in to clean it off.

I expected the younger ones to complain because they have to do more work than they are used to, but they even seem to like it. Timothy enjoys being treated as a bigger kid and getting to do dishes instead of always moving laundry over. Sometimes the younger ones don't do as good of a job at something, but since all the jobs are rotated, that means I can do a thorough job at it when it gets to my day. Plus, I can see that something wasn't done well and call that child back to redo it if necessary.

The older I get, the more I am finding that schedules are very handy. I didn't used to use any sort of schedule for anything because I thought they were a waste of time that nobody ever followed. I guess if it's kept simple enough, then we can follow them!

Okay, now for some pictures of the Luper Family Reunion...

...on the other hand, it might be easier to try it from my phone again, since that's where they all are, so hang on and I will try to get them up in a bit. Maybe I can even figure out how to publish the post I made that didn't upload right.

Sarah's birthday and getting ready for school

Last Thursday was Sarah's 14th birthday, so we went up to Lake Michigan to swim. We've been having some cool weather the past week or so, so it really wasn't great swimming weather, but we went anyway. The water was cold and so I mostly just stayed on the beach. I waded in it a little bit, but that was it. On the plus side, the beach wasn't crowded. Joy and Sarah's friend Tiffany came with us.

Here is a picture of Joy, Tiffany, Sarah, and Abby. Rachel and Tim were somewhere playing in the water, and I actually didn't know where Jay was when I took this picture. Erick and I had found a spot at one end of the beach, and all the kids decided to go down to the other side of the beach. After awhile I walked down to find them and saw everyone but Jay. I asked where Jay was and they said they hadn't seen him. Trying to think like Jay, I figured that he was either climbing around the rocks past the beach, or was way out in the deep water somewhere. In fact, I could see a figure way out in the deep water and thought maybe it was Jay. Just then Erick texted me asking where I was going, and I said I was trying to find Jay. He texted back and said that Jay was still at the other spot that we had been at first and had been there the whole time, building a sandcastle.

After only about an hour, the kids got cold, so we went to the Museum of Science and Industry since we still had our membership. We spent a couple of hours there, and then met my sister Emily and her husband at pizza place south of Chicago for dinner. They had officer's training through the Salvation Army and so were spending a week in Illinois. I was planning on bringing them my old Professor Phonics book for my niece, but forgot it so I had to mail it the next day. It was just Matt and Emily though, since my parents were watching their little ones. We ate pizza and had cake, and Sarah wore her birthday hat and we had a grand old time.

This week I don't have quite so many hours at work, and so I'm working on last minute stuff for school. We start next Monday, and Erick is going to be doing most of it. Today he took the youth group bowling. Erick learned to bowl with his left hand, because his right arm still gives him trouble after his surgery a couple of years ago. They had eight teens today. They came over for spaghetti afterwards, which was fun, but now the kitchen is a mess. Oh well--I can clean it tomorrow. I'm tired right now.

I finished up getting the kids' transcripts caught up, and I think the only thing I need to do is create new spreadsheet pages for this new semester's grades. We are going to be a doing an art curriculum that looks pretty neat. It should be coming in the mail in the next couple of days, and we are going to see if we can get together with some other homeschoolers to do it because it would be great in a group setting.

Tomorrow we are doing back to school shopping, and then I think we will be ready for school!

I'm going to be an aunt again!

I'm going to be an aunt again! My sister that just got married at the beginning of June announced on Facebook today that she is pregnant. It is getting hard to keep up with how many nieces and nephews I have. Let's see--on Erick's side, Daniel has two, Christa has one, Liz has three, Ben has two, and Joe has three. On my side, Chris has one, Emily is pregnant with her third, and Susie is pregnant with her first. So all together that's sixteen nieces and nephews! Whew!

I actually found out the news on Facebook because they didn't have our new numbers. We recently switched from Verizon, which we've had forever and a day, to AT&T. We were able to get smart phones with data and will be paying just a few dollars more than what we are paying now with dumb phones and no data. But I think we can afford it. I didn't get the department manager job, because someone else transferred into the position from another store, but I did get CSM again (Customer Service Manager) which meant a .70 raise. I've also been getting lots of hours. The plan is for Erick to take over the bulk of the homeschooling this fall since I'll be busy working pretty much full time and finishing my last semester of school.

We also did close on our house finally. There was always just one more thing, but we finally were able to sign the enormous stack of papers and so we can call it our own now. Still hoping that the old house in Jasonville will sell, though. I need to call the realtor Monday and give him my new number.

Three of the kids want to join the Civil Air Patrol. Jay and Abby really like it. Sarah said she'd join if her friend joined, and it looks like her friend is going to join. Joy said it wasn't for her. We met another homeschool family there, and they helped me get on the waiting list for the Springfield co-op group. So far we've been meeting with the homeschoolers in Lincoln, but they don't have co-op there. They just hang out at the park for a couple of hours once a week. It's kind of a drive and the last time I went I got completely lost.

The older three girls have been gone all week. They went back to spend a week with their friends in Indiana. They come home tomorrow. I'll be glad to see them, but I'm glad they had the chance to go.

Our new pool and stuff about my job

Last week it started to look like we weren't going to be able to buy our house. The underwriters decided that they weren't going to count Erick's income from the church because they didn't want to count the signed statement from the board as proof of income. We finally got that figured out, but had to reapply for the loan since they had denied it. They've also required a few piddly repairs to the house, which we've finished and we're just waiting for the appraiser to come back and say it's all good. Anyway, in the process of all this, the closing costs were recalculated and are much less than we thought they were going to be.

Since we had some extra money that we'd put back for the closing, and since most of the public swimming pools and beaches around this area have closed down (an accidentally drowning death prompted a new law specifying safety features that a lot of pools just can't afford to implement), we decided to buy a pool for the kids. I bought it off Walmart.com and got an 18 foot pool for $199. I'm pretty sure we paid more than that for the smaller Easy-Set pool we had a few years ago when we were at Shiloh.

So the kids have been having a blast with the pool. The water isn't warm enough for me to try it out yet, but maybe soon.

In other news, we are thinking of trying out the Civil Air Patrol for the older kids. We have to attend a few meetings first before they can join to see if it's right for us, but according to the website, they would have the opportunity to fly an airplane. There seems to be a lack of good homeschool groups in this area, so this might be something we could do instead.

At work, I had an interview the other day for department manager at the pharmacy, and I'm supposed to interview soon for another CSM position. There weren't any CSM positions opened when I transferred so technically I'm at the service desk, but I've been doing a lot of CSMing and cashiering as well as service desk.

I'm also trying to get on at the State of Illinois. The government jobs pay quite well here. Of course, I'm also still looking for jobs in the communication field, since that's what my degree will be in when I graduate this fall (woohoo!) I only have one more Spanish class, my capstone communication class, and I'm also taking Intro to the Animal Kingdom to fulfill my last science requirement.

But I'd better go. They are going to watch The Amazing Spiderman without me if I don't.

My new china cabinet

Today we got a beautiful china cabinet for our house. A couple from our church were getting a new dining room suite and gave us their old one. It's really pretty, and even lights up. Here's a not-so-great picture of it. (Since the patio door is opposite it and it's a really bright day, I had trouble getting the lighting right. It's also just a smidge blurry.)

I wasn't really sure what to put in it at first. I've never owned fine china. I do have eight plates that match for special occasions like Christmas, but they aren't even fancy plates. There really isn't much point in trying to obtain fine china when you have kids, in my opinion.

But I had to put something in it. I do have a little figurine that was my Grandma Haley's. It's a little girl who holds a spool of thread in her hands, wears a pincushion hat, and carries a pair of scissors in her porcelain pocket. I was fascinated with her when I was a little girl. When she was in Grandma's care, she never got dusty, but since I've had her the scissors and thread have both disappeared and she hides dust in the creases of her dress. Still, she reminds me of my Grandma, and I love her even though Grandma would be probably not be happy with the way I've cared for her.

I also added a couple of small buildings fashioned from scrapbooking paper. Joy made these for school. One is a pueblo and the other is St. Basil's Cathedral. She's very talented with her hands and has a great eye for detail.

I also added various pictures of family members--my family singing Handel's Messiah, another of most of my siblings and my parents striking a silly pose in their winter coats, a lovely portrait of Grandpa and Grandma Robertson (Erick's maternal grandparents) and his parents with his younger siblings that still live at home.

On the top shelf I put plates that my kids made for homeschool co-op last year. It was a Pinterest project involving Sharpies on plain dishes, then baked. They aren't as fancy as fine china, but since I know the artists personally, they are a lot more special.

I haven't filled the drawers or bottom cabinets yet, but I think that school books are going to go underneath. I may eventually just turn the whole thing into a display for school projects.

Our new house (with video blog)

I decided to make a video blog about our new house this time. Right now we are renting the house we are living in, but we are in the process of purchasing it. Enjoy my video!