My Husband Has a Job!!!

Lots to share, but for now the most important thing is that God has provided us with a new job!

We took a camping vacation recently, and while we were away this interview got set up.  It was with a company we had never heard of before.  They found his resume on a resume/job sharing website that my husband uses, and THEY contacted HIM.  Yay!  So we came home and had a day in between to prep for this interview.

We fished out my husband's old dress shoes, which haven't been worn in years due to "business casual," and I polished them for him and added new laces.  I prayed for my hubby as I worked, and just really put a lot of love into polishing those shoes.

As he was leaving for the interview the next morning I joked with him that people were going to notice his shiny "new" shoes, and they would hire him on the spot!

Well, it wasn't on the spot but they called the following day to offer him the job. :)

Ultimately we know it had nothing to do with his shoes.  It had everything to do with this being God's plan for us.

Our last unemployment was unbelievably hard.  In every way.  We came to within 9 days of losing our home.  Hubby and I regularly went without meals.  Had a dark time of soul searching and doubting.  Just hard.   This time it has been "easy," comparatively speaking.   Both ways, God has been good.  God IS good.

We are so, so grateful.  Rejoice with us!

I didn't know.....

...that on the same day I last posted, June 23, my sweet husband had lost his job and spent the day at the public library, marking time until he could ride the bus home as usual because he didn't want to tell me over the phone.  :(

The company said that they were "reorganizing" his department and his position, along with several others in his department, had been "eliminated."  And just like that we were unemployed again!

I didn't know.  My husband didn't know.  But God knew. And nothing else that I know to be true and real changed that day except my husband's job status.  I am so thankful that God is still God, He is still in control, and His Word is still a lamp to our feet and a light to our path.

We had to spend a few days processing our emotions and grieving, because it was so unexpected and my husband LOVED his job.  I was overwhelmed with sadness for him.  After that period of processing, my husband spent several days re-writing his resume.  That was finished two days ago so his job hunt is now in full swing.

Meanwhile, *I* decided to deep clean and tidy up our "castle" in an effort to encourage my husband (and me!) and to show him appreciation for what his hard work has afforded us.  Our daily life, as you know, is somewhat chaotic.  Hence a lot of little daily chores just don't happen. Our home was in serious need of some tender loving FREE care. :)

I swapped out our two couches and rearranged the family room furniture to make the room seem larger.  In the process I cleaned every nook and cranny, and found new homes for all the junk that had collected in the corners.

Here is one corner of our family room BEFORE:

And the same corner AFTER:

Another corner BEFORE:

And that same corner AFTER:

BEFORE:

And the same corner AFTER:

And finally, the mantel BEFORE:

And AFTER moving things in from another room:

I love the family picture and the great reminder to pray!

 So now I am motivated to keep this deep cleaning and organizing thing going in other rooms in our home.  Sometimes the world beats us down, but home should be a place that comforts and lifts us up. Please pray with us for a new job for my husband soon, and that in the meantime we will wait expectantly, work diligently, and trust faithfully.

New Grill!

About 6 years ago I gave my husband a picture of a new grill for his birthday.  It's what we do when we can't quite afford the real thing.  I always intended to somehow save the money and buy him one for real, but as time went on it just didn't seem to be in the budget.  So a couple years ago I began buying Lowe's gift cards in whatever denomination I could afford at the time, and saving them.  We finally had enough to cover the cost of the grill he wanted, so off he went to the store.  Oh happy day!

Little Man helped him put it together.

We are a bit sentimental, so it was with a small pang that we said farewell to our old grill.  22 years old and still getting the job done, with many repaired or hacked parts to keep it working.  It had been our house warming gift to ourselves when we bought our first home as a married couple.  Lots of memories made with this old grill....

....but now we can make many more with the new one!  My husband is very happy, and that makes ME happy.  :)

And happy birthday to this handsome guy!!!

SO blessed to be doing life with this incredible man......

My man and his boys

He is blessed.  WE are blessed.

My heart is full.

Happy Father's Day, honey.

(Our two girls bless us also, but were not at home on Father's Day)

Happy Birthday to my Hubby!

The day after daughter H's birthday, it was my husband's birthday!  I cannot adequately describe in words how much I love this man, and how thankful I am for him!  He is such a gift to me and to our family.

Instead of the traditional cake and ice cream, we celebrated with home-made chocolate mousse.  It was really good!

The children made cards for their dad, and due to our "new to us" pug dog, pug themed cards seemed particularly popular.

My husband is the new coach this season of son C's soccer team, so a few sons gave him soccer coaching gear.

The ever popular candy....

.... and movies.

Thank you, Lord, for the gift of my husband.  We don't have a perfect marriage, and we are such imperfect parents, but I thank you for all that you have enabled us to do right.  Making our marriage a higher priority than our kids is one of those things.  Please protect our marriage during these next intense years of parenting lots of teens, and encourage and strengthen my man.  Thank you, again, for the blessing of him.  I am so privileged to be his wife.  Amen.

Wordless Wednesday

Twenty One-derful Years!!

...with the love of my life!!  I love you sweetheart, more and more each day.  How I thank God for who you are, and for the life He has helped us build together.

(this was the happy day we got engaged ~ don't you love the big hair and the short shorts??)

Father Daughter Dance

It's February, which means time for the annual homeschool father-daughter dance. This year was even more special because our daughter had her grandparents and aunts here at the same time! And for the first time our daughter wanted to not wear just nice church clothes, but a "real" party dress. She, myself, my mom, and my two sisters all went dress shopping, and what 14 year old girl doesn't love to go dress shopping with her mom, grandma, and two aunts??!!??!! I give my daughter lots of credit for being extremely patient and flexible while shopping. And my mom and sisters were pretty patient and flexible too! :-)

Here is the dress we picked out. I was pleasantly surprised to find several options that could have worked, modesty wise.


After choosing the dress we had to find the right shoes, just the right little "over jacket", and of course, the right nylons!

We came home and had such fun getting her ready for the dance. My sister Gayle, who has always been the family hairdresser, worked on her hair, while my sister Debbie did her toenails. She would be wearing high heels for the first time, and they were open-toed, so of course the toenails had to be done!




When our daughter was all ready, daddy came in for the big "reveal". It was a special moment! She looked so grown up and beautiful!


He carefully fastened her necklace, and then she was completely ready.




Here's a shot with the little jacket on.


And just to prove that I was there too......


It was super fun to share this special occasion with my extended family!

(note to myself for posterity: first party dress, first high heels, first make up)

Wordless Wednesday

My hubby, left, and his brother playing Wii! (okay, almost wordless!)

Go Navy, Beat Army!

After Little Man's party on Saturday we all donned the requisite blue and gold clothing to watch the annual Army-Navy football game! Navy won for the tenth straight year! Whoo-Hooo!!!!


It was a pretty good game to watch, football wise. Very close. Army actually showed up this year! We were nervous a few times, and ecstatic when Navy won!


Our boys did pushups every time Navy scored (daddy requires it), and we all stood and sang the Navy alma mater along with the midshipmen at the end of the game. A fun tradition for us!

Go Navy, Beat Army!

My new outfit

As promised, here is my new outfit. It is a pair of black dress pants and this wine colored jacket with the drapey lapel. Not super exciting, but I needed the black pants (shouldn't every woman have black dress pants?) and I really love the little jacket.


We stayed four hours at the party. When we left there were loud whiskey shots and spontaneous dancing beginning to occur... but before that we had a great time mingling with my husband's co-workers and their wives. I met three other stay at home moms! And had a long conversation with a retired school teacher, who was initially alarmed when she learned we homeschooled but was relieved after discovering that I was a former classroom teacher myself. She told me exactly how to teach the play "Romeo and Juliet" to my ninth grader. :-)

What a great opportunity to support my husband in his work relationships, and Lord willing be a light for Jesus.

After Thanksgiving

The day after Thanksgiving my husband's laptop died a rather dramatic death. It was used extensively by the entire family so its loss is really felt. Without it my husband cannot work from home (which he did a few days every month), and the two oldest boys will now have to share one computer for an online class they are in.

It is possible that an experienced repair person may be able to fix it at a reasonable price, but that involves taking a chip off the motherboard, and we run the risk of ruining the motherboard in the process. For those of you not familiar with motherboards, that would be bad.

Perhaps we will be able to replace it after Christmas. I would love for my husband to have a new laptop. His was five years old, which in laptop years is about 100. But in the meantime, we are down a computer. And you know what????

I am thankful.

I am thankful we have two desktops that we can use. Both of them are old, and one of them is so old it will not support our online classes, but it does most other things reasonably well (I'm blogging on it!).

I am thankful my husband had the most amazing attitude about it. No ranting or raving at all. No visible, outward discouragement. Not even a heavy sigh. "It's just a thing," he said.

I am thankful that in the grand scheme of things, a broken laptop is not even a blip.

I am thankful that God has been so faithful. We've had a lot of things break in the past few months, but by God's grace they have all been fixed or replaced.

I'm thankful God is showing me that gratitude is a year round perspective. It doesn't have to stop after Thanksgiving. I'm grateful there are still so many other things to be thankful for!!!

And oh yes, my husband had a birthday too!!

Yesterday we celebrated my husband's birthday ~ it's been quite a week of celebrating around here!

We missed our daughter, first time she was not present at a family birthday celebration, but somehow we managed to have fun anyway. We spent most of the evening at a music concert at a local park. The boys danced around, played in the fountain (got soaked), and hubby and I bounced in our chairs a bit. :-) We came home and had strawberry shortcake.

I am so thankful for this man! My life would be so much more boring without him! I love that he loves me, that he is such a great father to our children, and that he loves God with all his heart and mind. I love that we got engaged on his 29th birthday, so every birthday is also a celebration of our life together. I love loving him.

"Thank you, Lord, for the privilege of celebrating another year with my man. Thank you for bringing him into my life 20+ years ago, and for all the ways You have shown yourself through our relationship. Bless him with a good year of spiritual growth, and grant him the wisdom he needs in all the various roles he fulfills. Lavish your love on him, Lord!"

Tools, tools everywhere

With his very own tools, son C made his wooden bug box this past weekend (for observing and then releasing) which was another birthday present we had given him. Any chance he has to wield a tool, he is happy!


Half done...


Then my husband used his powerful new drill to hang a mesh stuffed animal holder in G and Little Man's room. Here you get a glimpse of the new color! (more pics of the finished room coming later). Two rooms down, two to go!