New House Happiness

We have a new house! We're almost entirely moved -- there are only the vacuum and a box of cleaning supplies at the old apartment. Already the hassles of the move have been well worth it: I have done 8 loads of laundry since Saturday night. That would have cost at LEAST $20 to wash and dry at the old house. I can finally stop wearing those "I think I can get one more wear out of this before washing it" outfits!

The biggest blessing still floors me. While my friends and I were carrying boxes into the house on Saturday, I heard someone calling my name from down the street. "Jenny! Jenny -- are you my new neighbor?!" One of my dear friends from Bible study lives in the duplex right across the street. I'm eagerly anticipating our relationship deepening over the next several months. What a blessing to move in not only knowing someone, but knowing a fabulous sister in Christ!

I'll have pictures soon, but right now everything is a massive (and slightly dangerous) pile of boxes and bags. I'd rather show you all something I'm proud of once I get things arranged.

Thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers!

Family Update

Hey all!

So yesterday, Shaune successfully completed the Chicago Marathon -- all 26.2 miles of it -- in a little over 6 hours! I am so proud of him. He's trained so hard for six months, all for this big day. He had some pretty interesting revelations while he was running that he shared with me last night; I'm going to try and write them up as a post soon because I think they're extremely insightful.

I finally got a new dehydrator! After almost 2 months of talking on the phone to various customer service reps, they decided to service my warranty. Within a week of sending in the broken motor, I recieved a brand new one in the mail. I was so excited I cried. Now... to find some more apples...

Our house is a disaster-land of boxes. We move on Friday -- only 4 short days away! We pick up the keys at 7am, have to go to work, and start moving as soon as we get off work and change. We've got some dear friends lending a hand all weekend, so hopefully everything will be packed, moved, and unpacked in it's new location with a minimum of struggle.

I'm officially half-way through student teaching. I'm glad to see the end approaching. But, with the end comes the potential for new beginnings. I have been informed that the school is seeking a new kindergarten teacher to begin in December -- directly after I graduate. Shaune and I are spending a lot of time in prayer to decided what to do. Part of me wants to work and help us achieve our financial goals. The more persuasive part of me wants to come home. We'll see which wins out after we pray.

Things are constantly a whirlwind! Thanks to all of you for sticking around in this post-less wasteland named "too busy to write." Things will hopefully start settling out sooner rather than later.

God bless!

The Peace Prize?

President Obama has been awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. I have little to say because I'm stunned. Stupefied. Whaaaaaaat?

You may read the article here, if you're interested.

After reading the article carefully, I've learned two very scary, very important facts that I'd like to share with you.

1. Good works are no longer necessary -- good intentions are enough.

"Rather than recognizing concrete achievement, the 2009 prize appeared intended to support initiatives that have yet to bear fruit: reducing the world stock of nuclear arms, easing American conflicts with Muslim nations and strengthening the U.S. role in combating climate change." (From the artcile, about half-way through)

As my husband said when I read this to him, "The road to **** is paved with good intentions..."

2. This is a blatant political "buy" to ensure Obama continues to support things the Prize committee and others choose for him, even if it isn't in the best interest of the country

"'We trust that this award will strengthen his commitment, as the leader of the most powerful nation in the world, to continue promoting peace and the eradication of poverty,' the foundation said." (From near the bottom)

So the Nobel Peace Prize goes to someone who has big ideas but no results, with the expectation that results must follow in the future... Where's the peace? Where's the honor in *not doing anything yet*? I'm confused and saddened for the memory of those who won this prize legitimately. It has just been cheapened.

Breaking the Moses Habit, Pt. 3

This is part three of a series of posts I am writing that dig for deeper understanding into Moses' response when he faces God in the burning bush. You can read the whole story for yourself in Exodus 3 and 4. Part one, the introduction, can be found here, and part two, the first excuse, is here. Studying this passage has been very eye-opening for me. I hope it is helpful to you, as well.

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Breaking the Moses Habit: Who are you, God?

Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”

Exodus 3:13

I believe that the reason Moses reacts like this is that Moses is not sure who God is himself. He fears having to explain this unknown God to the Israelites. It is not in the end about the name (although that is what Moses asks for); instead, it is about God’s character. Who are you, God, that you can demand these people to follow you to you-only-know-where through the desert for however long it takes? Who are you, God?

God responds in a way that only He can:

“I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you.” Exodus 3:14

God does not stop there. For the next eight verses, God elaborates upon who He is and what He is going to do for the people of Israel. He proves himself trustworthy. He explains that He has been watching the suffering of His people and has chosen to do something about it now. He tells Moses exactly what to say and what to ask for from Pharaoh – “Let us take a three-day journey into the desert…” Exodus 3:18. He even promises to make the Egyptians feel compassionate and help the Israelites along (Exodus 3:21)!

Our God gave Moses what he asked for and so much more. God desires to show Himself to us – He wants us to know who He is and to trust in Him wholeheartedly. For Moses, He did is in the speech which can be found in Exodus 3:14-22. For us, we seek in the Bible first and then through the testimonies of our own souls and our brothers and sisters in Christ. The Lord used His Word to show Samuel who He is, in 1 Samuel 3. Samuel heard the voice of God as a young boy and as he grew, he studied the Word with his tutor, Eli. And while he studied, God “revealed himself to Samuel through his word” (1 Samuel 3:21). His Word – the Bible – is how the Lord Almighty demonstrated to Samuel and countless others that He is a God worthy to be trusted and honored.

If we do not stand firm on our understanding of who God is, we are weak. We hesitate when asked to take a risk for Him. If we do not know who we are standing for, we could just as easily be standing for ourselves. We must build our house upon the rock (Matthew 7:24 – 27). Our rock must be Christ revealed to us through the Bible.

God made me take a break

I'm six and a half weeks into student teaching. It's been good but exhausting! For about three weeks now, I've been fighting quite the cold. Well, today, God told me (through my dear husband) that I was taking a break.

Shaune wouldn't let me go to work this morning. Yesterday I went in even though I should have and he didn't want that happening again. It was kind of cute actually -- he turned off the alarm clock and piled an extra blanket on top of me. Then he piled MORE blankets on me and downloaded an entire season of Project Runway so I didn't even have to get out of bed.

I love when love takes this form. I feel so loved, and almost more importantly, back up to 100% for my kids tomorrow. Yay husband!

Long Delay

I've not been much into posting lately for so many reasons. I'm dragging myself through each day as our neighbor has restarted his disruptive behaviors which interrupts my sleep. In addition, my non-work time has been completely split between preparation for the next day of teaching, preparation for the Marathon, preparation for our mission trip, preparation to move... well, let's just say I've been a busy girl.

We recieved a HUGE blessing on Sunday! You can read about it on my husband's and my blog, The Preston Persuasion. God has been working even in my own busyness and lack of time set aside for Him. What a good, gracious God we serve!

We're getting a house!

I'm so excited. Last weekend, Shaune and I had a long talk about where we are and were we want to be and cam to a unanimous decison -- we don't want to be here anymore.



This has been building for a while. Many of you saw the post below about our neighbor. The dryers haven't worked the whole time we've lived here, so several nights a week our apartment looks like a clothing store as every doorframe has been claimed as drying space. Our friends downstairs recently moved to a different apartment in a better school district. Etc, etc, etc. This home served its purpose, but it has come to be time to move on.



We started scanning Craigslist and the classifieds for a rental house on Sunday. We started touring on Monday. Last night, we found the "house of our dreams," at least as far as rentals in our price range go!



Compared to where we are now, it's like moving to Martha's Vineyard. It's a quiet little duplex on the north west edge of town -- the one part of town that isn't a cornfield. There are actually hills and mature trees. We'd be downstairs from a family with three little ones under the age of 7. You can hear footsteps but no voices. Plus, they're sweet, we met them briefly while touring last night. We'll have our own laundry hook up. There is a front door and a back door. And a yard! And a garage! And even more closets than I have now! And it only costs $5 more per month than where we currenly live!



Oh, there's always things that could be better. "The grass is always greener..." We could be upstairs, or have bigger windows, or a bigger yard, or a mansion in a gated community that someone else is paying for.... :-D



But as my darling husband says, "Let's take what the Good Lord chooses to dump in our laps."

Briefly sad news

I was making dried herb tomatoes the other day and my dehydrater pooped out. The motor just stopped running. I have no idea why -- it was barely a month old and I've only used it about 5 times.

So now we're playing the "call the company" lottery. Hopefully it'll get figured out because I LOVE apple chips and haven't had a chance to make any yet!

A Bountiful Harvest

We've been super busy this past week! Although we don't have a garden ourselves, we've been picking at my in-laws house and pulled in almost more than I have time to deal with.

So far we've made 2 quarts give or take of sun-dried roma tomatoes. That doesn't sound like much, but it started as three plastic shopping bags filled to the brim. The bushes are still producing, too, so there may be more to come.

My father-in-law also had more jalapano peppers than he knew what to do with. That provided hours of fun, especially when we kept finding little patches of the oil on our skin throughout the day! My husband got some in his eye; I got lucky enough to avoid that. Next time I think we'll have to get gloves. We froze 3 quarts so far and will probably pick up some more next weekend.

Then, today, we wanted to celebrate Labor Day by, what else, laboring! But this was the fun kind of work. We went to a small country apple farm where they run the tractor out to the orchards and let you pick your own apples. We got just under 25 lb of apples today: 20 (2 pecks) of jonathons and 5 (1/2 peck) ozark gold. Which led us to our next fun experiments...

Shaune elected himself to be in charge of apple pie filling. He manned this cool contraption here, which did all the work for him:

That there is my mom's Apple Peeler-Corer-Slicer from Pampered Chef. It is such a fun toy. I had to stop Shaune or else he'd do all 25 lbs of just that! It makes like a giant apple yo-yo that is excellent to play with. We sliced the yo-yo in half, dumped them into a large freezer bag, and added the spices. We've now got 5 pies worth of filling ready to whip out and bake whenever we need it.

I decided to make apple butter. This is my first experience canning and although it was a little rocky, all 10 jars sealed correctly on the first try! I love apple butter. This stuff started as a full pot of apple pieces and cooked down to 10 cups worth of cinnamony, sweet, perfect goo. We couldn't help taking a spoon and eating a good bit while cooking. I think I'm going to save it and give it away for Christmas presents.

I still have about 12 lb of apples to deal with. I know what we'll be eating for breakfast, lunch, and dinner all week. I'd like to can more but with the pot I have, I can only do 1/2 pint (8 oz) jars right now. Unless I can borrow a bigger pot, I think it would be too expensive to buy enough jars for the rest of the apples. Not to mention the time. So for now, they're going to hang out in the cooler and be fresh treats, at least until I can come up with a better idea.

Any suggestions?

Student Teaching Update

Kids are so funny. My 5th and 6th graders are finally past that "new-class apprehension" and are letting their real personalities shine. And oh boy! do some of them have personality!

I don't really want to be there, as I've expressed before, since I'd rather be at home caring for my house and my family. But once I walk in the door I'm making the best of it. And I am coming to adore those children. Pre-teens have such a strange balance of child-like and adult behavior. One minute they have their act together, the next they're in tears over something small -- the boys too. They're real sweethearts, eager to please (until the next distraction pulls them away).

If I ever do end up in a situation where I have to work, this is where I'd like to do it. I feel like every day I'm doing a little something for these kids. So many of them have rough home lives. The rest have incredibly permissive parents. What both groups need is caring adults to invest in their lives. I feel very strongly about being home investing in my own children, but I wouldn't be surprised to be back in a classroom sometime in my life.

However! Through all this, and because I'm at an innovative, multiage, continuum-based school, I've found the perfect curriculums for my home school in a few years. That is, once I have kids and they get old enough to play school with me.

If anyone needs recommendations on writing or word study (i.e. spelling) curriculums, let me know! My poor brain can't wait 6 years to try them ;-)

P.S: Mrs. G, I can't access your blog anymore!