Birthday parties and family visits

We thought my mother-in-law was coming to visit for the weekend, but at the last minute, she changed her plans and decided to come the following weekend with my brother-in-law and both of his kids. Our home isn't quite set up for more than one or two guests at a time just yet, but we managed. Two slept in the guest room, while two more slept out on the recliners. I sure do look forward to the day when I have a second, private bathroom to use on those occasions.

However, we made the best of it and enjoyed time with family.

I took my mother-in-law and niece out to my favorite tea shop in Nashville. We tried to go one other time they were here together, but we found out it closed early that day right before we got there. So I promised my niece that I'd take her the next time she came. This time she came right before her birthday, so I made sure to honor my promise to her to celebrate her birthday. I love the sweet relationship I've been able to build with her in the short time that I've been here (and few times I've been able to see her). I love her dearly and count it a privilege to be more involved in her life now. 

Mike had a lot of fun taking the boys on a little ride around the property. And then his mom! She's braver than me. Or maybe just more interested in outdoor fun. I prefer to walk or ride my bike.

We noticed an old swingset/playset literally buried in the vines and brush at the front of our property that we have just ignored until this last weekend. Since Mike and his brothers were already out and about with chainsaws and axes to clear trails and cut down trees, they started whacking away at all the vines and finally uncovered the whole thing. I had no idea how big it actually is, with a whole backside to it! Now I have something for kids to do at my house outside besides play with legos inside. We have a large amount of games, too, but most of them are still in storage. Plus I'm also starting to build up a resorvoir of indoor and outdoor toys, balls, etc. I still don't feel like my house is anywhere near hosting ready, but I'm finding out quickly that the Alspaugh's don't really care. They will plop down anywhere and make the most of it. An attitude I could probably learn from. 

Reese and Jaxon and their dad. 

A last minute surprise party for Reese. 

And she was indeed surprised, despite the fact that she was in the store with us when her Grandma bought all of the party decorations!

I found out over Christmas that she likes arts and crafts a lot, so I made sure to bring home my craft bin with all of my supplies. Neither of us had any interest in the muddy, trucking, four-wheeling activities going on outside, so we went to the Dollar Tree and picked out some crafts to do together.  Much to our surprise, her little brother, Jaxon, got into the crafting with us, too. 

We were completely floored at how well he did with the stencils on his canvas. 

Unfortunately the stencils didn't turn out very good with paints, so we improvised and painted over everything to make our own designs. 

Reese got super creative with colors. I just turned mine over and used colored pencils after I saw how well Jaxon's turned out with colored pencils. 

Then after they left, I painted over the other side and then used a marker with the stencils. 

Later that night, Reese and Jaxon got creative on the lego table and built two 2-car 2-story garages. I was pretty impressed. That lego table has sure come in handy whenever my niece and nephews come over!

Before they left on Sunday, we stopped over at Matt's house to meet the new baby goats that they got for 4-H this year. Aren't they precious?

Now, I won't get into the more unpleasant parts of the weekend like when a tree fell onto the power line and knocked out our power for the night. Or the inconvenience of trying to get up and ready for church in a one bathroom house, without power to make coffee, breakfast, etc., in a home that's already not set up well for guests yet. All I can say is thank goodness for donuts. 

 

Learning FLEXIBILITY

I love my job here at New Song. There's truly not much that tops being able to teach kids about what it means to follow Christ, and being able to work with a small group in a beautiful, spacious, nature-filled setting just makes it all even better. I still have days that make me stop and remind myself that it's all real, that I really do have a job where I get to do this every day. Then add onto that all the friendships and opportunities that my new church has offered, and I am overwhelmed with how much God pursues me and really does give me the desires of my heart when I delight in Him. 

But back to school. So this week started with a field trip planned for Friday that the kids didn't know about. So we started out on Monday with the idea that we all needed to be flexible this week, allowing things to change around on our schedule in order to make room for fun things later in the week. Little did I know that I was going to need that reminder to be flexible and know that God was changing things around on our schedule in order to make room for exciting things later in the week.

Monday went well, and so did Tuesday, though my teammate expressed that her mom woke up really sick that morning (she lives with her parents) and Bob, my boss, was sick and would be working from home. Tuesday afternoon we had a quick meeting after school with plans for a Together Tuesday activity with the kids at 4:00. Our meeting ran a little late, so I got to Together Tuesday at about 4:15, only to find Jacob (the boys' houseparent) sitting on a bench, saying he fell and had hurt himself. He pushed through the pain, though, through our outdoor game time, but you could tell he was really hurting. After our activity, they got the bikes out, and I rode around for a little bit with the boys. I stayed an extra 10-15 minutes just to ride a little longer with Kayden and Zayden, embracing the opportunity to bond with them through an activity that I really enjoy. They really enjoyed hanging out with me that way, too. I had been praying for extra ways to connect with the kids because I am the only one that doesn't go out and do fun activities with them that aren't school related.

Well, I left at dinner time and went home to cook a quick meal and eat with Mike. As we were eating, I got a phonecall from Nicky, Jacob's wife, saying that Jacob had to go to the ER because he was still in so much pain, and she had already committed to taking the boys into town that evening. She asked if I could come watch her own 3 little boys and put them to bed at their normal bedtime around 7. So I finished eating, washed the dishes, and drove back to New Song to babysit their sweet little boys. It definitely wasn't what I had planned for the evening, but it was nice to spend that time with them and to enjoy a little peace and quiet after putting them to bed, with a cup of decaf coffee and a book while I waited for her to get back. The New Song boys were super happy I could babysit, and I could tell that it meant a lot to them when I came back over just an hour after leaving. I love how we all operate like a big family. Jacob ended up at the ER until around 11:00, and thankfully he didn't have any major damage, just a lot of bruising. 

While our team kept texting each other the whole time about Jacob, my teammate also texted to tell me that her parents had tested positive for COVID, meaning she herself could not come in to school the rest of the week out of precaution. So that meant shifting people around to help cover in the classroom and also during an outdoor break so I could have time to prepare to teach my teammate's afternoon Bible class. We also already had switched around our Friday multicultural cooking activity from Friday to Wednesday due to the field trip that the kids still didn't know about, the field trip that my teammate had done all the planning for and who was supposed to drive us. 

My teammate usually takes the boys to a park or something on Wednesdays after school, so Lisa ended up taking them instead. I got home around 4:30, at a quick dinner, and realized I had about a half hour before we had to leave for our Community Group at church. It was nice outside, so I decided to go on a walk. As I walked past my neighbor's house, she met me just as I was passing her mailbox and told me she'd just met Lisa while at the park playing with her boys. They happened to strike up a conversation while her boys played with our three New Song boys and found out they both had ME in common in their lives. So it gave me a chance to connect with my neighbor in a new way, all because Lisa happened to be at the park with the boys, covering for someone else. God is definitely in the details. 

Thursday morning I got a text saying that our oldest student, Kayden, had been throwing up (one of the last to get this stomach virus that we've been passing around for about 3 weeks) and would not be in to school for the day. With just two kids, I was on my own for most of the day with them (which I actually really enjoyed), and we did a school store in the afternoon and then I kept them for Math Club for an hour after school. All while trying to prepare report cards, newsletters, and leadership awards to send home with the kids on Friday. Oh, and a last minute notice that they wanted us to do a deep clean of the classroom before break and change out the decor for spring. Long day, for sure. With one sick, I hesitated telling them any details of our field trip on Friday, just in case the other two came down sick the next day. Plus I wasn't sure yet who was going to go with me on the trip since my teammate couldn't come. 

I got home late on Thursday and immediately started to work on cleaning out and vacuuming my car in preparation to drive to Indianapolis for our field trip the next day. Then we ate a late dinner together before I went to bed early. I was so excited, though, when I found out that they'd arranged for Olivia, the office manager, who I go to church with and have a very close relationship with, to join us on our field trip. :) 

Friday morning finally came, and all three boys were feeling well, so after I went over their report cards and leadership awards with them, and they did their contributions (weekly jobs) with an extra deep clean, Olivia and I left with them to drive to Indianapolis to enjoy the Children's Museum with them. What a great day we had together with the boys, and then after dropping them off with their families for spring break, she and I stopped for coffee and ended up sitting in the parking lot beside her car just talking for another half hour. Turned out to be a great day. 

But then I had to hurry home to finish any last minute prep before my mother-in-law, brother-in-law, and niece and nephew arrived from Warsaw that evening to spend the weekend with us. 

Here are some pics of our day! Definitely an answer to prayer over wanting more ways to connect with the boys outside of the classroom. 

One day

One day we'll look back on the time when we bought a dirty, grimy, dilapidated old house built in 1938 on 10 acres of wooded land..... and there will be lots of laughs and funny stories to pass down for generations. 

We're not at that "one day" yet, but we're inching our way closer every month.

Mike said we'd have it livable within two months. Two months after we bought it, we had to bring David "home" to stay with us for the following two months during his recovery from his accident. It was "livable" with a nice, big living room, a wood stove for heat, one finished bedroom, one bathroom, and a kitchen with new countertops, a new, working sink, a new, working microwave, and cabinets with no doors on them yet. All of the doors, both interior and exterior, had been replaced, there were new windows in several of the rooms, a wall had been lengthened to make one of the rooms longer, and the dining and living areas had a fresh coat of paint on them, keeping most of the house the same color, as opposed to the multi-colored walls when we bought it. 

We've been in the house for almost 6 months now, and little by little, that "livable" house continues to improve and feel more like home. Many projects have had to wait through the winter due to the extreme muddy conditions beside/behind the house, including getting the propane tank moved farther away from the house, reconnected, and refilled. Which means I still don't have use of my new oven and stove, nor can we heat the house any other way than with the electric heaters we have and having a fire going constantly in the wood stove. But, I will say that the wood stove has kept the house warm and cozy, and most of our meals have cooked just fine in the crockpot or the toaster oven now that it's just two of us. 

We now have two bedrooms, though only one has a closet so far. We have our king sized bed here to sleep on, with plenty of storage in the drawers underneath. Mike just built me shelves in a strange storage space in the bathroom, so I have more of a linen closet than I've ever really had in my last two houses. I painted a built in space/cabinet in the wall, and Mike put shelves and a light in it for me so I could display my tea set that my grandparents bought for me many years ago in Romania. 

Mike came home with a new mailbox that lights up at night, plus he built a step for our entry way that previously had a single cracked up cement block to step on. He brought home two large barrels for us to easily burn our trash in so we don't have to wait for decent weather conditions to be able to burn it on the burn pile. 

I enjoy going to our storage area more now because I am able to bring more decorations home as we have more places to start putting them. Just this last week, I was able to put up a wooden wall hanging with my Pennsylvania covered bridge carved into it (the one by my childhood home) and hooks underneath so I can finally hang my necklaces. It's those little things that make it feel like I'm here to stay for awhile. 

My covered bridge wall hanging

My favorite shelf lamp where I have my quiet time in the mornings

A painting I made with my mom and my sister-in-law on my mom's 70th birthday, finished maybe an hour before a tornado came right through the area! I plan to hang some family pictures in this hallway. 

The cabinet I decided to fix up

Now with my treasured tea set safely inside, ready for a close friend to come have tea with me.

My new linen closet area 

Feels so good to have all my towels, sheets, and blankets in one place, along with all sorts of other toiletries, etc. All that space was just a waste before he put those shelves in. 

We also got a new (to us) washer and dryer, as the ones left here just didn't cut it. The washer needed work, and the dryer didn't always dry well. We found the same models, just newer, on marketplace, and we are much happier with these than the old ones. Bigger, nicer, and newer. 

Little by little, this little house is coming along. We've had a few teaser nice days lately that remind me that spring is just around the corner. Longer, warmer days are coming so we can focus on the outdoor areas more, as well as the inside areas that were just too cold to deal with through this winter. 

A new church home

 If you have a church that feels like family, you get it. You get how it works and what the Church is supposed to be. 

Leaving LakePointe Church behind was by far one of the hardest parts of this move. We'd been there for almost 20 years. We gave and we received. We served others, and we partook of other's service to and care for us. We sat under and learned immensely under wise leaders, teachers, pastors, and counselors. We met weekly for large groups, small groups, and even smaller accountability groups. Our church was our family when our own family wasn't in close proximity. In fact, that's the way God designed the Church to be. And the way we love our Church family, our brothers and sisters in Christ, that's our greatest testimony to a watching world. It's where authentic Christian love is lived out. John 13:35 says that "by this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

David and I were reminded of this first hand very recently when he had his mountain-biking accident that put us both in great need of support. Our church family showed up immediately to offer their presence and to take care of our physical needs, and they just kept pouring into us in the days and weeks to follow. 

So in moving to Indiana, despite all of our other challenges in the move, we dove right in to finding a new church home. When my coworker told me about what she found in Terrace Lake Church, I sensed something inside me telling me that sounded a lot like the church I'd left behind. And as soon as we walked inside the sanctuary, we felt right at home. Afterward the service, a greeting team of two women talked with us about different ministries in the church, mission partners and mission trips, etc., and sent us home with a gift bag and new t-shirts. Those two women continue to inspire me and grace me with their friendships every time I see them. In fact, they are both leading a mission trip to Colombia this fall that I really wish I could be a part of (but it's during the school year, so that would be too much of a burden for my team at New Song for me to try to go.)

Since then, Mike participated in a campus care day and met the husband of one of the women, who serves as the worship pastor of the church and also connects well with Mike's "handy-man" side. I've been in two women's Bible studies, and we've connected with a Community Group that meets every other month. Through connections in that group, I've developed new friendships and prayer partners, as well as been able to pursue training opportunities in Biblical counseling, a new passion God put on my heart a few years ago. 

At the first of the year, one of the elders (and founders of the church) preached a four week series on prayer. In his first one, he talked about how he wrestled with God twenty years ago to leave Dallas, Texas and move to Columbus, IN to plant a church with four other families. (Okay, God, I'm listening....) Come to find out, that very man and his wife used to go to church in Texas with two very, very close friends of mine. When she found out where I was going to church, she said we were with some really good people. Such sweet confirmation from someone back "home" in Texas. 

Well, this last week, we officially became members of Terrace Lake Church and look forward to becoming part of this new family. 

https://www.terracelake.org/