On The Road Again

Life is about change.  It’s about the ebbs and flows and twists and turns and much of the happiness and contentment of our lives is how we deal with all of that.  When I look at myself in the mirror I have to admit that often I don’t deal with it well or the right way.  I cry.  I complain.  I even…GASP…whine. 

If you've been a reader of this blog for the last year you know that I've been pretty quiet as of late.  I've been quiet because I've been out of my head in some ways.  And when you are out of your head it’s hard to write.  Or at least it is for me.

We moved into this rental home back in October.  You can read a few posts about that here.  It was our dream to be out in the country with the kids where they would have plenty of room to run and play.  This home is circa 1800s with so much charm!  I was in love from the moment I laid eyes on it.  Sometimes dreams turn into nightmares.  I've written before about some of the issues we've had.  In the last month, everything’s went from bad to much worse.

To make a LONG story short, this house is super old which we knew and a little bit run down cosmetically but nothing major (so it appeared) especially for the rent price.  The guts of the house are another story!  Every month multiple things have broken.  We got  a bill last month for almost $4K for the fuel oil when we were told when we moved in the utilities would run about $200 a month.  We find out now the boiler is 50 years old and the whole system needs replaced.  The roof also needs replaced which we knew.  It keeps leaking and who knows what's between that and the ceiling (aka mold and lots of it).  Approximately $250K worth of remodeling needs done.  They told us it would be best for us to move out because of everything and we totally agree BUT then we needed MORE fuel oil!  

There are so many details I’m leaving out but this is the jist of it.  We are expected to pay for all the fuel oil when we were completely mislead about EVERYTHING when we moved into the house in the first place.  We never would have moved in otherwise!  We are moving in with my inlaws next weekend to regroup and make decisions with a clear head. We need to be out before the fuel oil runs out which will probably be in the next week (even though we paid rent through the end of February).

That brings us to today.  Sitting in my dining room (mine for another few days), typing as my little man runs around pretending he is a ninja turtle while the other little ones are napping.  Sitting here FINALLY feeling like everything is really going to be ok with the situation. Sitting here FINALLY able to acknowledge God always has a better way because unlike us he knows our future. 

The steps of a man are established by the LORD, when he delights in his way; Psalm 137:23

It is so easy to give other’s advice and to say to them in their time of trial that God is with them.  That God has a plan.  That God is good all the time.  When you are in the midst of trial it is harder to be comforted by those same words. 

Those words ARE true.  I think in our times of hardship satan just loves to come in and rock our already rocked world.  The TRUTH is that when God lives in us that door is blocked. 

Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.  1 John 4:4

The owner of this farm is tough.  She is old.  Her heart seems to be hardened.  Please pray with me for her.  That is what God wants from us.  To pray for the lost.  Please pray for Mrs. F.

Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved.  Romans 10:1

Coffee Date

First of all, I want to tell you how blessed I am to be sharing my heart over @ Simply Helping Him today.  I am explaining how my priorities are different now and what a blessing that TRULY is!

AND...I finally make a Coffee Vlog!!  

Super excited to be linking up with Alissa from Rags to Stitches today!  

Happy Friday ya'll!

In The Word Wednesday - Grace when it gets a bit ridiculous

We moved.  We've been in our new place going on a month now and we've had a few bumps along the way.

You can read about some of that here & here.

Since we moved in: chipping paint has been fixed, the electrician has been out to work for about 3 days, the furnace needed 2 days’ worth of work, the plumber has been out multiple times, the washer, dryer & refrigerator all have broken and needed replaced and our basement flooded needing the plumber to come out yet again. 

Although the “Frankenstorm” that hit a day ago didn't completely devastate our area (thank you GOD!), we now have water damage in one of the kids rooms, gutter problems, a roof leak in our upstairs common area & a leak in our front room near the floor.  Oh, and our electricity has been out and probably will be for at least another few days.

How much more can HONESTLY go wrong?

That is something I feel nervous about typing because there is ALWAYS more that can go wrong in your circumstance even when it seems like its impossible. 

A theme that has been ringing in my head over and over and over again is having GRACE during life’s annoyances.  

That is what this last month has been filled with; little tiny annoyances that just kept coming one after the other.  When the refrigerator freaked out I wanted to freak out.  But…how blessed I am to have a refrigerator at all.  When the basement flooded I thought REALLY?!?!  But, how thankful I really do feel to have that extra place for storage.  And on the day of the storm when things started getting yucky out and we decided to drive to my inlaws since they were a lot less likely to lose power than we were…AND we realized all the leaks and then the loss of power I just had to shrug at that point and be grateful we have a warm place to stay with our kiddos where we can be comfortable “hunkered down” with loved ones.

What does our Lord say about those tiny annoyances?

give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.  1 Thessalonians 5:18

I MUST be thankful EVEN in the annoyances.  And let’s be REAL kids.  Things could ALWAYS be worse.  A LOT worse.  My family is healthy & happy.  We are surrounded by love and are overwhelmed at the kindness of so many of our friends and family in our life.  There is literally NOTHING more to want or need.  We are GOOD.

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.  James 1:17

Let’s face it.  This world and our life circumstances are ever changing.  How AMAZING to KNOW that God does not change.  DOES NOT CHANGE.  He is who He is and we don’t have to worry about anything.  I don’t know about you but I’m grateful for the ONE thing in my life that I can rely on ALWAYS.

do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.  Philippians 4:6

And should I get anxious about these really MINOR life hiccups (because let’s face it I’m human and yeah…it happens), I can pray.  

What have you been learning in the Bible?  Please join myself and these fantastic ladies for this encouraging linkup!  

Becky at Tales of Beauty of Ashes

Sarah at Fontenot Four 
Falen at Upward Not Inward 
Kelly at Exceptionalistic 

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Into the Word Wednesday Blog Hop Rules:

1. Write a post about what God is teaching you this week.

2.  Follow the host and hostess. 

3. Grab a button to put on your blog - the more the merrier!

4. Check out (and comment) other people's blogs and be blessed by all the sisters and brothers around the world!

Brown water, no heat & the rest of the debacle

We've been in our new place for about 3 weeks now.  We are starting to get settled in and it’s starting to feel like home. 

I’m starting to breath a sign of relief after what seemed like one debacle after another.

I can say I’m so very thankful for J’s parents and some great friends who helped us move boxes and who watched the kids for us.  I am so thankful for wonderful movers who worked quickly and efficiently and made sure not one thing got broken in the process.  I am beyond grateful for TONS and TONS of storage in our new house…the character of this neat old place…the warmness I already feel from it…and the relative ease in which the kids have adjusted.

Our new place is actually pretty darn old.  I don’t actually know how old it is, just that it’s old…probably 1800ish-early 1900ish old.  We found out after we moved in (remember we are renting) that no one has actually lived in this place for a few years and unfortunately for us it doesn't seem that anyone bothered to check on the working status of what is generally considered normal parts of a house these days.  Things like water, heat, electric…well you get the drift. 

The WONDERFUL part that has come out of all these issues is that they are all getting fixed in a very timely and thorough manner by some really kind people.  The representative of the owner of the home is also a wonderfully sweet woman who I really just want to invite for coffee one afternoon.

The main thing that was supposed to be taken care of prior to move in was some paint issues on the ceilings.  It was taken care of shortly after we moved in though.  

One of the first big issues we realized is that some of the outlets did not work and many of the outlets were not grounded.  Dangerous much…the electrician actually told us he had no idea how old the 2 pronged outlets were…just that he hadn't seen them in a long time and that they were definitely older than he was.  That somewhat scary issue was fixed in a couple days though. 

The water (we are on a well) was coming through the pipes in the bathrooms brown and in one of the bathrooms cold too.  That was fixed in a couple days.  The furnace was a big problem and a bit of a challenge to fix I gather but I am happy to say that was fixed in a few days as well. 

The washer would not empty when I ran some washer cleaner through it.  THANK GOD I did not have clothes in it!  When my husband tested the dryer we both agreed it smelled like it might catch fire at any moment.  Both were replaced within a couple days.  

We woke up one morning and the milk in the fridge was frozen.  The next morning the bottom of the fridge was a bit warm.  The repair man came and confirmed the fridge was indeed dying.  It was replaced.  

Lastly (knock on wood) the sinks in the basement washroom backed up and flooded part of the basement.  The plumbers came and fixed that issue but still need to come back and replace quite a bit of piping to finish the job.  Oh and a shower head doesn't work in of the showers and one of the toilet runs constantly which is irritating…all should be fixed next week as well. 

We were able to stay with my inlaws for a couple days while the heat and water got worked out.  Thank God for them!

Are you tired from reading that?  It was a lot to write and a lot to deal with.  I mean what are the odds of all those things going wrong or being wrong with one place?

I have a bit of a hunch as to why we are dealing with all of that but I’ll wait for another day to share my thoughts on that.

A little Introduction to the New Place

Phew!  This past month has FLOWN!!! 

We packed up and moved from our townhouse in the burbs to a house out “in the country”.  I’m talking the “I live back a lane, on a dirt road” out “in the country”. 

As I’m regaining my blogging bearings after being away for about a month, I thought I’d share some pics of our new place prior to move in.

Watch out for a vlog tour of our new place soon as well as our moving story in quite a few parts.  Let’s just say this whole moving thing has been quite the…adventure.