Christmas Tree

We got rid of our fake Christmas tree a couple of years ago because it was in rough shape and it was big to store and move. Last year in our itty bitty house we just improvised by making a tree out of boxes that we had in our living room. This year we are spending Christmas in Wyoming so we weren't sure if we were going to do a tree or not. The more I thought about it the more I really wanted a tree but it really didn't seem reasonable to buy a Christmas tree since we weren't going to be around to enjoy it but I did want one. This afternoon Hannah and I went to P&C to buy milk and saw a big Christmas tree box on the side of the road. I went home and told Glenn and he came with me to go and pick it up. It is a 7 1/2 foot Manhattan Pine "as seen on TV". The "1000 prestrung lights" don't work so we will have to put our lights on it but we have a HUGE tree (we have never had a tree that was taller than us and with 10 foot ceilings in our apartment it is nice to have a tall tree.) Thanks God for providing a tree for us to enjoy.

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House Furnishings

Since church this morning this song has been resounding in my spirit: "Your grace still amazes me, Your love is still a mystery, Each day, I fall on my knees 'cause Your grace still amazes me."

Tonight as we were doing thank yous before putting the kids to bed I was again amazed at our generous God and the generosity of His people. We have been looking for a couch (you know, to replace the bathtub that had been in our living room for four weeks) on craigslist for quite some time but have never been able to find one for a price we wanted to pay at a location we were going to be able to move it from so we were being patient. We've lived without a couch for quite some time, a little while longer won't kill us. Last week at the church dinner Heather asked us if we needed a couch, she and Pastor Mark were trying to get rid of one of theirs and wondered if we wanted it. We went and checked it out this week and they helped deliver it with their trailer today. I forgot how nice it was to have a couch!!! I am so thankful. It even has recliners on both ends :) We haven't really had a couch of our own since we left 1090 because I don't think that the CLA really counted as a couch (if you ever sat on it you probably wouldn't either). Tonight we all snuggled together on it and it was so great. Thank you God for providing a comfy place to sit and snuggle and thank you Pastor Mark & Heather!

I really like the kitchen in our new apartment. There is a great amount of cupboards a very useful island in the middle of it but my biggest problem with it was the fact that I couldn't fit our microwave, Kitchen Aide, or coffee maker anywhere in my kitchen so they have been sitting on a footlocker on the floor which just hasn't worked well. Glenn thought that the best option for us would be to get a table to put under the windows to put all that stuff on. One problem with that though is that there wasn't really enough space there to be able to walk around the island with any table that we'd found yet. Glenn had seen our friend Matt and Christina's stainless table (which is only 2 feet wide) and told them one day if they ever wanted to get rid of it we'd take it from them. Today it came home with us. It is going to work great in our kitchen. I now have another huge work area. As I was taking the picture I thought of how thankful I am for the other things that God has provided on that table - the green butterfly glass bowl we use for fruit was a wedding gift, the KitchenAide my mother-in-love lent me 8 years ago (you don't want it back, do you mom??), the microwave God provided for $10 at a moving sale right after ours burned out. My God is so generous. Thanks God for blessing us and Matt and Christina for the table!Everytime I walk into our apartment I stop and think, "I just love our entryway." I think that it is partially because of this little table that is in it. A couple Sundays ago when we got home from church some neighbor kids were out and Glenn joked with them that if they found a screen door as they were traipsing around the neighborhood we could use one. A half and hour later or so our doorbell rang and there stood Kaylee and Francesca with this table. It was out on the curb in front of a house somewhere in the neighborhood and they had knocked on the door of the house and asked if they could take it and carried it to our house "because you guys don't have a lot of furniture." We looked at it and said thanks and wondered "What on earth are we going to do with this table??" We had a shoe rack where this table now sits and it was sloppy but the table has a nice look to it with the touch lamp on it for some quick light (I think that was a high school graduation gift LOL). I am thankful that God sometimes gives us pretties too :)

Glenn's New Desk!

Glenn has been dying for a place to study here at home. Our bedroom isn't big but we knew that the only place for him to get away in our apartment is in our bedroom. He likes to have lots of place to spread out when he is studying so he has been hounding craigslist for a desk or a library table or a dining room table - anything that he could have a large flat surface to study on. We have emailed about and gone and seen things for up to $400 but none of them have worked out. Finally yesterday this desk was posted for $25 and Glenn ran over and got it right away. It is big (50"x32" surface) and solid, the locking mechanism is broken right now and some of the veneer is coming off but it is a lot better than some of the other desks and tables that we have looked at for much more. I am so thankful. Interesting information about the desk - according to the people he bought it from they have owned it for about 25-30 years and it used to belong to the first female judge in Onondaga County. I have no idea how old it is but it is pretty heavy and we are very thankful to have a place for Glenn to study at at home! Thanks God for providing our needs!

An inspirational thought

I got a flip calendar from Adrian Rogers from my dad's house. I thought that what was written on the calendar for today would be appropriate for this blog:

"I've heard people say, 'Pray for us that we'll hold out faithful to the end.' I think I know what they mean, but I always smile. I picture Noah's ark and I can see Noah, his wife and his family. Rather than being on the inside, they're holding onto some slimey pegs on the outside of the ark. And Noah says to Mrs. Noah, 'Honey, pray for me that I'll hold out faithful to the end.' But God said to Noah, 'Come into the ark.' And the same God that shut the water out, shut Noah in. Now, Noah may have fallen down inside the ark, but he never fell out of it. It's not that we hold on to Him, but that He holds on to us."

"Even there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall hold me. Psalm 139:10"

The calendar asked the reader to "Spend some time today simply praising God for His faithfulness, His steadfastness, and His unconditional love for you."

I am continually amazed at God's goodness to us. He is so amazing. I have no doubt that He is going to continually take care of us - I have seen it again and again. He is holding onto me and I am so thankful! One of my favorite passages of scripture is 2 Timothy 2:11-13 "It is a trustworthy statement: For if we died with Him, we will also live with Him; If we endure, we will also reign with Him; If we deny Him, He also will deny us; If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself."

Slippers, Games, a Fun Old Camera and Cash

We have decided that it would be fun to occasionally go to Salvation Army on Wednesdays because it is half off family day where all of the clothes and shoes except that weeks color are half off. The kids needed slippers because our floors are cold. We had a couple of pairs but not enough. We were able to find a pair for Caleb and a pair for the girls to wear. Caleb's were actually from Acorn and are in pretty good shape. I think that we'll get many years out of that $2 investment!

We were also able to pick up a couple of games. All of our games have come from Salvation Army. They used to sell them all for $2 but their prices have increased a bit. We got Last Word and Catch Phrase Junior, both of which I think will be very fun to play with the kids. We have the adult version of Catch Phrase but the kids don't know so many of the words so they have been having a blast with Caleb giving them clues.
Glenn is a bit of a camera geek. He comes by it naturally, I guess. He loves photography. He is always looking on craigslist trying to find a dslr in our price range (which he hasn't found yet) but he also would like to have some old cameras to use as decorations in our home. We have two that we got from my Grandma Hansen's house but the ones that people are trying to sell on craigslist are just so expensive. Well at Salvation Army Glenn found a Polaroid Land Camera in pretty nice condition for $3. Now he is in search of film for the thing so that he can display pictures that he took with it with the camera. It is pretty cool.

While we were at Salvation Army we ran into Joy. It is always a suprise to see her because I never remember that we live in the same city. We visited for a while while her friends shopped and after she made her purchase she gave us her change - $15.32. This is the first cash gift we've gotten since I started this bl0g so I wanted to be sure to include it.

Thanks God for giving us both needs and some of our wants as well!

Sneakers, a T-shirt and a Sheep!

Last weekend we went to spend the weekend in Fillmore with friends from Houghton. It was so fun to go to visit and catch up with people at the Harvest Party that Fillmore Wesleyan Church always has. While we were there the joke from the last time we visited that Jaynie and Caleb can share shoes came back up and she asked if Caleb needed shoes. She had a pair of Vasques that she bought but were too heavy for her for running or something like that that she let Caleb try on and then keep because he liked them so much. She also gave him a Houghton t-shirt that was way too big for her kids. As we were getting ready to leave Sophia was showing us stuff in her little purse and one of the things there was a sheep like the one we have been missing for about 6 years to our Farm Families game. I asked Jaynie about it and she said she had several pieces from the game, probably from her sister, but they didn't have the actual game. She snagged the momma sheep and stuck it in Lydia's pocket for us to take home so we now have the complete game - yeah! Thank you God for good friends and for giving us fun stuff - both needs and extras.