Christmas in our new house.

December 25, 2021 | Stacy

The good news is, some two+ months after catching the blog up, I am working to fill in all the missed weeks.

The bad news is, I have forgotten a good many details.

I do remember that one of the best parts is seeing how the kids gifted one another.

Sweet Noelle brought me coffee from Finger Lakes Roasters!

Jeff, Marguerite, Joseph, William, and Victorious joined us for dinner.

Johanna and Katriel got bean bag chairs from Mom and Dad.

Marie and Noelle blessed us with music.

It was warm enough out for a fire.

Mid-day (these photos loaded out of order) we got to watch Encanto. This is my new favorite movie!

Where there is a will, there is a way! We got all of us into the dining room.

Christmas Eve 2021

December 25, 2021 | Stacy

I’ve spent the better part of the last three days shopping or cooking.
Kelly and I broke for a few minutes this morning to be at the mall when it opened.

Marie worked til 2PM, then played some games with her sisters.

Both Kelly and Noelle are here for the holiday.

Church was at 5PM and we were some of the last to leave as we took some photos and visited with our new church family. One of the ladies in our church asked where in NY Noelle was from and wouldn’t you know she has a niece in the area Noelle may have met when they visited her church. God’s world is both BIG and small.

We went home for dinner of amazing snacks.
Veggie tray, shrimp, carmelized pigs in a blanket, spinach artichoke dip, taco dip and beef and turnkey sliders.

And for dessert we had a new recipe. It didn’t look like much and we had our doubts. It ended up being amazing.

Marie and Noelle sang for us.

Holiday fun with Hannah.

December 23, 2021 | Stacy

The unexpected text came by 8AM.
Would Johanna and Katriel be up for some early morning “gingerbread” house creating. A super quick yes and off they were to Hannah’s house!

Grateful for moms who think live like I do – last minute smiles and new memories!

Neighbors?

December 21, 2021 | Stacy

Living in a neighborhood has ups and downs.

I miss my five acres more than I can express without sobbing.
I don’t miss the yard work and the hours John had to devote to keeping it up.

Johanna and Katriel have discovered the joy of neighbors.
Today a handful of new friends came in for a game.

Christmas Break play date!

December 20, 2021 | Stacy

The best part of no school is FRIENDS!

Kazoo for you?

December 19, 2021 | Stacy

Katriel was given a kazoo at Sunday School.

Not sure what we did to deserve that.

(She called it a bazooka. It’s almost the same thing.)

Saturday sweetness

December 19, 2021 | Stacy

John and Tab headed to NY for the weekend to visit Ba and Poppy and to get her braces visit in.

I’m tired. I haven’t been sleeping well this week. There has just been a lot to do, nothing bad. But today, my tired self knew the Enemy was messing with me a little bit more than I felt strong enough for.

The kitchen was a huge mess and I had to run Nigel to work before heading to Anderson, SC for a gathering I’d been invited to.

I just felt the condemnation in my head. I don’t deserve to go. My house is a mess. Christmas is coming. There is so much to do. I remembered John and Marie both encouraging me the other day when they heard about the invitation. “But I want to go,” I told myself. So I went.

I uncharacteristically left the messy kitchen behind (gasp), left the little girls with lots of Christmas puzzles and let myself be blessed.

I got to meet many of Shannon’s friends and neighbors, and we shared words of encouragement and reminded each other of why we were here and how God had made a way.

Before I left Shannon’s, I looked at my phone and saw an invitation for the little girls to join a neighbor to decorate cookies this afternoon!! I joyfully joyfully accepted and called Johanna and Katriel and encouraged them to get lunch and make sure they didn’t look homeless (their normal Saturday couture). They were so happy.

We went down to Anna and Rebecca’s at 2PM. My house was still a nightmare. The pulled pork in the crock pot was spilling out juice onto the counter, but I just turned it off and left.

They had a blast being offered unrestrained access to their decorating whims. I was encouraged to hear the other mom could only make circles because she couldn’t find her cookie cutters – that was my plight yesterday, myself.

And then, I dropped Marie off at a birthday party. A fun thing for her, too.

At 5PM, I finally got around to pulling the pork, and faced the hard truth – I had NO rolls and NOTHING to serve with it. “Here’s some meat, kids.” So I went to Food Lion and bought wee packages of store-bought salads (eww? yum? you decide) and some mystery rolls. We finally ate. No one complained.

Honestly, moving has been SO HARD. 100% healthy. But truly hard.

Shannon and Anna both have done it and it was so great to hear them each share how God had provided for them.

God provided BIG TIME for me today.

I love that God cares for tired old me.

Painting again

December 16, 2021 | Stacy

There is this weird little room/closet off the kitchen. We needed to remove a weird, shallow cabinet and now we are going to work on making it into some nice storage space/freezer room…

Ceilings are just high enough here to make painting a little difficult.
We are hoping to work on the powder room, but keep running into supply chain issues for the vanity.

Still have Covid antibodies

December 15, 2021 | Stacy

One good thing that came out of this mess is I was compelled to start donating blood back in March 2020. Along the way the American Red Cross started testing for antibodies, and sure enough, those started to pop up after an upper respiratory infection last December.

Since moving to SC, the Red Cross hasn’t been an option, but I’ve been able to give via The Blood Connection. They have been testing for antibodies, but will stop doing so in the new year.

It’s cool that they are still showing up 12 months later.