RETURNING TO THIS BLOG

It's been about 9 years since I've posted anything on this blog. At the time, this blog was getting too big and I didn't know how to manage all the different posts, so I left it to use Facebook. I likec Facebook of the ease of posting and I didn't have to format anything. I'm going to attempt to return to blogging because I don't think Facebook is the best platform for my posts anymore. In a sense, you have to be sensitive to your Facebook Friends and be mindful that you're not wasting their time with your posts. In a sense, on Facebook, you're kind of forcing your friends to look at your stuff even if they don't want to look at it. Also, I wish there was a way to disable the Like button. Sometimes I just want to post something interesting without getting audience feedback. Knowing that I would get audience feedback would cause me to check Facebook every 15 minutes and checking for notifications became such a waste of time. I've been convicted to do be more diligent and intentional in my parenting and I don't want social media to get in the way of the job God has given to me. Therefore, I am returning to blogger as my way of journaling our family's adventures. There's going to be a lot of things I'll need to relearn about blogging and formatting and even adding in functions I enjoyed from Facebook. Since I haven't touched this blog for about 9 years, a lot of the links I had has disappeared and the site looks like it's under construction. Hoping I'll be able to get my site looking decent soon.

On this blog, from this post on:
DearHubby - Tyler
Me - Guenivere
DearDaughter1 - Lynn
DearDaughter2 - Ann
DearDaughter3 - Vangie
DearDaughter4 - Karis
DearDaughter5 - Kmia

It Is Finished (but still in the works)

I am a silly one. I maintain 3 blogs and they're all about our family! My intention was to have a separate blog for separate subjects; one blog for family updates with monthly summaries of the going ons in our home, one blog for capturing precious moments with my children, and one blog for me to just release all other thoughts running in my head pertaining to life, faith, childrearing, marriage, the home, etc...

Well, I've been trying to simplify life by sorting, purging, and organizing and it became apparent that maintaining 3 blogs is unnecessary. I have merged all 3 blogs into 1. There is an export and import option available here on Blogger. It's under the Settings tab. I exported 2 of my blogs, the one about my children and the one for my own personal thoughts, and have imported them into a new blog, In Pursuit of His Call. I am now in the process of organizing previous posts under main categories like Faith, Ministry as a Wife, Ministry as a Mom, Ministry in the Home, Recipes, Tips, and Other Home Life Ramblings.

When you enter the site, you will see the going ons of our day through pictures and some comments about our day; this is content that would have been posted on my children's blog. All other topics will be posted in their appropriate categories. The merging of the blogs is finished, but what's still in the works is the organizing of posts.

I am excited for this new blog! Come and visit me there:
In Pursuit of His Call

Home Life...Today We Celebrate 10 Years!!!

Things to remember about today:
- When we decided not to go to the beach house vacation in North Carolina, we also decided that DearHubby would not be going to his high school's best buddy's wedding this weekend for the same reason; lack of funds. However, today, as I was looking at our wedding pictures, DearHubby's buddy was in a lot of the pictures reminding me how dear a friend he was to DearHubby. So, for his anniversary present, I wanted to tell DearHubby to go to the wedding, but I knew that our financial situation still had not changed. I prayed about it and asked another friend to pray about it. Well, DearHubby's buddy called me and asked if he had paid for his room yet. I told him no because we were still undecided if he was really going down for the wedding or not. So, his buddy said, "Well, I just called to tell him that he can crash at my house after the wedding!" DearHubby doesn't have to pay for any lodging at all! So, that made our decision easy, I told him to go, as my present to him. He left around 11pm tonight.

- Our lender that we were trying to get the refinancing from called today and after talking to the supervisor of our loan processor, he said he would take the Denial off of our record and go back to their underwriters to see how we can work together to get our loan approved. I just hope they're not going to ask for the world. We still continue to pray that the underwriters will give us some guidelines that we can actually meet.

- Renewed our driver's licenses today.

- Ate at home. Grilled steaks with steamed brocolli and rice.

- Went to my chiropractic appointment.

- Took some family pictures to remind us of this day.

Home Life...Being Stewarts of Our Money

"No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money." (Matthew 6:24)

While we were waiting for the results of our refinancing we were given a once in a lifetime opportunity to go on a beach house vacation in North Carolina. There are a group of people from our church who rented a beach house on the outer banks of North Carolina, but a few families will be leaving the house early. Since the house was already paid for, the rest of the group decided to extend a free room on the beach house to our family. All we needed to pay for was our transportation, food, and extra costs. Below is a letter DearHubby and I wrote to the group about our decision:

Hi Beach House Vacation Coordinators,

An opportunity to stay at a magnificent beach house for free comes only once in a lifetime and worth every penny to spend, especially when it would be with brothers and sisters in the Lord.

Unfortunately, due to our current financial situation, we do not even have that one penny to spend. We are quite torn about our decision as we so much wanted to join all the families for this once in a lifetime opportunity, but after much prayer and consideration, we will need to decline the offer. Although our lodging at this wonderful vacation spot would be free, the transportation, food, and extra costs would still be too much for our very modest budget.

One lesson we have learned from this experience is being better stewarts of our money and putting our hope and trust in God over silver or rubies. We were putting our hope on the refinancing of our home and spending money that we did not have and that was not ours. If we had been stewarts of our money, we would have still watched our spending despite our pending refinancing. We received word this week that our application was denied. Our false hope was crushed.

The beach house offer was our test. Do we take the offer because it is a once in a lifetime opportunity or do we decline it because we don't have the funds? What is the best decision? We are already in debt, something we have not been in for over 5 years now, so what's another few hundred dollars? Through much prayer and consideration, over and over again, the Lord has told us no. Both DearHubby and I are torn, sad, mad, frustrated, etc... over this, but we know we have to do God's will.

Thank you so much for extending this offer to us! Have a blessed time!

In Pursuit of His Call

Snippet from the Day...

We just had a wonderful evening with prospect missionaries to Ethiopia! It's so encouraging spending time with other brothers and sisters so on fire for the Lord and it's such a reminder of God's steadfast love and His bountiful saving grace!!!

Snippet from the Day...

I am having a challenging day :( and I am having a difficult time trusting and rejoicing, even when I know from His Word and in my life that God is steadfast in love and He has dealt bountifully with me...

Home Life...

Our lender received the appraisal report for our home and from it we were given 2 conditions to meet for the approval of our refinancing loan:
1. We need to tear down the buildings on the back of our property (old chicken coops).

2. We need to show proof that our addition passed the final inspection and meets all codes.

We received this notice on Thursday and I just broke down in tears. We have been trying to refinance since January and there has been one obstacle after another that has kept us from getting refinanced. It was quite frustrating as DearHubby and I think we are perfect candidates for a bank to give money to. Our credit score is higher than 750, which puts us in the Excellent category and our house is appraised much higher than what we needed for this loan. Either way one looks at it, the bank will get their money. If we keep the loan, then they can be assured that it will be paid monthly. If we can't keep the loan, for some reason, and we foreclose and the bank takes over our property, they would be able to sell our home for more than double what we're borrowing. So, it has been very disheartening to go through so many loop holes just to get this loan.

In response, we told the bank that we are able to show proof that our addition passed final inspection and meets all codes and that's what DearHubby worked on this weekend. He took Friday off to start work on all the final details of the addition (and even hallway); in other words, trim installation. We hope to get our final inspection done on Wednesday.

In response to the first condition, DearHubby told the bank that we will not be tearing down the buildings as they are valuable to us since they serve as storage areas for us now. The bank forwarded our response to their underwriters and we are now just waiting for our loan results, whether we have been approved or disapproved.

Although it's a very frustrating situation, we know that God is in control and whatever decision the underwriters make, we know it is God's will. Yet, we do pray for God's grace on our behalf and move the hearts of the underwriters to approve our loan. We were due to close on this loan on August 26th.

Notes...A Woman After God's Own Heart by Elizabeth George

CHAPTER 8 (1st half of chapter)

Scriptures used in chapter:
Admonish the young women to love their husbands. (Titus 2:4, NKJV)

Ointment and perfume delight the heart, And the sweetness of a man’s friend gives delight by hearty counsel. (Proverbs 27:9, NKJV)

The heart of the righteous studies how to answer, But the mouth of the wicked pours forth evil. (Proverbs 15:28, NKJV)

Anxiety in the heart of man causes depression, But a good word makes it glad. (Proverbs 12:25, NKJV)

Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. (Romans 5:5, NKJV)

But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil. (Luke 6:35, NKJV)


Key points (from previous notes):
- You are to hold your husband first in your heart after God

Yes, But How?

- What can you do to show your husband affectionate, indulgent, friendship love?

...3. Prepare for Your Husband Daily - "Let the wife make her husband glad to come home." (Martin Luther)

.....- Prepare the house - communicate to your husband "I'm glad you're home."

.....- Prepare your appearance

.....- Prepare your greeting

.....- Set the table

.....- "The king is in the castle!"

.....- "The party!" - Rejoice that the best part of the day has arrived - when your husband gets home and the party is about to begin!

.....- Clear out all visitors

.....- Stay off the phone

For wives arriving after husband:

.....- Prepare all the way home

.....- Pray all the way home