All Things New

“Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.
See, I am doing a new thing!"
Isaiah 43:18-19a

Happy New Year! I hope to be able to blog more in 2012, but so many new things are keeping me busy that I rarely have a spare moment at the computer. There's the new baby, of course, who has been keeping hands occupied for three sweet months now. And Don starting a new job meant more transitions for our family. Since he can set his own hours, he has been leaving home extra early in order to beat the rush hour traffic. The trade-off for his pre-dawn disappearance is that we get to spend time with him in the afternoon. Of course, now that he is working outside the home and I have errands and children's activities to get to, we also needed a second vehicle.

For a few weeks, we pondered the many options: an expensive new commuter car, a cheap old car that may break down, a bigger family vehicle so that Don could take the van (which we own), buying him a truck that could also be used for trash-hauling and hunting trips, leasing something, and so on. Meanwhile, our dear friends were also in the process of preparing for a new job. Jared's new position as a youth pastor at a church in Kansas meant that he and Laura would be moving halfway across the country, and they didn't want to drive both of their vehicles out there, so they planned to sell their Chrystler Sebring convertible. Though we didn't know much about the car, it seemed like a clear sign to us that we should buy from our friends who needed to sell - the transaction would benefit both of our families as the husbands started their new jobs. As it turned out, Jared and Laura needed to use the car up until a certain Friday, and the very first day that Don needed to drive to work was the following Monday - AND we were already going to Jared and Laura's house for their going-away party that very weekend! As if that wasn't enough, we expressed interest in buying the car before we knew how much it was worth. Meanwhile, Jared had prayerfully set the price tag at $2000. Ever since Don and I paid off our van, we have been setting a certain amount of money aside each month in an ING account called "New Car Savings." In December, we had over $1900 in the account, and on January 1st, the total would have topped $2000! I love when God works things out right to the last penny to answer our prayers. And even though it's not a brand new pickup truck or gas-saving hybrid supercar, Don is actually enjoying his new vehicle. My cold-hating husband was even caught driving home from work with the top down on a 50 degree December day!

There have been changes at home, too. Now that we no longer need to use one bedroom as an office, our growing family can fill our three bedrooms instead of cramming into two. While in the process of changing the office to a girls' room, we ripped out the nasty old carpet and had new carpet installed. The night before it arrived, when excess furniture and miscellaneous stuff was cluttering every room in order to leave the office completely empty, my husband (after chatting with his mother) suggested an even better idea: the newly carpeted room could be our room. The girls could have the boys' room. And the boys, and all of their toys, could have the oversize room we've been using as a master bedroom/nursery. We just hit the three year mark in this house (twice as long as we've lived anywhere else!), so it was fun (though temporarily chaotic) to change things up a bit. We are all very happy with the new set up, so when I get a chance, I'll share some pictures. I also got, after a long wait for the rescheduled delivery and a few frustrating phone calls, a brand new front loading washer. It may seem silly, but after having a very basic washing machine for five years, I am so excited about all the different cycles! It is especially nice for washing diapers. Instead of running up and down the basement stairs three times to prewash, wash, and rinse, I can just set a long sanitize cycle and forget about it until everything is clean. What a blessing!

The household rearranging was completed just in time to start our new school year this week. Since we started First Grade last January and finished in November after schooling straight through the summer, it is time to move on to second grade. I am excited about using the My Father's World Adventures curriculum since we have had such good experiences with their Kindergarten and First Grade programs. This year we will be learning about the 50 states, American history, and the names of Jesus related to our science studies. We're looking forward to a great year! In addition to homeschool, visits with grandparents, and continuing to get together with friends for Lego building time, we will also be making weekly trips to the gym. Hayden had his first gymnastics class last week and loves it already! His gymnast Daddy is thrilled, of course, and Lydia can't wait until she is big enough to join a class too!

Don and I are keeping up our own physical fitness with a brand new workout program called P90X2. Beachbody's P90X extreme fitness program is well known for yielding great results, so we hope that this sequel will do the same. Don has done P90X a few times, and I completed it myself at the end of 2010 (one of the reasons I wasn't blogging then - it's very time consuming!). It is difficult to squeeze in hour-long workouts with a new baby and three loud children who alternate between wanting to join the workout and sabotaging it with their demands ("Can I please have one raisin?"), but I love the results of a challenging exercise program. Don also wanted to follow the diet program, so I have been carefully meal planning and calorie counting for him. (Since I'm nursing and don't need to lose weight, I am not worried about the number of calories I eat, but I am trying to avoid the pile of Christmas candy in the cupboard!) And between buying new workout programs and Don and I both drinking Beachbody's Shakeology® daily, I concluded that it was worth signing up to be an Independent Team Beachbody Coach, both to get a discount ourselves, and to be able to share these products with others. We were already telling people how much we love certain products, and now we can send them to my Beachbody site to learn more about the workout programs, nutritional supplements, and online tools that Beachbody offers.

Finally, I had been thinking and praying about finding a group of other women with whom I could meet for prayer, encouragement, and accountability, when the Lord graciously introduced me to Good Morning Girls. Since Good Morning Girls is a form of online accountability for having daily quiet time, it is perfect for moms like me who may not be able to get to Bible studies and prayer groups outside of the home. A group of my local young mom friends and I have committed to hold each other accountable to grow daily with God, and we'll be emailing each other every weekday to encourage one another and share what we are learning. I am looking forward to getting to know these wonderful ladies better, and to see how God will use our group for His glory! I will also be participating in the free Ephesians Bible Study offered by Good Morning Girls. If you don't already have a daily time set aside with God, I encourage you carve out a few minutes of your day, join me in this study, and invite others to hold you accountable. I know God will bless us for being faithful to Him!

And lest you start to suspect that I am some kind of wondermom, able to embark on a myriad of new adventures without batting an eye, you should know that there is a basket of clean laundry that has been sitting in my bedroom for so long that the boys have been shopping for clean clothes in there every morning. There are piles of clutter resulting from the bedroom switcheroo (and ensuring closet switcheroo) that are driving me crazy, and I haven't baked bread (which I used to do weekly) for a year. I can't do it all, but I can do that which God has given me for this season with His help and His grace, and I am so thankful for the many new blessings and opportunities He has already given me this year. By His strength, I am excited to dive into 2012!

Seeing Through the Glass

It may seem silly, but I am truly thankful to God for contact lenses. Since I got my first pair at age 13 (for softball, supposedly, though that was my last season participating in anything that resembled a sport), I have never been seen in public sporting the four-eyed look. In fact, I have not bothered to even own a backup pair of glasses for the last decade; I just put my "eyes" in as soon as I get up, and take them out right before bed. This system was working wonderfully until I got an eye infection last winter and had to spend a weekend in relative blindness. Since then, I have realized that despite my distaste for spectacles, there may be some wisdom in owning a properly prescribed pair.

It took me until summer to see an eye doctor for a prescription and until New Year's to look into filling it, but it is finally done. I bookmarked Zenni Optical after reading about their incredibly affordable glasses on another blog, and I am so glad that I did! Not only are their prices unbeatable, but they even have software on the website so that you can upload a picture of yourself and "try on" hundreds of frames. Don and I each spent an hour or so narrowing down our choice of frames based on size, shape, color, and cost. Don didn't believe me at first that the $12 to $15 price tags were for more than the frames, but when we realized that the low prices also include lenses, a plastic case, and a cleaning cloth, we decided that we would each get two pairs! At that price, in case one pair didn't fit properly or look as fantastic as it did in the virtual fitting room, it was worth ordering a second. And believe it or not, we had four pairs of brand new prescription glasses to shipped to us for only $50!

After a couple weeks of waiting, our glasses finally arrived. Amazingly, all four pairs fit and seem to be just as high quality as the hundred-dollar ones we could get at the mall. Besides the fact that I don't find glasses particularly flattering, it was a strange feeling for me to put them on after all these years. Goodbye, peripheral vision; hello, motion sickness. The sensation that the world is moving up and down as I walk looking through the lenses is a bit unsettling for someone who normally forgets that she lacks 20/20 vision. Contacts are like a correction for my eyes; glasses are a foreign piece of hardware. Still, I am thankful to have acquired such useful (and relatively stylish) hardware for so little cost!

And how much more thankful am I that though my flesh may fail and my eyes are weak, my God is unfailing and His vision is perfect. Without contacts, glasses, or any help from me, He watches over all His creation, and gives good gifts to His children where He sees fit.

The eyes of the LORD are everywhere, 

keeping watch on the wicked and the good.

Proverbs 15:3

Check Out What's In Store!

Just in time for holiday shopping, I have finally started setting up the Lambs in His Arms store, where you will find books, music, toys, diapers, and other great products of interest to moms and homemakers. The store is completely powered by Amazon.com, so you can start there and continue shopping in other areas of the Amazon website if you desire. I am still adding to the collection of my favorite products (and a few from my wish list), so check back regularly for more recommended items. If there's something that you would like to see offered in the store, leave me a comment and let me know. I appreciate your support!

Totaled Blessings

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. - Romans 8:28

What appears to be misfortune can sometimes be a blessing in disguise. I found this to be true for our family after we experienced two serious car accidents. Four years ago, when I was pregnant with Donny, I was driving to my mom's birthday party one afternoon when an SUV pulled out in front of me. The inevitable collision caused the air bag to deploy, scraping open my hand, and my car was totaled. Since I (thankfully!) wasn't at fault, I was able to replace my Plymouth Neon with a Dodge Neon of the same year, and the settlement for my injuries paid off the little that I owed on the car.

A year and a half later, a similar accident totaled Don's two door Ford, a car that was relatively useless for a family hauling an oversize car seat and jogging stroller (not to mention that it was a standard, and I never learned how to drive it). With the insurance money, we paid off the remaining debt on the Ford and have been blessedly debt-free ever since. We briefly discussed the possibility of being a one car family, but I recoiled in horror at the thought. And at the time, with Don's long commute to work and my frequent prenatal checkups, it would not have been very practical. We decided to purchase an older, roomier car that would be both efficient for commuting and suitable for the whole family.

What we didn't realize was that our trusty new (to us) vehicle was apparently a victim of the recent local flooding. After nearly two years and a few repairs, the brakes went out, and because the bottom of the car was completely rusted, it would have cost nearly as much as the car was worth to repair it. Unwilling to waste money fixing a car that was likely to die soon anyway, we began to research minivans; after all, we would need a bigger vehicle whenever God blessed us with another baby, and it was a tight squeeze to fit even our family of four into the Neon. But after we test drove a few of the most promising used models, we couldn't justify spending our entire life savings on a van that made strange clicking noises whenever we used the brake. In retrospect, with this summer of skyrocketing gas prices, we have been very thankful that we did not sacrifice the Neon's better gas mileage for a bigger vehicle that we did not truly need.

And so, one sunny day last April, our children watched intently through the window as a flatbed trailer came to tow away Daddy's car. We had decided to donate the car to charity and to live with one car, at least temporarily. Don would take the Neon to work Monday through Friday. I would no longer be able to attend a weekday morning Bible Study, but the study I was participating in had just ended anyway. I would also need to reschedule my Monday morning grocery shopping trip. Don volunteered to stop at the grocery store on his way home from work, and I - having done 100% of the grocery shopping since we were first married - protested at first, but agreed to try it.

As it turns out, my husband is a very competent shopper. After the success of his first trip, he has taken over my weekly responsibility. Every Monday I email him the grocery list, and he buys exactly what I request. Yes, exactly - nothing extra, nothing forgotten. I remember one cold winter when my boys were small and bundling them up for a trek to the supermarket was an all day affair, I looked into the possibly of an online grocery delivery service, but we were concerned about the delivery charge and the possibility of getting bruised fruit, wilted veggies, and about-to-expire milk. Now I have the best of both worlds: I don't have to wrestle a toddler into his shoes and jacket and then try to keep him entertained and seated while I manuever through crowded aisles with a baby strapped to my chest. I have another free morning to spend at home, catching up on chores or just having fun with the children. And on Monday night, we herald the arrival of a certain Dodge Neon much the way others would look for a familiar delivery truck, for the boys and I know that Daddy will be coming home with bags full of our favorite foods.

For our other shopping needs, I have long since relied on the Internet. I buy toiletries, vitamins, diapers (both cloth and disposable), gifts, and even clothing online. (I get all of my disposable diapers and wipes at Diapers.com; they also have a large selection of other baby products, including several natural ones. You can enter referral code 4thelambs to receive $10 off your first order.) We have gotten to know the mail carrier and the UPS man because we are continually receiving packages. We are also blessed to live within walking distance of many places. By foot and stroller, the children and I have returned library books to the book drop, mailed packages in the big blue mailbox, bought milk at the gas station, picked up prescriptions at the pharmacy, shopped at the discount store, walked to my doctor appointments, and even attended a free class at Gymboree. If we ever wanted to eat fast food, we would have a wide selection of restaurants to choose from, and it's not too far to a bakery or a used book store. We can even drop the car off for an oil change and walk home while we wait. But even with all these interesting destinations near by, I can't say that giving up my car has sent me running out of the house. In fact, I have hardly missed having a car at all; it seems perfectly normal and wonderful to be home all of the time. Since we became a one car family, I have experienced so many blessings, but to avoid making this post excessively long, the details will have to wait for next time.