Signing Off

Today is Sept 12 and nearly two months since I left my full time job to stay home with my children.   The journey was long, but full of such blessings, learnings and rewards.    This experience has tested my trust in the Lord and my measure of faith beyond what I thought I was capable of.   So far He has remained faithful and I know, from experience, that He will continue to do so.... even if it doesn't always look the way I would like it to or things don't go as I have planned.    I know that His plans for me are for good (Jer 29:11).

So for now... I sign off.   I will be tracking my daily activities and experiences on my other blog, found here.   Please continue to follow my journey as a stay-at-home, homeschooling mom!

What a beautiful day!

After enduring such a hot week last week, with temperatures in the 90s, it was refreshing to have a low 80s day yesterday. Personally, my favorite temperature is mid-70s, so even 80 can be too warm sometimes. Yesterday, however, there was this nice breeze and blue skies, it was gorgeous. I sat on the porch swing in the afternoon and watched the kids playing outside and watched the white puffy clouds roll by in the bright blue sky. Made me incredibly happy to be home enjoying it with the kids.

One thing I'm noticing is even with all the time in the day, it is very hard to give each child some individual attention. It's pretty easy with the big boys because we can play a board game like checkers or chess. But with the little ones, I have to be more creative. Then with having twins, it is easy to lump them together and spend time with both of them at once. One of my twins has started having accidents in his pants and I think he is looking for attention.

Every day a new learning adventure....

Week 1

The first week home has been awesome, exciting, rewarding, exhausting, overwhelming, and frustrating all at the same time. The beginning of the week, our au pair was still with us for two days. We went to Linesville, PA to see the Spillway. If you've never seen this, you should. There are so many fish. I mean SO many fish. There are so many carp that if you throw bread into the water they are literally swimming over each other to get to it. The tag line for the place is "Where ducks can walk on the fish".... and they do! Literally!

Tuesday we went to the zoo. This week we had a hot spell, so it was a roasty day with temps hitting the 90s. We rode the tram a bit to conserve energy and only stayed for a few hours. Grandma bought our au pair a ride on a camel as a special treat and then she treated all the grand kids to rides too. Grandma's are good for that kind of stuff. My older kids have been on the camel before, but it was the twins first times. Lots of photo opportunities.

Wednesday a friend called to see if I wanted to get together. After being gone for two days I was looking forward to a day at home. She said her younger children needed a nap first in the afternoon, so we wouldn't be able to go until around 4. Perfect!! Still can get stuff done around the house and hook up with friends. We went to a local sprinkle park. You mean I get to see friends outside of work too! This is great!

By Thursday, I was exhausted. First from all the running around, secondly from the heat, and thirdly from trying to accomplish a ton of housework in the midst of everything else. Even still I pushed through the day without a nap and accomplished some stuff. We moved my daughter back into her bed room which the au pair had been using so she was ecstatic.

The housework is the overwhelming part. I have cleaned our kitchen and swept the floor SO many times. Even with feeling like I'm constantly in the kitchen, the dishes have not been completely done even once. We average 5 dishwasher loads over 2 days -- almost after every meal. The kids have been helping too with putting dishes away and clearing the table etc, but still it's ALOT. And we haven't even started school work yet!! Oy!

Friday was nice. My husband is still part time. (Yes, supposed to change shortly) So he was home with us. Still feeling tired, but tried to accomplish stuff around the house. We went to a friends house to check out their garage sale and visited with our au pair. She is staying at their house for a week of vacation before going to a new family.

The older boys started swimming lessons this week too. They are daily, so I have to get everyone out of the house every morning and drag them to the pool. That's been cutting into the house work time too.

So all in all it's been a busy week, but I'm loving it! Really truly am glad to be home with them!!! Hopefully I'll make more headway on things next week!!!

Welcome Home!

When I got home from work yesterday, the kids were all sitting on the couch waiting for me to walk through the door. When I did, they yelled,

"WELCOME HOME!!"

My oldest son made this for me....

Notice the little people on the right. This is mommy homeschooling the two boys. Brings a tear to my eye :)

Never early...

... never late, always on time. Our God is faithful!

Today is my last day at work. It's hard to believe the time has finally come and this day is here. I know that God's timing in this whole journey has been perfect. While this is the end of one journey, a whole new one is beginning.

But for now, we celebrate! I bought a bowling deal from Groupon a while back, so we decided to take the kids out and go bowling this afternoon. Should be some great family time!!

<*Happy dance*>

The home stretch - Baseball pun intended :)

This week is my last week of work. Only 5 work days to go. If this were a fairy tale, the prince and princess would be getting married and we'd be about 5 minutes away from the credits rolling. However, they never show you in the movies, life after the fairy tale. That's what we're bracing for. I've been really excited the past few weeks to see this day coming. Even when I think about money, I know that God is going to provide. My faith is increasing. However, I don't expect it to be easy at all.

Even in light of getting ready to face the storm/valley, whatever would be considered a low difficult time, God has still been blessing us amazingly. My company offers a yearly summer event at the ball park for the families of employees. You are given two free tickets and are able to purchase additional tickets at half price. Even at half price, the remainder of our family would cost about $67. (Side note: Why is everything so expensive when you need a quantity of 7 ???) My father, who also works for the company, and I started asking around for anyone not using their tickets. God blessed us with enough tickets to take our whole family!!! And food/drinks are included in the event so it will be a fun night for the family that will only cost us the price of parking!!!

Secondly, another thing my company offers is to volunteer at a baseball game during some of the kids events. As a bonus for volunteering you get tickets to a future baseball game. I decided to volunteer yesterday and received vouchers for 4 Club seat tickets to any future game. These are $100 tickets that include a full buffet of food!! We decided to break up the tickets and get 2 tickets to 2 different games so that my husband and I could enjoy two "free" date nights over the next couple months. I scheduled the games about 6 weeks apart to maximize the fun and date time needed. Again, this is an evening that will only cost us the price of parking.

A good friend told me to be prepared for these kinds of blessings and I have to admit, this has been really fun to see God pouring out His gifts on us. Doing things God's way may confound the wise, but God rewards those who diligently seek Him.

If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! Matthew 7:11

It's Official

I submitted my letter of resignation last week. My last day at work is July 15. Kind of crazy, but there's no turning back now. I'm happy to say that I am very excited at this point. I have had tremendous peace for a few weeks now and just trusting the Lord that he will not leave us hanging.

Some of our curriculum came in the mail today and the kids are "rip raring" to go. They asked me if we could start school today. Umm... no. Not until I finish work. I've got so much going on with leaving my job that I've been pretty busy.

Who would have thought that leaving a job could be so busy? I have to worry about transferring our health insurance, making sure I have all my online accounts set up to my personal email account, and make sure all my personal files are off of my work computer.

News had started to spread around work and I've been a little surprised at some of the responses. All have been good! One manager told me she wishes she had done this when her kids were small. Now they are grown and she wishes she could have spent that time with them. Another person couldn't believe I was home schooling!! Some one else had no idea I had FIVE children, as she emphasized. Everyone by far has said good things though.

So here we are. The count down continues. Only 13 more days of work and 3 weeks until I'm home full time.

CHEO Conference

This past weekend, we attended the CHEO (Christian Home Educators of Ohio) conference in Akron, OH. On Thursday was a Family Discipleship seminar by Matthew and Maranatha Chapman. The key points I came away with, that spoke to me were:
1. Seed produces after its kind. If the parents are selfish, the kids will be selfish. Conversely if the parents are givers the kids will be givers.
2. Home environment should be a safe place.
3. God gives grace to the humble
4. Conversation should always edify, even in jesting.
5. We have to die to what we want. Life is not about you, it's about Him.
6. Don't complain, we make a place for the enemy.
7. Life is messy. Its about how we approach the spills.
8. Make sure you have the hearts of your children each morning.

Friday, my husband was able to join me for the day as well as my eldest son. We saw some more great speakers.
One of the speakers talked about homeschooling with preschoolers. My take-aways from that were:
1. Children are a blessing from the Lord
2. There is a time for everything
3. Keep a solid routine - not necessarily time-based, but routine. Morning devotions followed by breakfast, followed by .... etc.
4. Don't give up on nap time too soon. Even if it's just quiet time on their bed.
5. Keep "Activities in a bag" or a list of what the littles like to do on hand
6. Focus on the ministry (personal) to your children, less management (impersonal).

Two of the sessions we attended that day were by a sweet couple named Jenni and Matt Cox. They struck me as the type of people we would get along with great provided more time to spend with them. Here are some points I got from them:
1. A wise man chooses his destination and accepts the path. A fool chooses the path and accepts the destination.
7 Purposes of Marriage
1. Partnership
2. Power
3. Pleasure
4. Pro-creation
5. Protection
6. Picture of Christ and His church
7. Peace - place of trust and sincerity.

After attending our sessions on Friday we realized we didn't focus too much on home schooling sessions, so Saturday we tried to hit some practical home schooling sessions. We heard J. Michael Smith talk about measuring home school success. He used 1 Cor 15:58 as the standard for judging success.
Here are his 5 pre-requisites for success:
1. Be part of the 'my beloved'
2. 'this work' - the work of the Lord
3. 'be steadfast' - be excellent
4. Be immovable
5. Abounding in the work of the Lord - overflowing
And the outcome is that your work will 'not be in vain'.

Lastly we heard Steve Demme talk about strategies for understanding one another. We've had lots of sibling conflict and rivalry going on in our home lately that I was really looking for some ideas on that. Steve talked about these points:
1. Pray for your wife and family
2. Learn each others love languages
3. Communication
4. Personalities
5. Birth Order


I have some other notes taken, but that was the main stuff I walked away from the conference with. I really enjoyed the whole thing and look forward to going again in the future. We also were able to purchase the remainder of the curriculum we needed and are looking forward to packages in the mail. The boys are already asking if we can start school early.... ahh, if only that would last!

Tick tock

Well time is ticking away.... really fast actually.

I have not spoken to my manager again about the situation at hand, however, I do plan on giving my official notice within the next two weeks. Some of my co-workers know that will most likely be leaving and are sad to see me go.

I'm happy to say my husband is currently on a "probationary" period for becoming the store manager. He has had a few conversations with the owner of the shop and they are planning on moving folks around to achieve other goals I believe, but the end result may be my husband being on full time in a manager role. This also would mean on top of his salary he would be eligible for Key Performance Indicator bonuses and incentives. I have no idea what the specific details are but basically if he keeps the numbers of check-ins, warranty fixes, etc in good standing, he can get extra money. Sounds good in my book.

I really pray that this all works out and my husband does fantastically at this new role. Yeah, I'm not sure if that's a word either, but it works for now.

On the other side of things, I am attending another home school convention this week. I am very excited as we only 'briefed' the other one in a kind of 'get your toes wet' fashion. We are also planning on buying the rest of our curriculum! It's always fun to spend money! We still have to get mostly consumables such as workbooks etc. I'll fill more in on that after we attend.

The past few days have been kind of hard. I'm still having some anxiety about this major transition. I keep telling myself that God's not going to leave me hanging and I need to just trust Him, but it's like this war of thoughts and emotions going on in my head. I was bumming pretty considerably yesterday and my husband was trying to cheer me up. He asked what was wrong? I told him I had so much going on in my head, he wouldn't last a minute in there. The past few days with the kids have been challenging as well. I just keep praying it will be different when I am here all the time and not trying to squeeze everything into a 3 hour window after I get home from work.

I only have 20 days left of work. Only 20 DAYS!!!

If you think of it, please pray for us and that God continues to be faithful (as I know He will) and that our family would just have peace moving into this time of change.

Closing doors that should be closed

It's amazing sometimes how much stuff can change in 24 hours. You go along months without much and then woosh, it all starts changing. Of course, some of this was probably self inflicted, but nonetheless.

While I was having a conversation with my manager yesterday, my husband was having a conversation with his (well maybe not at the exact time) to find out what is going on with that business and how much longer he will be on part time. He and the owner had a good discussion and basically an opportunity was presented to him which would involve him going back full time shortly and possibly a promotion. He needs to have additional conversations around the whole thing to nail down details, so more on that to come in the future. However, the main take away is that he may be full time within in the next month. Great news.... except for all the stuff in my post yesterday about working 20 hours, yadda, yadda, yadda.

So yesterday while I was driving home I had this little voice telling me if I continue to work part time at my company, what has really changed? What exactly has the Lord called me to do? Quit my job? Home school the kids? Sometimes it's fuzzy the exact details (cause obviously God did not speak down to me in an audible voice), so I just prayed on the way home that if I was not to stay at my current employer that the answer to my being able to work part time would be a clear 'no'. I truly want God's will in all of this, so I continually seek His face for direction. I don't ever want to be caught doing an Abraham and Sarah and taking matters into my own hands.

Today I had an all day meeting with a third party vendor. Towards the end of the day, my manager sent me an instant message asking me to stop by her office. Immediately, I thought to have an answer this quick does not look promising. I stopped by her office and my thoughts were confirmed. No opportunity for part time or contract work. They just can't justify losing hours that can't be replaced by anyone else. I was surprisingly at peace with the outcome. I don't know why I was surprised, but regardless God answered my prayer. Of course, knowing that my husband may be going back to full time surely helped the situation. Otherwise I think I would have felt despair. So there it is. I have to quit to do this.

That leaves us with still having a deficit of about $1000 monthly. Using savings, we'll be good for a few months, but will quickly need to pick up additional income. Then we received two phone calls tonight. One was from a good friend of my husband asking him to help on some construction side work that should bring in roughly $1000 over the next few weeks. The second was for another small side job that my husband will go quote on Thursday. I feel like God was saying "hey, I've got this all under control!" It's so awesome to follow such a faithful God and to recognize that He cares so intimately about all the little details of our lives. I feel so blessed.

So the Lord closed the doors at my current employer, but other doors are opening ;-)

6 Weeks and counting....

Well, today was the day. I told my employer of my plans and really started onto the "point of no return". I was so excited, that I left work at lunch time and am currently sitting at the library giving you this info. But before I get into the outcome of that, a little update.

I have been stressing a little over the financial implications of this decision for a few weeks now. Well who am I kidding, really it's been the whole time we've been thinking about this, but more specifically the past few weeks. It just feels so impossible. My husband is still working part time and we don't see the light yet at the end of that tunnel. I also felt like if I stayed at my job part time (20 hours a week) that it would be robbing me of time that I really needed to invest into homeschooling and keeping my house. However without any additional guaranteed income, we were going to be considerably short.

Many people at our church are aware of the plans and the impending mid-July date. So naturally at church yesterday people were asking if we were still on for July. With this big unknown out there, I can only say 'yes' to a point. I explained where we were with "Granny", an elderly and wise woman at our church and she said since my husband is working part time, maybe he can take care of the children on the two days he is off while I work part time (20 hours). As simple as that sounds, I had never really thought of that option. We were really hoping at this point that my husband would be back to full time work and I would only need to supplement with about 10 hours of part time. For whatever reason, that brought clarity to our situation and gave me renewed energy as a viable option. I briefly shared this with my husband and while it would prevent him from doing other "work", he agreed it is an option. Additionally, my mom would be available at times to help with schooling or even watching the kids if we really needed it.

So instead of going into work today and asking to go down to 10 hours a week as an independent contractor, I led with my option of going part time at 20 hours. In order to be an actual part time employee at our company you need to work the 20 hours. This means I would possibly continue to be eligible for benefits and profit sharing at the end of the year.

Another thing that is important to note, and I'm not sure if I've mentioned it before is that the size of my team has been diminishing for varying reasons. We normally have 6 full time people and 1 full time contractor as part of our team. We lost 1 person to another position within our company and 2 people are currently on leave for FMLA. I believe our full time contractor is also leaving near the end of July. So as you can imagine we are already under-staffed. I felt this could be a benefit because I at least am already trained and have expertise on the system that I test.

I met with my manager this morning and shared with her my interest in going part time, either as an employee or as an independent contractor working 20 hours a week. Of course her initial reaction was "you're killing me" because of us already being short staffed. However, she was fairly receptive. Obviously she could not offer me an answer right away, but did share a few of her immediate thoughts. She explained how our head-count is managed within our company. A person is a person whether they are full or part time.... so two part time people count as 2 head-count, not 1 full time person. This means I really would be shorting the team of available hours, without any way of getting them elsewhere. She said she believed that went for contractors as well, so even working part time as a contractor would not solve that problem. She did ask though, if the answer was no, would I resign? I explained that it was a possibility, but obviously we needed to have income to pay our bills. She said that half of me is better than none of me. She did complement me as being one of the stronger players on the team and well respected within our department. Thank you Lord, that was how I hoped she would feel. She said she would really like to work with me and make this happen.

I explained our current timeline with our au pair leaving mid-July. So the ball is in her court at the moment and we'll have to wait for an answer. Please pray for favor and that this can somehow work out.

God is good and He can make a way!

8 Weeks Left

I cannot believe how fast time is counting down. There are so many things going on around our house, school ending, and at work that I hardly have time to think about how close this is.

Two nights ago I did another budget review just to see where we were. It felt like we had been on a little spending spree lately and I wanted to see how bad we were hurting ourselves. Reviewing the budget helps keep in perspective what we purchase since we know things will be tight. And it did just that. We are still pretty good however, and will still have some money in savings going into the transition. We will be pretty set for at least the first 6 weeks.

I finally got all of my curriculum decisions squared away (thanks to friends and family who helped get us there). The boys will be doing Sonlight Core B for Science, History, Bible and Reading. Easy Grammar for grammar. Math U See for math, and ABEKA for spelling. Additionally I've already got my head spinning over what to do for music, gym and some computer lessons. Those things I will do 'off the cuff' since I have a lot of experience there and the boys play sports.

The boys are REALLY pumped about being homeschooled. Since we've been getting some curriculum books in the house, they want to start now! I bought a Mavis Beacon teaches typing CD because I think it's important for the kids to know how to type well and fast in this technology driven age. I learned when I was a child using this software and it's really good. The boys are already *gobbling* that up. They have been so excited when their WPM jumps even by 1.

So far they are really excited to learn and I hope that continues.

Boot Camp

My children have had it pretty easy thus far. We aren't really good about keeping a chore chart and having them regularly help with the house. Don't get me wrong, they have to help up when we do a big cleaning day, but I'm talking about the daily upkeep of their rooms, etc. We've had some babysitters over the years that were really good with making them do chores, but we never really followed through on the weekends or kept it up after they were gone. It just took too much time.

So, one of my first missions this summer when I am off is to send my kids through a chore boot camp. They complain pretty regularly when we ask them to do "work" now. It's going to take some "battling" to get them into gear and on a routine, but I know it will pay off after a few weeks.

I call it a boot camp because I'm hoping to make it "fun" while we go. I'm going to make them their own boot camp dog tags and everything.

Any suggestions on kids doing chores? Let me know.

Miscellaneous Update

I cannot believe how fast time is going. Here's my updates on recent activity....

We registered for another home school conference in the area. I'm excited since this is the one we get to buy stuff at :-) I'm praying that our budgeted curriculum money makes it that long. My husband is still working part time and things are getting tight. God has been faithful though. Money has come in from various sources, just when we needed it. For instance, my husband will be doing a side job of installing a floor this weekend which will make up the $400 deficit for this pay period.

Our au pair has to fulfill an educational requirement of 6 credit hours during her stay in the US. We are required to pay for $500 of that education. Because of bad planning on my part, I forgot that we still needed $250 for that. We just had to pay it on Friday, and had to use curriculum money to cover it. We still have some time to make it up, so I'm still confident we'll be able to get what we need.

Speaking of curriculum though, there is a local curriculum fair coming up this week. We know of very specific things we are looking for, so we'll see if we're able to come across it this week for a bargain.

I still haven't notified my job of my plans. It's a delicate balance between letting them know what's going on and playing the corporate 'game'. The risk is that they say "Ok go now". Then we'd really be stuck. I really don't think they'd do that, so I'm prayerfully considering when to tell them. It'd be nice to have fewer unknowns as the time approaches. The 'unknown' being whether or not they'll continue to have some part time or contractor work available for me.

We also haven't notified the school system yet. I think I'm going to wait until closer to the end of the school.

I'm really excited it's getting close. The boys are excited too... for now. I'm sure about a month into homeschooling, they'll be asking me to send them to school :-) Guess we'll see.

Stressed

Time is still ticking away and our plans are in full motion. We are still busily preparing and trying to get everything in order as much as it can be. I have to admit though, I have been quite stressed lately. I still think we are pretty crazy for moving ahead with this. I'm praying that my trust and faith in God, my father, will be stronger as the day approaches. I've been meditating on Phil. 4:6-7 which states, "Do not be anxious for anything, but in everything, with prayer and thanksgiving, present your requests to God and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus."

My stress has been manifesting itself in crazy ways too. My skin is starting to resemble that of a teenager going through puberty and I'm having strange dreams. I know Satan is still on the prowl and trying every tactic to distract us from our calling and move us from the path we are on. This does give me a little encouragement since I know God must have something great ahead of us that Satan is trying to stop us.

Continue to pray for us...

Under 100 days

Can you believe it? Under 100 days and I will no longer be working full time for a corporation. It's so crazy. A few days ago an old boss sent me an email. He was wondering if I wanted to do some side work for another company we had worked with a little south of where I live. I had thought numerous times about contacting both this boss and the owner of the other company after I quit to see if they had any work available. I decided to hold off until I had actually left my company so that there would be no "conflict of interest". You can imagine my excitement when he contacted me first! I exchanged emails with my old boss and filled him in on what I'm doing. He encouraged me to get in contact with this other company as well. I called them and for this particular instance they had figured out what they needed to do. However, I was able to share with them what I will be doing mid-summer and ask them to keep me in mind for side work. I was relieved that the work didn't need me now because things are still so crazy trying to keep up with work and the kids and all. But God allowed me to plant those seeds for future work! Thank you Lord!

Sharing your trials

Do you ever wonder why you go through trials and tribulations before? I've heard people say before that you go through stuff so that you can help others that go through the same thing. Of course, my first thought is, why does anyone have to go through anything? Then I am reminded of scripture that says:


James 1:2-4 Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.


I went scrapbooking last weekend with a group of girl friends. Some I have known forever and others are more on the acquaintance level. As we were scrapping and chatting, I shared with them what we feel God has called us to do and the impacts it was making on our lives and future. I had forgotten that one of my friends had gone through a similar situation a few years ago. Her husband, who was an engineer at a stable job, decided 4 years ago that God was calling him to start his own photography business. He left his job with no savings and started his business.


She was sharing how crazy things were and how they were able to survive. They both run businesses out of their home. She said month by month God kept providing enough to pay the bills and feed the family. She learned how to feed her family of 5 on $100/week! She said here it is 4 years later and they are still making it. They were able to keep their daughters in private school and everything. She shared that it was tough on their marriage to go through such hard times, but God used it to bring out issues that were buried far beneath the surface.


I am thankful that she shared her trials with me and that God can use those to remind me to pray both for our situation and for others. I believe that this friend will be a great help and a good resource for me over the next few years. So while God uses these trials to produce endurance, a side benefit is that you can help someone else too!

Mama Bird

Last weekend I went to a tea hosted by a local home school organization. It was very nice and my daughter was thrilled to get to do "girl stuff" again. The speaker, a very dear friend of mine, spoke about being in the ideal place that God meant for you and the fact that he has thoroughly equipped you to do His good work. They gave away a picture of a mother bird feeding her four babies on a branch to the attendee that had a little blue bird in their booklet. I was blessed to be the recipient of this photo. God speaks and reaffirms again. He has equipped me to do this good work.

My husband and I are attending a large home school convention this Friday in Cincinnati, OH. We're only spending the day there in order to avoid hotel costs, etc. I've got a pretty good handle on what curriculum we're going to use, but I am very interested in going through the Exhibitor hall and checking out what's available.

Next week is the week my husband starts part time. Crazily enough, I have a major peace about the whole situation. I have no idea how God is going to provide, but I really am not worrying about it. Of course, check with me again in two weeks when the first paychecks come and it might be a different story. I'll try to be strong though. I am trusting Him and learning to lean on Him more and more.

That's about all.

Unbelievable!

Seriously, unbelievable. After realizing we were only getting $1500. back on our taxes, I put them aside because, honestly, not having the money in our hands is like the best savings strategy we have. Of course, we're getting closer to tax day and therefore I pulled them out last night to finish it up, print, and send off. As I've mentioned in a previous post, my laptop died, so I had to complete them on another computer. I loaded up the file and my husband's information was not put in as I had already done on the old laptop. Therefore, I had to go find all the paperwork again so I could put the numbers in.

Organization is not one of my strong suits. I had been piling the tax papers up in a bin (with other papers/mail) as things came in and as I entered them into the computer. I went to the bin and started digging out all the tax stuff. Mind as well put it in a folder while I'm gathering it. As I was digging through the mail I came across an envelope that had the familiar "Tax Documents Enclosed" text on the outside. Oh good, I thought. I wouldn't have even realized I was missing something. The paper was for our HSA (Health Savings Account) and included the amount we had spent on medical bills last year.

I started putting in all the numbers and once again had reached the general vicinity of the $1500 mark that I was expecting. Then I got to the HSA section. Not completely understanding how all of this works, I just follow the prompts in the software and match up the box numbers with the form numbers. So I had the right form number, check! I started inputting the info. Box 1, check. Then it asked me how much of that number was spent on qualified medical bills. All of it, check. Then I clicked Done.

Holy cow. My husband even asked me if I was all the way done before he got his hopes up.

So I hope you are totally in suspense right now. We are getting over four thousand dollars back. We owe a few hundred on state, but even still, I was dumb-founded. Now this could sound like it didn't have much to do with God and was completely user error. Partially true. But if it wasn't for having to go back and find that paperwork, I don't know that I would have found the HSA documents or realized that the info needed to be entered. So I thank God for meeting me in my disorganization and blessing us with some additional funds right when we need it.

Thank you Lord!

Facing the Red Sea

Today I feel like Moses. God called him with a job to do. Moses was nervous and God provided clear signs to both Moses, Pharaoh and others that this was God's plan. Finally, Moses leads the Israelites out of Egypt. Now they are wandering through the desert and Pharaoh's men start chasing them, and then they hit the Red Sea. I wonder what Moses was thinking, "are you kidding, Lord?".

Actually I think in one way Moses had to know the Red Sea was coming. I would think a big body of water like that wouldn't be a big surprise. So then I think, what was Moses thinking leading up to the Red Sea? Did he have a backup plan? Or did he just know that God would provide one way or another?

So why am I facing the Red Sea? My Red Sea is that my husbands hours just got reduced to part time. Beginning in April, he will only be working 3 days a week. His performance is good, but business is slow and he is the low man on the totem pole. This obviously cuts our income in the short term as well as seems to derail our long term plans.

I kind of don't know what to think. Is this another plan of Satan's to divert us? Should I start moving forward with a backup plan?

I decided to read the story of Moses and the Israelites again today. To be honest, I was surprised to see Moses' reaction. When the Egyptians were closing in and the Israelites were panicking and getting mad at Moses, here's what Moses said:

Exodus 14:13-14 But Moses said to the people, "Do not fear! Stand by and see the salvation of the Lord which He will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see them again forever. The Lord will fight for you while you keep silent."

Moses had complete faith that God would continue to deliver them. The whole reason God did this is so "I will be honored through Pharaoh, through his chariots and his horsemen. Then the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord... " (vs 17 - 18)

Again my faith is reassured. God is faithful and others will know that HE IS THE LORD through whatever means He chooses to remedy this situation. I have to give God complete control! He will deliver us.

Nobody shows when it snows

Well it has begun. My husband had his first Pampered Chef party yesterday and let's just say it didn't go so well. The weather had started snowing just a little before start time. My sister-in-law called to say 2 people had cancelled. There was still one attending, and since it was the first party, we still ventured out. We got there and got all setup. Seven thirty rolled around and our guest was not there. My SIL called her and found out she had totally forgotten, so NO attendees. Many of her guests said they will place catalog orders, so things can still look up there.

So, the next party is this Sunday at our house. Hopefully, this one goes better!

I have people starting to approach me about piano lessons which is exciting. Still not ready to start teaching yet.... but working on it.

We've set the official end date and discussed with our au pair when she will be leaving. My first day home with the kids without an au pair will be July 18! That's only 128 days away!

Wisdom vs. Faith

You know, you're going along. Step by step making plans and getting ready for whatever it is that God has called you to do. Then the doubts come, not great big ones, but small ones. The closer we get to our "go date", the more I feel like our financial picture looks bleak. I started to question if we should do this in the summer or possibly wait another year.



My husband got frustrated with me when I started to verbalize these doubts. He said that I always have this "I can stay at work" card in my back pocket. He said I'm not giving any credit to the "God Factor".



My struggle really lies in wisdom verses faith. If I was looking at this purely through a wisdom lens, it would be pretty clear that quitting is crazy. However, God asked people throughout the Bible to do some pretty crazy things and they had to step out in faith and obey even though it didn't make sense.



I fear we won't be able to pay the bills some month. WE made the bad choices to get into debt and therefore have the consequences and responsibility to follow through on those commitments.



So Wednesday night, we lay in bed discussing all of these things. We ended the conversation well. I basically said, "I don't doubt at ALL that this is God's will for us, I just question the timing". And we went to bed....



THEN... the next morning, I'm driving to work kind in my own world, but the radio was in the background on the local christian station. All of sudden the words "When is the last time you were overcome with fear?" caught my attention. My ears tuned into what was being said. Attached below is a copy of the transcript. I've highlighted what stuck out to me.

Moving Day

Well a few days have passed and we are kicking home based business into high gear. My husband registered as a Pampered Chef consultant and already has 6 parties committed! Five are booked in March! I'm really excited about that.

Then it was my turn. I've decided to go ahead with piano lessons. SO, we had to start cleaning out the new "piano room". Last night, we started moving the toys out of that room and suddenly it looked like a tornado had blown through the house. It was one of those you have to make a bigger mess before you can clean it up type things. We got the piano room cleared out and moved a desk and a piano in there. I will post pictures as soon as I take some.

Our old office has now become the toy room and half of it will eventually be turned into the school room. As we finished what we were going to last night, my husband and I sat down to watch a movie and I had one of those "this is really happening" moments. You know those moments you have when your life is going through a major transition... I've had a few over the years, like graduating from high school, starting my first "office" job, getting married, having a child, having TWINS, and now this. Like many of those other situations, this is an all-in full blown commitment. There is no half way otherwise we won't make it. So here's to the next steps!!!

Less than 150 days

I finished reading Women Leaving the Workplace. It was such an awesome read the second time around. Instead of just reading and wishing I could stay home, I was able to glean good advice and tips for making our transition work.

Yesterday I went to a Home school group. I had to leave early, but it was fun to have a glimpse into what the future could hold. And a big thanks to a good friend for hooking me up with some free curriculum. The kids were excited too. My oldest is now asking me "Is homeschooling definite yet?" Since I don't want him to go to school and announce to his class and teachers that he will be home schooled next year, I've been holding them off on how close we are.

My husband is considering selling Pampered Chef. Yes, I'm serious. The initial investment is WAY lower than other home based businesses. If he can get 4 people to commit to hosting a party before signing up, he's going to go for it. We figure it's worth a shot. If it doesn't do well, nothing was lost.

I've been struggling with the piano lesson concept. One, I'm not sure where students would come from, two, if I'd be any good at it, and three, if I'd make any decent money from it because of 1 and 2. The clock is ticking though. Less than 150 days!! And we have a considerable amount of income to find before then. Okay Lord, open up the windows of heaven.... we're ready.....


I think!

Seriously though, I have learned so many times that His timing is perfect.

Just keep pressing on...

In the Larry Burkett book, Women Leaving the Workplace, one of the Transition Planning steps is to "Set a realistic but definite date to quit." In that same section of the book, Larry writes:

"Once you and your spouse have determined that this decision is God's plan for you, allow nothing to deter you from that path"

It's amazing, now that I've come to the realization that this IS God's plan for us. Satan has been working hard to deter us. First it was frustration with the kids. If you read back through my posts, you'll know exactly when that hit :-)

Second was a focus on materialistic things. I started thinking "I will never get a new couch", "we will never go on vacation again", "I am never going to have nice things again". Would you believe within a few days of those thoughts coming, Chip Ingram did a series on Materialism on his broadcast through Living On The Edge ministries. I quickly realized that was an attack of Satan's.

Then the disappointment with the taxes. I had all these plans of how it could come together and where the money would go.

Then the latest thing.... things have been breaking like crazy around the house. Oh and not the small stuff... things like my laptop is dead in the water. The replacement part is about $70. Because of where my husband works, we could probably buy a new laptop for around $300. The part that broke has to do with where the plug goes and because of normal wear and tear (and children) it became loose and would not charge the battery any more. The problem is that it is pretty likely we may have this issue again. Then my two year old twins got their hands on our DVD player and broke the drive that holds the DVD. It will open but won't close AND won't play. This is definitely the second DVD player and maybe even the third they have broke in the past year. At this point, I just had to laugh.

We are continuing to press on...

The Silver Lining

So last post, I mentioned our taxes. I wasn't as bummed as I thought I would be.... at this point, I just know I have to trust God and it has to be Him anyway! I knew there were a few ways we were going to save up money. So I finally took the time to add up what we anticipated we would be saving over the next 6 months. Praise the Lord it added up to about $3750. It requires us to be diligent and not take that money for other things, but it is very doable. On every dark cloud there is a silver lining if you look for it.

I fear though with the taxes being lower than we thought, that some of our "plans" will have to be substituted. The first thing I thought of was to do an online public school instead of traditional homeschooling. That would save me the cost of curriculum. Some have suggested, however, that that is not a good idea.

My parents are celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary this year and my sister and I were hoping to throw them a surprise celebration. We were each going to contribute $1000 towards a catered party. Now, I'm not sure what we'll be able to do if anything. (I type this anticipating my parents will not read this blog, they're not the computing type)

We purchased a car early in the summer of 2010 and currently owe more on it than it's worth. We are anticipating that we will need to sell it come June/July and need to put some money down on it to get it to a sellable price.

So many decisions.... so little time.... good thing I don't need to worry about it. God is in control. I will put my trust in Him.

Swiper, no swiping

My kids love to watch Dora. Every episode, Dora and her friend, Boots go on a journey to find something or deliver something. And in every episode, somewhere in the middle, Swiper, the fox, tried to steal what they are delivering. Sometimes he succeeds and sometimes he is conquered by yelling "Swiper, no swiping. Swiper, no swiping. Swiper, no swiping." When Swiper succeeds in getting the "goods", Dora and Boots pursue him and reclaim what is rightfully theirs.

I am having a Dora moment in my life. God has given me a journey; laid out enough instructions in front of me to head in the right direction. And that stinkin fox, Satan, tries to rob me of what God has given me. He continues to try and bring discouragement in a number of ways.

A huge dependency in my head was our tax return. I was hoping to get around $6000 back which would cover many of the things we need to pay off and still leave a buffer to quit on. (All of you who are thinking why do you loan the government that much money, I know, I know - but this is how we do it here. I like getting the chunk of money) I started inputting the information. We started out at $6700... cool not bad. Then I started putting in my husbands info. Apparently the amount of taxes they take out on his paycheck is enough based only on his income. As soon as you put the two together, we're bumped up into another tax bracket and it wasn't even close to enough. Down, down, down went the tax return. I think we'll end up around the $2000 mark. What do we do now?

We stand and yell "Swiper, no swiping" and believe in faith that if this is God's will, HE WILL PROVIDE.

Play me a song...

I've been thinking a lot lately about how to supplement the income after I quit and the possibilities I laid out in my last post. I received an email from a good friend with her thoughts. I ran the ideas past my mom as well. The advice I received was pretty much the same from both of them, 1 - consider start up costs, and 2 - do something you love. I started reading Women Leaving the Workplace by Larry Burkett again. He offers the same advice, you need to do something you are passionate about for it to work over the long haul.

So the options...

1. Systems consultant - This is probably the most time consuming and currently a conflict of interest with my current job to do this for anyone else. I would be hard pressed to do this type of work in the evenings and weekends. Therefore, for right now, this one is on hold.

2. Video Editing - My husband and I have done video editing in the past. We have a lot of equipment to do weddings and other special events. However, technology has changed a lot since we bought our equipment. Since our cameras are not equipped to video in HD (high definition), we would be behind the 8-ball in booking events. It would be a significant investment to purchase new HD cameras and editing software. Additionally, because we were working full time, this was a skill that we did not have time to grow and enhance. Therefore, our work was pretty mediocre. I would love to pursue this further and maybe once I quit I'll have a little more time to invest in learning more.

3. Piano lessons - this appears to me to be the most viable option at this point. I have been playing piano for 26 years and currently play for our church worship team. The start-up cost would be minimal as I would teach the lessons out of my home and I already own a piano. Secondly, I have a room right off of our foyer for the kids toys that could be converted into a piano studio and used to teach out of. This is also something I could start soon. I am prayerfully considering moving in this direction. Hence the title of this post... :-)

4. Lastly the jewelery. My mom thought I was crazy for even considering it. There is a start up cost associated although it would be doable with our tax return. The main struggle here is that I don't even currently wear jewelery. I think if I wanted to sell something, I should sell something I have an interest in.

So, that is the story. We'll see where the path leads.

On a praise report note, I received my annual salary review at my current job and got a raise that should net us another $140 a month. That money will go right into savings to help as a buffer for the transition period. Thank you Lord!

I feel as though we are heading into the home stretch leading up to July. There seems to be a fixed amount of money that we can bring in before that date arrives and many things to take care of. I'm praying that our tax return which should be sizable this year will cover many of the needed items.

Our pastor's wife advised us to try and live on my husbands income from now until then to help with the transition. There are so many costs that we won't have after I quit that it hard for me to separate them. For example, we currently pay ~ $150/month for our cell phone bill. After I quit, my husband will still carry a cell phone, but I won't. We're expecting the bill to be down around the $40 mark. It's hard to separate that out and pay the bill accordingly. However, we've decided that we're going to open another account and do our best. I'm hoping that some additional dollars will be able to be put into savings by doing this as well.

Advice from the experts

I finished reading 1/2 Price Living by Ellie Kay. She had some good stuff to say. Two things that stuck out to me early in the book (that honestly kind of depressed me) were:
1. She highly recommends having a plan before going to one income.

We have a plan, but I felt as though maybe she was talking about more than what we have. Our "plan" still has a lot of unknowns. I think she would have thought we were crazy to consider going down to one income in our situation.

Anyway...
2. You should have 6 months of savings aside before quitting.

Ha! I'd never quit if we had to have that.

Oh the other thing she mentioned is that she recommends being out of consumer debt before going to one income. Again, we're a few years away from that.

So, are we crazy? At first I wondered. But a few days have passed and I still feel that this is what God is calling us to. I also feel that this year is the time. My knees are shaking just saying that!

I did get some good tips from the book as well. Her grocery tips were pretty interesting. I had no idea you could use store coupons and manufacturer coupons for the same item. (generally speaking)

My friend, Deborah, lent me Women Leaving the Workplace by Larry Burkett again. If you remember, that was the book that started this whole thing 5 years ago. It's amazing how a book can read SO differently depending on the time of your life and where you find yourself.

I plan on blogging more about the home based businesses and what I'm getting out of Larry's book too.

Home Based Businesses

Welcome to the roller coaster! Last night was a rough night, but after a little crying and encouragement from people I love, I feel much better.

So about a month ago, I got invited to a friends house for a Jewelery party. I told her I had no extra money cause we were saving so stringently. My friend encouraged me to come just to fellowship with old friends.

The "jeweler", also a friend of mine, went through her spiel on the jewelery and how you too can have a home business. The main gist of the business portion was that you can make an extra $1000 a month selling jewelery.

Afterwards, I was hanging out with the girls and explaining to another friend what was going on in my life. I proceeded to tell her how I planned to quit, but our budget was $1000 short.

Ding!

My mind immediately made the connection to the jewelery presentation. At this point, I just thought, how interesting, but really nothing further than that.

A few weeks later, our au pair hosted a jewelery party booked off the first one. Again the thought entered my head, but anyone who knows me knows I don't wear jewelery. So again I just let the thought pass.

Two weeks ago, I hosted a girls night for some old friends that went to a bible study I used to go to (the one I met my husband at, actually). I was chatting with my friends about homeschooling and trying to raise extra money, again the selling jewelery came up.

I started to think, hmm, Lord? Are you trying to tell me something.

In the meantime, my pastor's wife gave me a book: 1/2 Price Living by Ellie Kay. One of the chapters is about home based businesses. She specifically mentions Premiere Designs in this chapter (later she mentions others), the jewelery company I am speaking of above. I'm not one for "signs", so again I just thought it was interesting.

Tuesday night, my friend, the "jeweler" called and invited me to go to an informational meeting about Premiere Designs. At this point, I figured it can't hurt to gather more information about it. So I went.

In the book (1/2 Price Living), Ellie talks about finding your interests and researching what can be turned into a business. She has a little chart to list out 3 -4 potential options for home based work, start up costs, weekly time commitment, pros, cons, etc. I started thinking about my potential home businesses. I have come up with the following four. I'm still working on the research for all of the other info I need.

1. Systems Consultant (process mapping, requirements gathering, software research, etc)
2. Video Editing
3. Premiere Designs
4. Teach piano lessons

I may end up with a combination of these.

I'll be commenting more on this book in future posts. Some other things have stuck out to me that are interesting.

Please pray for guidance as we continue to pursue so many things regarding this transition in our life. Also if you have any advice or thoughts on what we do... let me know!!!

I can't do this...

No seriously, I can't do this.

I want to change my name. Tonight was completely "mommy", "Mommy", "MOMMY", "MOMMY!".

No idea how I'm going to do this.

A Life Lived in Fear...

... is a life half lived.

A few years ago, my three older children wanted to try out for a musical. We practiced a song, pretended like mommy and daddy were the judges, everything we could to prepare them for an audition. We got to the theater and filled out all the paperwork. My six year old son was called first. He has no fears and confidently went in before the "judges" and performed his song. My older son and daughter were in the next group. Just as their group was called, both of them chickened out. I told them this is a one shot chance. If they didn't go now, they were going to miss out They decided not to try out.

My six year old son made it into the Children's Chorus, and had a blast. Come show time, he got so spoiled with late nights, ice cream with mommy and daddy on opening night, treats from other family members that came to see him, a tshirt, the works! My older son said to me, "I wish I would have been in the play" and I reminded him how he had the chance.

There have been situations since then that I've had to remind my oldest son on how he will miss out on so many great things if he continues to be afraid.

Then in look in the mirror....

I struggle with those same fears.

Yesterday, I had a rough day with the kids. For one reason and then another, my patience was running short with them. I started to get discouraged and afraid. How am I going to do this full time when I can't even handle one weekend day?? Why do the children that I LOVE so dearly, drive me so crazy sometimes??

I fear that I will do this for a few months and realize I can't. Then what? All this planning, praying, hoping....

So I must rely on the Lord's strength, so that I can fulfill His plan for me and my children. I don't want to miss out on the great things God has for me when we do it His way.

You can't turn a parked car

When I first thought about being a stay at home mom, the other thought that quickly came was to home school my children. The thought of trying to home school my children on my own seemed very overwhelming. Their education is so important that I thought I wouldn't be able to do it any justice. Therefore I was considering an online e-learning school. This way I had both the curriculum in front of me as well as the accountability to make sure I was on track.

As I considered this more, I was a little concerned at trying to keep up three kids all in different grades and log enough time etc. A local radio host recently switched to homeschooling her children and talked on her blog about the curriculum coming and all. I started to think, well if I can get an entire curriculum, then that will be my guidance and ensure my kids are "keeping up with their grade".

The other benefit to traditional homeschooling is that I could put my older boys on the same curriculum. Currently, one is in first grade and the other in second. But my first grader is already reading at a third grade level and basically breezing through first grade. I would consider putting both of them on a third grade curriculum.

I had lunch with a good friend of mine last week to discuss homeschooling and what she does with her children. I started researching curriculum's and homeschooling conferences. I am learning more and more and will continue to post things that impact us here.

So that is the direction we are heading in now.... homeschooling our children next year. I'm still relying on God for wisdom and guidance but figure it's a lot easier to steer a moving car. If I move in the direction I feel that God is leading, I can trust that He will turn me if I'm going the wrong way rather than staying still until I'm sure one way or another. As I've heard it before, "You can't turn a parked car".

Redeeming The Time

Last Wednesday on the way to work, I once again was struggling with whether or not quitting my job was lacking wisdom or exercising faith. I prayed this morning "Lord, you're going to have to have someone I trust tell me straight out what to do" It was a quick prayer, but prayed with sincerity and need. On the way home I was listening to Moody Radio and there is a little segment called Redeeming The Time. The 30 seconds of dialogue really spoke to me. I sent a note to the radio station to get the transcript. Here is a link to the transcript.


http://www.lifechangingseminars.com/read.php?requested=1184

It wasn't "someone I trusted" per say, but it still felt like God was speaking to me. I even started crying in my car. It's so amazing to me when you feel like the Lord is meeting you right where you are. The part that really got me was "One way to know God’s will is to ask the question- “What activity is there, that I and only I, can do, that if done well could have great results throughout eternity?” "

Wow.

Food for thought

Last weekend the in-laws were over. My sister-in-law wanted an update on where we were. I told her a little bit about what's been going on. She encouraged me that this decision wouldn't only have physical effects, but would also have powerful spiritual effects as well.

Something my brother-in-law said though really made me think. He said sure you can continue to work and get out of debt and get the budget to where everything works, but then who gets the glory? It would be easy to look at myself and everything that I did to make the finances come in line. He said if we make this move and trust God to meet our needs and bring the finances, then who gets the glory?


Hmmm, food for thought......

That's Plan B?

A few weeks ago, I was pursuing Christian schools pretty heavily. One particular school had really caught my attention and I was seriously considering how we could send our children there next year. Well I was at least leaving it as an option.

I spoke with my husband about my thoughts and he said he really didn't know how we could afford to do that. My response was "well then what are we going to do?" He proceeded to tell me quite firmly that he really thought I needed to quit. Not firmly in a mean way, but in an assured way. His confidence about the matter kind of struck me.

Me being a planner of sorts (long term planning, not day to day) wanted options. Well if that doesn't work out, then what is Plan B. He said Plan B is status quo, we do what we're doing now... au pair for child care, kids in public school, etc. Hmph, that wasn't a good plan B to me. I feel like change is necessary, but with the cost of Christian education, the options surely were limited.

We talked some more about the situation and he pretty much said he is SURE this is the route we are supposed to take -- me quitting. God has been moving SO much in our lives and speaking through other people that it can't be leading up to staying status quo. I agreed, but my question comes down to one of timing. I don't doubt that I will quit and be home with my children, but the bigger question is WHEN??

I thought for a while about what he said. I asked him if he was willing to do whatever it takes to make up the extra money we would need. He said yes.

The things we talked about had my mind reeling for days. Biblically the man is the leader and head of the household, so it wouldn't surprise me that God could give him a clear peace and "knowing" about this situation. However, I was still struggling with the idea. The fact is I WANT TO STAY HOME. I want to stay home a LOT! Therefore, I feel like that may be clouding my vision.

I remember when I was single, I had a crush on this guy in my bible study (not my husband). At one point, I felt sure that God had told me I would marry him. Well as the months passed the crush faded and obviously I didn't marry him. I was so blinded by infatuation that I really had no idea what God was speaking, and if He was speaking at all in that situation.

I'm kind of afraid of the same thing here. Therefore, I've kind of been on this roller coaster. One day I think we'll be able to do it and the next I'm considering working forever.

I pray for greater clarity and wisdom. I want God's will most of all!

Technology and Hope

So I think there's one more story that needs to be told before moving into current day stuff. I had spent the past five years of my career as a Business Systems Consultant (BSC). Prior to that, I was a programmer for 10 years. Being a BSC meant dealing a lot with people. I facilitated meetings, created processes, mapped processes, implemented solutions, dealt with organizational change management, the list goes on. I started finding myself missing the technical part of my programming job. Sure I was implementing new software solutions for our customers, but really dealing with the process and people parts of the project, not the inner workings of the software. I started looking for jobs in Information Technology (IT) within our company. What I did not know is that once you leave the IT department in our company, it's pretty hard to get back in. I had applied for numerous tranfer positions and none of them seemed to pan out.

A few months ago, around August, a Quality Assurance job came up on the job board. It fit my qualifications almost perfectly. I had been implementing Oracle eBusiness Suite modules (a software package supplied by Oracle) in my old position and this job was to test those pieces of software among others. I applied for the position and went through the interview process.

I got the job!

The reason this is something to mention is that my old position would not allow any part timers to work less than 4 days a week. I have considered trying to work 1-2 days a week to make up for the income we will be lacking, but that was never a possibility before. I'm not sure what this position holds, if I may have more opportunities for flexibility or not, but at least now I can hope! Plus I really love what I am doing again. It's fresh and new and right back in the technical world.

Even if it's just temporary and I do end up leaving, I still believe God's hand was in it all!

A byte of success

So here it was end of May, our babysitter, Sarah would finish out the month. Hannah, our weekend babysitter would fill in for two months and then Iza, our au pair would arrive in August. We basically were set with child care for the next fourteen months. This was when the thought of July 2011 started to come to me.

Maybe if we really focused for the 14 months, paid off some loans, we would be able to make the jump at the end of July 2011. I really hesitate stating that "God said this" or "God said that", because its just so hard to know. Unless an audible voice spoke to me from heaven, I still question in my heart is it me or God? So not knowing if this was the Lord or not, July became a line in the sand to strive for.

As I mentioned earlier, my husband really started looking for a career change the second time he left construction. When we got married, he worked in construction and even then I could already see the up and down cycle, the dependency on weather, the changing of jobs consistently just to chase the work. Shortly after we got married my husband decided to pursue a degree in computers. I had gotten an associates degree in computers and had a very successful career in the field. My husband pursued a 2 year degree at the same college I had attended. When he graduated, I suggested trying to get his foot in the door of a large company that he would then be able to grow with. He landed a job on the help desk of a large insurance firm. Little did we know at the time, that because it is such a large company you only get exposure to little pieces of work. He spent the next five years on the help desk, never getting the chance to do any hands on computer work, which is really what he wanted to do. After 5 years of just taking phone calls to solve people's computer problems, it basically only made him qualified for a glorified customer service job. He became very frustrated with his job and tried looking for others outside of the company. As I mentioned, with no hands on experience, he really wasn't qualified to do anything really technical. A maintenance job came up in his current company, so he jumped at the chance to just do something new and something with his hands.

Now making templates for marble and granite surfaces got him a little exposure to technical things. The computer/laser setup he was using was pretty high tech and fascinated him. Even still, he was keeping his eyes open for computer related jobs, classes, opportunities, anything!!

An email came out from our church that a local computer shop was hiring a level 1 technician. Okay, okay, I know you know he already got the job from the previous posts, but it was a cool road to get there. So hang with me...

He decided to apply. Not really having any computer experience except for those initial five years and that experience being almost five years old in the computer industry meant that getting this job was a long shot to say the least. But it couldn't hurt to try right? Plus God was already moving in miraculous ways in our lives and we were fully trusting Him to direct our paths.

My husband's current schedule consisted of very long days and lots of traveling, sometimes near 12 hour days. Trying to fit in an interview schedule was going to be tough. Plus he had only been at the company for 4 -5 months, so its not like he had vacation time to work with. The owner of the company called and requested an interview. My husband explained his situation and the owner graciously offered to interview him on a Saturday! How cool was that!! He didn't even have to miss a day of work.

My husband went to the interview dressed in his best suit looking all spiffy. The owner interviewed my husband and proceeded to tell him during the interview that when he saw this large insurance firm on his resume, he called a good friend of his who also worked there on the help desk. Would you believe, this "good friend" was the guy that sat next to my husband for well over a year! They were both Christians and basically totally hit it off. AND the "good friend" grew up with the owner and had known him for years. The down side of the interview was that my husband really lacked the skills they were looking for, go figure!

My husband came home pretty sure there was no way he would get the job. He did his best to convince them that he could learn quickly and pick up the skills they needed very fast.

Surprisingly, Monday morning, they called him back and requested a second interview. They also offered to have the interview over the phone during the lunch hour on Tuesday. We were both shocked and just thought, "Ok Lord, this is totally in Your hands!"

The second interview went as well as you could expect. My husbands knowledge was pretty much on a bunch of old technology. The only plus is that somewhere near the end of that five years on the help desk, we forked out a bunch of money for my husband to attend a Cisco networking certification course. My husband had taken the test at the end of that week and came close to passing it, but we didn't have enough money to pursue it further. His CCNA (Cisco certification) knowledge and relationship with this good friend was all he had going for him. Oh of course it helped that the Creator of the Universe was going to bat for him too :-)

Amazingly they offered him the job. The owner and other managers that worked at the company shared that they had prayed and felt like my husband was who they were supposed to hire.

Praise the Lord, my husband had gotten a job that could really be a career path and as an added bonus, it was only 3 miles from home!!

A Polish Blessing

My husband spent the first twelve weeks of this new job out of town for training. Luckily he was home on weekends, so I wasn't completely by myself for this entire time. This twelve weeks proved to be a good test for me. I was very nervous about having the kids myself for such long periods of time. Not that I couldn't handle it, but I think because I'm gone most of the time, when I come home, I get swarmed. After a tiring day at work, sometimes its just too much.

It taught me a lot though. I was able to handle it very well. I had the proper mind set to come home and start dinner right away, get through the homework, baths, and then too bed.

This job was looking so good. My husband thoroughly enjoyed what he was doing

About 7 months prior to this, in the midst of job changes and being laid off, our babysitter found out she was pregnant. Luckily, she was due in June, so we were able to line up our weekend babysitter (a high school student) to watch them for the summer months. I had every expectation that Sarah would be coming back to us after 6 or 12 weeks. We had very open discussions about the summer with her.

At some point around April she mentioned that she was considering looking for a position closer to home. She had been driving about 40 minutes to our house every day and in the winter through lots of snow! She didn't want to bring her new baby that far every day, let alone through the snow.

The child care discussions started again.

Could I quit in the summer of 2010? My husbands job was paying overtime... we started looking at the possibilities. There was just no way. BUT, this was the closest we had ever been.

We started looking for other babysitters, but it seemed that in two years the cost of care for 5 children had gone up. We quickly landed on getting an au pair because it was the most inexpensive route for child care, ensured that someone was here when the kids were sick, and no matter how much snow fell, she would be here.

I've already spoke about the matching process for locating an au pair. Considering you are inviting someone to come live with you for a year, conducting interviews and exchanging emails is hardly enough information to know if someone will really work. I really started to pray as we looked for an au pair that we would find someone who meshed with our family. From our previous experiences, we were determined to make this year work with whomever we chose.

In order to meet our mid-summer goal for arrival of our au pair, we had to match with someone by the end of May. Cultural Care takes your application and tries to systematically match you with candidates that meet the qualifications you are looking for. We were given three candidates initially and contacted all of them via email. What I quickly found is that having five kids was just a tad intimidating. I had exchanged emails with two young ladies from South Korea a few times to find out after a few days that they did not think watching five kids was for them.

The other option with Cultural Care is to look through the list of candidates that are not currently matched or potential matches for another host family. You generally have a little bit of information about them and some of them even include a video about themselves. Once you request that they become a potential match for your family, then you are able to see their entire application. I found a young lady from Poland whose father was a Baptist minister. From what I could see, she looked like she might be a good candidate. This was the first and only candidate that I had specifically requested to be a potential candidate for us, the rest had been supplied by Cultural Care's matching process.

When I first began communicating with Iza, the polish young lady, via email, she informed me that she was really hoping to be with a family who had girls. She was also a little surprised with us having 5 kids. She immediately asked us about our relationship with Jesus and the church we attended. For me this was a good sign, if she was asking about it so up front, I knew it must be important to her.

I spoke with her on the telephone, as is required by hosting an au pair, and what really stood out to me was her sense of humor and spunk. I really enjoyed speaking with her and her English was pretty good! I asked if I could speak with her in a couple of days. The next phone call (you are required to have 2), my husband and I both spoke with her. My husband thought she had a great personality as well.

Little did I know at the time, that Iza was also praying for a good host family. As we spoke with her she prayed about coming to stay with us. She had been waiting nearly 2 months after she put in her application with Cultural Care with absolutely no potential matches to even consider. She had just started to think, "okay Lord, is this what I'm really supposed to do?" Our email arrived in her inbox the next day!

As a blessing to both of us, God had his hand in bringing us together. Iza took on the challenge of watching 5 children, 4 of them being boys. We matched with her and planned for her arrival date to be the first week of August.

In hindsight, as it is of course now January, Iza was a true blessing from the Lord. She has been a great temporary addition to our family and has been wonderful with our kids!! She is very dedicated both to working for us and to her relationship with the Lord. We are very blessed to know her!