Yesterday was a busy day for me. I took the girls to Sunday School then came home and cleaned the house (that's become my usual Sunday morning routine). I picked my oldest daughter up at noon and took her to lunch. The other two went home with a friend for the afternoon. After lunch we came home and I got to work in my bedroom. One of the main complaints we've had from potential buyers is that they don't like the master bedroom being at the front of the house, so I took down our bed! Then I rearranged the furniture to make the room look more like an office than a bedroom. That, along with what I did earlier in the week in my son's bedroom, will hopefully help people see that our floor plan can work for them even if they don't want the front room as a bedroom. My oldest daughter helped me, but it was a lot of work! In between all of that I washed/dried/folded three loads of towels, then I took her back to church for youth group around 6 PM. The room looks a lot better now, and all that work helped me sleep really good last night! (on my mattress on the floor)

Today we should be home, doing school. Our weather has cooled off (a chilly 60 degrees) which feels really nice. Maybe we'll go for a walk later today. My oldest daughter has been wanting to do that but I haven't had the time or energy most days.

Lori that is really interesting I guess when you are selling a home you really have to look at it through the average buyers eyes rather than how the house works for you.

Shounds like you are making some great changes.

Hope you get some real interest soon.

BTW when we choose this house we knew it was gonna be a bit small for us but the fact that the widow that lived here had scaled down to probably a third of the posessions she had when she raise three kids her made it seem more workable. It also helped us see the house rather than the stuff in the house iykwim Have you packed up a lot of things that you don't have to be using?

Cinda,
We've packed up a ton of stuff!! Our garage is very full of boxes stacked to the ceiling and several pieces of furniture. I boxed up probably 3/4 of our books and moved the bookcases out there, plus some chairs, and now our bed. There's barely a path big enough to walk thru to get from the house to the end of the garage, so it is very full. It did make a big difference and made all the rooms look so much bigger. Our realtor saw the "before" and "after" and he was impressed. I also took down most of our pictures and personal stuff. I've heard that it helps people envision themselves living in the house if they don't see family photos and personal things from our family every where. I haven't really done that in my girls' rooms, though, because I think that's too hard on them to go months without their special things. But the main living areas, and now our bedroom and my son's bedroom are very much "neutralized".

Well, it seems to have worked for good as you'll be able to leave so much easier - less last minute packing when the time comes. I totally see your point about the girls' bedrooms and I would think that prospective buyers would too!

Seems like you are doing all that you can. I hope this weekend proves to give you some more showings.

Ugh! I dread the thought of looking for a new church. We switched churches about a year ago after some nasty business regarding the departure of our longtime senior pastor. It's so hard to go into a new situation and not compare it with what God provided for you before.

I am happy to say we've been at our new church for one year as of this month! God provided abundantly -- even greater than we had hoped for.

Isn't that just like Him?

Blessings,

Christine

www.HomeFieldAdvantage.org

Earlier this year our family left the church my husband and I grew up in, and the only church my children knew. It was a very hard move, as we felt disloyal. Through all this I have discussed my reasons with very few, but someone offered a comment that has eased my earthly heart. She said "Have you ever thought that the church left you long before you left it?" After that I realized that sometimes God will use bad situations or people to move us out of our comfort zones, and into the place we should be. Only now can I look back and see that the bad that my family experienced in the church we left lead to a much better good. For that I am Thankful this Thanksgiving season!!

Well, I lost everyone for about 2 weeks. I think I accidentally turned my notifications off.

Lori, we were stationed at Lackland for 2 years. We liked the area. I wouldn't mind retireing on the north/northeast side of town (it's closer our families). While at Lackland we lived on the west side of SA near Sea World. That meant a 20 minute commute for my husband and that was enough. I loved the weather there. Now that we are in Chicago, I get excited if the temp gets up to 50 degrees.

I met a new family here that just moved from Florida. They too have a house that is just sitting back in FL. Lord willing, there will be a pick up in house hunters this next week since it is the right time to buy if you need to move school kids during the Christmas holidays. I'll be praying for both of y'alls families to sell those FL houses.

Are you going to Texas for Thanksgiving?

Amanda

Amanda,
We're looking to buy a house near Sea World. There are a lot of new housing developments going up in that area. A 20 minute commute for my husband would be great! Right now he has 30-40 minutes in the morning and an hour or more in the afternoons. He's staying with my sister who lives on the north side.

We are not going out for Thanksgiving, and he can't come back here either. He'll have Thanksgiving with my sister and her family, and my mom is coming over here to spend the week with us (she lives about 3 hours from us). If we haven't moved by Christmas he is planning to come back for that.

I hadn't thought about people wanting to move over the Christmas holidays. That is a good point. We had three showings this past week, which is the most we've ever had in one week.

We've had a busy day, and most of it had nothing to do with selling a house! This morning was the usual cleaning and errands. My middle daughter spent the night with her friend and the other two slept in, and my son is gone for a weekend retreat with his church, so my house was very quiet until almost noon! Then the girls got up, my middle daughter came home and brought her friend with her, and the quiet stopped abruptly!

This evening my oldest daughter rang handbells with our church handbell choir. It was an outdoor concert, so I went with her and videotaped the whole thing. The weather was chilly but not too cold, and the music was great. Very relaxing and peaceful! The other girls stayed home and watched a movie (or something) and everything seemed to go okay for them. I was concerned because earlier in the day they weren't getting along very well so I wasn't sure I wanted to leave them home alone, but they got over whatever it was and worked things out.

We're still waiting on an offer on the house. The last people to look at it (on Thursday) said they were interested and might be making an offer, but nothing so far. We're really praying we hear something from them by Monday, if not sooner.

Lori, we lived near Westover Hills and Culabra. Culabra was a busy street but Westover Hills is a nice road to access Hwy 151. The outer loop got frustrating because it has so many red lights in that area. Our church was near Portranco and Loop 1604, so we ended up with a lot of friends near that intersection. It took them the same amount of time to get to the base as it did us even though they seemed closer. Hwy 151 and I-410 flow well most of the time between SeaWorld and the base.

What group is your husband working with at Lackland?

Amanda,
My husband went out house hunting today and now he's changed his mind on which house and housing area we want to live in. It's still in the same general area, though, off of Potranco Road just a few miles outside of the 1604 loop. The floor plan he wants now is actually one that I'd seen before and really liked, but he wasn't convinced -- until he got to see it in person.

My husband works for a government contractor. I don't know what military group he's working with out there now. I'm sure I'll figure all of that out once we get out there.

I've been off-line for a bit. Sorry to be away. I can't stay on long right now either.
I hope everyone is well. We are visiting around with other churches. Husband made the painful decision to leave our church so now that the split has been made, this is going to be an exciting adventure! (Sorry for the horrible grammar...no time to proofread)

Lori, I'm still rooting for ya'll to sell that house...QUICKLY!

Quiver nice to hear from you have a great holiday

Lori sounds like you are having more showings hope the right one comes along soon.

Have a lovely holiday week.

I got up early this morning and got busy. I've already done my grocery shopping (went early before it got crowded) and finished most of my morning chores. My kids will all be up in the next 30 minutes or so, but for now I'm enjoying the quiet.

No word from our realtor yet but I'm still hoping that "today is the day". If we get an offer or anything definite I'll post on the "family moving" thread to update everyone.

Is everyone busy getting ready for Thanksgiving? What are you all planning? We're staying home and my mom is coming over. My mother-in-law called us last night and invited us to her house, but we declined. I do want to get over to see her again before we move, but I'd rather do that when my husband is in town to go with us. For Thanksgiving, though, we're just staying here and having a pretty quiet day, I hope. We all just need a break from the stress and a chance to relax. What are all of your plans?

Lori,
Any word yet????

For Thanksgiving we are going to Granny's house, (MIL) and decorating it for Christmas. We buy something new for the yard every year and this year we bought an acrylic angel with animated wings. She'll love it!

After we decorate, we'll have a potluck dinner and then have our Christmas gift exchange, since everyone is going away for Christmas. The adults in the family like to do the "Crazy Christmas" thing where everyone brings any gift, then we draw numbers to pick our own. we end up switching gifts and having lots of laughs. I wonder who will end up with the fish head this year?????

We may make the 3 hr drive down to my mom's house on Friday.

I think I told ya'll that we are looking for a new church. Well, Sunday, we went to the Duggar's home church and had a great time. I've known them for a while now but never attended. Anyway, it was so nice for our entire family to go and not be gawked at and to actually sing hymns!!!! Oh, I actually weeped! The service was a very simple prayer and praise worship time AND Jim Bob announced that they are expecting #17. So exciting!

Oh, I forgot!
For those of you that have a TV...
The Great School Debate" will be on the Dr. Phil show this Friday, November 24th. I've heard it is not very friendly toward homeschool. If you get a chance, watch it and let me know what happens.

Quiver,
I'm glad you found a place where you can worship! That is such a blessing, I'm sure. Finding a church can be so hard. We'll have that to deal with once we get moved. I know God has a place for us, but finding it could be quite a challenge.

I love your web site! You have a beautiful family.

I had heard about the Dr. Phil show on homeschooling. My mom will be here (she's a Dr. Phil fan) and I had already told her I wanted to watch it. But then when I read it wasn't very homeschool friendly, I had second thoughts. We may watch, I'm not sure. I might decide it's better to just ignore it and not get myself upset. We'll see.


It's cold here this morning!! According to the weather channel it's 45 degrees with a windchill of 40, but when I took the dog outside it felt colder than that. I'm sure for many of you that's just a little coolish, but for us Floridians it's FREEZING!!! Tomorrow is supposed to be even colder, down in the 30's. Sounds like a good day to stay inside and make Thanksgiving Turkey Treats!!

Today we have an orthodontist appointment and two dentist appointments, plus a house to clean and tons of laundry to get caught up on. My mom is coming for a 5-day visit tomorrow so I want to get everything done today so we can enjoy her visit once she gets here.

I felt miserable last night and began throwing up at 3 this morning. When Husband told the younger children to let me rest because I was sick, I heard some of them ask,

"Hooray!! Is it a boy or a girl?" LOL!

Thanks for the compliment Lori. That silly website is neglected but it can be fun.

With me not feeling up to par lately, I was trying to get the children interested in a hands-on craft for Thanksgiving but we have soooo much to do lately. Then it hit me!

We have two large trees in our small yard that are dropping their leaves. I had the children look up the dimensions of the Mayflower and we traced out the size of the top deck with leaves. I thought they would learn a little more about the cramped living conditions on board and AND get my yard raked at the same time.

The yard isn't raked but they sure are having fun playing "Separatists and Strangers" in the leaf Mayflower. My 5yo keeps wanting to be Remember, (she likes the name) and the 8yo keeps switching from William Bradford to Samoset! LOL!

quote:

Originally posted by cindahomaker:
Quiver, I was thinking of you as I was reading this info about seeking biblical fellowship
Thought it might be of interest and encouragement to you.
How is it going in your decisions on church membership?

http://www.wayoflife.org/fbns/findinga.htm

http://www.biblebelievers.net/Church/kjc
church.htm

Cinda! I just found this post!! (don't know how I missed it) THank you. This is very informative and VERY helpful. I can't wait to show it to Husband when he gets home.