Catch up

Due to the LACK of Pictures on the blog lately....thought I would throw a few random ones here for all to see. We are a few days away from moving and things are crazy fun busy around here. Thanks to all of you patient friends and family members who keep popping onto the blog with HOPES of a new post! I will let the pictures speak for themselves. (note...some of the pictures have a date ON the pic...grrr...but it is obviously incorrect...2005 Hee hee)
ENJOY! The Blaske Bunch celebrated National Adoption Day, Got to go see our Anacortes Friends (Yeah for Moses.....John's best buddy HOME now, and we are moving...LOTS of new posts to catch up on. Look for them in a bit...let me get my boxes unpacked and computer turned back on....LOVE all of you, Thanks for your SUPPORT and PRAYERS!)

DONE

Just a side note from my last post....

For the first time EVER.... (that i can remember) today I can say that:

"THE LAUNDRY IS DONE"

With the whole family down to "4" full outfits...
I watched Ashlie, Brock and myself do our loads of laundry today....it hit me....I walked away from the laundry room with the last of the clean clothes to take up stairs, only to look at the laundry system we have set up for the kids...to see it EMPTY!

WHAT???? Can this BE....EVERY ITEM in our home is CLEAN???

YES!

Maybe I am onto something with this 4 outfit thing.

As I celebrated and said things like:
"WOW, you guys do not know how this feels to a mommy heart"
and
"yahhhoooo, no wash tomorrow because there will not be enough to do"
my kids started saying....
"you are going to let us open our packed boxes of clean clothes when we get to our new house....RIGHT???"

Of course I will...but in the back of my mind I am plotting and planning how we can rotate clothes in plastic tubs like we do toys in our house....maybe a two week rotation of 4-5 outfits each in each bucket...hummmm,

JUST a THOUGHT!

For now this mommy is off to enjoy an evening with my family...knowing there will NOT be clothes in the wash or dryer waiting for me in the a.m. or better yet...trying to catch the load RIGHT before the mildew sets in :O)

4

Many of you have been asking how our "prep" for our moving is going....
Today I have to laugh as I heard my kids say:

"Dad tossed his head back and laughed at you mom"

Why you ask?

Today we signed the closing papers for our home and our new home...Ohhhhh my!!

Who would of guessed that when God whispered in our hearts...
"pre-pare for a new season..time to move"

*that our 1928 Farm House (that had an inspection document with to many repairs to count) would SELL IN 20 DAYS of being on the market. (yes ...this market...the week after the stock market crash...IT IS ONLY GOD!!!)

*that our friends who asked us months ago in what we thought was "jest"
"Hey Blaske's do you want to buy our house?"
that it would be the actual house we did get to buy.
A House full of our dreams....dreams for kids, dream for ministry...and a quote from our 17 yr old son "feels like we are moving into a grown-up version of a house"
(he likes the fact that mowing 1/2 acre is less time than taking care of 2 acres and that the house does not need PAINT, TRIM, WINDOWS or immediate repair)
* I like that too :O)

*that our little John would navigate preparing to move in ways this mama could not have prepared for.

*that a family of 8 with LOTS of stuff in our HUGE out building could prepare to move to a house with a one car garage? Lots more living space, but smaller garage.
(can anyone say Craigs list?) How do we collect all this stuff???

*that it has been 2 months of purging and asking the questions...
"does anyone know what this is?"
or
"if it has not been touched in 6 months...it is OUT OF HERE!"

*that I would find delight in the alley ways of Front Street cardboard recycle bins...FREE boxes! Yeah!

Which brings me to the comment above:

"Dad tossed his head back and laughed at you mom"

We are down to 9 days before we start loading up the U-haul to drive 2 miles over to our new home.
Each week I have set out a plan.
(remember I am an organizer...makes my hubby laugh...and no the boxes are not color coded :O) but there is a method to my madness.)

Due to working the Beacon House Ministry, National Adoption Day and some steering committee's for His Kids...I knew I needed to be purposeful.

So this week the "plan" was to get all kids DOWN to 4 FULL outfits each.
(thus the tossing his head laughing stuff from hubby)
Thought was .....4 outfits each ='s 32 out fits to wash instead of the 1,000 that usually run through the laundry room at any given point.

So for two days the washer and dryer smoked as we WASHED all the clothes and picked out the 4 outfits for each of us.
All the clean clothes got PACKED and yes labeled, ready for loading in the truck.

I asked Dave why he found this so amusing...and he said
" I would of never thought of that, but am sure glad you did...and it made me laugh to see the SHOCK on the kids faces as they described your request of them"

My kids...I am sure, years from now, when we sit around the Thanksgiving table with their families....they will remember the year we MOVED on Thanksgiving Week and Mom made us pack our clothes and only keep out "4" outfits!

Thanks for all of your prayers, support and help as we move...we feel so loved and covered by EVERYONE!

Quote

I do not take this space to do this very often....but yesterday I was hit by a quote from our youth pastor that has struck my heart.
He was preaching from Job and about "hope in hard times"
One of the points was:
Gods response to Job is that:
God shows us, it is better to know God than to know answers. (Job 38:1-13 19-21, 33-36)
QUOTE:
"Don't Offer experience like it is the TRUTH"
How many times have I had a chance to sit with my friends when they are naked, bald, hurting, in ashes....yet I find my self like Job's friends...using my life experiences as TRUTH.
My circumstances do not DEFINE God. God spends verse after verse talking to Job..."where were you when the foundations of the earth were being laid?....do you hold the waves back on the shore...etc" It is such a loving set of verses from God to Job....
Job answers:42:1-6 HUMILITY
Then Job replied to the Lord: " I know that you can do anything, and no one can stop you. You asked "who is this that questions my wisdom with such arrogance? It is I and I was talking about things I knew nothing about, things far too wonderful for me. You said, listen and I will speak! I have some questions for you, and you must answer them. I had only heard about You before, but now I have seen you with my own eyes. I take back everything I said, and I sit in dust and ashes to show you my repentance."

In the circle of daily life experiences we all live in, I find that Homeschooling, adoption, pregnancy, parenting, money advice, house keeping, friendship, ministry ETC....all seem to be OPEN venues for me and others to pass off Experience as TRUTH...I pray that my heart can be like Job and say "I had only heard about You before, but now I have seen you with my own eyes, I take back everything I said, and I sit in dust and ashes to show you my repentance"

My Circumstances do not DEFINE GOD!
Thank you Lord for your love for all of us, may we be found to be a people of repentant and confessed hearts before you...FULL of your love and POWER to hear and do what you call us to do!