Queenies Little Kingdom

This time last year, I was living in a bubble.  I call it a bubble because I had no idea just how far God would stretch me and lead me down unfamiliar roads.  The experiences, change and loss impacted me in a way I wasn't expecting.  Who knew what was ahead when I chose my WORD OF THE YEAR — G R A C E ?

Thankfully, God knew.

My Year of GRACE 2013

January –  My hubby and I took a fun trip to Chicago with our girls.  We shopped, ate at great restaurants and stayed high up in The Felix Hotel.  After spending time having fun it was off to Florida to be with my mom.  I didn't expect to spend 2 weeks driving an hour & a half one-way to be with her every day.  What was supposed to be a routine lung surgery turned ugly with a massive heart attack that reminded us just how fragile life is.

February – This was a giant month for change.  I thought I was ready to let my kids go but when my son moved out to live with roommates….I took it pretty hard.  It was time, so I celebrated with him (for his sake, not mine).  The news that one of my childhood best friends lost her battle with a brain tumor set me back as well.  It was also a rough month as my hubby navigated a "new" boss and job (not of his choosing).  Change can make you or break you.

March – My middle baby turned 20, my brother went to jail (for a probation violation), my bankcard was stolen, my small group got serious and I read BigMama's awesome book — Sparkly Green Earrings.  What a crazy month!

April – Most of April was spent doctoring up a wounded dog (Gracie).  No one knows how she ripped her front leg open but all of us took part in helping her to heal.  She turned out okay and the weather joined in by letting us do some much needed yardwork.  Hubby finished up the outside staircase that had been on his to-do list for months.

May – I spent most of May in denial that graduation was fast approaching.  It's not easy letting your youngest grow up!  My family got together for the Republican Lincoln Day dinner and had a chance to meet the Indiana Governor Mike Pence.  We are total cornballs when it comes to politics.  Hubby and I went to the prom, again (I've lost count on how many). And I went back & forth with kids to the doctor.  It was a busy month.

June – My oldest celebrated turning 23, my youngest graduated high school, I took a trip to North Carolina with my hubby & girls and got the call to "come quick" to see my mom on her deathbed.  Thankfully, I didn't have to do any of that by myself.  What I thought was a month of letting my kids grow up turned into the month that I had to grow up.  Death has a way of doing that to you.  In our case, it was near death and all that accompanies that process.  God made a way for our family to settle some serious business for my mom while she was still able to talk and manage her affairs.  I'm forever grateful for the way God blessed us all.

July – July was by far the hardest month of my entire life.  It was long.  It was sad.  It was exhausting and it held the power of change.  My mother declined rapidly, my youngest and I drove to be with her and my hubby would find himself being offered a fantastic new job.  Life as we knew it….was about to change!  Forever.  God knew that I would need to be by her side when she died and He orchestrated that my baby be there as well.  The weeks following….my hubby and I disassembled her life & house the best way we could and walked away from all that was my mother.  It was hard!  But God had blessings to give, even through that.

August – Back to work.  For me, a new place in Special Ed and for hubby, a new job all together.  This is the month he started the two hour commute ONE-WAY!  We realized that time was of the essence and started getting our old house ready to sell.  It was project after project and dollar after dollar spent making our home sellable.  Little did we know that we would lose most of that money in the final sale.  What can you do about it?  It was part of the learning process.  The best part of August was how awesome work was for hubby & me.  Both of us landed in new places with great people to love and be loved by! 

September – I wrote a post that shocked a few people about my hubby as we celebrated 24 years of marriage.  Both of my girls moved out and into their first apartment.  We painted, built a bar and house shopped like mad.  The whole month was a blur filled with exciting moments and more growing up on my part.  I even squeezed in a trip to Chattanooga with my bestie for a conference where I would get to meet BIGMAMA y'all!!

October – My hubby & I turned 47 and  I admitted to myself, that I'm getting old!  I fretted over house inspections when OUR HOUSE SOLD!  Hubby and I took a trip during fall break to Michigan with our little dog Ms Lizzy.  I finally took the plunge and spent some money on a pair of real boots and a big girl computer (thanks Mom).  It was a great month in many ways especially because of the gorgeous fall weather.

November – Good news. Bad news. New house. New car.  New, new, new!  Life changed bigtime for us in November.  We found the perfect house for our needs, hubby finally recieved his new company car and we took a major hit on the appraisal of our old house.  In spite of all the crazy, we celebrated Thanksgiving with our kids.  The last one in the house we'd all shared for the last 12 years.  Did I mention that the baby in my family had a birthday?  Yes, 19! 

December – I'm forever referring to this month as the month of stress & IT'S HAPPENING!!  We started collecting boxes, packing boxes, repairing all the wishes for the buyers of our old house and planning our exit strategy ALL WHILE MY HUBBY GOT HIS WOODWORKING DREAMS ON!  He built a bench for our daughter, a table for our living room and added many new tools to his collection.  This month we would rent 2 moving trucks, load & move in a snow/ice storm the first weekend and a torrential rainstorm the next.  No Christmas shopping for us this year thanks to a huge mess of moving into our new house the week of Christmas.  I have never felt so out of it in my whole life.  God used the experience to remind me of what is REALLY IMPORTANT when celebrating HIS birth.  It has nothing to do with blowing all your money on useless presents!

I can't look over all that's happened this year and not recognize how God's grace blanketed my every move.  Life is unpredictable, it's tough and harsh to everyone at some point or another.  This year just happened to be my year.  As I look back, I thank God for all the ways He taught me big lessons that will forever change who I am for the better.  I love my life and I love the family that He gave me.  I wouldn't change a single thing.

Here's to a great NEW YEAR in 2014! 

Sometimes pathetic jumps up and slaps me smack in the face.  Tonight I went into the den upstairs where my hubby was running some new cable & phone lines just to see what was up and have human interaction.  I lingered around there while he worked and we talked about the new neighbor I met earlier and his new office furniture arriving at work.

I stared up at the full bookcases and there they were….gently looking back at me — our Bibles. I scanned each row and started to count…16!  Not all of them are mine.  Some are my hubby’s, some are our kids…others from childhood and a few as gifts. It really doesn’t matter whose or where they came from, it only matters how each one was used in mine and my family’s life.

As I counted them and reminisced of times I used or spent time reading them….I felt a pinch of sadness. Many of them have writing in them, perhaps I used it for a study Bible or my kids left behind childlike art squeezed between the pages.  Each of the Bibles on my shelves hold more than just THE WORD for me. They hold who I am and who my family is today.

I’m sad that I own so many Bibles. I feel gluttonous and spoiled because I know owning God’s word is a privilege.  I also know that I have mishandled that gift much of the time.   I wonder if you are like me too?  Are your walls lined with Bibles….catching dust and sitting quietly by as your family passes them by? 

What can we do about it?  I’m not talking about how we can lessen guilt either. So, I think I have a plan.  For the next year…I will choose a different Bible every time I use one for study or church.  Maybe I’ll linger over one or several for a bit longer than I normally would. I don’t want to waste what I have.

Do you?

It’s a guarantee that my family will never ever forget this year’s Christmas.

I do not recommend moving during the week of celebrating Jesus’ birth…ever.

The possibilities of catching proof that you’re under construction in all your Christmas pics is rather high.

That’s no big deal though….its not about perfection. Right?

Love & family matter most, says Gracie!

Same traditions carry on in a half-made dining room.

Taking a minute for a few family selfies.

Clearly we aren’t shy about taking pics.

Even our dog loves picture time. Oh Lizzy!

If you don’t look too closely…..it almost seems like were settled in.  That’s not so.

I’m grateful for time with my kids. Even in moving chaos, we’ve had some fun!

They look….just like me, right?

This is all that really matters most this holiday season, not having all the  boxes unpacked and stuff in its place.

We didn’t miss much this year by not having a settled house.

We made our moments with the blessings God sprinkled around us. One thing is for sure….we will never forget Christmas 2013.

I hope your Christmas was as special as mine.

It's my last day.  The day I've waited for and dreamed about for a long time.  Now that it's here I'm having trouble remembering all the bad days that I wished more than anything I could storm into my principal's office and Q U I T, with my hair on fire!  Teehee!

I like how God does that, don't you?  Almost like the pain of childbirth.  He takes away the yucky painful part and leaves you with the sweet part.  Thanks, Lord!

I sent out an email to all my co-workers yesterday telling them a little bit about my move and to say goodbye.  The response back from friends touched my heart and reminded me how special they are to me.  I couldn't help but go back to moments between each of them and feel twinges of love & fun that we've shared.  Twelve years is a long time to be friends.  Relationships grow deep in that kind of time.  

As I got ready for school this morning, I thought of so many things I wanted to say to my friends that I'm leaving behind.  I'd love to tell them all the ways God used them to help me grow as a person.  Every person I've met here played an important role in my life.  God placed them there specifically for me at each moment of our friendship.

I'm not going to ponder over my memories with sadness.  I'm going to look ahead and be excited because…

Goodbye JCHS and all that goes with it.  I'm going to miss you all.

Christmas?  It's Christmas?  Who knew?  All I've been focused on is selling my house, buying another one and packing to move there!  Christmas has been low on the list of life events for me.

I love Christmas!

This year is really going to be different for my family.  I'm glad that hubby and I helped decorate the tree at our girls' apartment a few weeks back.  That might have to hold us over until next year.  This coming weekend is our final truck-loading move time.

Boxes and piles will be all I know for a long time.

So, how do you save money at Christmas time?  I'll tell ya.

1 — Spend an enormous amount of money fixing up and repairing your old house to put on the market to sell.

   * New roof & seamless gutters

   * New paint

   * New bar & barstools

   * New window treatments

   * New heater covers

The list goes on….and my savings account shows it.  Boo!

2 — Buy a new house in a higher market area to be closer to work.  Yea, that'll cost ya!

   * Tear out the disgusting carpet and put in wood laminate floors.  $$$

   * Replace the shower heads, shower curtain rods and dream of changing the bathtub/showers.

   * New window treatments.  Baby steps here.

   * New cabinet liners & cleaning supplies for a house dirty from other people's cooties.  Don't ask about the dishwasher trim.  Eww!

   * Paint.  Eventually.

This list can go on too because everybody knows making a home your own takes time AND MONEY!!

3 — Spend all the money you have left MOVING!

   * Rent a moving truck TWICE!!  Because it takes you two weekends to move all your stuff, finish out your job and commute the long distance between it all.

   * Pay all the start up costs of new utilities; electricity, water, garbage, cable/wifi and whatever else you'll need to live somewhere new.  Kapow!

   * Blow money left & right on all sorts of crazy things you need to get moved in.  In our case, we've bought a new ladder, tools, rugs etc…  It never ends!

All of that, my friends…will suck your Christmas budget money completely dry.  I suppose its a good thing my kids are young adults and understand how tight it can be with all the moving and life changing going on.  I trust that God has a great plan for each of us. The year isn't over, yet.

Who knows, maybe we'll be all moved in with beds in place and boxes out of the way…..but I don't know how we'll do it and have any energy left.  I'm learning, slowly…ONE THING AT A TIME!!

I am so happy to be moving and I love my new house.  Christmas may be a little different this year but I'll still have all the things I treasure close by — MY SWEET FAMILY!

How do you save money at Christmas?

I’m happy to be following this moving truck. Just not happy about the weather.

The coldest day in Indiana and the Galloway’s are doing what every person loathes on good weather days!

I don’t know what we would’ve done without our kids. Ally helped unload what Gavin had helped load. Hubby did loading & unloading. I love him!

It ain’t easy being awesome!  She makes it look like a piece of cake.

So we got hit with more of this…

The slick cold snow was almost too much!

But they trudged on. What else can you do?

I’m hoping my neighbors are nice. My hubby told me if we ever see anyone moving in near us….we ARE lending a helping hand.

I love my house even through the piles of snow. It’s beautiful!

Boxes and boxes.

Stacks of this and piles of that.

It didn’t take long to make huge messes…everywhere!

We started pulling out carpet & linoleum right away.

Goodbye ugly carpet!

Yippee!!

Making way for this beautiful stuff!

I’m so excited!  It’s going to be a long week for me — as I finish out my school days. Hubby will be staying and working on the floors and his real job. It will be a challenge for us both (we don’t do apart so well) and come Friday. ..

Finish moving! !

Some good weather would be amazing.