Sunday, July 31, 2016

July Update/Looking forward to August

July flew by and it is time to update you on several things happening to our family.

1. We are getting our house ready to put on the market. This is an excellent time to sell a house in Idaho, but unfortunately it seems that most of our subdivision got the same idea to sell now. I promise that I will eventually share more of how we decided to sell our house, but for now please keep our house sale in your prayers. We need our house to sell fast and for a profit once it gets on the market.
2. I am scheduled for thyroid surgery on Tuesday. July was spent getting the ok from the endocrinologist and hematologist that I could have surgery. There were several doctor appointments to get a green light. Please pray for the surgery and recovery.
3. During surgery recovery I will not be allowed to lift more than a gallon of milk for two weeks. We went to Ram's parents for a long weekend over the July 4th holiday. When we returned both Ram and I have spent every day since then getting our house ready to sell. There have been deliveries to give stuff away and take trash to our city. There has been coordinating handymen, landscapers, house cleaners, window washers, painters, and friends to help us for our move.  There has been coordinating selling appliances and other items to friends and neighbors. We are getting very close to our goal to have most of the work done before my surgery. Most of our belongings are now in storage. The chest freezer and one refrigerator are empty. We continue to try to use up food from our one refrigerator and pantry.
4. One of the Lambs spent several hours the last couple of months having a lot of medical tests. Then Ram spent way too long on the phone trying to get the results of those tests. It turned out that this Lamb does have a medical condition that 5% of the population has but most of that 5% doesn't even know they have it unless it is discovered during a MRI or other medical test. We praise God that it is a mild condition and the results simply meant that he has the knowledge that he has this condition and there are no follow-up appointments necessary.
5. Due to this Lamb and Ewe having so many doctor appointments we are going to meet our health insurance deductible. This means that the rest of the calendar year will be "free" medical care for our family. We praise God for health insurance especially during years like this.
6. After working so hard in June and July, I am looking forward to relaxing during surgery recovery time. During this time I have some books I want to read and plan to turn over the rest of getting the house ready to Ram and then to our realtor.
7. The Lambs have been troopers during this transition time. They try to play with the neighbor boys when schedules for both families allow before they are no longer our neighbors. They have put up with most of their toys being put in storage and helped move their beds to another bedroom so that we can clean and paint their bedroom. They have helped with a big variety of tasks. This transition time has not been without tears and mild behavior problems, but that has meant that Ram and Ewe take a break during this crazy time to spend time with the Lambs. They did complete the summer reading program at the library, go to the pool with their friends at least once a week, and we went to a baseball game. We have some activities planned for August to do one more time in the area that we live in. They continue to check carpeting and vents at this house for Legos.

Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Declutter Shopping

We have been decluttering all areas of our house and have made several trips to try to resell items at the used kids store, donated a lot to our pro-life center, donated a lot to our rescue mission, sold books to the used book store, and given outgrown clothes and toys to a friend with younger boys.

A few weeks ago we went and spent all our credit at the used bookstore. Yesterday I went to the used kids store to spend our credit there. The pro-life center would not take a stroller that I wanted to donate to them so we had quite a bit of credit at the used kids store.

After going through the Lambs clothes, I realized that Lamb 1 had outgrown almost all his pants. So this is what I bought at the used kids store with our credit.
*6 pairs of jeans for Lamb 1
*1 pair dress pants for Lamb 1
*2 pairs of sweatpants for Lamb 2
*3 pairs of shorts for Lamb 1

I had enough credit that my total out of pocket was 60 cents. It is a lot of work to go through their clothes and then sort out where to donate or resell everything. It really is worth going through your kids stuff and reselling what they no longer use and replacing it with what they need.