All mixed up

We moved back to my hometown that I moved to when I was in high school and my parents still live in. It is becoming very clear to me that being gone for 13 years really changes things. Here are a few examples:

• The other night we got gas at a gas station that used to be a Wendy's. During marching band season in high school we would walk down there after school and get something to eat before practice.
• The ice cream store that was another place to meet when I was single and then when I was a newlywed is out of business.
• I am loving shopping at a grocery store that is in the former Borders. That was where I ordered items for my classroom before Amazon. That was where I met friends for a cup of tea when I was single and when Ram and I were newlyweds.  This grocery store has great sales and a great bulk section, but no cafe.
• When I was in high school our school football team rarely won games. Being in band, the halftime show was the most important so I rarely watched the game. But the other night when we were winning, watching the game was exciting! Our team has a good chance of going to state this year.
• Our rental house is not too far from the house I grew up in, a little farther from where I bought a house when I was single, and even farther from my parents new house. Some places in the area we go to take much longer than I am used to and other places we go just take a few minutes to get there from our rental house. I have to adjust my thinking how long it will take to get to everywhere.
• No matter which church we visited in the area, I ran into parents of my former students. I will always remember them as first and second graders, but my last class is now juniors in college and many of the older students are married and have started families.
• The school that I taught at closed by the Lutheran church and recombined with two other Lutheran schools at a different location. This makes me so sad that they can't go next door to the church for daily chapel like we did.
• The library branches were always good here and the new downtown library is awesome now. My boys have gone to a couple of programs at the downtown library and are looking forward to more programs. 
• Our calendar no longer is just for the 5 of us, but my parents are added to the calendar-all for when they can babysit for us, need a ride to something, or want us to come over for a visit/help with a few tasks around the house. I love that we are in the same town to be able to do this.

So it is not all bad changes, it just takes some readjusting in my thinking!

Heat

I turned the heat on for the first time today. We praise God that the furnace works at our rental house!

Great Day!

Yesterday we received this in the mail:

Today we went to the Seminary bookstore and bought this:

Then we went to the library and had a treat from Dunkin Donuts to celebrate that we have library cards. We bought a few books at their used bookstore section for $2 total. The Lambs picked books to check out. We found out about Minecraft time at the library and Ram took the Lambs back later in the day to participate in that. The Lambs loved Minecraft at the library! My dad stopped by to see the piano and visit while they were at Minecraft.
When we got home this was in the mail today:

The months of packing, cleaning, unpacking, and the bureaucracy when we arrived were all worth it to now have an IN Driver's license and an Allen County Public library card in our wallets and be in the same town as my parents for my dad to stop by for a visit!

October family update

The piano is in our house and the boys begin lessons tomorrow morning. It is going to take some adjusting for all of us to switch to morning piano lessons. We still have not found their piano books from last spring. We found their old piano books, but not their most recent ones. I wanted them to show their new piano teacher where they were at in the spring. Perhaps it is better that we just begin where she thinks they should be since we had no piano in our house for a couple of months.

We were finally successful to get driver's licenses for both Ram and Ewe. We also got license plates for both cars. We registered to vote. We spent so much time on all of that the past few weeks. I am so glad that is all finished.

Ewe went for her annual eye exam and the dr. decided to treat it as a medical visit and prescribe eye drops and have her come back for the eye exam another visit so insurance pays all of it. We have scheduled several doctor visits for Lamb 1, Ram, and Ewe while we have met our deductible this year.

Ram, Lamb 1, and Lamb 3 are doing some therapy at the chiropractor during the month of October. It wasn't necessary for Lamb 2 or Ewe. We had to buy some weights for them to use for exercises at home, but insurance is paying for the rest. It is taking time to go there three times a week, but we are glad we are doing this when it is "free" to us.

We have been to all 5 of the churches we were considering to join. We have it limited to 3 now. This is such a good problem to have, so many good churches and pastors, but such a hard decision. I am hoping to have our final decision and start regularly attending by Reformation Day. I really enjoyed seeing old friends at all the churches we visited. This morning we saw my mom's cousin, the parents of some of my former students, the uncle of my flower girl in my wedding, a blogger friend, and some of my parents friends. Visiting and seeing old friends was fun, but all of us need to settle into the routine of one church and get involved in activities at one church. The great part is there are always church dinners and recitals and other activities at all the area churches, so even if we don't join one of the other churches, we can still see friends at these other activities.

My mom had a procedure on her heart on Monday and she did well. She is taking it easy and anxious to get back to her regular activities including having the Lambs over to play card games. This was the first time I could go to the hospital to be with my dad during surgery and text my sister often of how everything was going. I am so glad we moved here for times like this.

Yesterday we went to an apple orchard and got pumpkins, apples, squash, and apple cider. Supper was pork chops with apples and vegetables. Dessert was apple dumplings with vanilla ice cream. I love eating what is in season in autumn!

Prayers for Life

My dad wrote this guide for a day of prayer today at their church. You are welcome to use it for your personal devotions.

PRAYERS FOR LIFE

Today we pray for Life: Life of the unborn, Life of those near the end of time on earth, and Life of our nation. You may want to pray some of these hymns from Lutheran Service Book and read the suggested verses from the Bible.

773 Hear Us, Father, When We Pray
Matthew 6:9-13; Romans 8:25-27; Hebrews 4:14-16; Psalm 141:1-2
588 Jesus Loves Me
Matthew 19:14; Titus 3:4-7; John 15:9; Ephesians 3:17b-19
594 God’s Own Child, I Gladly Say It
Romans 6:1-10; 1 Peter 3:18-22; Titus 3:4-7
602 The Gifts Christ Freely Gives 
Ephesians 1:3-7; 1 John 5:6-8
605 Father Welcomes
Galatians 3:26-27; Romans 6:1-7; Mark 16:16; John 3:3-6
725 Children of the Heavenly Father
Romans 8:14-17, 35-39; Matthew 6:26-27; Ephesians 4:25-27
740 I Am Jesus’ Little Lamb
Psalm 23; Isaiah 40:11; 49:10; John 21:15
716 I Walk in Danger, All the Way
1 Peter 5:8-9; John 10:4, 27-29; John 6:39; Isaiah 51:11
461 I Know That My Redeemer Lives
Job 19:25-27; Colossians 1:18; Hebrews 7:25; John 14: 2-3
729  I Am Trusting Thee, Lord Jesus
Isaiah 12:2; Matthew 28:18-20; Isaiah 26:3
730  What Is the World to Me?
1 John 2:15-17; Philippians 3:7-9; Psalm 73:25; Romans 12:2
731  O God, Forsake Me Not
Psalm 38:21-22; Psalm 22:11, 19; Psalm 71; Psalm 27:9
717 Eternal Father, Strong to Save
Genesis 1:1-10; Psalm 3; Matthew 8:23-27; 14:23-33
733 O God, Our Help in Ages Past
Psalm 90; 2 Corinthians 4:16-18; Romans 8:18; Psalm 46:1-3
842 Son of God, Eternal Savior
1 Peter 1:20-23; Hebrews 7:25; John 13:34-35; 17:20-21
847 Christ, Our Human Likeness Sharing
Titus 3:4-8; Ephesians 2:19; Titus 2:11-14; Romans 12:1-2 

Frustrated

I spent the entire day working with the BMV trying to get an IN driver's license without success. This would be humorous if it wasn't true. It is a vicious cycle, I need an IN license in order to report that I had insurance for an accident that happened in 2002, but I can't get an IN license without clearing up that 2002 accident. I can't register to vote without an IN driver's license or IN identification. We had our house closing so I can't claim ID residency. None of my problems had anything to do with being hit by the sheriff last month, but I suspect when that is processed through the system that will also be a problem.

Ram also had difficulty getting an IN driver's license but his problem should be solved in a few days and was no where near as complicated as my difficulty. It may be a blessing that we don't have to choose which presidential candidate to vote for this year, but this is not the way that we would have chosen.

Tomorrow is a new day and we will try to work with the voter's registration to see what we can do before the deadline next Tuesday. And our insurance agent is trying to clear up the 2002 accident for me and currently I just need to wait a few business days to see if he was successful or what I can do if he was not successful.

No laundry, dishes, unpacking, or other important tasks happened today while both Ram and I worked to try to solve my problem. Sigh. Please join us in prayers that this can be solved for both of us before we have been residents of IN for 60 days and we have even bigger problems.

Happy Joy Cookies

Ram and I were able to get away to a Doxology conference for a couple of days last week. The theme of the conference was "JOY" and it was a wonderful theme for Ram and I to be reminded to thank God for our blessings during our time of transition. I hope to blog about this more, but my post today is a recipe.

On the way home from St. Louis we made a fast stop into the Hodgson Mill store in IL. I have bought their gluten free products the past few years. I did not know that their products were milled in IL and they had a store there right off the interstate. We are starting over on stocking our pantry and thankfully I have found lots of gluten free and Paleo ingredients at Aldi, but I had still not found coconut flour or almond flour at an affordable price. It was such a treat to go into this store and see all their products and receive the discount such as 99 cent pasta. It was close to their closing time and I didn't have a shopping list, but if we travel that way again, I will be prepared to shop there again.

As we were paying they had a few cookies for sale so I bought a few Happy Joy Cookies for a treat for our family. They had a copy of the recipe there. It is gluten free, but not Paleo, but it is acceptable to me as a treat for our family. It was so neat to me that on the way home from a conference on Joy I received a recipe for Happy Joy cookies. Whenever I make these cookies I will have memories of our St. Louis trip.

Happy Joy Cookies

From the Hodgson Mill Kitchen

1 1/2 c Almond Flour

2 1/2 c Coconut Flour

1 tsp baking soda

pinch sea salt

1/4 c butter softened

1/4 c brown sugar

1 egg

1 1/2 t vanilla

1/2 c sliced almonds

1/2 c semi sweet chocolate chips

1/2 c sweetened coconut flakes

Preheat oven to 350. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
In a large bowl combine almond flour, coconut flour, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl use an electric mixer to blend together butter, brown sugar, egg and vanilla. Slowly stir in dry ingredients until evenly blended. Fold in sliced almonds, chocolate chips, and coconut flakes. Roll into one inch balls and place on parchment lined baking sheet. Lightly press down balls into a disc shape. Bake for 12 minutes.

Note: Their cookies were very small, the size of a quarter. They were packaged in groups of 6 for $1.50. I think this recipe would be a great one for bake sales to offer something gluten free. I have not made these yet, but I would sift the coconut flour. I would also experiment to make them a little larger. I will definitely try to make this recipe because what we bought in the store was happy joy!