5 year update of 2011 post

December 29, 2001
1 Ram + 1 Ewe 

+ Ram changing from student to pastor
and back to student
+Ram 2 Calls to 4 different churches
+1 major surgery
+First laptop

+Ewe changing from classroom teacher
to Mama to homeschool teacher
+Ewe thyroid removed
+Ewe's first cell phone
+Ewe's first smartphone
+First iPad

 

+ 3 Boy Lambs (2004, 2006, 2008)
+ Surviving MSPI with Lamb 1 as a baby
+ Completing a year of vision therapy with Lamb 2
+1 Minor surgery for Lamb 2
+ Lamb 2 and 3 graduating from speech therapy
+ 3 Lambs getting involved in many different kinds of activities

+Several vacations to IN, ID, CA, SC, AL, MO, etc.

+ Making many new friends from many different parts 

of the country and a few that live overseas

+1 Brother-in-law
+ 5 year anniversary for Eric and Hannah

- 11 miscarried Lambs,
- 1 brother (Tim), 
- 3 Grandmas, -2 Grandpas, 
-7 Great Aunts and Great Uncles, 
and -several family friends going to join the saints in the Church Triumphant

+ 1 Saturn - 2 Saturns
+ 1 Blazer - 2 Blazers
+ 1 Toyota Camry
+ 2 Minivans -2 Minivans
+ 1 Toyota Sienna

+Living in 5 houses in 3 different parts of the country
+ Bought 1 house
- Sold 2 houses
+renting for our first time
+ plus being crazy enough to rent a second time
+3 major moves to live in 3 different states
+Moving from living in the same city as Ewe's parents to live in the same state as Ram's parents and then coming back to live in the same city as Ewe's parents again
+living in a big city
+living in a town of 113,
+living in a growing city of a suburb of the state capital
+back to living in a big city again

= 15 years of holy matrimony for Ram and Ewe!

We thank Christ for being the center of our marriage and being with us through all these changes. We know He will continue to be with us in future years and future changes.

*Baker family, you continue to be in our thoughts and prayers. This is a bittersweet day on the calendar. May we all continue to look forward to the resurrection of the body and life everlasting.

You know you are a bargain shopper...

when you pay for your groceries and are amazed when you finish with the cashier that the groceries are bagged and put in your cart already.
Some stores that I shop at have the cashier bag the groceries as they ring them up. Aldi has you bag your own groceries. I forgot there are stores that pay people to bag the groceries while the cashier rings you up!

Recent Grocery Shopping

It has taken me a long time to figure out where to buy what food in our new city. Both to find products that are more Paleo and to find affordable. I had digital coupons figured out at Fred Meyer and expected it to be similar at Kroger. It is similar and then it isn't. I have been so frustrated when my coupons don't work as they are supposed to, but I keep my mouth shut because it is not the cashier's fault and usually not worth waiting in customer service line considering I got other good deals that did work.

I am attempting to get in a routine of going to different stores once or twice a month instead of every store every week. That has been difficult to start a routine as we had to restock our pantry. I'm getting close to a routine though. The pantry is getting stocked.

My mom told me about a family farm that sells chicken and eggs without hormones. We bought a lot of chickens and eggs two weeks ago. We bought more chickens and chicken livers for chicken liver spread this week.

I spent over 2 hours at Kroger yesterday, trying to use my coupons before they expire, trying to get what we were out of, and trying to get what was on sale. It took a long time to find a parking spot, shop in the narrow aisles, and checkout with two people with full carts ahead of me. I didn't even look at my receipt while I was still at Kroger, which is rare for me. I hoped that my coupons worked.

The coupons did work! My "reward" was 12 bottles of Izze sparkling juice for 1.47 total, just 12 cents a bottle. There were some other good deals too. I feel like I am finally getting  how to shop in our new city.

Happy 200th Birthday, Indiana!

One item that turned up in our move was my Indiana history notes from 4th grade. I respect what the public school teachers did for us taking us all over the county and to our state capitol to see historical sites. One reason why I was a history minor in college was because of 4th grade. I never quite got to teaching Idaho history to the Lambs when we lived in Idaho. If I can read my messy handwriting and the mimeographed copies from 30+ years ago, I plan to use this with the Lambs to teach them Indiana history. Mrs. Mosely, your notes are being used for a second generation!

My mom and I did a little small business shopping on black Friday. One store we went to was Mr. Polymath. They sell a lot of items made in the USA and some are even made in Fort Wayne. They had a lovely nativity made out of coal. (Sorry Hannah, I did not buy it for you!)

I heard that the LCMS Synodical office has some church workers that love using Field Notes. I had to see what Field Notes were after hearing this. Mr. Polymath was the only store listed in Fort Wayne that sold Field Notes. Mr. Polymath might be the only store in Indiana that sells Field Notes. Of course I had to buy the Indiana version in honor of the  200th birthday!

Ram enjoyed reading all the facts on the back of the Field Notes. It was fun to be quizzed by him and see what facts I remembered from 4th grade history class. We'll have to see if we can get the ID version for Ram.

Ram and I have watched a couple of episodes of Hoosiers: The Story of Indiana online. We have both enjoyed hearing the history. After growing up in Southern IN, I learned that the state was settled from bottom up, like a glass of water, from the southern counties to the northern counties. In 4th grade I didn't realize how much important history took place in our county. I also bought a used copy of the book this TV documentary was based on. Ram is anxious for me to finish reading it so he can read it.

Indiana had some celebrations and the library did some special Indiana history activities with homeschoolers in honor of the bicentennial that I would love to have done with the Lambs, but unfortunately we arrived too late in 2016. We did take the Lambs to the local history museum.

Podcast of the day

Today I listened to a podcast by two of my favorite authors, Katie Schuermann and Cheryl Swope. I highly recommend listening to the podcast HERE. Segments apply to those with children with special needs, mothers, single women, barren women, writers, and homeschoolers.

Full disclosure: I did contribute to Eternal Treasures by Cheryl Swope. I gained so much from Cheryl from the few necessary e-mails for that contribution. Cheryl was so encouraging about Lamb 2's academic journey. This podcast is encouragement from both authors!

Busy Days

Ram has not begun classes yet. Neither Ram or I have jobs yet. The Lambs are in just a few activities right now as we got here after fall activities began. Yet, our days are full. Here is a peek in to the past few days for us.

Dec. 1-Take my parents to the airport for a visit to my sister
Pick up car after repaired from September accident (a sheriff hit Ewe's car when she was stopped at a red light)
Ram was supposed to do a webinar for school but technical difficulties canceled this for him
Grocery Shopping at one store
Advent supper and church

Dec. 2-Ram lunch meeting
Ewe attended a funeral
Grocery Shopping at one store
CLHS basketball game
Hyde Brother's Booksellers midnight sale (We all went at 10:30pm and then Ram went back by himself at 1am.)

Dec. 3-Ram took the Lambs to Christmas Pageant Practice at church
Ewe attended book club on Frankenstein (very interesting book to discuss!)
Ewe did a little shopping at Barnes and Noble Educator discount day
CLHS Play The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

Dec. 4- Sunday School, Church
Bach Collegium Messiah sing-along
Lambs built a snowman with our first snow
Ewe attempted to get caught up on laundry before they come to make some house repairs at our rental this week.

We have attended a lot of activities in this area this fall, because we have missed these activities while we lived away from here and are excited to participate in these events again. We probably won't go to all these every year, but it has been fun to take the Lambs to activities that my family enjoyed years ago even if we just go once.

Ram does have a couple of substitute preaching assignments lined up, but I have been so thankful that we have been able to attend these events as an audience or congregational member, instead of being the chairman or volunteer. Ram has been able to sit in the pew and worship with us together as a family. The Lambs don't need to be chauffeured for practices for all these events. It has been a wonderful season for us to just listen and participate instead of being in charge. After the past few crazy years, I think we really needed this break. I know our busy time of being involved instead of just participating is coming soon. We are joining in on more activities at church. Ram will start classes the middle of January and the Lambs are discussing what activities to join in the spring.