Moving

So, in a couple of weeks, we are moving into a 3 bedroom apartment. We are downsizing and I cannot wait. Yes, I realize it's going to be an adjustment, but by doing this, we will be completely out of debt in a year or so. I am so excited. I can honestly say that any problems we have ever had in our 11 year marriage have always been directly tied to finances. Not disagreements on how to use the money, just general stress when there is not enough to go around. This past year has been very rough financially. God has provided in miraculous ways! If you look back on it, there is no other explanation for it. Our lives have become a testimony to Malaciah 3:10. If you bring the tithes into the storehouse, God will open the windows of heaven of blessings. It has been amazing. God has also provided us this opportunity to move into an apartment. He has opened all the doors necessary. We had a lease purchase agreement on this house, which our landlords have let us out of. Not only let us out, but with their blessings! And other little things, like the fact that we got a ground floor apartment in the complex. And, they were running a rent special that should have ended November 30th, but it got extended until we needed it. We will actually be paying about the same in rent as we paid for our 2 bedroom apartment 7 years ago! And other things too...we needed two double beds (one for the boys room and one for the girls room) and we had one friend who has one in her attic and Adam's dad has one at his house too! It has been amazing. We are so excited.
So, the plan is...we take possession of the apartment on December 19th, but we don't have to be out of the house until December 31st. So, we will begin making trips on the 19th, and moving the bulk of the stuff the weekend after Christmas. I know it will be crazy, but it will be worth it in January. We begin saving money immediately and we are both really looking forward to it. We were just at a point where we could either continue what we were doing and probably never be completely debt free (at least it would be a long time) or we could bite the bullet for a year and be done with it. So we have opted for the latter and are continuing to pray that God will bless our efforts and our sacrifice.

My Love/Hate Relationship with the Christmas Season

Now, just to be clear, I absolutely love Christmas. Celebrating the birth of Jesus, the baby boy who changed all of history, including my own personal life - what could be better than that?! Also, three of my four pregnancies, I was pregnant at Christmas. I looked at Mary in a completely different way after the first one. I saw her fears and tried to imagine what she must have felt like. I know how overwhelmed I felt with each pregnancy and can only imagine how overwhelmed she must have felt. I love Christmas. I love the Christmas Eve service we have at our church. I love the Christmas decorations! I love the way my house looks decorated! I love all that Christmas means and all the different ways there is to celebrate it.

Okay, that being said...I hate the Christmas season! Now, I also understand that some of my hatred comes from working retail. I get to see so many people complain to me about things that I have no control over. People threaten never to shop my store anymore...um, okay...would you like directions to another store? Again, I would say 99.98% of the complaints are things I have no control over and no way to fix.
I hate dealing with Christmas decorations. I love the way it all looks, but I absolutely hate doing the decorating. Again, part of this comes from the fact that three of my children are 5 and under and can destroy anything that crosses their paths. I know it will get better. But for now, it's so stressful and not fun. For example, we pull all of the Christmas stuff out of the attic and Adam and I head down stairs to get the tree up. Everyone helped put the tree up (it has to be artificial this year because we are moving the day after Christmas - that's a whole other blog entry) but, while we were putting the lights on it, the kids went back upstairs. In the ten minutes we are putting the lights on, the two little ones proceeded to shred the styrofoam that our breakable Christmas decorations were in. Yes, it looked like it had snowed all over the room. So, while Adam finished the tree, the kids and I cleaned the room. I was furious by the time it was over. We are also keeping the decorations to a minimum this year since we are moving. So, when I come down from cleaning the room, I am met by Zoe, my nine year old, complaining that this wasn't going to be a good Christmas because we can't put lights on the outside of the house. I was trying to ignore her, which she was making very difficult. Then, Sebastian is crying because Adam won't give him scissors and let him cut paper. At this point, it's almost 8:00pm and I am about at the end of my rope. So we sent every one of them to bed at 8:00pm. I couldn't take it any more. Ahhhhhhh...decorating for Christmas...
So, that's my love/hate relationship with the Season!