14 Steps

My worst nightmare since moving into our 2 story house came true yesterday. We have a flight of stairs to the lower level of our house and we usually always have a baby gate up. But yesterday we had taken off so we could bring groceries upstairs and we forgot to put it back up. Well, I left Elijah in the living room with some toys, thinking that I was not going to be gone for long...just a few seconds, but it turned into a few minutes, and alot can happen in a few minutes. Well, after a few minutes, I thought I need to go back to Elijah and just as I was leaving our room to head back I hear a thump thump thump and Elijah is tumbling down the stairs!!!! (Oh my gosh I was so scared, I was shaking was told later I looked awfully white). I raced down the stairs faster than I ever have and I carefully picked him up and we did a quick check to make sure there were no obvious injuries as he had just flown down 14 stairs and hit face down on a hardwood floor!!! I felt so horrible because I knew that it was my fault, if I had been more careful it wouldn't have happened. ....anyways, God protected him and he only had a bump on his head and a faint bruise on his knee,. He is totally fine...I'm so amazed....Praise God for his goodness in protecting him...he is such a sweet little boy we've been so blessed with Moses and Elijah.

We've moved, we're settling, and slowly adjusting PART 1

This is the view of the ocean near our new house. You can't see the ocean from our house but this is the street by our house, we live 5 blocks from the ocean! It's incredible...

It's been a long time (once again) since I've written. So much has happened and I've procrastinated in writing, just because it has seemed like such a daunting task and I've not had too much time to sit and write. My oldest boy only takes one afternoon nap now so I 'm trying to be more organized with my time so that when he does nap I will have finished all my chores and tended to other responsibilities so then I can sit down and write knowing I have taken care of priorities first.

First of all, God has brought us to Hawaii and in such a way that it has been so obviously his hand. There were many things that had to happen that we had no control over, we simply prayed and then waited to see how he would answer. So to briefly recap and summarize our life these past few months here is a short tale:

Back in February we put up 2 for sale signs for our house. One was right in front of our house and the other was in front of our mobile home park. We also made flyers advertising our house but we only put these up inside our park as well on the community bulletin board by the mail boxes. So that was the extent of our advertising. Well, sometime in early March my husband noticed one day that our for sale sign was no longer in front of our park, somebody must of stolen it because it was no where around the surrounding area. So, it was one of those things where we thought, well, we ought to buy another sign and put it up. And we considered other advertising ideas but we just didn't do anything else. So how were we supposed to sell our home one might wonder? God in his wonderful ways likes to bring glory to himself, so to make a long story short...after much prayer, poor advertising and struggling in our faith and trust in God, a young couple calls on the evening of March 22 to inquire about our home. They were driving around our town that day going to all the mobile home parks looking for a place for sale and our park was the last one that they went to that day. They saw our little flyer inside our park and called us up. They drove by that evening and came inside, my husband gave them a tour and we all talked for quite awhile and they really wanted to buy it. They just so happened to need a place that they could move into ASAP, which worked out great for us as we were hoping to be in Hawaii for Easter, which is when the church had it's first service. So in a matter of about a week, we moved out and the details were squared away and they bought our place and started to move in. So, it was a matter of two weeks from the time the couple came to look at our place to the day we arrived in Hawaii. It was incredible to see God at work. Needless to say we packed up our house so quickly and had to get rid of so much stuff! It was like nothing I'd ever have to do in my entire life. We sold almost all of our possessions and moved out here with basically our clothes and a few necessities. We packed away 4-6 totes that Ryan's parent's are storing for us, but we really just cleaned ourselves out and are starting our lives from scratch out here. It's been hard, but good too. There have been so many changes and adjustments, I am still processing it all.

Okay, well I need to stop writing for now and attent to my boys! Moses just came in from the outside and is pretty dirty from helping Papa with the yard work:) I will write more soon!

We've got luggage! Yesterday Ryan's parents gave us a combined birthday present of a good quality luggage set. We are still waiting and praying for our house to sell, but it was a blessing for God to provide in yet another way for us.

Well, Moses and I have gotten the nasty head cold bug that Ryan and Elijah had. Elijah still has a cold so all three of us have been feeling crummy this past week. The weather has been beautfiul here so that is helpful. At least we're not feeling yucky with yucky weather to go along with it.

Healthy Dessert

I just made this really yummy but very healthy pear crisp that I got from world's healthiest foods site. It doesn't have any sugar or flour, I was impressed with how it turned out.
Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 4 d'anjou pears
• 3 cups water
• ¼ cup fresh lemon juice
• ½ cup apple juice, divided in half
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 2/3 cup almonds
• ½ cup raisins
• ½ cup rolled oats
• 1½ TBS chopped fresh ginger
• 1 TBS honey

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350.
   
2. Place water and lemon juice in bowl.
   
3. Cut pears into quarters, cut out core and slice ¼ inch thick. As you do this place the pear slices in water with lemon juice to keep from turning brown.
   
4. Drain and toss pears with cinnamon and ¼ cup of the apple juice.
   
5. Place almonds, oats, raisins and ginger in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until well ground and mixed. Place in a bowl and add honey and rest of apple juice. Mix well.
   
6. Place pears in an 8x8 baking dish and cover with topping. Bake for about 35 minutes until pears are bubbling.
   

Serves 4

Spring Forward

Turning our clocks one hour ahead is a hard adjustment because we still have to get up at 6am. Lately, I guess all of one day, I'm not tired until 10pm, which would normally be nine. But one nice thing is my boys are sleeping in until 8:30am-9am instead of 7:30-8am! We'll see how long that lasts before they adjust! So, Hawaii doesn't have daylight savings so when we move there will be a 3 hour time change to get used to! I hope that doesn't mean the boys will start waking at 5am!

Brief Update

We've been encoraged by to see God provide for us in many ways and show his faithfulness to us again and again. We are still preparing to move to Hawaii, thought the exact date is not set yet because we are waiting for our home to sell. We have sold two major items which is yet another confirmation that God is providing and leading us to Hawaii. We sold our expensive dining room table last week and we sold our car yesterday. These were two significant sales and now the third is our home. Please pray that God would provide a buyer for it. Once we sell our house we will, buy our tickets, have a moving sale for the rest of our stuff and give away what we don't sell and we'll be off. Our desire was to be out there by the end of March...so we'll continue to wait, pray and see how the Lord leads.

Please pray for Elijah too. He has a bad cold and I took him into urgent care yesterday just to get checked out and make sure it was nothing serious, which it's not, but he he has bronchiolitis, which is the same thing he had at a week old. But he has a runny nose, bad cough, and sounds wheezy. I have an inhaler I'm giving him every 4 hours, but if anyone has any home remedies or any advice please pass it along. He is happy and in good spirits overall so that is a blessing, but it's so hard when your baby is sick:(

I've learned my lesson!

I am convinced that it does not save time or money to take shortcuts, at least I have not learned how to make shortcuts work for me. I have had several frustrating situations in the last couple of weeks happen to me and I have resolved to not take shortcuts again (at least not any time soon).
Okay, so my husband was sick a week and a half ago and we went to the store to get some cold medicine. Well, I was comparing brands it seemed that buying the store brand would be just as good as the name brand, considering it had all the same ingredients. Well, this particular medicine had no affect at all on him, whether or not it just didn't work because it was not a name brand or I just bought the wrong stuff I'm not sure, but I have concluded that when it comes to medicine I'm not going to buy the store brand again. So, here I was trying to save us money by buying the cheaper stuff, but instead I ended up spending twice as much time and money when I had to go out the next evening and purchace another cold remedy for my husband (this time it worked).
Here is my other frustrating situation: A few nights ago I had to go to the store for a few groceries and diapers. I went to one store for the groceries and they also carry diapers but they were $1.50 more than I would normally pay and you got 8 less than I usually get. So, I decided was going to save $1.50 and get 8 more diapers by going to Walmart which was 2 minutes away. So, I drove over there and thought, hmm, I'll just park in the back of the store by the Walmart car shop (where they sell tires and work on the engine), and go in that entrance. This will save time driving around the store and trying to find a spot. It seemed like it would be much quicker going this way (which by the way is something I never do). So, I also had my 17 month old with me so I carried him in the store and didn't even get a cart, I'm going to be quick I thought. Well, I got the diapers then I remembered that I needed toilet paper too. So here I am carrying toilet paper (12 double rolls pack), a package of diapers and Moses. I let him walk some, but again, I was trying to be quick and things were getting heavy! So I made my way to the back of the store where I came in and when I got there the only register that is in the back was closed! I couldn't believe it! So, there I was with two big packages of diapers and toilet paper and Moses and no cart! I was overcome with grief and anger, I just dropped to my knees beside Moses and let my packages fall... Then when I realized that there were no employees around to see my dilemma, I "girded up my loins" so to speak and began the journey to the front of the store to check out. I was so angry at myself for the choices I made that brought me into Walmart to begin with. So, I carried my load down the aisle and around the corner and I can't even remember if I prayed or not, I was just so mad at how things were turning out, and the Lord in his goodness provided an empty cart just down the next aisle. I whispered a thank you Lord and piled in my goods, made my way to the U-scan and "quickly" paid for my items. I finally was able to head back to the rear of the store exit and back to the car. This whole ordeal took about 25 minutes or so. I was exhausted by now and I had also worn my most uncomfortable pair of shoes, certainly not made for walking! Oh, and then get this, when I got to Walmart, the diapers I usually buy were way up high on a shelf that I couldn't reach and there was no one around to ask for help. So after I waited for a few minutes, I decided to buy the next cheapest brand. So, I really only ended up saving like $.30 which by no means was worth the time and hassle that I ended up going through! Next time I'll take a hit at the other store, pay $1.50 more and get 8 less diapers all for the sake of preserving my sanity!

These two situations were very frustrating because I was trying to be a good steward of our money but it ended up backfiring in my face! I am learning that I need to just make sure I either do more research beforehand (like find out what is the best cold medicine to buy) and make a good purchace the first time so I won't end up spending twice as much to make up for poor planning or a bad buy.