Well...

How is it that two months have gotten away from me since I last posted?!  All I have to say for myself is that it has been extremely busy around here, and there are many changes taking place.
We are MOVING! We had been somewhat prepared that this would be happening, but it still came as a bit of a shock as well (or maybe I should just say it is a bit surreal). We had been feeling like God was calling us to somewhere different, but we had no clarity on where or when or how or even why. Then.... "everything" started happening. Brad was laid off from his job (praise God that He had given Brad a "heads-up"). After sending out several resumes and applying to several jobs, he was offered a job in Oklahoma....definitely a God story all by itself.
And So...we are moving from our home of 10 years. It is a bit hard on the kiddos. They have all taken root and grown up here through those years. Our family has grown... we started with 3 little boys and we are now blessed with 4 more children. It is challenging this mom to say the least! Sorting, clearing and packing up the belongings of a family of 9 is quite the task. We are making repairs on the house, cleaning and putting it up for sale. Did I mention that Brad has already left the previous job and begun work at the new one. He is rocking it .... driving 4 hours a day, working 8 hours, and coming home to maintenance, updating plumbing, and making the repairs needed to get this home ready for sale.... not to mention, still being dad to 7 kiddos who demand and need his time  He has even found bits of time for us to take a date-night here and there. He is definitely my "Mr. Incredible"! 
 I am so grateful to friends from near and far who have come and worked so hard to help us. Special thanks to Mr. Clayton, Mrs.Connie and the K-krew for taking time out of their Spring Break to come help us get the homestead ready. Wow, the work that got done was amazing, and the time of fellowship we shared was even more so. Thanks to ladies from our church family who have come out to help me paint. We are blown away by their serving hearts and their love for our family.
  Of course, all of these changes make our children from hard places have stress and anxiety. We continue to keep open communication with all the kids but especially with those who seem to struggle more with change. Most of the kiddos are accepting that the move is inevitable, and everyone is trying to view our upcoming changes with a sense of adventure. We have traveled a few times to "check out" areas where our new home could potentially be, and the kiddos are finding positive things about the new state, town and place. We are trying our best to balance the work load and family time, trying to keep things as much the same as possible for the kids until the house sells. The "girlie" girls have 2 more months of dance and an upcoming recital to look forward too. Baseball season is upon us; however, we are not quite as involved with that this season as in the past. We had to shave a few things as we don't know an official move date yet. We do have a certain young baseball player who is playing with his team from last year at area baseball tournaments. He would have been so disappointed if he couldn't have played at least some this year (he loves baseball beyond words). We are still trying our best to keep our homeschooling on schedule. I am so thankful that I kept pushing the kids to complete extra skills and work. We have had to take several days off in order to complete projects and preparing the house to sell. More than likely we will be doing a bit of schooling this summer to complete the year, but it will give the kids something to do in what I refer to as the "boring"(their word, not mine!) parts of summer. 
   All in all...we are managing. We are just busy and going all the time. My days are full, and I fall into bed each night with little energy to do much else (hence, the lack of blog posts); however, I am renewed each morning and my strength comes from Jesus. I am so very blessed, and I would not know what to do if I weren't serving my family and glorifying God. He has given me my hearts desire of being a wife to my wonderful hubby and a mother to my many. He is stronger than any of my challenges...Oh Praise Him... hallelujah!!
    I will do my best to update as our move progresses, and as always it is my hope to continue to blog as often as possible. I hope that I still have a few followers left our there in bloggy world. Until next time...