Family Times

Since December, I have been at home, trying to carve out my new path, and I have been keeping pretty busy!

I decided to become a substitute teacher since it is a great, flexible way to earn some money.  I began the process over Christmas break and finally completed my final step last week, just before spring break.  I am looking forward to finally getting into a classroom; hopefully I'll be able to get over my nerves after I sub the first couple of times.  

Also, as I've mentioned in my previous posts, I'm also starting a small business.  I have been working a lot on developing the foundation of the business and am ready to just start working, but I know I have to slow down and start if off right so it can have a chance to succeed.

I've also been doing some babysitting before and after school, which has been a lot of fun.  And as an added bonus, my kids love having their friends over all the time.

I have been slacking on my organizational projects around the house but I think I've been bitten by the spring cleaning bug because I'm ramping up and getting my supplies and my lists ready to do some serious purging and deep cleaning.  If you've been reading this blog for a while, you probably saw my post on the Garage Embarrassment - I had to temporarily take down that post because of some missing images that I need to fix.  Well, we clean out our garage twice per year and it always ends up looking like it did before.  Last fall, we did some more purging and reorganizing of the garage and it started to look really good but since then, things have just been dumped in there again.  So, my goal for this spring is to finish that purge that we started last fall and start using all of the tool storage units that we have.  Tools have always been a big issue in our garage so hopefully once that's under control, it will be a little easier to keep it organized.  (Pray for us on this - it's been a struggle in such a tight space; the garage is our only storage and we don't like just getting rid of stuff but keeping it all hasn't been beneficial for our sanity, either.)

Also, I have felt the HUGE RELIEF of stress since I haven't been working and we've actually been able to spend more quality family time over the past few months.  Our kids are at a great age right now because we can finally all play a game together, take a walk around our neighborhood, or participate in an activity like mini golf.  Here are some images of our family fun over the past few months:

This final picture of the five of us was taken for the website of the new church where Greg has just been hired to be the Children's Ministry Director! We are so thankful and excited for this new chapter and acknowledge that God's hand has been directing us and guiding us throughout the past two years, the hardest time of our lives to this point.  God is faithful and His love for us never quits!