| |
If you want to know what's been going on in our family, you've come to the right place. If you don't want to know, you better hit the "back" button on your browser right now! :-)
Besides the most current update, you can also go back and look at a few more updates - it could be a few month's worth, or it could span the course of a year, depending on how diligent I've been...
February 2008 Family Update
March 2008 Family Update
April 2008 Family Update
August 2008 Family Update
May 25, 2010 -
It's getting pretty late, but I have suddenly been hit with the desire to update The Nest so I'm going to take advantage of that and write for a few minutes before bed. I'll try to keep it short in case you're trying to get to bed as well.
The other night, Gary happened to go to my site and commented, "You haven't updated since August 2008?" Well, I had made a little update lately, to let people know I was in the process of changing the site...but of course that didn't impress him. (Of course, I wasn't impressed, either, by the fact that he hadn't checked my site in all that time of not updating it! :-)
Well, we've been just a little busy over the last year or so, but I feel like we're finally settling in and I just may be able to get back to updating more regularly. That's my intent, at least, but you know how that goes with busy moms...keep checking in, and send me an e-mail to get me going if the site sits idle too long.
On Labor Day we moved here to Allison, Iowa and Gary is now the pastor at Trinity Reformed Church. We love our new congregation. We're working on getting to know all of them (about 100 families in our church) and also branching out to get to know more people in the community (about 1,000 people live in Allison). We were happy at our church back in Chandler, Minnesota, but Gary definitely felt a prompting from God to look into the call here to Iowa and after quite a few months that call came. We know that God has led us here and we look forward to what the future holds.
That being said, I just have to mention that I never thought leaving a church would be so hard. We loved those people (still do) and shared so much of their lives for about five years. Now that we're in a new church, it's hard to know how to move on. I see friends on Facebook or hear about something happening back in Southwest Minnesota and I want to comment on their status or write someone a letter, but it just feels kind of strange. Whew, maybe I don't have it all figured out yet - and it's a little too complicated to ramble on about here... I just hope noone takes my silence as a sign that I don't care. I do care deeply and I guess God will make it clear when I need to comment or write or call.
With every move we've made I've met wonderful new people and I can't imagine my life without them. I already feel that way about this move - I am blessed by the people God has brought into our life.
Well, maybe these are the ramblings of a woman who should be in bed sleeping instead of trying to make some sense of her scattered thoughts. Let's move on to a little news about Gary and each of the kids before my head hits the pillow, okay?
Gary is enjoying ministry here. There is always something to do, but he keeps it all very well balanced most of the time. I'm enjoying his sermons and I know others are, too - it's always nice when someone lets him know that. He taught the high school Sunday School class this year and it went very well. We picked up a couple of used kayaks on Craig's list and he's looking forward to getting out on the river one of these days. He likes to ride bike about six miles down the bike trail to the Shell Rock River and then back again - it's a great ride!
Erin (17) is looking forward to staffing at Lost Timber Bible Camp this summer. She'll be there about five weeks - I know she's going to have a great time and be encouraged and strengthened in her faith. She's done a great job this year at North Butler High School. She was a little nervous about public school after being homeschooled for so many years, but she made the transition very well. For her birthday in October we bought personalized plates for the car she drives. It's a red Mercury Cougar that she named "Tucker". It took her about a week to see that we had snuck out and put on plates that said, "TUCKR22" but she was so excited when she finally noticed. The kids get out of school on Friday, May 28, so they just have a few days left. They're looking forward to a good summer.
Allison (15) passed Driver's Ed so she'll be able to get her license on June 2 when she turns sixteen. Her nickname in Driver's Ed was "Dangerous" so we may be waiting a little while longer to turn her loose without adult supervision. :-) She's doing fine, but we didn't give her too much practice behind the wheel yet - she needs more experience. She likes being able to say, "Hi, I'm Allison from Allison." (We tried not to be influenced too much by that in the call process.) Allie loves to write and she's been getting better and better at it. I'm going to have to hurry if I want to get a book published before she does. In November we challenged each other to do NaNoWriMo again and she ended up writing over 70,000 words in a novel that month (along with going to school, youth group, etc!).
Blake (13) just became a teenager today! We got him Super Mario Galaxy 2 (a Wii game) so he spent some time playing that tonight. He's been doing a good job in school, too. He's a little more quiet than the girls so he hasn't made lots of friends yet, but maybe over the summer he can get to know some that live around town. We live right on the East edge of Allison. Blake like to ride bike to school most days. He still likes Legos and playing games on the computer and the Wii. He's grown a lot over this year. Some friends stopped in to see us and they could hardly believe how tall he'd gotten!
Dylan (10) is also doing well in school. He had a good class this year. I went on Tuesday afternoons for a little while to help kids correct their math papers. It was really nice to get to know most of Dylan's class and help out in a small way. At home, Dylan loves to play on the computer and Wii. I'm hoping that he finds a few more things to do this summer. There's a pool in town and the bike trail goes by a nice park, so I'll have to kick him outside once in a while. I was thinking recently that it's really a miracle that we have had no trips to the emergency room with Dylan. He jumps off so many things - some of them so high! - I'm surprised he hasn't had any broken bones.
Well, that's a little about our recent activities. Maybe for the June update I'll back up a little and fill in some gaps between August 2008 and now. God has blessed us in so many ways over the years - and He continues to do so now. I pray that He's blessing each of you, too - if you're going through a rough time right now, try to remember that God loves you and He has a good plan for your life...you just might not see it as "good" until you get through it and gain some perspective in hindsight.
Blessings to you as you parent the children God has given you!
~Robyn
|
