In Dallas

I know, I haven’t blogged in forever.  A lot has been happening.  Last weekend I flew down to Dallas, Texas to help my Sister recover from major emergency surgery.  I am happy to report that she is doing better every day.

She can stand up straight now!

She loaded the dishwasher this morning.

We are at the mall and are going to the Arboretum later to listen to the symphony.

Last night, we went out to eat with friends.

She can scamper across the room when she hears The Kid has texted her.

She can carry her purse.

We’ve been having a blast just hanging out, talking, cooking, watching tons of movies, going on short walks, sitting by the pool, reading, and just over-all recovering.

Tomorrow night, I fly back to Oswego to continue looking for jobs.  As much as this has been “just what the doctor ordered” for Sister, it has been quite refreshing for me to just relax and spend time with family after we experienced almost every single major life change in a matter of two weeks.

Last Menus

About 8 weeks ago, I took stock of my cupboards and refrigerator, pulled out my cookbooks, and printed off enough menu templates to last until we moved.  I filled in each meal, attempting to use up as many of my perishables as possible.

I just pulled out the menu for the last two weeks of our life here in Chicago.  Tonight I will write my shopping list for any other little things we might need in the next two weeks, and tomorrow I will pack up my cloth shopping bags and hop into the car with Cassidy and Anna for our very last bi-weekly communal shopping trip.

*sigh* It’s all very sobering.  I intend to soak up every minute of it.

Down to the Wire

My friends, two weeks from tomorrow, we will be moving all of our worldly possessions out of the snug little apartment that has been our home for 3 1/2 years.  It’s a bittersweet thought.  But right now, there’s mostly not time for thinking.

We’re “getting down to the wire,” as my friend Cassidy would say.  I have yet to start packing, since I’m not sure where I would put boxes if we actually wanted to still be able to move around for the next couple of weeks.  So instead, I am throwing myself into my studies with a fury, attempting to have all squared away by the end of this week, with only a few lose ends (like studying for 2 finals!) to tie up in the following days.

Last week, my house was super clean.  I’d come home from class every day, plug in one of the Novacam Saga, and whip around the apartment, making beds, tidying, doing dishes, vacuuming.  I can hardly function with a mess.  However, this week, my priorities have switched, and I come home, plop down on the couch, and type at a paper for two hours before I realize in a panic that it’s already 5:30 and I haven’t started dinner yet.  There is stuff all over the house, dishes next to the sink, and my bed hasn’t been made all week.  I am falling into despair, but I am so sick of homework, everything in me is just screaming “Get it done!!”  So that’s what I’m doing.

Thankfully, Stephen has been helping me out with the house a lot. He did the dishes twice yesterday (and now there’s more), and he changed the lightbulbs in the kitchen and cleaned the tub out.  I don’t know what I’d do without him.

We’re on the home stretch!

Skipping Class to Apply for Jobs

This morning I woke up early and skipped my first class so I could graze the countryside around Oswego for anyone who might want to hire Stephen or me.  I am extra motivated/anxious right now because we have found two duplexes in Yorkville in our price range with laundry room, dishwasher (well, one of them does. I want that one), and YARDS!! The one (with the dishwasher) is surrounded by fields.  Yes, please.

I really want to move to Yorkville.  Everyone there seems super nice.  As we have known we would love to be in Yorkville for awhile, I finally stopped looking in all those booming suburbian areas (Naperville, Aurora, Wheaton) for jobs since no one there wants to hire us anyway.  I googled Yorkville, zoomed out, and took note of all the little surrounding communities.  Teaching assistant or substitute teaching is sounding really good to me right now, so I’m doing all the research on all the little country school districts to find out what it takes to obtain that certificate, and if they need me.

Also interesting could be an office assistant at a farm in Oswego.  That could be fun.

I also googled social work positions and Yorkville has a lot of options! Food pantries, Salvation Armies, Youth centers, etc.  I will be making a lot of phone calls today.

Moving Sale=Success!

I know it may sound silly, but I prayed about this moving sale for weeks beforehand.  Stephen and I have been so burdened lately about how much we have, and how much others are in need, and a few weeks ago we went through all our stuff and got rid of about half of it.

But us getting rid of our stuff didn’t actually put it in the hands of anyone in need, so we were pretty much where we started (except I was WAY happier because I am a minimalist who married a hoarder and am loving the extra space:-).  We tossed around various ideas about how to either get our clothes and books into the hands of those who needed them or turn our stuff into cash to fund someone who was needy.

The idea of a moving sale, with proceeds going to a missions agency, seemed the best solution.  So I prayed and prayed that God would bring people (to PLEASE take our stuff!) and that he would burden their hearts to give generously to the missions need.

Minutes after 7:00, 8 people showed up, browsed through our stuff, and promptly left.  I was definitely feeling a little hopeless when Richmond walked in, put down his backpack, and began thoroughly looking through each pile, asking us about each item and why we were getting rid of it.

Little by little, his story came out.  Here at MBI from Uganda, he is returning to his country in 7 weeks to minister to his fellow pastors.  He spoke of the immense physical need of these pastors, explaining that there is no currency system away from the cities, and pastors cannot care for their families needs with gifts of bananas.  They cannot pay their medical bills or put shoes on their children’s feet. And then turned to the stacks of clothes and held out his arms.

“Oh, all these clothes! How I would love to be able to take all these clothes back for the pastors families!”

Stephen and I looked at each other.  At that moment, I knew that Richmond was the answer to my many weeks of prayers.  We implored him to take all of the clothes–that is what we originally wanted, we simply didn’t know how!  Stephen ran into the bedroom and began pulling things out of his drawers and asking, “Do they need sweats? Socks? What about ties?”  Richmond would answer with “They just need anything to cover them.”

When he brought out some suit coats and looked at Richmond with questions in his eyes, Richmond broke out in a joyous laughter, clapping his hands and nearly crying.  “Yes, yes! They will love those! Oh, they love to be able to dress up!”

The joy on his face was enough for Stephen and I as we loaded up garbage bags with clothes and shoes.  We asked more about Uganda, eager to hear of our brothers and sisters there.  He told us of their desperate desire for Bibles.  “Before I came,” he said, “The pastors said ‘Do not forget to bring us back Bibles!’”

I jumped up. “Oh! I forgot! We have a whole shelf full of Bibles I was going to bring out.”

Stephen disappeared into the bedroom again and came back with a stack of Bibles.  Richmond’s face was shining, and our hearts were overflowing.  What a wonderful thing to be able to give out of our abundance to God’s people who are in need!  Can you imagine people begging for Bibles?? If you are reading this and you have extra Bibles in your home, please let us know so we can get them to Uganda for these pastors!  (He said their favorite translation is NIV, but anything is better than nothing!).

It’s almost 10 now, and much of our stuff is gone.  We’ll figure out what to do with the rest of it later.  Right now, I’m just basking in God’s goodness to send Richmond to us to take our excess and bless His children.  God is good!

Moving Sale

This is it, folks. We really are moving! The countdown is now at five weeks–and we have a place to live! Our dear friends, Charles and Karla, have offered their home as a place of solace until we find our own “House of Dreams” and jobs to pay for it:-)

Until then, the race is on to finish school and get packed up. To aid that end, we have gone through all of our stuff and whittled it down to only what is necessary. The rest, we are selling tonight at an “Open House” sale. If you’re in the area between 7 and 9, drop in and take some stuff off our hands:-)

All in a Day’s Work

Saturday was a day that we had a lot of work to get done around my parents’ house.  Our main goals were to spread manure (ask Dad), order a media console for the the family room, and get Mom and Dad’s bedroom painted.  Our day, however, did not go exactly as planned. It went a little something like this:

“Though the fig tree should not blossom and there be no fruit on the vines,  Though the yield of the olive should fail and the fields produce no food, Though the flock should be cut off from the fold and there be no cattle in the stalls…”

* Everyone goes to bed feeling lousy, less Ashley-Nicole and Mom
* Ashley-Nicole wakes up sick
* Dad gets the tractor stuck in the waterlogged field
* The truck will not start for Dad to pull the tractor out—twice
* While trying to pull him out, Andrew winds up covered in mud and is forced to wear Dad’s clothes for the rest of the day. They are slightly too large
* The first two coats of paint in the bedroom don’t adequately cover
* We run out of paint
* Mom puts 6 oz. too many frozen strawberries in Laura’s birthday cake batter
* The cake falls
* The cake falls out on the counter. In clumps.
* Menards mixes us the wrong color of paint
* We discover this AFTER we arrive back home
* Ashley-Nicole and Laura are banned from the painting room while the boys paint behind the doors and are made to find something else constructive to do
* As Mom drives to Mendards to exchange the paint, the entire gallon spills all over the floor of the van
* After an hour of scrubbing, the carpet is given up for lost
* Mom has no cheddar cheese or garlic powder for the Red Lobster Biscuits

“…Yet I will exult in the Lord, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.” Habakkuk 3:17-18

* It is a lovely morning, sun shining, 60*
* Dad’s “spreading of manure” in the pasture goes faster than ever. He expects to be done in record time
* We finally choose and order a beautiful TV console for the newly remodeled family room
* The bedroom is done being painted and is beautiful! (the trim has yet to be painted, but hey)
* Mom sings praise songs on the way to Menards (before the paint spills)
* She is not all that far from home yet when the paint spills
* The girls, since being banned from the painting room, have nothing better to do than help scoop paint from the floor of the van
* The van needed new carpet anyway:-)
* Ashley-Nicole salvages the cake beautifully
* We create a new biscuit recipe and it’s to die for
* Laura’s birthday celebration is delightful
* Dad wins the Dread Pirate game

Needed: One Temporary Barista

Stephen returned from Spring Break with something akin to Influenza, and I have been trying to nurse him back to health as quickly as possible, not only for his sake, but for mine.

I have had to learn how to make my morning coffee by myself.  It’s been two days now, and so far both days have failed.  Yesterday was no fault of my own.  We had no creamer–and I didn’t realize this until after I had brewed the pot.  And I can NOT drink coffee without creamer.  But I brewed a pot of coffee successfully, so that’s something, right?

This morning I screwed the lid on to just where Stephen told me and pushed “on.”  I went into the living room to do my physical therapy and within minutes heard the coffee pot making its thunder-like sounds.  But it sounded odd.  Meh, I probably just don’t know what coffee brewing sounds like, I thought to myself.

But then I heard it. Drip, drip, drip.  And this dripping was not the sound of dripping into the coffee pot.  I ran into the kitchen.  My fears were confirmed.  Something had obviously gone wrong with the lid because there was coffee nearly pouring out of the coffee pot, onto the counter, and down onto the floor behind the counter.

I grabbed a handful of paper towels and began mopping it up.  But having no idea how coffee makers work, I didn’t know how to stop the source of the flow, so it just kept coming.  I yanked the pot off, fixed the lid, wiped up the waterfall that had accumulated, and placed the pot back under the thingey (see, I don’t even know what it is called).  A steady and healthy sounding dripping resumed. I breathed a sigh of relief and continued to wipe up the mess.

But then I wanted some coffee, so I poured some (quickly pulling it out of the stream) put the lid back on, and put it back.  Within seconds, the counter was refilling with coffee.  I obviously don’t know how to put a lid on.

A few hundred paper towels later, I unplugged the thing, opened it up, and let the rest of it drip into the trash can for lack of any better option.  Frustrated that so much of my morning had been consumed already by cleaning and re-cleaning up spilled coffee, I left the rest to worry about later.

I want Stephen back.

First Broken Glass

I just had to write and say this morning I broke a glass for the first time in over 3 years of marriage.  It’s a sad day in the Willcox household.

On a more positive note, although I am fighting the sickness that everyone (Laura, Brother, Dad, Stephen, Sister?–how ya feelin’ Mom?) has, I am feeling quite invigorated after a fantastic and refreshing vacation, about which stories and pictures will follow:-)

Off to classes again!

Spoken Too Soon

I guess I posted that last one too soon.  Last night I caught another cold. I quit.