We're Back! Back in Oregon that is...

So, here’s the black and white of it all:  We are in Oregon once again…  Not sure if we’re Oregonian, Alaskan or Alaskantonian.  I think we’ll go with Alaskantonian…  

Approx. a year ago, in Alaska, we owned nothing but books, beds, clothes, kitchenware, and a few pieces of furniture that had been left behind in approx. a 900 sq ft. house.  Did I mention books?  Books in boxes, books on shelves, books under the beds, beside the beds, around the beds, etc. because really all the room we had in there was covered by beds, boxes, and more books!  And, yes, just for the record, I went willingly and happily……at certain times.  Ahem.

Anyways…. Did I mention subzero arctic temperatures?  Oh yes, pregnancy, morning sickness, 4^th move of the year and so on and so forth.  Oh and let’s not forget about a bunch of bad attitudes about how life wasn’t going, as usual, as expected.  Ha ha, God must have been laughing again, with us, not at us, you see…. I’m pretty sure…

Psalm 68:19, "Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation."

Well, here we sit, with 2 homes in Alaska, 1 in Oregon, and a school house and a gym.  Life sure goes up and down for us on a regular basis; I hear it’s normal for everyone.  Even when we think we have nothing, we have everything in Christ Jesus.  The times we have much, much will be expected.

We have lots of hopes, dreams, and ideas.  How many of them are for here, there, or in the air?  If you bump into us on the phone, internet, or person, we apologize in advance for all the bubbling that may tumble out onto you.  We can’t help it, God is so good, so good you see.   

We will bubble in Alaska, we will bubble here at home, we will bubble wherever we may roam.  We will bubble full of hopes and dreams, sorry if we flood your own group or team, we’re just a bubbling at the seams.  If we try to be quiet, we’ll eventually come a bubbling right up over the top.  It’s not that we’re dam busters, we’re not.  It just doesn’t stop, you see, ever flowing, ever rippling, we’re free!  Please forgive us and all our bubbles.  We need help….will you help us make some goals and a plan?  It’s never been our strong point you see, or we’d be a lake, bridge, or dam.  We’re pretty sure God intended for us to just continue rippling with His love and power, ever flowing to the sea. 

So, get to the point, you people think, and we say, we’re not sure what that is other than to praise and glorify God with all the strength we’ve got.  Which sometimes isn’t much but it doesn’t seem to matter.  We’ll just keep trying to do the best we can with the assignment set before us:  to love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, and our neighbor as ourselves. 

As we’ve best interpreted that assignment for our little family unit, it looks like this:

1.        Go to a Marriage conference every year for the rest of our lives.  We went to our first one last Saturday and came away with so many great tools for clear and loving communication.  We watched a video series by Gary Chapman, author of "The 5 Love Languages."  Here's a website link:  http://www.5lovelanguages.com/   Marriage is our first ministry.

2.       Go to a Homeschooling conference every year for the rest of our lives, just kidding, but seriously, continuing in our efforts to home school and reach out to those around us as they educate their children in the best way they know how.

3.       Continue posting on this blog in order to share what we’ve been learning and how we’ve been growing.  Our goal here is to encourage and inspire and build up the body of Christ.

  We hope to keep our eyes and ears open to the needs of others around us…  we want to use this home, school house, and gymnasium for God’s work, His way, the best we know how with the skills, gifts and talents He’s given us.