make disciples of all nations
Nearly a year after listing our home for sale, it's finally sold.
You know, I wasn't really happy about that. Now that its been over a year after writing "How to Stage Your Home to Sell" and "5 Ways to Advertise Your FSBO Home", I wanted to do a follow up post. You can read about the 7 things I learned while on this journey on the Homemaker's Challenge today.
Yep, it was supposed to be today. Per the sellers request for extended time to move out, we should have been spending our first night in our new home tonight. But we got to move in early. It was supposed to be Tuesday, per my request- after the carpets where stretched and cleaned Monday, then allowed time to dry completely. We would also have had time to paint both bedrooms, clean the entire new house before anything came in, as well as do all that packing I hadn't done in the old house. You know, just simple logical, OCD mamma, organized planner kind of stuff. But nope.
Sunday, we left for the valley that morning, knowing the women had pulled away from the house for good the day before. We had already started the fence {entirely another post, lol} and painted Jamin's room. We planned to take naps at Nanna's around the corner and let the boys start painting rooms while we waited another day or so to hear about where the new fence was allowed to go.
Sunday afternoon, we ate at the local Mexican restaurant with tons of friends and I left there to show our new home to an out-of-town friends. Matt went to put the kids down and when he showed up to the new house all gitty, he decided we were moving that night....
No matter how I tried to joke about the stress that would come from this rash decision, I left the new house, heading to our borrowed house with friends to pack. Don't get me wrong. I like the idea of being able to Finally stay in the home we'd been searching for over a year. I liked the idea of sleeping in the home we just bought. I liked that we would be there the next day to work on cleaning, painting, building, etc. So why was I stressed?
I don't do well making quick decisions. I'm a planner. I had to go to the house and figure out what I needed to camp out as a prego, with 3 little bitty kids, a hubby who would have multiple helpers over, and for an undisclosed amount of time before we would go back to the house before the BIG Saturday move. Oh, then I had to give direction to friends who were helping me pack. My brain was mush. My body was mush.
In about 2.5 hours, my friends packed everything left in my house. I packed 1 giant bag of essential {minus the adult toothpaste & Matt's contact holder}. We loaded 3 vehicles and a truck with boxes, bags, bedding, and mattresses. It Was Nuts.
After unloading all this stuff at the new house I went with our summer intern to get Chinese food in town. Yep. Then I went to bed...on the mattress on the floor. We woke to a hearty breakfast of cereal & water. I forgot the fridge stuff too...
The past few days have been spent few days running back to the house for things we forgot, randomness from the store(s), painting, cleaning, unpacking, organizing, playing, and just enjoying our awesome new home. I'm wooped. I missed 2 post deadlines. I'm behind on my VA stuff. And I skipped valley groups with my sad, sleepy little boy and our awesome artist who was working on J's room. {More on that later, too} So, tonight...I'm eating chips in my bed typing this, waitng for my hubs to return. I'm thinking I should have sat on his side of bed to eat these crubling chips. LOL Oh well, night night. Even with crumbs in the bed. At least its off the floor now. 😉
NOTE: I wouldn't change all this stress and tiredness for being unsubmissive and brazenly mouthy. Although I did explain all these stresses to the hubs after my lil poutifest, I completely trust his decisions for our family!
Last month I shared some general statements of encouragement for new ministers' wives. This month I want to share a few more that relate directly to that beautiful relationship between husband and wife. Here goes...
I feel like all I do on here now is give random update posts.
Sorry, here's another one.
I hope this absence is encouraging for you and energizing/inspiring for me.
I am apparently a wuss when it comes to pregnancy. It turns me into an exhausted introvert. I mean, a side from the normal, "I'm growing a baby and its tiring" I have dealt with more nausea and vomiting in this pregnancy than any other. I'm not sure if its going away either...Scary!
On tops of that, I have a heart murmur which apparently cause my irregular heart palpitations to be significantly heightened during pregnancy. What the smack does that mean? If I suddenly feel I'm not going to vomit for the next few minutes, I get up, walk across the room to do some sporadic cleaning, laundry, showing, etc then about 5 minutes in, I feel like my heart is going to explode, I can't catch my breath and I need to sit lay down pass out somewhere.
Then, there are these little people who want me to feed them. Play with them. Utter words of guidance rather than just give them a look when they are making bad choices. Words. Those take energy. Aside from the adorable little munchkins, there are friends whom I want to hang out with. I head to the valley for services and by the time I get there all my energy has been spent showering, talking to children, and getting car sick on the 30 minute commute. Socializing is the furthest thing from my mind. That sucks! I LIKE people. Before babies, I think I used to be known as a fun energetic, sociable person who was a productive citizen. Now? Lethargic, grumpy, dazed pregger...
So, back to the "What have you been doing other than feeling sick & tired while lying around your dirty house?"
The process of making an offer, signing papers, patiently waiting has gone both fast and slow. I feel like I just got to take a deep breath now that I know we are finally going to be moving to THE FIELD. Where to now?
During all this "down time", I have been dreaming of projects I'd like to start on. If 2nd trimester ends up being my relief months, then I will be going full throttle at them. This is where it should be exciting for you: MORE TUTORIALS! Some of the things I like to get to are:
Bwahahahahahahahaha
Yeah, I should really get to this one... I have some boxes. I just hate putting stuff in them. Don't know where to start. And I'm not sure I have enough for all the stuff that needs to go in boxes.
Thanks for letting me share! Now, lets see how much of this I can actually get done.
BTW: if you wanna follow the Rothacher life on Instagram, you can request to follow me: @JULESROTHACHER.
The other day, the hubs and I went to the marvelous Chick-Fil-A with our littles. We are still working off “hot-spots” on our phones which means, my part-time job(s) involving nothing but the net suck through our media packages leaving those jobs paying for nothing but the overage charges on the phone bill. Hence the family outing to “chick a lay” for a coke, playground, and the beloved wi-fi!
God had more in mind for us than me getting some work done online. While we were there we encountered several families/friends that we don’t always run into.
Local Ministry Friend
A guy Matt knew from Walnut Ridge, a staffer I met at Super Summer, a dude that is so sweet to keep up with us and our ministry.
Local Recently Engaged Friends from another church
No longer attending the church that helped us launch is weird. We’re not sure who want to stay in contact with us and definitely don’t want to push relationships so people don’t think we expect them to go with us. This couple and their adorable twins are always willing to say hi. So comforting! And we were so excited to tell them congrats!
Out-of-town Family Friends
A fun family we were friends with over 3 years ago and 3+ hours away strolled into “our” Chick-Fil-A. WHAT? This was the family I used to babysit for before/while I was pregnant with Maggie {THAT long ago}. We are so excited to know we are on the vacation path for them and will be a stop on their trips!
{Apparently} Local Friend from High School
This is the one I really don't wanna talk about. I have a feeling I’m not the only one who does this though…that is the Only reason I’m sharing this. You know my goal is to live realness out here in this mystical, seemingly perfect, online world. You know that and make everyone else feel better about themselves 😉
We had just paraded walked in with our littles and headed straight to a back table near the glass window to the playground and right next to the door as to keep an eye on our babes and catch any escape attempts. As soon as the kids had been herded into the playground, removed shoes, and heard the ground rules, I returned to our table and pulled out my laptop to get to work. There’s minimal time before the captives realize, although the cage looks kid friendly & colorful, it is still nothing more than just that…a cage. So, click click click I went.
The first glance up through the glass window to check on my talker who had engaged in serious conversation with the unsuspecting adult who’d placed himself inside the cage, my eyes wandered past the 5-year-old and out the window where people were enjoying the oddly beautiful summer weather on the patio.
“I know her…” I thought as I caught myself staring at girl relaxing and munching on chicken yumminess. I quickly shot my gaze another direction as to not be the weirdo creeping from 2 sets of windows away. I wasn’t quite sure if I really knew her…I have a Terrible memory. Just ask my husband. Wait. Don’t do that; it's just embarrassing.
I couldn’t help myself, every time I went to double-check the littles, my eyes wandered outside. I searched my sad lil memory for a name. Normally I have an awful time not only remembering names but where I know them from. Just hours before I stared at another women, even asking Matt, “How do we know her!?!” This time, I was pretty sure this girl and I had attended high school together. This was a rare and odd occurrence for me. For the last decade {all the years following HS}, I’ve lived a minimum of 4 hours away from my home town. Even when visiting over holidays, I see classmates and can’t recall names.
Worse than that, I am shy…I guess. I never thought of myself as shy but when I see these peers, I most often smile and run the other way. I’m terrified that they won’t know me or if they do, they won’t want to say hello. Maybe it’s just simply insecurity. I can’t remember what kind of relationship we had in high school and I’m pretty sure I was a completely different person then than I am now. Was I a tool to them? A hypocrite? A Pharisee? I once blushed when in Wal-Mart with my mom and an old friend saw me and hugged me…more than once. What is that?
I’m a people watcher. An observer. I’ve always sat on the outside watching {and taking pictures of} things in their natural habitats.. {Hello psychology degree} BUT because of this, I’m never sure how much I knew about people because we had a relationship or because I observed things. {Please don’t be creeped out and run away…}
Wow, that was a really long explanation to say…I didn’t wave, say hi, or go out to visit. I was so worried she would have no idea who I was or care if she did. I did what every sane, not creepy person does. I searched my FB friends. I found her. It was the girl I remembered. She was/is a sweet Christian girl who apparently went to college her in our new town and has called this home ever since, working at the local school. Why didn’t I just wave?
While I had different levels of this tendencies with each of the people we encountered that night, I think the insecurity level of when/where I knew those people from came flaring back. Odd.
Do you have these tendencies of insecurity leading to an outward persona of snot? I told myself when I got a FB that I wasn’t going to live behind insecurity. I was going to “friend” anyone I recognized from high school and start over. I wouldn’t assume they thought I was odd or uncool. Well, the “friending” happened but the interaction didn’t . I’ve fallen back into this state of hiding. That’s no way to live a life for Christ; making disciples will not happen with me hunkered down in my house behind my computer screen. This year is supposed to be purposeful! Insecurity is a HUGE opposition to a purpose filled life. I'll just keep truch’n I guess.
The Valley Church was planted on Easter 2013. Our church was NOT destroyed by the tornado because the church is a people not a building. Our meeting space may be gone but we will continue to be a light for Jesus in this community!
Clicking the image above will take you to our fundraising site. 
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