Our Virtual Mission Trip

http://www.mypassporttoindia.org/

The kids and I have been taking a virtual mission trip to India. We will continue our journey for another few weeks, then we will send a donation, which will be matched dollar for dollar by Sonlight (our homeschool curriculum publishers). We are all very excited and I think every spare coin in the house has found its way into our donation box.

We watch a video twice a week and the kids have little passports with stickers, verses, and questions. We are learning a great deal about their culture and the money will go to send children to a Bible Club that they have in the villages. The Bible Clubs are an enjoyable place for the children to go, because they get to sing, learn a Bible story, and many families have been saved by their children coming home and telling them the love of Jesus. Some children are saved, and are still praying for their families to accept Christ.

We are visiting the city of Mumbai , which is the second largest city in the world. One slum in Mumbai has a million people in 1 square mile. I really cannot imagine! There is only 1 toilet for every 1 million people. It really puts things in perspective when we think we are "roughing it" right now, because we are sharing 1 bathroom (1 is still under renovation).

My kids are young, but I hope that they can see how much we really do have. The average income is $1 a day and we go spend $1 on something and really don't think anything about it. So, we are raising some money to send the children to the Bible Club. Every $1 will send one child.

So, if my children hit you up for money, don't blame me. They are quite excited about our mission trip and what we have learned and they are eager to help these children know about Jesus!

Another Room Done!

We are finally in our bedroom now after living here 6 weeks. It has been almost 6 months since I've had a chest of drawers or a closet to put my clothes. Doing laundry is one of my most loathed household tasks, but I gleefully put away clothes in my bedroom this afternoon. I don't think I've ever been so excited to do laundry in my life. It just felt so nice to have things normal and no more digging through boxes or laundry baskets to find what we need. I guess I never realized how much you can take those little things for granted and to be thankful for them.

We ended up with Jamie's Granny's bedroom suit, which just made the room complete. I love a bed with tall posts. At some point, we'll update the knobs on the dressers, but that is not a priority right now. The bed felt very tall last night since we have had our mattress/foundation on the floor now since we moved.

I love how it turned out and can't wait (again!) to get the pictures on the walls to make everything complete, but here is the (almost) finished product.

Before:




After:

The hallway bathroom is next. I just need to do the floors is there, but it'll be so nice to have my nice big "girly" bathroom back! I swear, sharing a teeny tiny bathroom with 5 other people is not fun. I don't even have room on the counter top for my Chi flat iron...that is down right blasphemous! Soon...very soon!!!

I'm still just so thankful for the blessings that God has given us! 6 months ago, I never would have imagined!

Lessons I've learned the Past 6 Weeks

• It is amazing the amount of paint you can use out of a seemingly empty paint can.
• I'm the messiest painter ever. I get it all over my legs, arms, hands, and even hair on occasion.
• Carpet is a disgusting invention!
• Wallpaper is from the devil!!!
• You can do a lot even on a little budget if you put in the time, effort, and creativity.
• Updating a home is a neat thing to see.
• Making my first mortgage payment made it more "real" and wasn't even scary!
• New dryers and old homes make you have to pay an electrician.
• Polyurethane actually smells better than stain, but both will make your clothes dryer emit a kerosene smell (we had to google that one).
• Sharing a teeny tiny bathroom with hardly any counter space with 5 other people is NOT fun.
• Church can be exactly like you envisioned it should be.
• The harder you try to forget, the more you seem to remember.
• My kids are flexible and wonderful.
• My husband is amazing to be able to work more than 40 hours a week, give us his time and attention, and work on his Master's full time...I don't know how he is doing it!
• I have a lot more patience than I realized.
• I can live among disorganization and still be happy.
• God has revealed a lot to me.
• Having a fenced in yard is a huge blessing!
• We CAN make it on a smaller income when God is in control!!!!
• Homeschooling can be hard work, but it is fostering qualities, skills, and knowledge in my children that is irreplaceable and I'm completely "sold" on the idea of homeschooling them through high school.
  
• I am not good at remembering all these new names that have been thrown at us.
• It is OK to make mistakes and have to come back and re-do them.
• God is forever taking care of us and I'm simply amazed at his patience and faithfulness.
• I'll never understand everything, but I can let go of it and let God deal with it and move on. Even if I'll never forget.
  

I think I can, I think I can...

That is what I keep telling myself anyways. I know this house will be finished at some point. Right? We will be in our bedroom again this weekend. I'm currently working on the hallway bathroom and it should be completed in the next week. I think we've made a million trips to Lowes and Wal-Mart already and we aren't even halfway through.

I love the end results though and all the rooms that are complete feel so cozy and nice already. Next week, we are taking a break from painting and floors and I'm going to focus on getting things organized into our bedrooms.

This week, we are taking a fall break from homeschool and my kids have lived outdoors 90% of the day. We are loving this weather and I'm so thankful for a fenced yard! Tonight my 3 oldest children are attending their first church lock-in. How did they get so big? Chloe has already said that she will not be sleeping in that room by herself, so I guess she'll be camping out with us. So, it'll be quiet around the Hughes house tonight after church.

I just have to tell myself that we WILL see an end to all this madness though. Sometimes, as I'm painting, I think, "didn't I just do this?" Our goal is to be finished by Christmas. I really think it'll be more like January though, because I will need to Christmas shop at some point I suppose.

Oh, and on another entirely different note. Chloe was in there taking a bath the other night and was singing at the top of her lungs, "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun". I chuckled a bit, but dared not disturb her as she would have stopped and I wanted to hear her sing. How great is it being a mother and getting to enjoy all these little moments in life. You have to admit, there isn't anything much funnier than a 4 year old singing her rendition of "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" in the bathtub at the top of her lungs with only the words of the chorus being right.