Blessings among the trials and chaos of life

I'm back! What a week it has been. A week ago today (the hottest day of the year, at 108) a moving van pulled up to our house in Conway. Mike stayed to watch the movers, and I put the 3 girls in the van and drove down to Magnolia. We had a good drive down, in spite of the fact that I wouldn't let them bring the portable DVD player! I had printed a list of travel questions from the Cranium website, and they answered them all, and sang and laughed, and acted like the hills on the 2-lane highway were roller coasters, and discovered heat wave mirages on the road. We drove straight to the schools, and got everyone registered and looked around a bit, checked in at our hotel, then went to our new house, where we discovered the air conditioner wasn't working. {H O T} We had to stick around for an hour while the bug man sprayed. While we were there I drained the water out of the cooler that had all our fridge food in it, then added a new bag of ice...discovered the next day that I forgot to close it back up. oops. Then we went to Pizza Hut for supper. I was sitting there thinking, man, I'm still hot. Then I noticed the air conditioner repair truck in the parking lot--I told the waitress sorry-but we're leaving. We went back to the hotel and ordered pizza to the nice cold room, then went swimming. Rebecca had her arm floaties on, and was in the shallow end, while I played "baby cradle" with Jessica in the deeper part, about 12 feet away. .
I looked at Jessica, then looked back at Rebecca, and she had her floaties off and was in water over her head, eyes wide open, flailing about. I got to her as quick as I could and pulled her up--she had held her breath the whole time! Praise the Lord. She wasn't nearly as upset as her sisters and I. She got right back in after that and played red light/green light with them. Sigh.

The next day the truck brought our furniture and boxes, and we got to start getting our house in order. It's always fun opening the boxes and unwrapping the paper to see what's in it. Some of the toys had been in boxes since we moved into a duplex in Idaho 19 months ago--it was like Christmas!
I've got all 3 girls' rooms box-free and set up now, and I think they look cute. I still need to finish our room and unpack a bunch of boxes of books. We have so many books. We had built-ins in Conway; I think we may need a new bookshelf.

Friday I got up and got the girls ready and went to the courthouse in the middle of the town square--my girls like living in a town that's like "back then"-- to register to vote (so I could have proof of residency for the school.) Then we got to go to Open House at each school and meet the teachers. The schools here decorate each class in a theme, like Disney, M & M's, teddy bears, under the sea...we were really interested to see where my girls ended up. Girly-girl Mikayla got the "sports room" and Jessica's teacher is new and didn't do a theme. Oh well. They were both very welcoming and nice, but as we drove away, I felt like crying. Just that mother-feeling: they-can't-really-be-in-2nd-and-4th-grade-can-they? And worrying about them being new, and making friends. So we went to get treats at Sonic to "celebrate".
Saturday I got Mike's cold, and of course it moved into my chest. But I used my inhaler and spent one night in a recliner and one with 2 pillows, and I'm feeling much better now. Sunday we visited Central Baptist, and everyone enjoyed it. God gave me a little hug that day--He knew how worried I've been about the girls starting a new school, and not even being together, for the first time...there were 3 second grade teachers in our Sunday School class. And they all asked who Mikayla got, and when I said, "Mrs. W-" they each said, "Glo! She'll love her." Made me feel good.
Monday morning I was still emotional, and more nervous than they were, but it went fine. We were told to just drop them off in front of the schools, and Mikayla just bounced out of the car and bopped down the sidewalk, brave as can be.
She told me that night she was so scared she almost cried. Jessica asked me to walk her in, so I did. After school Mikayla was happy, but Jessica was not. She's still not liking it. But we're hoping each day will get better.

Yesterday the air conditioner man came to replace the coils (whatever that means.) We had been cool the whole time, but it dripped and leaked, and part of the house deal was for the seller to fix it. So he was here about 3 hours, fixing it...a couple of hours later, it quit cooling. It was {H O T} again. I called him back, but he couldn't come out until today. We went to SAU campus for a BCM cookout, and when we came home 80 felt a lot cooler. Today the repair man came back and said it was a classic example of putting new wine in old wineskins, and the new coils caused the old condenser to overheat and now we needed a whole new unit. So Mike started calling the realtor and the seller and the repairman, and found out that the seller's insurance that should cover it takes forever to answer claims, and may not approve it at all. This afternoon at the exact moment I was praying for God to work out our a.c. situation, Mike called and said the insurance company called, approved it, and said the repair man would come today!! Yay! Thank You God! He is SO good to me.

When we were getting ready for the packers to come in Conway, I took this decoration off the wall.
It was dusty and faded and old. But my Mom and I had made a bunch of them to decorate for my wedding, after she saw them at a shop being sold as "blessings". I knew I needed to throw it away, but how could I throw away my wedding blessing? I took it outside to Mike, to ask his opinion, and he said it did look pretty bad. So I threw it away, but it hurt, and I miss seeing it in my new house. But looking back over the week, and looking around my new home, I see God's blessings in ways that will never get dusty or faded or old. "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." (Matthew 6:19-21)