03 December 2012
Subscribing to the New Blog
I had some kinks in the subscription to follow the new blog. My husband alerted me to it and I fixed it now. Click here to subscribe to my New Home! And thank you for your patience!
19 November 2012
Bumblebee Grace is Moving!
Hi, there sweet folks who follow me, subscribe, or just pop in to say hello! I'm so glad to have had you on this journey :)
I'm moving all of my blogging (business and personal) over to Quiet Graces. I would love if you would continue your journey with me by stopping by and subscribing to my new space.
To subscribe, click the RSS Feed Icon circled in the image below.
I look forward to hearing what you think about the new site.
Blessings,
Melissa Aldrich.
I'm moving all of my blogging (business and personal) over to Quiet Graces. I would love if you would continue your journey with me by stopping by and subscribing to my new space.
To subscribe, click the RSS Feed Icon circled in the image below.
I look forward to hearing what you think about the new site.
Blessings,
Melissa Aldrich.
16 November 2012
Five Minute Friday: Stay
There are days when the fear reaches out like a lion on the prowl. It tries to swallow me up in one big bite.
Fear of what my friends think of my next biggest scheme. Fear if anybody would come over if I invited them. Fear that I am messing up my children up. Fear that I am wasting my one life.
But fear is just the uncomfortable place between staying where you are and birthing a new thing.
It's late one afternoon when I submit an application to be on Holley's "Dream Team." I submit that application with a fleece-like prayer: Lord, if you want me to pursue photography next year, to pursue one session a month, then let me be accepted.
I was afraid to be accepted. I was afraid to stay unaccepted. But I pressed submit and leaned in to stay near Him. To see what holy wild he would call me to or ask me to stay within.
The email came on a Wednesday. The quiet yes. The beckoning to go. To pursue. To leave the place I am now and explore the new place. To walk into the unknown with fear as my companion, but faith in Him as my guide.
I click the shutter and smile. Apprehensive of what the next year holds, but too excited to stay in the same place.
15 November 2012
Reach the sky
{Plop! Thud! Boom} Aeralind falls off a chair for the third or fourth time today.
M: "Whew! Ya'll are clumsy today. Are you growing?"
A: Yesth
M: Are you going to be four feet taller by Monday?
A: Yesth, then I can touch the sky. And do ballerinas.
M: "Whew! Ya'll are clumsy today. Are you growing?"
A: Yesth
M: Are you going to be four feet taller by Monday?
A: Yesth, then I can touch the sky. And do ballerinas.
Toddler Activity of the Week: Ballet
We're trying new activities over here and auditioning a couple of sports trying to find a fit to teach the girls some great life skills.
This week: Ballet
The teacher put down spots. The girls were familiar with these and actually stayed with them. One problem: the girls were separated by two classmates. Bronwyn waited a bit and then picked up her spot and moved it right next to her sister. Beautiful strong willed loyal Bronwyn.
Ballet instructions were followed. They plied, grand jeted, and twirled around the room. (They were really upset that they didn't have the proper shoes). The wore their tutus and laughed when Sedryn tried to join the open room multiple times! (I think ballet may be a good sport for his meticulous nature. Ha!)
Their teacher Mrs. Lindsay was amazing! Beyond amazing. Patient. Fun loving. Fast paced. Gentle. Didn't even mind herding cats. Between the two classes, Mrs. Lindsay was the obvious choice for me. She loved teaching and she loved her students. Oh, how I wanted her to be the hero they chose to teach them in these early years.
But the girls, they like gymnastics best. The craziness and the varied nature. The tumbling and climbing and bouncing. So soon that'll be where they stick their landing and take a few classes to learn life skills disguised with fun and nap inducing physical activity.
This week: Ballet
The teacher put down spots. The girls were familiar with these and actually stayed with them. One problem: the girls were separated by two classmates. Bronwyn waited a bit and then picked up her spot and moved it right next to her sister. Beautiful strong willed loyal Bronwyn.
Ballet instructions were followed. They plied, grand jeted, and twirled around the room. (They were really upset that they didn't have the proper shoes). The wore their tutus and laughed when Sedryn tried to join the open room multiple times! (I think ballet may be a good sport for his meticulous nature. Ha!)
Their teacher Mrs. Lindsay was amazing! Beyond amazing. Patient. Fun loving. Fast paced. Gentle. Didn't even mind herding cats. Between the two classes, Mrs. Lindsay was the obvious choice for me. She loved teaching and she loved her students. Oh, how I wanted her to be the hero they chose to teach them in these early years.
But the girls, they like gymnastics best. The craziness and the varied nature. The tumbling and climbing and bouncing. So soon that'll be where they stick their landing and take a few classes to learn life skills disguised with fun and nap inducing physical activity.
12 November 2012
Unanswered Prayer
It's no secret that I tote three kiddos around in the back of a Toyota Corolla. Three carseats smashed in that back seat like sardines (two Radians and a Scenera... poor baby in the middle). I love my Corolla, but it's just time for the mini-van. We were saving for it and praying for a van.
Late August Derek got in a wreck. He barely bumped the truck in front of him at 10mph, but sent the truck's trailer hitch right though his headlight and into the radiator. His 1999 Saturn was officially totaled a few days later.
We were committed to paying cash for our 'new' van and did not have nearly enough yet saved to purchase one even with the cash for his totaled car. We asked his very generous parent if they could lend us their "child emergency fund" and we could pay them back come spring and our tax return. They agreed and gave us a figure to shop for.
We had around $8000 total with his parent's loan and shopped in earnest. Being that we want to drive the 'new' van into the ground, we wanted her to last a good long while. We searched for as long as the insurance would let us keep a rental and then another 2 weeks I stayed at home while Derek took my car. We were interested in a few vans (and one Chrysler Pacifica Touring wagon/crossover), but they either came not passing inspection or would/could not drop the price to be in our range.
All the mini-van doors were closing and, yet, we had peace.
Our small group leaders talked to their car hoarding father about parting with their Toyota Camry. We purchased it a half week later for $500 less than the money received for the totaled Saturn.
We smiled at our still full emergency/saving account and had hope for purchasing a minivan in the spring. Yet, we still wondered why our van prayers were unanswered.
A week later we closed on a refinance of the house. We were bringing our interest rate WAY down and allowing ourselves to prepay an extra $200 a month toward being debt free. We had thought the process would be mostly free for us, but because our home valued at less than we thought, we were required to pay enough to bring the debt down to less than 90% of our house value. A $1000 dollars slipped out of our emergency savings toward being debt free.
Six weeks later, I elbowed Derek awake in the bed startled by a strange noise that sounded like a cross between a motorcycle and a cat in heat. He popped out of bed and immediately started flipping breakers off. Our air handler was having an issue. We called an HVAC service company. It not worth it to repair it, we had to replace it.
All of the remaining money except $300 disappeared from our emergency savings account.
All of our van money.
Gone in an instant.
Yet, Derek and I were giddy like the kids at the beach. We knew why we didn't own a van! We knew that our God had prepared us financially for this emergency (lows the week of no-heat hovered around 52 degrees IN the house) by saying no to our van dream at that time.
The day the repair was complete Derek opened an envelope and pulled out a check. He started laughing.
"What?" I said.
"We just got a check for over a grand." He replied.
I looked at him skeptically. "You're kidding, right?"
"No. Really." He said between laughter. "It's the leftovers from our old mortgage escrow account."
Our emergency fund (which we try never to let go below a grand) was restored above that point.
I don't own a van. I still have three kids strapped across the back of a Sedan (though I'm currently driving the Camry so the kiddos have a wee bit more wiggle room). I don't even have 1/2 of what we had had saved for the van.
No, but I have a God who provided for all our needs through a very strange set of circumstances and the faith to trust him more. That's a pretty awesome trade-off, don't you think?
(Thanks here from our beach trip. Written in a spare notebook... taken awhile to track down the graces)
4533-4566
Late August Derek got in a wreck. He barely bumped the truck in front of him at 10mph, but sent the truck's trailer hitch right though his headlight and into the radiator. His 1999 Saturn was officially totaled a few days later.
We were committed to paying cash for our 'new' van and did not have nearly enough yet saved to purchase one even with the cash for his totaled car. We asked his very generous parent if they could lend us their "child emergency fund" and we could pay them back come spring and our tax return. They agreed and gave us a figure to shop for.
We had around $8000 total with his parent's loan and shopped in earnest. Being that we want to drive the 'new' van into the ground, we wanted her to last a good long while. We searched for as long as the insurance would let us keep a rental and then another 2 weeks I stayed at home while Derek took my car. We were interested in a few vans (and one Chrysler Pacifica Touring wagon/crossover), but they either came not passing inspection or would/could not drop the price to be in our range.
All the mini-van doors were closing and, yet, we had peace.
Our small group leaders talked to their car hoarding father about parting with their Toyota Camry. We purchased it a half week later for $500 less than the money received for the totaled Saturn.
We smiled at our still full emergency/saving account and had hope for purchasing a minivan in the spring. Yet, we still wondered why our van prayers were unanswered.
A week later we closed on a refinance of the house. We were bringing our interest rate WAY down and allowing ourselves to prepay an extra $200 a month toward being debt free. We had thought the process would be mostly free for us, but because our home valued at less than we thought, we were required to pay enough to bring the debt down to less than 90% of our house value. A $1000 dollars slipped out of our emergency savings toward being debt free.
Six weeks later, I elbowed Derek awake in the bed startled by a strange noise that sounded like a cross between a motorcycle and a cat in heat. He popped out of bed and immediately started flipping breakers off. Our air handler was having an issue. We called an HVAC service company. It not worth it to repair it, we had to replace it.
All of the remaining money except $300 disappeared from our emergency savings account.
All of our van money.
Gone in an instant.
Yet, Derek and I were giddy like the kids at the beach. We knew why we didn't own a van! We knew that our God had prepared us financially for this emergency (lows the week of no-heat hovered around 52 degrees IN the house) by saying no to our van dream at that time.
The day the repair was complete Derek opened an envelope and pulled out a check. He started laughing.
"What?" I said.
"We just got a check for over a grand." He replied.
I looked at him skeptically. "You're kidding, right?"
"No. Really." He said between laughter. "It's the leftovers from our old mortgage escrow account."
Our emergency fund (which we try never to let go below a grand) was restored above that point.
I don't own a van. I still have three kids strapped across the back of a Sedan (though I'm currently driving the Camry so the kiddos have a wee bit more wiggle room). I don't even have 1/2 of what we had had saved for the van.
No, but I have a God who provided for all our needs through a very strange set of circumstances and the faith to trust him more. That's a pretty awesome trade-off, don't you think?
(Thanks here from our beach trip. Written in a spare notebook... taken awhile to track down the graces)
4533-4566
- Sunrise 9 stories high on the beach
- Ham and eggs
- Sand and pools
- Aeralind jumping in the lazy river when I wasn't looking
- Giggles and singing with my girls in the lazy river
- Sleepy boy cuddles
- Shovels, buckets and a net in the condo
- Heading over to Huntington to see the birds and alligators
- Derek and I praying for an alligator to be close to shore and seeing one with the girls just as we left
- Bronwyn cautiously approaching the alligator "Mommy, I scary."
- More sand
- Sedryn lying over our sand pit and splashing when the waves filled it
- Just a few scrapes and bruises on me and not on Sedryn when I slid/fell into the kiddie pool
- Pineapple and hot chocolate with a sunset and all my family
- early bedtime for all
- Yummy breakfast
- Long beach walk
- Aerie walking behind me "I walk in Mommy's feet" (Footprints)
- Singing with Sedryn
- One good long nap for Sedryn finally on this trip
- Bronwyn and Aerie beggine for Kay Kay to ride with them
- Toddler girl wardrobe shopping in styles that fit their personalities
- Nerd shirt for Sedryn
- All 3 kids gleefully coming down the slide
- Sedryn waiting for daddy to push him down
- All of us exploring Anthropologie
- Little girls pouring over tons of books at Barnes and Nobles
- Ice Cream
- Quiet evening with Sedryn
- Sedryn fighting a nap and for once falling asleep on the bed with me. Napping in a big boy bed.
- A new book that corresponds so sell with Ladies Bible Study
- Girls coming back with Halloween art masks and Necklaces and spiders and tales of feeding fish at the Papa's fish show at Bass Pro
- Everyone safely asleep
11 November 2012
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