We've MOVED!

Hi friends!  If you have come to follow Baby Jack's arrival or just to check up on us, please visit our new blog site: Strickland Bunch  Thanks!

Week 4...here we come!

We officially wrapped up our third week at camp and are heading into our FOURTH week here!  I can't believe how fast time is flying.  We had a really fun week last week and even though we got a TON of rain, I think everyone made the best of it.  It's actually rainy and gloomy as I type this, but there are still van loads of happy campers pulling in left and right.  Randy had some late nights last week helping out with Night Zip (basically exactly what it sounds like...zip lining in the dark with glow sticks).  He was out pretty late each night since they were trying to make sure everyone got a chance despite being rained out several times.  Still, Randy said it was really fun and seeing the excitement of the campers made it all worth it!

Everything else is pretty much the same around here!  I had a check up last week for baby Jack and so far everything is looking great and right on track.  Heartbeat was around 150 and everything was measuring normal.  I will have an anatomy scan coming up the first week of July and I think Randy and I are both anxious to see that he is nice and healthy!  As for my nausea, it has almost completely left.  I'm still getting a little queasy between meals, but I have only had to take my Zofran a few times this month.  Praise God!  That was no fun at all.  I'm so happy to be feeling great and all of the walking around camp has really helped me to just feel amazing in general.  I also have been able to feel baby kicks quite often these days.  Even with Jack being my fourth baby to feel moving, it never gets old.  I still love to lay in bed at night and feel him moving all around.  Pregnancy is such an amazing experience and I'm SO thankful to be on to the fun half now and hopefully past the consuming nausea!  

Noah celebrated his Birthday at camp on the 12th so that was exciting.  He is pretty excited about being 5 ;)  I still feel like he is two in my head so sometimes I hear him saying something or doing something and it just amazes me how grown up he is getting.  We are so proud of what a sweet and caring little boy he is. 

Miss Ella is LOVING camp life.  I think she was born to live at a camp.  She is all about it and always off to find the next adventure.  She is such a great help for me with Owen!  She really loves being a big sister.  I've been really proud of how much responsibility she has shown here at camp when I allow her and Noah to go play.  I usually give them permission to be in a particular area and she has been so great about checking in and getting permission if they would like to go play somewhere else.

Owen is doing great as well and will be seeing his Urologist on the 30th so the kids and I will be traveling into Madison for that later next week. I feel like I have a giant list of questions for the Dr this time since we have seen so much change in his tummy swelling back up again.  I'm really hoping that we are able to get some answers as to what this could mean moving forward.  But there's a big chance it could still be more "waiting and watching" so I am trying to make sure I'm prepared for that, too. He will be 15 months on the 28th and he still isn't walking.  This has been our latest walker!  I'm in no hurry to rush him out of any stages, but my growing tummy and my back will sure be happy when we get him walking.  He's getting pretty close and has been taking 2 or 3 steps here and there so maybe that will be my next update! 

As always, continue to pray for us as we try and decipher what and where God wants us next.  We are praying that God is using this time of waiting to prepare us in any way that He needs to.  We don't want to miss out on any lessons we need to learn along the way so we are praying for open and receptive hearts.

Here are a few pictures to share from around camp this week.  Still not a whole lot, but I'm getting better about remembering to grab the camera!!  

Ella and Noah having some fun with Play Doh cooling off inside.

A sleepy Daddy catching up on some Zzzzz's during nap time with O.

 Ella and Noah getting settled in for some Little House and bedtime.

A favorite activity around camp is catching tadpoles in the pond outside of the Dining Hall.  Noah was REALLY excited this day when he caught a little frog!  It's kind of hard to see in the picture, but it's just a chubby baby Toad.

My two tadpole catchers!

Some girls found this little turtle one day just passing through camp.  The kids took turns holding it before he was released down by the creek.

Randy and Owen 

A better view of the fish pond where they catch tadpoles..

My sweet Owen...also very lovingly known as the "trouble maker".  Thankfully his smile is equally as cute as his will is strong.  Maybe a future leader?

"Surely you're not calling ME a trouble maker?! Impossible!"

My beautiful girl both inside and out!  Can't believe she will be 7 in a couple weeks.

And our adventure this week was realizing that we had some leaking issues in the camper.  It made for a comical night watching movies during the storm and listening to the constant "drip, drip, drip..."  Thankfully, maintenance has done some sealing on the roof and after some pretty heavy rain today I only had to pull out one bucket.  So I think we may be close to having the issue fixed.  Fingers crossed!

Camp Update!

We have officially survived two full weeks of camp and we are working our way into our third week!  It's amazing how quickly time moves ahead! It took us some time to settle in and find a new "normal" for camp.  Although I think the first rule we have learned at camp is that there is no "normal" and there wont be!  Every week is a little different and brings along different age students and people to meet.  It's been really fun.  Randy's schedule has varied each week, but we always catch up with him here and there throughout the day to say hi for a few minutes and we usually see him at meals in the Dining Hall.  This week has been a nice change because he doesn't get started until noon so we have some time in the morning to spend with him.  Or on a day like today.....watch him passed out asleep from the late nights he's been keeping.  But he is having a great time and even though he is "working" it is a very fun kind of work.  Ella and Noah usually spend their mornings playing outside after breakfast.  They play on the playground or play some favorite camp games like Gaga and Carpet Ball.  I usually pick up around the camper after breakfast and then head out to read while Owen takes his morning nap.  After lunch we go outside or head to the lake for awhile.  Sometimes I have to run some laundry through.  It's been a little different every day, but it's been a very nice change of pace.  The last few months were so busy with me being sick, packing, and finishing up Ella's school.  It's been so refreshing to not have such busy days!  In the evenings after dinner I usually get the kids all bathed and we watch a movie or episode of Little House to quiet things down in the camper.  This was the best change we made to our routine so far.  Owen's bed is right in the area where we spend most of our time inside so it was very hard for him to get to sleep with all the noise and action around him.  Now that we get everyone clean and settled down by 7:30 or so, it allows him to fall asleep, but lets the big kids still stay awake for awhile.  It's made a HUGE difference in our evenings!  I will post more pictures soon, but today was sadly the first day I even used my camera since we arrived. I have been moving and organizing tons of pictures and finishing up some ones I needed to edit and I just haven't taken the time to take any around camp yet.  I will do that this week and get some posted, but for now I took some of the camper to share.  I know so many of you have been asking how in the world we are doing being in a camper with three (& 1/2) kids and 2 dogs.  It has certainly been an adventure and an adjustment!  But we are all making the best of it and since we don't spend a lot of time inside, it hasn't been too big of an issue.  Randy and I were just saying last night that we have already made so many memories that I'm sure we will laugh about for many years to come.  But we are truly thankful for this time while we prepare for whatever is next!

Alright...here it is....our humble Summer abode!  Enjoy.

I had my 50mm on the camera so you'll have to make due with squished views that don't cover a whole lot in each picture :)  This is the view into the bedroom where Randy and I sleep.

 And here is our fancy bathroom....

 Right now we have been showering at the lodge and just using the tub for storage.  But we do have hot water now which is nice.  The lodge has just been easier for now since I can put both of the kids in a shower at the same time.

 And this is the view if you looked from the bathroom down the steps to the main part of the RV.

 and a little sleepy baby peeking up to say hi :)

 This counter is usually where all of our stuff collects and we use the computer..

 and the other side of the room has the sink where I wash out sippy cups and water bottles.  Since we eat in the Dining Hall for all of our meals, I only have to use the kitchen area for washing up stuff like this.

 We've tried to get creative with storing stuff and making the best use we can of the space we have.  Oh and BTW, do you like our orange carpet?!  Pretty fancy! ;)

 Here is the fridge we use to store some random snacks.  It usually has some apple sauce and yogurt for Owen and chocolate for mommy....

 There are baskets everywhere because it was the best I could think of to give toys and things each a home to be put away.  So we store the toys in a big basket and some under the futon that the kids sleep on.  They have also put a lot of their toys on the back shelf behind the futon.

 Well, that's all for today.  Time for me to let this sleepy head hit the hay!

The Adventures Continue...

I finally got a second to update you all on our job search and life!  So here goes!  Things have been sort of crazy and uncertain, but it's so great to see God's faithfulness to our family.  

At our last update, Randy had two leads in Florida and one in South Carolina.  We never heard back from one of the churches in Riverview, Florida and the other just wasn't a good fit on both sides.  They were a traditional church trying to make the transition to a more contemporary service, yet they still wanted someone with more traditional roots (ie ability to lead an orchestra, ect.) and that is SO not Randy.  We loved the idea of living down on the coast of South Florida (literally minutes from the beach!!), but we wouldn't want that at the cost of Randy being in a job that wasn't a good fit.  We had a ton of reservations and God made it an easy decision since they called and said they weren't sure he was a good fit either and they were going with someone else.  Decision solved.

Then came South Carolina.  All of the interviews went really well and I am super proud of Randy since they had literally hundreds of applicants and he is/was their second in line.  Last we heard from them, they were interviewing a guy that they had begun interviewing much before Randy.  He was down there this past weekend.  They told Randy that they would contact him sometime at the end of last week or early this week.  We are pretty sure that it pretty much comes down to them hiring him if they like him and if not, they will bring Randy down.  So we'll see if he made the cut or not. 

In the meantime, I'm sure you're wondering what in the world we are going to do!?  So were we! It's kind of crazy this whole journey. Back over the Winter, we felt so heavily like God was telling us he had something different for us.  It would have been easy to just start looking for a job secretly and not tell our church family until we knew right where we were going and then just bail.  But we really felt like God wanted us to honor him and honor our church by being open about our desire to move somewhere else.  And so we did.  Fast forward to several months of searching and interviewing, and still not having a definite place to call home...it has been trying!  It has really tested our faith to the max.  I will be honest that I have had many times where I question what God is doing in all of this. "You told us to quit!  Now we don't have a job and we're going to run out of money and I'm going to have another baby and....." The list goes on.  But the one thing that we keep feeling in our hearts is that we have chosen the hard path.  To honor God with every move and we know he's going to finish what he has started.  

A few weeks ago, I was challenged by a friend to stop thinking about all of the ways I want this to all pan out and try to see how God could use us to serve him right now.  In this moment.  Maybe not the way we originally intended.  We were trying to decide if Randy needed to get a non ministry job, but then where in the world do we apply?  I kept teasing Randy that I wished we could just drop everything and go work at camp all Summer.  One day, he took me serious and said it wasn't a bad idea.  He would be good at it and it was actually something we could probably pull off financially if we wanted to.  Some friends of ours sent us some ideas for camps that were hiring, but we decided to try and contact the camp we have attended the past two Summers first.  We already have a relationship with them and we love it there, so it seemed like a good first move.  Randy got in touch with Village Creek and asked if they needed any additional help this Summer.  We were so surprised when they wrote back and said they would love to have us and really needed the help!  Randy is going to work for them as the Summer Program Director.  He will be able to work with the student staff all Summer and lead worship, help things run smoothly, basically just working along side them to help however is needed to make sure camp runs smoothly.  This is going to let him use SO many of his gifts and in a totally unexpected way!   The kids and I will stay right there with him and I will have the opportunity to build relationships and mentor the girls that will be there for the Summer, too.  I'm so excited!  Not to mention the fact that I get a Summer of no cooking!  

So what does this all mean in the long run for us?  Well, basically, we will continue to finish packing all of our things this week and next week.  We are planning to load everything into storage for the Summer and we will take just what we need for camp with us.  The plan will be to work at camp all Summer (unless SC calls, in which case if they decide to hire Randy we will move South at the end of June).  Randy will continue his job hunt all Summer in hopes that we find a good fit by the end of camp.  If we haven't found a ministry job as the Summer starts drawing to an end, Randy will turn his search to looking for a regular job of some sort and we will move wherever that ends up.  When camp is over, we will travel back to Dodgeville to load our stuff and then we will move wherever we have a job at.  

We are so thankful for all of our friends who have been praying for us this whole time.  Please continue to pray that the perfect job opens up for us.  We would selfishly love for it to be in Florida, but of course we will go wherever God leads us to.  In the meantime, we are praising God for the way he has provided for us.  Just 5 years ago, we never would have been financially able to take a once in a lifetime opportunity like this!  We are so thankful that God changed our view of debt and finances so that we are now able to literally pack up our stuff and live simply for a whole Summer!  The past two years as we drove away from camp, I have elbowed my hubby and said, "are you sure God didn't call you to work at a camp?!" because I just love the atmosphere and being there.  Who would have thought that I would be moving my whole family there for the Summer.  It's really crazy.  And amazing.  God ALWAYS comes through my friends.  Maybe not how we planned or expected him to, but he always comes through and he always provides.

I  thought a nice way to end this, would be to share our pictures from our first year at camp so that you could all see where we're going and what it's like there.  They may have spots open still for Family Camp if anyone wants to come check it out and see us for a week!!!!  

 

May-ish Update!

Hi friends and family.  I have been meaning to write out an update forever now.  I've had a ton of people wondering what in the world we're up to and what our "plans" are for moving this Spring.  Well....the short story is that we have no idea ;)  The long story is that we really don't know yet, but we do have some things we do know.

We know that we are definitely still moving this May/June.  Most likely the last week of May or first week of June.  We aren't positive where exactly we're going though.  It's crazy.  I know.  But we can see God working and have had lots of confirmation that we are walking in the right direction.  We know that everything will work out how it's supposed to.

Here are a couple of specific things you can pray for:

1) My hubby has a Skype interview with a church tonight at 5:30pm our time (Central- so 6:30pm for all you NC and FL friends).  This is his second interview with this particular church located in South Florida.  It would still be 2 1/2 hours from "home", but it would be a whole lot closer than where we're at now and we can really see some ways God could use us down there.

2) Next week he has a follow up Skype interview with a church in the Charlotte area as well.  It's technically South Carolina, but in a suburb of Charlotte.  This would be an awesome opportunity as well.  I'll give you more info on that as the details get nailed down.

3) This one is kind of random, but we had a lead for a church hiring back home that would be a really awesome opportunity in lots of ways.  We haven't really heard much at all from them, so it may be a completely closed door.  Please pray with us that we would hear one way or another (and maybe selfishly that Randy could get an interview?!)  It's been kind of a tease having the idea of possibly moving back where all of our family is and then hitting a dead end.  It would be nice to see some progress or have some closure so that it's not just a constant "what if...".

4) Just pray for us in general.  We're getting down to the nitty gritty and trying to make some tentative plans.  It's really hard to plan a move when you have no idea where you're going, but we know that God will finish what he started in our hearts.  We are trusting God to come through at the last hour, but also trying to be wise to have a back up plan in case God is on a different time line then us.  We need wisdom to figure out what would be the best move financially and ministry wise if we are still looking or in the interview process when it's time to go.  It's crazy and stressful and at times we find ourselves starting to panic a teeny bit.  Then we are reminded that God is in control and that we have been following his lead this whole way.  We really believe he will continue to be faithful to us!

I know there are still lots of updates I've left out about the kiddos and pregnancy and all that, but I'll get to it....eventually!

Why I won't "bring the holidays down a notch"...

This past week we celebrated St. Patrick's Day at our house.  Last year the kids woke up to find that a sneaky leprechaun had dyed our milk green and left a box of Lucky Charms cereal.  This year "said leprechaun" forgot to grab the cereal, but he did still dye our milk green and even turned the water in our toilet green, too!  The kids were thrilled and giddy and talked all day about how fun it was.  I would over hear them in the back bedroom talking about all the possibilities of how he pulled this off and what he used to turn the milk green.  I giggled to myself as Ella (who never has the courage to drink the green milk) questioned Noah over the taste of the milk trying to see if there were any other special qualities to it.  Noah just shrugged and told her "I don't know, but it sure is delicious!!"

There's a new article that I first noticed going around last year and then it showed up again this year as well.  You can read it yourself here, but it's basically a mom's plea for other mom's (and teachers) to "bring the holidays down a notch."  The article is great and has a ton of really funny points!  (My personal favorite being about needing to send a "whole freaking goody bag" for Valentine's Day), but while I can laugh and sympathize with the tired mom who wrote it, I have to say that I personally take a different stand.

I'm "that" mom.  And honestly, my husband is "that" dad, too.  I'm the one who runs around two days before Christmas hunting for a Barbie's Dream House because at the last second I decided I wanted to blow my daughter's mind.  My wonderful husband and I laughed until we cried for hours while we tried to put the dumb thing together.  Wondering the whole time why we even went and got it.  Just the two of us playing "Santa" with only our family Elf, Marvelette watching.  When Ella lost her first tooth this Winter, we waiting anxiously to put out the glittery $1 coins that we had carefully selected as our "Tooth Fairy" pay.  I make heart shaped pancakes on Valentine's Day and cook their favorite meals on their Birthdays.  I've already begun plans for a lead up to Easter to teach my kids about the kind of man Jesus was and celebrate what he's done for them on the cross.  Some years I go ALL out and others it's just a small treat.  I don't always do these things "Pinterest worthy" or to publish all over my Instagram.  I do them because I get an indescribable amount of JOY from them.  There's such a tiny span of life that I get to spend being a mommy to little ones whose eyes light up at my silly gimmicks.  The fun that we're having at the Strickland house is so priceless.  And so fleeting.  I wish I could just scoop up that sweet feeling and bottle it up to save forever.  Or freeze their happy faces in my head.  It's so worth the 10 minutes it takes to dye the milk and water green or the two minutes to move the silly elf.

I know this isn't the case for everyone.  We all parent differently and love our kids in our own ways.  Doing one thing or not doing something doesn't make any one person better than the next.  I'm so grateful for that truth since there are lots of things I don't do well.  But I'm kind of great at being a mom. And my husband is pretty great at being a dad, too.  It doesn't come easy.  It's something we work hard at each and every day.  And these little holidays are our reward.  It's the days we get to collect our payments for working so hard.  All paid out in giggles and wonder and whispers overheard as our kids talk about the leprechaun that came.  It leaves our hearts smiling and praying that this feeling never leaves....even if we know one day it will.  Yep.....probably not bringing the holidays down a notch anytime soon!!

No Turning Back

Pretty much every phone call or run in I have with someone starts with "So have you figured out where you guys are going yet?".  I was listening to a song on the Passion White Flag album this morning and thinking about all of the times I have sang out some of the lyrics to the song.  They had a much different impact this morning.  It's so easy to sing lyrics that talk about surrendering your life to God's plan when every thing is great and going smoothly.  It's much harder when you are truly having to keep total faith in whatever plan God has next.  It's both extremely exciting and yet terrifying at the same time!!  So, right now we truly have no idea what's next or where we're going.  Randy is working on submitting resumes and videos to churches that are hiring...hopefully by March we will start interviewing places (we hope?!) and then we can start to figure out what's next.  Some days my faith is strong and my mind is whirling with how exciting it's going to be to see what God has next for us and where we end up.  Trusting that He already had this whole thing figured out.  Other days, I'm filled with complete panic!  But either way, in my heart, I know that Randy and I both have felt like God was ready for us to move onto something else.  So for now, we are trusting that He will finish what He started within us and that He already knows exactly what's next for us.  We just have to wait and be willing to go wherever that is!

I will follow you
I will follow you
No turning back
No turning back
No turning back
No turning back

This is my heart cry
Though none go with me
The cross before me
The world behind me

This is my heart cry
Though none go with me
The cross before me
The world behind me

I will follow you (I have decided, I have decided)
I will follow you (I have decided)
No turning back
No turning back
No turning back
No turning back

This is my anthem
My life for your fame
My every move bring
Glory to your name

This is my anthem
My life for your fame
My every move bring
Glory to your name

I will follow you (I have decided, I have decided )
I will follow you (I have decided)
No turning back
No turning back
No turning back
No turning back

The cross before me
The world behind me
I will follow
I will follow

The cross before me
The world behind me
I will follow
I will follow

The cross before me
The world behind me
I will follow
I will follow

The cross before me
The world behind me
I will follow
I will follow

No turning back
No turning back
No turning back
No turning back

No turning back
No turning back
No turning back
No turning back