Countdown – Four days to Seattle

\ 3 Comments

Only four more days!! I am starting to get really, really excited. Can we move tomorrow?

Obligatory kitty photo

Does he look ready to move?

Today I accomplished a lot. I scrubbed down kitchen cupboards, the medicine chest, and the rest of the master bedroom closet. Hubby and I cleaned off his desk, packing everything that needed to be packed and getting rid of the rest. We dropped off a huge bag of hangers at the donation bin and had to buy more packing tape.

Sorry if these pictures are boring, but to me they represent accomplishment! Living in my house, it’s harder to see the changes. Looking at these photos, I can see evidence of an upcoming move.

Kitchen cupboard

Second kitchen cupboard

Above the stove

Medicine chest

Closet

This morning we took a trip to the post office. We mailed off our comforter and a giant stuffed bear that my husband had as a child. Originally, the plan was to pack both in the trunk but we decided that since they are light enough to ship cheaply, we should clear additional space in the car. We also mailed a box of books and talked to the post office about media rate. We can ship the rest of our boxes media rate at an estimated $17 a box! That is way cheaper than replacing our library.

Boxes of books ready to ship

Tomorrow we’ll take the remaining boxes to the post office and start packing the trunk. Our suitcase is almost full with all the clothes that we won’t be needing in the next four days. I can’t wait until we hit the road!

Posted in: Uncategorized

Countdown – Six days to Seattle

\ 5 Comments

We’ve slowly been making progress with move preparation. Before I returned home, hubby got rid of the couch and chair. I keep forgetting that we don’t have one anymore!

I’ve packed up six boxes of books, culled out my closet for clothes I don’t wear, and started sorting through my kitchen. We are shipping a few boxes, packing our car, and getting rid of the rest. It feels freeing to eliminate most of our stuff! So much of it we don’t use or need. Now we have the opportunity to start over and keep our purchases to what is actually necessary.

Despite the progress made thus far, our house doesn’t look too much different. It’s cluttered but small areas are slowly starting to empty out. Today I emptied out my side of the closet, scrubbed it down, and vacuumed the floor. Then I emptied our game shelves and scrubbed those down. Tomorrow I’ll start consolidating the kitchen and cleaning the empty cupboards.

Game Shelf – everything packed up and shelves cleaned

And in the middle of it all, I feel the need to be creative. I’m trying to finish up my denim quilt before we leave. It’s extremely hot here in Phoenix but Seattle has daily highs in the 50s! I might need that quilt sooner than I think.

Bucket of denim

Pile of denim

Cutting out blocks

Quilt in progress, inspected by local Quilt Police

Posted in: Uncategorized

Home again!

\ 6 Comments

After nine weeks, I am back home. Whew! I’m still trying to get settled, though that’s not really possible since we’re moving to Seattle in 13 days!

A much longer post is soon to come. 🙂

I hope all are doing well!

Posted in: Uncategorized

Bad News

\ 11 Comments

I’m going to be away from the blog for awhile. My father in law was diagnosed with cancer this week and it’s pretty advanced. I am with my husband’s family in Michigan and will be helping them with as much as possible as long as I am needed. At this time, I have no idea when I will be flying home.

Until then, God bless. 🙂

Posted in: Uncategorized

This Week’s Memory Text – Isaiah 33:15-16

\ 2 Comments

He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly,
He who despises the gain of oppressions,
Who gestures with his hands, refusing bribes,
Who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed,
And shuts his eyes from seeing evil:
He will dwell on high;
His place of defense will be the fortress of rocks;
Bread will be given him,
His water will be sure
Isaiah 33:15-16

I love this promise. There are so many beautiful promises in the Bible if we take the time to listen and read. It’s a long passage but I’m going to try to memorize it in one week. My other memory texts are going well.

When you memorize a text, do you test yourself by giving the passage location and seeing if you can recite the text from memory? That is my biggest challenge. Using this week’s passage as an example, if I ask myself: “What is Isaiah 33:15-16?” I draw a blank. But if I ask myself to finish the following passage: “He who walks righteously…” then I can recite the text. I can usually remember the book and chapter in which it’s found and possibly the verses. If I know the passage itself, I can usually find it in the Bible without much difficulty but have issues reciting a passage when given its location.

What is your favorite Bible promise?

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged:

What’s On My Nightstand?

\ 11 Comments

What's On Your Nightstand

This month I concentrated on reading as many of my library books as possible so that I can start working through the Seattle to-sort pile. My library stack is now quite small! I even completed several books from the to-sort pile (marked below with a *).

Bible – I am so close to finishing the Old Testament! I can’t wait to start reading the New Testament.

  • Jeremiah 15-52
  • Lamentations
  • Ezekiel
  • Daniel
  • Hosea
  • Joel
  • Amos
  • Obadiah
  • Jonah
  • Micah
  • Nahum
  • Habakkuk
  • Zephaniah
  • Haggai
  • Zechariah

Children’s literature

Christian Fiction

History

Manga

  • Nodame Cantabile V.1*
  • Nodame Cantabile V.2*
  • Nodame Cantabile V.3*

Memoir

Nonfiction

  • Fat Quarter Quilts by M’Liss Rae Hawley – 2 stars only because I didn’t care for any of the quilt designs. It might be a great book for quilters who have a different taste in quilts.

Secular Fiction

April will be filled with books from The Pile. [Cue ominous music here]

The Pile
Happy reading!

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged:

Menu Plan Monday

\ 1 Comment

Orange Tofu
We are trying a few new recipes this week and are really excited about them! Last night we made Snazzy Baked Orange Tofu, pictured above. It was missing something but I really liked the idea of using mandarin oranges instead of orange juice concentrate. I’m still in search of the perfect orange tofu recipe!

The rest of the week:
Haystacks
Chili Mac – new recipe
Peanut Chicken Broccoli – new recipe, we’re subbing tofu for the chicken
Pasta and garlic bread
Japanese night – sushi, gyoza, udon noodles
Saturday night pizza!

Part of my moving prep is an attempt to use some of the ingredients that been sitting in my pantry for months.

Pumpkin pie

The pumpkin pie used up a pie crust, a can of pumpkin pie filling I bought on accident (thinking it was just canned pumpkin), and a box of silken tofu. Then I was in the mood to bake something so baked a loaf of whole wheat bread. Yum!

No-Knead Whole Wheat Bread

Happy cooking!

Photobucket

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged:

This Week’s Memory Text – Zephaniah 3:17

\ 2 Comments

As I read through the Old Testament, I am finding more and more promises that would be wonderful to memorize. When I find a text, I jot it down in my notes and then each week I pick one. This week, I’m memorizing a promise I read just this morning!

The Lord your God in your midst,
The Mighty One, will save;
He will rejoice over you with gladness,
He will quiet you with His love,
He will rejoice over you with singing
Zephaniah 3:17.

It’s such a beautiful promise. The Lord is in our midst! He is here, not distant. And He will save.

Amen! Praise the Lord!

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged:

DEBT FREE!!!!!

\ 5 Comments

Image: Chaiwat / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
This morning, we submitted our final payment to the credit card company. We are credit card and car loan debt free!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am absolutely ecstatic. We have been working toward this day for six years and finally reached our goal. We refuse to ever again pay interest on another credit card or car loan. Never again will we throw our money down the toilet.

We paid off $42,389.02. That is insane! Out of that, $28,064 was credit card debt. Twenty eight thousand dollars!! We could have bought an amazing car for that amount of money or a huge chunk of a house. We could have toured Europe!

What do we have to show for it? Not much. We financed most of our wedding costs on a credit card. Food. Books. CDs. A very rare cash advance to pay another credit card bill. All of it was a waste of money. I have no idea how much money it took to pay off that $28,000. I didn’t keep track of how much money we paid in interest, just the initial balances. Knowing how much money we paid in interest over the life of the credit cards would be depressing. I just don’t want to know. I’ve learned my lesson.

We used Dave Ramsey’s principles to guide our journey. First we saved up a $1,000 emergency fund to cover any real emergencies. We used it several times and were always grateful it was there. Then we started paying off our smallest balance debt, throwing as much money at it as possible. When that was paid off, we took the minimum payment from the first debt and rolled it into the second debt, plus threw as much money at the debt as possible. Rinse and repeat until we finally paid off the last credit card company.

Now we can finally start saving up for our move! We’re leaving Arizona in 93 days. Once we arrive in Seattle, we’ll split our money between building up a bigger savings account and buying new furniture. After saving up six month’s of living expenses, we’ll start paying off our student loans ($41,596.16 left to go).

We are so excited! Our lifestyle does not change much because our credit cards are gone. We will still be living very simply, paying off the rest of the money we borrowed during college. The one thing we do want to change is to institute a date night and some (just a little bit) of fun money. We rarely spend any money other than groceries and bills. It would be nice to buy a new book or some nice quilting fabric once in awhile, of course fully paid in cash.

Image: Pixomar / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged:

D9P quilt – completed!

\ 3 Comments

I am very happy to say that my Double 9 Patch quilt is now complete!

front

back

Bruno inspecting my work

Folded and ready to go

This quilt was a struggle but I learned a ton. Back at the beginning, I found that not all of the fabric from the church was 100% cotton. I’m not ready to mix fabrics yet and had to give up using all of the donations. Instead, I went to Joann Fabrics and purchased a lot of my own fabric to incorporate into the quilt.

I still have a lot to learn about color and value! My quilting and piecing skills improved but I can see areas that definitely need work.

Overall, I’m happy to be done and looking forward to the next project! I’ve already started sewing together the blocks for my denim/flannel lap quilt. While I’m excited to work on a quilt for me I should have worked on this quilt in the fall when it would have been more needed! I’ll finish it just in time for the hot Arizona weather.

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: