Yep...we're leaving for Mexico in one week!

I totally can't believe it.

This week has gone SO FAST for me (it has gone SO SLOW for Tim)...only because we were snowed in(8-12 in.?), lost power and the kids got into the linen closet last week and pulled every linen and blanket out...then when I told them to put it away, they put it all on the dirty clothes in the laundry room. I am now just catching up and the laundry room has been tamed.

I really like to be on top of the laundry.

And the dishes.

If I'm not, the whole house can go chaotic on me in .5 seconds.

I'm not kidding.

So, now that I'm not climbing laundry mountains, I suddenly find that it is THURSDAY!?! What?! When did that happen? Seriously, I had no idea what day it was...Tim had to remind me yesterday that it was Wednesday when I told the kids it was Tuesday. lol.

So, all that to say-I can hardly believe we will be leaving in one week.

One. Week.

Things are all coming together and I am amazed at how the Lord provides. Just when I start to stress a bit, He reminds me that He is in control and that this whole process is part of the experience-and just for good measure He makes sure another support check arrives in the mail that day.

I love it.

Here are some of our supplies...

Yes, when you are going to be driving a total of 60 hours in a van with 5 kids, you buy an "on the go potty" (pretty cool actually!) and sanitizer.

I found these on amazon.com and I am totally excited about the sanitizer as it is made without alcohol. Totally out of natural products (like plant oils) and STILL kills 99.99% bad bacteria.

Yep, God rocks. He gives us so many plants to keep us healthy!

Here are a few of the other food products we are taking...although, one is "hair conditioner", one is for salads and one is for "sunblock". (Yes, there will be plenty of food, we just eat a lot of salads, so we are bringing some extras so we don't hog all the dressings!)

If you are thinking "Granola Mama" right about now-or that I'm a bit looney... it's ok...I'm used to it! =)

(oh, and I did consider making a batch of grain free granola for the road, but it takes a while...and we eat it too fast, so I think I'm going to skip it this time...I do hope to make some homemade beef jerky this week though! I do love Tim...and he LOVES jerky!)

I have been pleasantly surprised at how much easier it will be than I originally thought to continue to eat the way we do normally at home. This seemed like a HUGE undertaking (or impossible?!), but with getting a chance to see the meal plan last month and by bringing a few things as substitutes, it will all work out just fine! 

We would love any and all prayers for us as we prepare the final things this last week. When I remember that the Lord is in control and that it will all come together, I am really peaceful about this next week...only occasionally have I had a tense moment as I think about packing our family of 7 for this mission trip!


Serving Him,
tarena

Road Trip Treats

I am getting really excited for the fun things that the kids are going to get to do on the road!

A sweet friend of mine (Melissa, or Lissa online) sent the kids a whole package of goodies to keep them busy:

• Personalized folders with printed out games (included are some awesome road games!), coloring book, crayons, mechanical pencil and stickers.
• Coloring book for Hudson (little kid version)
• Word games for Tim
• Scrapping and crafting magazines for me
• Silly Puddy for each of us
• Glow in the dark bracelets/necklaces....a set for each of us and each package has 15!

Then I went to the Dollar Tree to pick up a few things (I also knew that they would come in handy for homeschooling stuff-but I still only spent $25!)

I got them:

• Bucket and Shovel (multi-purposeful: garbage bucket for each of them, puke bucket if needed (yes, we have to plan for this! lol!) and we will be going to the beach as a team on the last day, so it will be fun!
• Pencil holders (to keep some of this stuff in!)
• Mini clip-boards
• Glue sticks...cuz, really-can you ever have too many???
• Pipe cleaners (they are quiet and you can create so much with them!)
• Googley eyes
• Mini staplers (I had one as a kid an LOVED it!)
• Magnifying glasses (we have old maps we are going to give the older kids to keep track of where we are...if they want...but who wouldn't?! Maps are awesome! Can you say co-pilot? =)
• Bible Game Cards
• Clip on reading light (this was for Keaton in case he wants to read or co-pilot while it is dark)
• And yes...I did give them band-aids...these are a treat for our kids (I think most kids, right?!?)...they just love to stick them all over themselves. =)

THEN my mom just sent up a box of tons of activity and sticker books too! They are going to have so much fun! (And yes...if there are any "big kids" who will be on the trip with us...you can ride with us...we will share! Just tell everyone that you wanted to give Tarena a break from all those kids and are "crowd control"...we won't let them know that you really just want to play with the Silly Puddy! lol!)

The coolest part of all this (besides the wonderful generosity of Lissa and my mom-thanks you guys!), was while we were in The Dollar Tree an older man came up to Tim with the kids (I was in a different isle trying to keep their road trip toys a surprise), and said that he wanted to give him $5 in memory of his son who had passed away.

I feel like that is just one of those "George Mueller" moments (you'll have to read an earlier post if you don't know what this means)...God is so faithful and provides for this trip (and every part of our lives) in so.many.ways.

Thank you Lord.




Serving Him,
tarena

oh my goodness-are we leaving in 3 weeks???!!!

Yes, that thought just hit me.

Three weeks. Twenty one days.

Things are coming together slowly, but then a random thought will hit me:

"Can I take fruit into CA? What about Mexico? I better google that." 

"Oh, we are going to the beach one day...do we all have swimsuits? Am I even going to pull out my old swimsuit??? Oy."

Thankfully, most of the issues have been google-solveable (yes, I made up that word...I make up a lot of words). We did have some issues with Abbi's passport. Her's didn't come with everyone else (although they did arrive in a quick manner! PTL!) About a week after all of ours arrived we got a letter that was telling us that her name is too long (she has a double middle name) and so they want us to write in a shorter version. The funny part was the letter addressed her with a shorter version, there was no indication on the forms to use less letters and when the passport did arrive another couple weeks later, they didn't even use the form we wrote in...they shortened it a different way. Ah...gotta love it!

Something fun that we did was we had a party at our house for anyone on the team that could make it-it was so much fun! Tim worked on putting a video together from the footage we took while we played some games-this team is hilarious! (You can see the video in the post below.) Although the whole team couldn't make it, it was a great turn out and we had a great time.

I have ordered a few things that we will need to help keep us as healthy as possible on our trip, and I do still have few more things to pick up. I'm kind of dreading packing for all of us...I've gotten pretty good over the years at packing up our family for trips, but for a mission trip...and with us trying to eat as close to normal GAPS as possible, it is going to be interesting! Pray for me!

Thankfully, the team has been so supportive (it does help that we are not the only ones with different dietary needs!) and I was even emailed the planned list of meals so that I can figure out what we can eat ahead of time!

I could list some of the things we are taking...would that bore you? Let me know if you would like to read about that and I can list some of the items! Let's just say that we won't be bringing any Pepto-Bismol or sunblock...but we will be bringing clay...

Are you shocked?? Confused?

In addition to some of the health items/supplements we will be bring we are also trying to "up" our consumption of fermented veggies (homemade sauerkraut, kimchee, etc) as it also has great probiotics to keep our tummies healthy and hopefully give us a better chance at not getting sick! Let us pray! Some other things we are trying to do: get out in the sunshine a bit more, carrying Hudson around in the SleepyWrap a bit more and of course praying for our trip and learning some Spanish...but I know the few words that I do know are not going to be much of a help! lol!

Well, there seems like so much more to share...but hopefully I can get to that in another post.

Here is a pic of Hudson (in the wrap!) and I early this morning enjoying all our snow:

In twenty something days we will be in Mexico...that is going to be a huge change of weather!

Serving Him,
tarena