Friday, December 26, 2014

HAPPY BOXING DAY!!

If you had asked us pretty much at anytime in the last week what we were doing, the reply would have been some variation of "Packing..." or "Boxing..." Each day our to-do-list was long, and each night we would wipe what we could off and fill it up for the next day.

Josiah's boss was kind enough to park his large stock trailer in our driveway and let us pack it full. So that is what we did. We sure have enough stuff! :)

See? 

Our garage has become a staging place of boxes, boxes.....

and more boxes... :D And that's not even a recent photo! You should see it today!

Big ones, small ones, square ones we have every kind of box you could think of.

We are trying very hard to label them properly, and our very organized mother has had us relabel/sort things a couple times.  Of course there have been those moments where we have had to unpack a box due to the question "Hey! Where is my ____?" Oh whoops! Yup, packed away already.. :P

Pretty much anywhere you go in the house there is just a walk way between rows of boxes.

A lot of them are filled with books....

And one with a Kitten! (Don't worry this was only temporary)

 Of course, the more boxes were piled about, the more places we are able to label as "EMPTY"!

So this year finds us on December 26th actually celebrating "Boxing day" :) Because that's what we are doing... boxing up anything in sight.

So from our house to yours.....

HAPPY BOXING DAY!!!

:)
If anyone is interested in helping us move, the main move is planned on Tuesday Dec. 30th. We will be beginning around 9. Just contact us and let us know if you want to join the fun!! :) (We will also be doing preliminary and extra moving on Monday and Wednesday.)

~Chs

Thursday, December 25, 2014

Noting the Fingerprints

Most of you know that we did indeed sell our house and are currently in a state of moving. But you might not know the "whole story", so in case you're interested, here is a tracing of the Fingerprints of God over the past few months.

It was the first week of November and the Sauves were tired of showings. We had decided way back when we put our house on the market that if it didn't sell, we would take it off the market the end of October because we didn't want to move in the winter. So that first week of November, Dad planned to call our realtor and end our house selling attempt.  Apparently God has a sense of humor... our realtor was out of town on Monday and Dad forgot to call right away on Tuesday. Before he remembered, we got a call that said, "Someone would like to see your house this Friday." After some hemming and hawing, we said yes to the showing but "No more! After this (we of course were assuming nothing would come of it) we are done."

So Friday came. We are used to showings; sometimes people breeze through in 10 min., if they're semi-interested they might stay for a max of 45min. This young family stayed for over an hour. We were cautiously excited. Personally I was still skeptical. Surely we weren't actually going to sell our house!? It seemed an impossibility. But with God nothing is impossible, and sure enough by Saturday we received their offer. God's Fingerprints were unmistakeable. 

The next few weeks were taken up with the thrilling, and sometimes depressing, occupation of looking at houses.

There were old ones....

and short ones.

Ones with small barns....

and fallen down barns.

Ones with furniture...

and ones without.

There were yellow ones...

 and green ones.
 
Kept up ones...

and run down ones.

And after looking at all those "ones" we still weren't closer to finding home. So we widened our search, and took off some limitations and swallowed some preferences.. still nothin'.  I think God was laughing at us a little, because there were a few houses that we had seen way back at the beginning and had marked off for certain reasons.

 One of them, because it had such an odd long narrow property, and an awful driveway, and backed to corn fields, and ... well we decided to look at it anyway. Sure enough, this house with the nasty driveway and the odd acreage just happened to be the house that God had destined to be our next residence (at least for the coming 7 years.. :) )
Sure the driveway is long and needs fixing, but God already provided for that, because the Pastor of the new church we just "happen" to be attending, just "happens" to do excavating and was so kind as to be willing to help fix the driveway even this late in the year.

Yes, the 10 acres are stretched out skinny and long, but they are flanked on one side by a large plot of unused land that might possibly be rent-able in the future.

True there is a marsh running through the property but the woods surrounding it are scattered with large Maple trees perfect for tapping, and the marsh will delight my ducks too! ;)

There is enough clear land for pasture, and the brushy land is filled with surprises, like 10 mature apple trees (in need of pruning to be sure, but there) and a large overgrown grape arbor.

So you see, if you follow the fingerprints of God, you'll find us at our new abode with 10 acres full of hard work and potential, and a little Quad house (the first Quad in our experience), happy and grateful for His guidance!

(we hope to be settled in our new house by the first week of Jan. but more on that next)

~Chs

Monday, December 22, 2014

Whose Chair?

We picked up a bouncy seat for when Baby Nephew is over... Kitten thinks it makes a nice Kitty seat too! :)

~Chs

Thursday, December 18, 2014

Benefit Dinner

Last Friday our church held a benefit dinner/silent auction event. :) It was a wonderful evening of fellowship.


There were so many unique and diverse objects in the auction. Everything from specialty cupcakes, to rounds of ammo. :)

Knives, puzzles, train sets, scarves, gift baskets, a cheesecake... Truly something for everybody.

There was quite a bit of friendly competitive bidding going on. We even had some false names used, for anonymity ! :)

We had a Chili Dinner, and there were many interesting variations, including some chicken chili's and a pineapple one.



It was a delightful evening, and we went home with some interesting objects, and many memories.

~Chs

Saturday, December 13, 2014

Like Son Like Father

Josiah has been wearing overalls exclusively (barring Church and some special events and occasions) for the past 5 years or so.  Well Dad finally joined the club. :) And whenever he wears them, I keep thinking I am seeing 2 Josiahs walking around....

~Chs

Thursday, December 11, 2014

Squeezing in the Gatherings

 Somehow, over the past year, we have not had the opportunity of having as many families and people over as we would like. Life gets busy and if you don't make time for it, it doesn't happen. So for some reason we have had the urge to have company recently, of course we waited until we are right in the middle of packing up and moving out! (promise more on that later) But maybe that is kind of a reason... having as many happy memories in this house as we can, before we leave it! 

 We were blessed to discover and start attending Reformation Bible Church around 3 months ago. We thoroughly enjoy the firm Biblical preaching, and wonderful Christian fellowship.  


Last week we were so happy to be able to have Pastor and Mrs. Long over for dinner.

We are so grateful for their ministry and friendship!

~Chs

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Friends Forever

Sadie Rose and Pumpkin Spice Lottie (aka Kitten) have a very interesting relationship. We honestly never expected Sadie to be super close to any cat, and of course didn't know what kind of cat it would take to put up with some of Sadie's craziness.  Well apparently Kitten is that cat.

Kitten adores Sadie Rose, in a possessive, lordly fashion, and Sadie Rose is amused by, and tolerates the little feline.

"We'll be friends forever, right Todd?"
"Yeah, forever."
~Fox and the Hound

Saturday, December 06, 2014

A Thankful Celebration!

This year one of the things we were thankful for was the house that we have lived in for over 7 years now, and were delighted to be able to host Thanksgiving in this house for the last time.

Josiah was put in charge of making our annual nut cups... lets just say they were way more detailed then we have ever had before! We have had everything from Turkeys, apples, cornucopias, and leaves. Oh, and one year we had a pathetic version of the "Mayflower" which really more resembled a little round tub, or a floating crows nest with a mast in it. :)

So Josiah decided to make a Ship nut cup again. This time though he started out with a historically correct drawing of a ship of the time period, and began his draft.

This was the final result. The details are impressive.

The kitchen was very full Wednesday, between, Gingerbread cookies, our traditional spiced nuts, a variety of Cranberry sauces,

Plus of course pies...

Faith is the Queen of pie making, and this year she over did herself (truly, we ate pies for breakfast and snack that weekend. Which was really just fine! :).

1 plain Apple pie, a decadent Sour Cream Apple pie, a tangy Cranberry Apple, and 2 Pumpkin pies.


I had way to much fun decorating our tables this year.

Thursday morning, Josiah had finished his whole fleet of ships (with help from Faith, Mom and Dad). He said it was a Spanish Armada... or since this was Thanksgiving, a "Pilgrim Frittata" :P

We each have our "thing" that we are in charge of for Thanksgiving. For Faith it's the pies, Mother of course.. it's her famous Rolls.


Another major thing we were grateful for this year was being able to have Aunt Myrt join us!!

Enough food? :)

We were also happy to have Aunt Pat (Uncle Tim's sister) with us to this Thanksgiving!

In addition to the 5 pies Faith made, we had a Sweet Potato Pie, a Peanut Butter Chocolate Pie, and Aunt Lucy's famous Chocolate Pecan Pie! Uhuh.. too much goodness.


Charming Baby Gabe was a little put off by all the new faces at first, but after a nap he was his own smiley goofy self.

"Squishy"

Piggy Back rides from Uncle Josiah.. only the beginning.

We have so much to be thankful for all year round, but it was wonderful to be able to gather with family for a special Thanksgiving celebration!

~Chs