Up to a lot!

What haven't we been doing?

Grandma Yoyo came the middle of last month!  We had so much fun showing her our church, our neighborhood and our community.  We also got to take her to Myrtle Beach.  It was so fun to have several days with no house cleaning involved!  She was such a blessing by adoring on the kiddos!  We were grateful for her help with laundry and dishes and all around precious time.

My grandfather passed away while she was here.  He was not a good man.  I don't know if he can hear how people feel about him.  I would not even go to my grandparents' home because of how much I couldn't stand to be around him.  I struggle with who he was and how he treated everyone around him...there are just no nice things to say.  I don't know if you have had someone in your life whom you could say very few, if any nice things about.  It is not fun.  I am constantly amazed at how my mom changed the course of my life by being and doing better than her father.  My kids know love and hear they are loved every day which had never been the case in grandpa's home.

Watching Grandma blossom at the age of almost 86 has been sad and exciting.  She gets to eat a fresh banana..for 58 years she was only able to buy the bananas on discount cause they were already brown. That is just the tip of the iceberg as far as the rules she had to live by.  She had no choice, no say in anything she did.  She couldn't even wear the pajama pants because grandpa wanted her to wear night gowns.  No wonder I struggled so long with figuring out what a submissive wife looks and sounds like.    I was so disgusted by how she was treated that I refused to even look at the word submissive.  At one point I may have even scratched it out of my Bible.  Then I met Matthew.  How could I not look at him as the leader in our home?  He is a man of God who leads our family with sacrifice and love!  The fruits of the Spirit are so clear when it comes to my family...the fruits of my grandfather (an atheist) were anger, hatred, bitterness, alcoholism, and cruelty.  The fruits of M's spirit lead by the Holy Spirit are love, peace, patience, kindness...you know the deal.

After a bit of a struggle purchasing tickets (I had a hard time bringing myself to spend $600.00 airfare on a man who when making spaghetti would only allow 32 noodles per person because he hoarded pennies) I realized I was going for my grandmother and my mom.  I was so blessed to have M's mom and and Aunt who were willing to stay with the kids so I could go.  While I felt horrible leaving my MIL who flew in from Australia, I was grateful to have family who love my kids be able to take care of them so I could go to NM and show love towards my grandma and mom.

I got to NM and the Holy Spirit guided every moment of the trip.  The interactions were amazing.  Grandma and grandpa had 2 empty houses that grandma needed to have sold as soon as possible.  So we cleaned from dawn til dusk for two days so that she could get them sold.  I was there for only two days and hardly did anything compared to my uncle who lives there, but it was so great to be able to help in one small way.  Grandma sat next to me in a chair and while I scrubbed she told me her life story.  She started at the very beginning and told me so many stories about her family and her whole life.  I hope she enjoyed it.  I loved hearing her perspective.  Her memory is amazing!  I hope I have 1/2 her mental abilities when I am 60 let alone 86!  I didn't have any time to see any of my other NM family, but I am so thankful that I was able to help grandma in a small way!

She is so coming into her own too!  She is eating out once per week!  She is buying avocados!   She also has tickets to come to KS for my mom's bday weekend when we will be there!  So she gets to meet my twins 54 years after she had her twins!  I am so excited so spend time with here and bribe the 3 years olds to give her as many hugs as possible ;).

Then I headed back to NJ where we spent amazing time with family in from Australia and Bermuda for M's grandma's 80th bday party.  While it was tough not having M there we were amazingly blessed to have so many people surrounding us and distracting us from daddy being gone.  They spoiled us with their time, $$$, and love.  We are so grateful!

We are back in NC and cleaning/painting away.  The kitchen is now yellow and all scrubbed down.  We are beginning to think about next month when we get to buy school supplies!  We get to buy first day of school clothes!  We get to get back in a routine!