We Are Not Illini

Living Room and some of my help

I have not fallen off the edge of the planet, just Ohio, but we are officially residents of Illinois now. Or at least we have an Illinois address. My license and van plates beg to differ and I wonder if people think I'm a tourist at the Watseka Wal-Mart with my Ohio plates. I believe living in Illinois makes us "Illinoisans"--figure out how to pronounce that one. I like the term "Illini" (pronounced ill-EYE-nye) and wish that was the term applied to all us Illinoisans because I know how to say it and it's catchy but I believe that is reserved for only those who attend the University of Illinos--makes me want to enroll. While I'm on the subject, did you know the "s" on the end of Illinois is silent? I bet you did, but just in case, thought I'd mention it. I don't know what you do with that tidbit when calling people who live here "Illinoisians." I'm thankful I only have to type that word at this point.

We are winding down our whirlwindish days of moving in. We only have about 50 more boxes to unpack or so. The bedrooms are back there, patiently waiting for some help. My bedroom has a well worn path through the boxes. The boys' room seems close to orderly. The girls' room, not gonna lie, is what you would expect to see after a series of tornado touchdowns. Its a bunch of carefully stacked boxes on top of squished up clothes on top of toys on top of shoes, and it's all precariously balanced. No one sneeze in there! Maybe tomorrow I can get in there because it's backing up my laundry as they don't know where to put their things so they can't put their clothes away. GIRLS!!!!!

This was the beginning of their unpacking. It's much worse now. 

I have decided one of the tricky things of moving into a new home is assigning areas of the home to different tasks: Where to put the file cabinet of important papers, where do we drop our keys, where to hang the school back packs, how to keep the dog from finding new escape routes so she can visit the neighbor dog, those sorts of things.

I planted tomatoes and zucchini in one of our many flower beds, yup, just pulled out some kind of weedy, over grown flowers and plopped those crops in their spot right next to the Clematis and Black Eyed Susans. I can't wait for those to get going.

Most excitingly, we met our neighbors. We have received a warm welcome here. It seems people knew we were coming which has been pretty nice. I think small town living is not for anyone who wants to be anonymous or wishes to keep their beeswax private. For someone who desires to be with others and get to know others, as we hope to do, it's perfect.

We've hosted a few neighborhood kids for dinner already and I'm so happy about that. I've decided I want to have a ministry around food. Feed them and they will come is what I'm envisioning at least for the teenager-ishy group. We also had the church over for a little cook out on Sunday. It's such a joy to be here and participate in the life of the church. We look forward to that growing more and more.

A few of our dear friends from Toledo have expressed interest in praying for specific needs we have so I'm putting together an email list for anyone who would like to pray for us and I'll send you our prayer requests. If you're interested in receiving our email prayer requests, let me know. I think most of you know how to reach me and if not, comment below to be included and I'll get back with you unless I end up buried alive under heaps of girl accessories and dolls, so if you don't hear from me, you know how to pray: may someone find me before I'm a goner.

Have a good Tuesday (although a quick peek tells me tomorrow is not Tuesday but Weds., so whatever day is tomorrow for you, I hope it finds you rejoicing in God's faithfulness.

This was the first day of unpacking. It is better now. I feel like this should be made into a game of eye spy…can you find the waffle maker, dish soap, trash can, little boy?