They say you can never go home again...

The house in Georgia is sold!

Yes, we painted all the trim
in the house.  Ugh, what a project. Is that
dental molding you ask?  Why yes it
is.  Each one was painstakingly
painted with a tiny artist paintbrush.

Newsflash!  You can go home again:>  The dust has finally settled on decision making and the Lord guided us to where we are going to be in the coming year.  While it took 6 months of waiting, trusting and praying, it took only a few weeks for the Lord to answer all those prayers.  Our house in Georgia sold very quickly so it was clear that Georgia would not be where we would settle.  Closing should be Monday if all goes well.  We moved back to our "family homestead" in Columbia.  We originally rented the house out for a year and half.  If you recall a previous post, about a year ago around this time, we were trying to get the house usable once again after the renters moved out.  It was quite a disaster and unfortunately we ended up working on it up until November of last year.  We put it on the market, fully expecting to have to sell it so that we could stay in Georgia, but God had other plans!  The house never sold, and truth be told I was secretly thankful that it didn't.  I was having a hard time letting it go and I know if it sold it would be very emotional for me.  This house was a special gift to us long ago when we were very young and we moved into it when Josh was just a year and a half.  Emily was born here and lived here most of her life, and there were a lot of happy and sad memories we shared together in this place.  Mike and I really grew up here together and while I realize it is just a place, and "home is where the heart is"  it really is the only place that we consider our home.  When we received the house I dedicated it to God and asked that he would use it as a blessing to us as well as to all that spent time here and that we would use it for God's glory.  I can truly say that our home has been a place of refuge for not only our family, but several others as well.  As we move back into it, I pray that it would continue to be used for God's glory.  We are still "working on it".  When you own a home, are you ever done fixing it up, changing it, or adding to it?  I don't know if it's just us, but we always find something that needs to be done with the old place.  Enough about where we will be living, what will we be doing?  Mike accepted a job at Northside Christian Academy in Lexington, SC.  Yes, that is correct, only a small drive up the rode from our home.  I wish I had the time and place to explain all that God did to orchestrate our being here, but suffice it to say for now, we can clearly see God's hand, guidance, and direction, and know without doubt that this is where we are to be this year.  Mike is excited for the opportunity to minister at this wonderful new school where God is glorified and honored.  He will be teaching computer and science this year.  Emily will also be working at the very same school!  Yes, it is amazing.  She will be at the same school as her dad once again, but this time not as a student, but as a teacher!  She is excited about her first year of teaching and is looking forward to getting to know all her new 4th grade students.  What will I be doing?  I'm not sure yet.  We actually moved all our stuff to the house not this weekend but last.  I have not even begun to unpack as I was trying to get all the trim painted in the house first.  It was a massive undertaking but today we put the last coat of white paint on the bathroom and boy am I glad.  I do still have the garage to paint, but since all our stuff is in there right now, the garage will be put on hold until I can find the walls again.  I will be unpacking for awhile and trying to get us all settled back in.  I am praying about future opportunities  and am still waiting on the Lord to hear where he wants me to be.  For now, it is putting our house back in order.  And last, but certainly not least, an update on our favorite portlanders.  Josh and Alli purchased a home and will hopefully be moving by the end of August.  We are so excited for them.  The house is a wonderful old home in town and we know that it is just the perfect place for them.  Josh is doing great at his photography company.  His company is growing by leaps and bounds, he received a company car, and will be getting a phone to use for work.  He travels a lot and has been working on the yearbook for schools part of the company as well as many other responsibilities.  We are thankful that God provided him with a job that he enjoys doing so much.  Alli has been working in a coffee shop (coffee is life support for Portland people!)  She has a flower business as well as an Etsy shop and has exciting plans ahead for her in the future.  They are both busy with church, they are avid Timber fans, and throw in an occasional camping trip for fun.  We are hoping to be able to go out and visit them soon.  For all of you who prayed, thank you!  We love you and appreciate you caring enough to lift us up in prayer!  We hope that our answered prayers are an encouragement to you.  Blessings!

Moving....again?

Well, it has been a long time since my last post.  Typical for the Schreck clan, it appears the Lord has a new adventure ahead of us once again:>  We were in the process of selling our house in SC.  We are now in the process of selling our house in GA and moving back to our house in SC!  I know, it's hard to keep up with, even for us!  It seems our time at GCA was ended and now the Lord has a new place in store for us to minister, although we are not sure where that will be at this very moment.  Needless to say, the Lord has been teaching me in the last 6 months these concepts from the Bible:  Wait.  Trust.  Help is on the way, an answer is coming, everything will work out. The only one who is all powerful is also merciful.  Fear not.  Be strong and courageous.  Don't be afraid, friend.  Peace.  Everything will be all right.  Deliverer "taken from one place to another".  Little did I know when the Lord started impressing and speaking these words into my life, how much I would need them and depend on them in the months ahead.  I lost my sweet Bear in March, went on a mission trip to Jamaica, Lost a dear colleague to cancer, Mike's job was not renewed due to a lack of funding, sickness, Emily graduating, and our old house not selling, putting our new house on the market, moving again after only 1 1/2 years.  Needless to say, it has been another period of extreme highs and extreme lows, but God...  He is sustaining me and helping me to get through this time.  I have also read a book (many times now:>)  Entitled the "Red Sea Rules".  I can not express how much this book has meant to me.  10 truths that have kept me from going over the edge during this difficult time are explained in this tiny little book.  They have been invaluable and even the timing of receiving this book was no coincidence.  Please pray with us as we start a new adventure once again!  More to come in the days ahead...

"Game On"

Came across this video while reading yahoo news.  I thought it was very creative and cute!

Hope you enjoy it!

Villa Rica

ottoman

amazing settee!

I have a few new addictions to confess:  ottomans, settees, craigslist, and pinterest.  I search craigslist for free stuff, ottomans, and settees.  I recently purchased an ottoman and settee from craigslist.  The ottoman was from a store in Villa Rica.  So my longsuffering husband drove me an hour away last Saturday to the small town of Villa Rica where we spent a lovely morning perusing the antique shops there.  I picked up my great deal ottoman and Mike purchased a set of hardback Winnie the Pooh books that were published the year he was born (my husband is very sentimental and also suffers a few addictions of his own, one of which is that he can never resist buying a book)  I love my ottoman and am trying to decide what fabric to reupholster it in.  Yesterday, I purchased my first antique settee from craigslist.  While I like it alot, it will need a lot of work.  I am a bit concerned because it needs its coils replaced.  Mike has assured me that he thinks he can handle that part) We will see.  I was also supposed to purchase another one that was finished and had beautiful lines.  Unfortunately, the person sold it yesterday afternoon to someone else before I had a chance to go get it.  I am soooooo disappointed, but realize that part of the fun is the hunt, so the hunt will continue (fun for me but not so great on the pocketbook!)  I think I will have to stop looking for ottomans, although I love the old giant round ones, so you never know!
While in Villa Rica we stopped at a store that left me speechless.  It was so crammed full of stuff that I deemed it the "hoarding store".  It had anything you could possibly imagine.  Unfortunately it appeared to be going out of business.  Because I found it so fascinating I had to take some pictures so here they are:

Inside (just one aisle ahhhhh!!!!!!) 

Outside, it said, "If we don't have it, you don't need it!"

Old Hymns

Do you find that you miss the old hymns you used to sing in church when you were a child?  I do.  Sometimes one of the tunes will float through my head and I start to try to sing them, and I have forgotten the words.  That makes me sad.  Some of those hymns were great reminders of the faithfulness of God, and reiterated the doctrines that we were learning in church.  Don't get me wrong.  I do enjoy the modern worships songs and the more contemporary music, but there is just something about the old hymns that is special.  While I was having devotions today,  the hymn, "Break Thou the Bread of Life" entered my head.  I started to try to sing it, but couldn't remember the words, just the tune.  I really felt like the Lord was trying to talk to me through this hymn, so I went online to try to find the words.  I found cyber hymnal and found the words and the music.  The Lord has given me several words lately to help me get through some of our current circumstances and today he gave me the words from Daniel in the Message.  It is from Daniel 10:18 and it is spoken by the angel to Daniel.  Daniel is seeing the angel and is scared stiff.  The angels words were, "Don't be afraid, friend.  Peace.  Everything is going to be all right.  Take courage.  Be strong."  These are along the same lines as the words the Lord gave me on the first Sunday of the New year.  Clearly, it is a truth that the Lord wants me to grasp a hold of.  Are you struggling with difficult circumstances or wondering what in the world the Lord is doing with your life?  Maybe these words are meant for you as well!

Break Thou the bread of life, dear Lord, to me,         

As Thou didst break the loaves beside the sea;

Beyond the sacred page I seek Thee, Lord;

My spirit pants for Thee, O living Word.

Bless Thou the truth, dear Lord, to me, to me,

As Thou didst bless the bread by Galilee;

Then shall all bondage cease, all fetters fall;

And I shall find my peace, my all in all.

Thou art the bread of life, O Lord, to me,

Thy holy Word the truth that saveth me;

Give me to eat and live with Thee above;

Teach me to love Thy truth, for Thou art love.

O send Thy Spirit, Lord, now unto me,

That He may touch my eyes, and make me see:

Show me the truth concealed within Thy Word,

And in Thy Book revealed I see the Lord.

http://nethymnal.org/htm/b/t/bttblife.htm

Happy New Year...a little late

New year, new look for the blog.  The picture is from our trip over Christmas to Blue Springs State Park in Florida.  We went with the Beates family to see the amazing Manatees that frequent this area.  It was a wonderful trip, and they do have a live streaming feed if you would like to investigate it.  Heres the website:  http://www.floridastateparks.org/bluespring/  What's new for the new year?  I don't know but I'm sure it will be full of exciting new adventures.  Sometimes that scares me as it is always difficult not to know what the future holds.  Sometimes it excites me because since you don't know, it could be something really amazing!  Whatever it does hold, I do know that the Lord will be with us through whatever we may face.  We finally finished working on the house in Columbia.  Now we are just waiting for it to sell.  It was a lot of hard work and some discouraging situations along the way, but it is a relief to be done and we hope some new family will enjoy it as much as we have.  I didn't get to many pictures, but here is one with the new tile.

new tile in entryway
After we finished the house, we headed to Orlando to visit the Schreck clan for Christmas and visit with Josh and Alli. Mom had a lot of work done on her new house and it looks great.  I'm sure she will have many happy days ahead of her in the new place!

Mom at Christmas

Josh and Alli
Headed home for the New Year.  Had a visit from Evan Barber and we ate pizza and played Mario.  Then it was back to school.  Isabear and I have spent several days resting and recuperating from all the holiday excursions.  She turned 12 on New Years day and the old girl just ain't what she used to be.  She hasn't been feeling well lately but we are working hard at helping her to feel better.  She has been a faithful friend and a great traveling buddy for me over these last few years so she deserves some time to just lay around and rest.  That's a very quick update of the last 2 months!

It Would Have Been Free....

Hi everyone, today I am guest posting for mom again. She has a lot going on and wanted to take pictures and blog about a craft but asked me to do it instead so here goes.......

45 magnets and paper bags later we are wishing all the GCA little ones a Merry Christmas! What do you get 45 elementary schoolers when you would love for the gift to be free? 45 is a big number and a lot of presents! It must also be nice because, "When it's free, it must be perfect!"

Mom found some free magnet ideas and paper bag cut outs online. So we figured out the number for each class and printed them out!

Kindergarten got red snowman patterned bags, first grade-Christmas trees, second grade-cute snowmen, third grade-snowmen hats, fourth grade-gingerbread men, fifth grade-holly.

This was all a great idea in theory until you run out of ink. Being the creative educators we are, we improvised! We printed the patterns in black and white and colored them.

This wasn't the only thing we used up. With only a handful of the magnets left to run through our xylon machine, we ran out of the magnet cartridge. Let me just tell you, it was quite humorous. Mom and I were in the basement pulling as hard as we could to get all the magnet we possibly could! "Waste not, leave not." Well, we still had to make a trip to Hobby Lobby. It was almost free! Purchasing a less than $3 strip of sticky magnet and we could finally finish! We thought......

We were almost done and mom realized there were two birthday magnet smileys. That could not do because these are Christmas presents, so we had to salvage the magnet (because we used a majority of the recently purchased magnet strip) and print two more pictures.

Mom had the idea to attach brads to each of the bags to keep them shut along with the gift tag explaining the gift and we finally finished! The above picture shows the brad in the star of the tree.

It was quite the project! We were happy with it in the end, after all....it was almost free!

-Emily