Busy Week after Vacation, Prayer Mode over Retirement, and World Bible School Progress

Hello friends. We have been back from San Antonio. Hope you enjoyed the last day’s post. I’m not sure if many saw it. I accidentally posted twice in one day, lol. I meant to schedule it for a day later.

It has been pretty busy the last few days. I was exhausted Sunday but we were so glad to get Dexter around 6 p.m. He was so glad to see us. He was tired for a couple of days after several days of running around with his buds at doggie boarding. But since he’s come back to life. We can’t wait til the weekend where we can hang with him for a day. He slept with me and snuggled last night. I reached over and pet him during the night and he rolled over so that my hand would be rubbing his tummy. LOL

Work has been busy. I’ve been having a hard time catching up. A lot of interruptions, also some Mom things taking my attention away from work today, also conversations about some work changes at work – things I was informed about that will impact me – and discussing how that would go. Then the power went out for an hour. So I’m trying to do last week’s WED through FRI (when I was out on vacay) on top of this weeks WED through FRI. So when I go in on Thursday tomorrow, I still have about half of both week’s WED to do, if that makes since. I’m trying not to stay over either because I have things to do at home as well. I was running on time but now I’m behind.

Mom. So this week’s issue is that she let her blood pressure meds run out. I’ve done that before so I know it can sneak up on you when you forget to check to see how many refills you have. She is supposed to see him every few months to get a recheck. So now we found ourselves in urgent mode. She told me yesterday or the day before that she had been four days without the meds. I knew earlier before she told me of this issue, she was asking me her docs name, saying the neighbor wanted it so they could know who her doc was in case something happened. Anyway, So….she called today on her end and I got messages from two different pharmacies today at work. And then one from Mom. Mom told me the Rx was at Publix on Mount Juliet Road and so I was going to go after work and get it along with the hamburger meat she needed. But then I got a message that the Rx was at the Publix on Lebanon Road. So I had to call to verify WHICH one it REALLY was and make sure that was her Rx I got the message about. And she had a 20 day supply so I had to make an appt w/in that time for a refill for her. I was able to luck out and get one on a Thursday at 4:00. I will still have to leave work a little early to get to her place and get her to Hermitage. But better than having a middle of the day appointment. So we lucked out.

So as I was leaving (I would have stayed over a bit as I was so busy but knowing I had to do the errands, I decided I better leave on time). Then I checked messages and had a VM from Mom that her neighbor was taking her to get Rx as they were going out today anyway. But I had already packed my work desk up so I went ahead and left. Instead, I went to Starbucks to reward myself for it being such a busy day. I also needed caffeine as I’ve not been getting the needed sleep this week. We’ve been busy every night either discussing something or doing something, or on the phone with Mom after checking in and learning of this.

George is needing to schedule his colonoscopy… so as you can image between his appointments and my appointments he had to write all the dates down so he’ll know which date NOT to get. lol. I have to take him of course and take him home. And I’ll gladly do that as he has shuttled me back and forth for all mine. He’ll have to go for a consult first too.

Discussions of moving to Texas. So our discussions have been heavy this week on a possible move to Texas in 2025 when we retire. What started out as a “dream/what if” conversation over a bottle of wine – has turned into – “we think we’d really like to move toward this” to be near Katy/Cody and River, and possibly any more grandchildren they may decide to have. We talked about this risks and considerations. What if we move down there and they move away. Totally possible. What then? Could you follow after plunking down a bunch on another house? Then how would we proceed to move? What city would we pick in their perimeter. What kind of house? What are the downsides? What about Mom? What are willing to do? What are we not willing to do? What about all this stuff we have? How to sell it? Do we hire movers or just sell everything and buy all new stuff? It might be cheaper being how much they charge. What will the housing market and economy be like? What are the crime rates and house markets in each area? Do we get an apartment first and then decide what area we like? Will the area have good docs and hospitals as we are not young chickens? So we have decided a few things:

1. We are in prayer mode at this point. Does God want us to move?
2. If we decide for sure we will move, Mom will have to decide what she wants to do. Mom’s decision will have to be made by her. She is still of sound mind. Would she want to stay? Would she want to stay and try to work it out with my sister for care/needs? Would she want to move with us until we could get her set up elsewhere? What about her sister – no one flies and they won’t get to see each other much anymore. It’s a lot for Mom to consider. I wouldn’t be able to fly back and forth much b/c of the cost. I’d be here very little and she couldn’t depend on me anymore for her care if she stayed. At what point or where or when would she do assisted living? She’d have to pay movers because we aren’t moving her things again. I don’t even think we will be moving much of our things either. I don’t expect that Mom will handle this news well and it will be a point of crisis for her, but we told her that there was no guarantee we would stay here after retirement. We just didn’t know for sure and we still don’t. Nothing for sure has been decided yet, so I’ve not mentioned it to her. She says she doesn’t read the blog but her sister does, so I’m sure she will hear of the news and probably has already, that we are considering it. But there is not much we can really tell her yet. We’ve actually been considering it an option for a very long time. Mom could live to be 90 so waiting, if we decide to go, is not something we have decided to do. We would like to go while we are still able to go and enjoy our grandkid/grandkids. But we are still in prayer mode – although our conversations so far are moving us that direction, it’s still very much in the early stages of consideration. We are thinking about many things and would have a lot to resolve in two years time. Are we up to it? Only God, and time, will tell.
3. We are definitely going to begin our downsizing. We need to do that anyway regardless, but now we have added a little more fuel to the fire (a reason to do it). This meaning to get rid of stuff. We talked about smaller space, smaller yard – even a condo if it was right. I told George I didn’t want to move into a place and not have storage. So we’d have to right size it. And he has a lot of guitars. So he is going to start working on selling some of them in the Nashville market before we leave. So much to consider.

It seems unreal to me that not next year but the year after, I can be retired. And I’m so thrilled George will talk about what to do when we retire. He would never even talk about it except to say he didn’t know. He never has been able to dream much about the future. I always thought dreaming was healthy. It’s a God-given charm of a process that the Lord gave us, to be able to have a vision and move toward it. So I had begun to have my own visions and work toward it because that is how my mind constantly works. No worries, I’m not giving up my little dreams that I’m working on. But this definitely adds more excitement to the mix! Could we soon become Texans? Possibly so.

However, nothing is certain, and many things could change. So that is why we are in prayer mode. An effort this big must be bathed in prayer before tackling. The Lord will set everything in the path or will choose to keep us here with blockades, or otherwise it will become obvious. It’s just important that the decision is made by God and us. And nothing else clouding our judgment or keeping us from obtaining our dreams/goals. Katy says she wants us there closer. I hope Cody does too. We won’t be in their face every day but we could be closer and able to help with River and be there for them too and them for us some. We’d likely visit their church as well to see what we thought if we lived in that area. Most of the cities around the ranch are 30 to an hour away. Still not real close but 30 is better than an hour. An hour is better than 14 hours.

World Bible School. Oh I finally had lots to grade tonight. I have been adopting 10 to 25 a day because no one was doing tests so I thought I’d throw numbers at it and I had like 21 quizzes to grade suddenly, several certificates to award for completing courses and unlocking the next levels for them. I had three that said they understood the significance of Jesus dying on the cross, the burial and resurrection and how baptism signified obeying God and being buried with Him for remission of sins. So I followed up with their profile info. Two had been baptized already and was already infused with a body of believers. One was not. So I will be communicating with that one over the next few days to understand where she is in the process, what she is understanding in the lessons so far and if she is ready for “follow up” in which they are referred to someone else for personal bible study and possible baptism and a church in her area.

I am in love with this process. And so happy to be connecting with women all over the world (that speak English though). I just looked and I’m working with women in these countries (or will if they complete their lessons):

• Nigeria
• Ghana
• Zambia
• South Africa
• Zimbabwe
• USA (Texas)
• Paramaribo, Suriname (South America)
• Uganda
• Botswana

I only feel comfortable right now working with females. I just feel moved to work with them and feel that is most appropriate as we deal with so many countries and cultures. Plus I feel that God would like for women to teach women (He actually said that). I’ll let the males adopt the male folks. We go through a process of adopting the students. My theory is to adopt all females on the first few pages (first come first serve) up to about 20 a day. Today I just happen to adopt some that were being reassigned from another student helper that wasn’t able to do it anymore and I inherited instant work that was already in process, so there was so much to do at once. It took me by surprise. But I’d been praying for this and I told God to lead me in the numbers that I adopt per day and that it would just be a good problem to have if I suddenly had people doing the lessons. It’s easy and the software leads you. A little bit of a learning curve but with a few videos and help links provided on the study helper end (my end) – it’s quickly figured out. Plus there is a help desk. They have not been too quick though (24 to 48 hours – and a few of my questions haven’t been answered at all on a technical issue I had). And there is not enough help for sure. There are 60 pages of people signed up to do Bible lessons. They can complete the first ones but someone has to grade them before they go further. So I feel so bad like there is so much opportunity and I hate they have to wait to be adopted. It’s usually a ten day to two week delay. I was working on about 10 days ago – maybe like March 11 and going forward. Those are who I adopted today except for those few that were placed back in the mainstream from another student helper – they were from Dec of last year and January. So many wanting to learn and not enough of us to adopt them all.

It’s incredible to be communicating with women all over and I’m looking forward to getting to know them and working with them and being there for them. God is amazing. I never knew there was a program like this. And the software is getting more exposure soon so there needs to be more of us doing this.

OK, better go to bed. I’m getting a headache. I didn’t work on the video tonight, but tomorrow night I’ll need to finish it up. It’s doable. I just need to add a few graphics, pics, and start the upload and Fri night I’ll do the thumbnail if I can’t get that done tomorrow. So there should be a Video Saturday morning at 7:00 if all goes to plan. It’s mainly of me taking a mental health day, working on the sunroom, cleaning the oven drip pans and how I did that, and also how I clean my porcelain sink to get it sparkling white. Totally just a “spend a day with me” on a Sunday where I skipped church. But I did it online and did a time lapse. And share some things that made me cry about the service. So kind of interesting, kind of laid back, kinda just an average day.

Two weeks from that should be the San Antonio trip. I have another post in between that includes Dexter’s birthday and some orders I did on line versus what came in – kindof an unboxing of Amazon and Thrive orders. Just kinda bringing the blog alive. Although most of what I share here is sometimes different than the video. So put the two together and you have just about everything about my life but work. I usually don’t even get into that anymore. I just don’t have the issues I once had and it’s not going to be long before I’m not there anymore. I just put my mental energies elsewhere when I’m home. Too much going on here to be worried about work anymore. I do that while I’m at work, lol.

Ok onto sleep but that is what has been going on this week!