Today is Koninginnedag, Queen’s Day.  It’s the day to celebrate the queen.  It’s supposed to be on her birthday, but since her birthday is in the winter and weather is bad, they kept the date as her mother’s birthday.  This is the only day that garage sales are allowed, so everyone goes into the center of the city to set up and sell their things.  Grace has asked for years to do this, and I finally gave in.  We got there at a little before 8:30.  It was rainy and cool.

Here is a timeline of how things went:

8:30 – It is raining.  Grace asks, “Has this thing started yet?”

8:45 – Nothing has sold.  It has at least stopped raining.  Grace asks if we can go home.

9:00 – It is raining again.  Still nothing has sold.  Grace asks again if we can go home.  We lower prices.  Grace says, “I hope we at least sell one thing.”

9:30 – Morning snack time.  The kid next to us asks if we have sold anything after he sells a few things.  I begin to not like that kid.  I try to convince Grace to call out to people and try to sell things.  She absolutely refuses.  It’s no longer cool.  It’s becoming cold.  Grace and I are shivering.

10:00 – We sell our first item.  Grace is more optimistic about the day.  More people are starting to come.  It’s raining off and on.

10:30 – The people by us leave, so we move to their better location.  We sell a few more things.

11:00 – Grace gets her second morning snack.  It has started to rain harder.  Yuck!

11:30 – Grace and I are ready to go.  Grace has started picking up certain items and shouting their price.  She even goes so far as to get a Winnie the Pooh toy and have it wave at people as they go along.  I have to tell her to back up because she doesn’t need to get in their face quite so much.

11:45 – We call for Mike to come pick us up.  It has stopped raining, but we are pretty wet and cold.  Most of the people around us have left.

12:00 – We are home and get to go through our things.  Everything is wet and kind of gross.  Grace has made 8.25 today and is very happy.  We have cleaned out a lot from her room and it looks much better , so I am also happy.  Hot chocolate and hot tea make us both feel much better too.

I asked her if she wants to do this again next year, and I got a definite “NO” from her.  I tried not to be too obviously excited about her answer.  Today, I hope she realized how much I love her!  By the way, as I type this, it’s now 1:30, and the sun is coming out.  It looks like it will be a much better afternoon than morning.

Happy Queen’s Day to all!

The sickness kept me from editing videos.  I’ve finally started on it again today.  We are working on a curriculum for our church that has video segments.  It should make it much easier for the workers, but it does create much more work for us.  We converted our guest room into a studio of sorts.  We’ve shot the video for the first four weeks.  Now, I’m editing it all.  When I’m done with that, we’ve got to get subtitles on it.  Our church is international and it functions with two main languages: English and Dutch.  Het kost veel tijd om iets in twee talen te doen! (It takes a lot of time to do something in two languages!)

So, while I’m working on video editing today, Mike is at the VPE congress.  The VPE is the church organization we work with here in The Netherlands.  Today is their yearly meeting.  It actually started yesterday.  Mike went yesterday to teach a seminar on children’s ministry  It’s nice that we are a team and can keep working even when we’re apart.

Grace at the museum

Leaves are changing and falling to the ground.  It’s beautiful until I have to clean up the yard.

Front Yard

Our time changed last week.  That means that we leave for school in daylight now, but it won’t be long before we’ll be leaving in darkness again.  I really don’t like having to turn on lights or start candles at 4:30, but that’s how it is.  I honestly expected it to be colder than it has been by now.  There were a few days a few weeks ago that I had to scrape ice off the windshields before leaving in the morning, but it’s been pretty nice since then.

It has cooled off a little though.  You know it’s cold in the house when our dog likes to be covered up.  I guess it could be because of the cold or that he’s terribly spoiled or ridiculous.  You can take your pick.

We should've named this dog Linus

Our crate in The Netherlands

We had our winter clothes, some of Grace’s toys, towels, kitchen items, office supplies and children’s ministry supplies.  I think that when I opened this, I giggled the most in excitement.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen a slow cooker for Europe, but we actually found one at a store in Dallas.

My slow cooker for Europe

Grace had many clothes that someone had handed down to her, so she got to have a bit of a fashion show.  As you can guess, she enjoyed that.  I think of all the things we had in our crate, this is what Mike was the most excited about.

Taco Bell hot sauce

The caption on the sauce said, “Ahhhh.  We meet again.”  Mike said that it was really appropriate.  You can see that he didn’t waste any time in using some of the packages.

We love doing this and are doing it more as a family now that Grace is a little older.  She helps us by doing her character, Smiley Iris and by singing with us during the services also.

Now, we’re down to 23 days before leaving.  We still have 6 services in Texas and Arkansas before we leave.  Our crate is being made that will carry some of our things via a ship, and our suitcases are pretty much packed.  We are truly living out of our suitcases now.  Someone asked me recently where I am from.  That’s a long question to answer usually, but now, we don’t really have a home until we’re back in The Netherlands.  I’m ready to go home!

I can’t tell you how many lists I have going right now.  I have the “things to do before leaving” list.  I have the “what I need to buy before leaving” list.  I have the “things to buy other people” list.  We’re speaking at three camps and one kids’ crusade this summer, so you can imagine the lists for that.  Since we’re leaving in less than two months, we decided to make a list of things we wanted to do before leaving.

We each have a list.  My list includes getting a manicure/pedicure, eating at Taco Bell and, hopefully, getting a massage.  Mike’s list is to eat a good steak dinner, see a baseball game, a date night with me (that sadly doesn’t happen often) and eat at Mamma’s Pizza.  We actually ate there last night, so we can mark that one off the list.  Grace’s list is to go back to Gattitown and have Lucky Charms.  That’s not too tall of an order.  As you can see, we keep marking things off our list.

Grace - eating Lucky Charms

I have a working list of things we need to do before heading back to The Netherlands.  I have a separate list of things to buy to take with us.  We need to replace much of Grace’s clothes.  The problem is that we will need warmer clothes, and they’re not available.  Yesterday, when I was shopping, I found something on my list though – winter pajamas.  I was so excited and even more excited to see that they were only $2.  So, until we leave to go back, we keep on working and marking things off our list.

Thank you to all of you who are praying with us that we get back on time.  We now lack $840 in monthly support.  We can see the light at the end of the tunnel!

As you can guess, Mondays aren’t our easiest mornings.  Grace was pretty happy when I told her she didn’t have to make up her bed today though.  I guess we have to look for the good things in it all.

Yesterday, we had great services in Marble Falls and Austin, Texas.  These churches have been so good to us!  It definitely makes our Monday mornings worth it!

Today is St. Patrick’s Day.  When I first explained this holiday to Grace, she freaked out a little.  She called it “The Pinching Holiday.”  It’s her first in America that she can remember.  They don’t celebrate it in The Netherlands.  Well, our Irish friends there do, but it is nothing like it is in America.

We learned a while ago that Grace is highly motivated by either money or things bought for her.  This year in The Netherlands, she is missing out on multiplication.  So, if she memorizes her multiplication tables from 0 – 6, she can get a new Webkinz.  So far, she’s memorized through 5.  I think she already has in mind what she’s going to get.  If you don’t know what Webkinz is, don’t feel bad.  I didn’t know until we moved back here.  They’re stuffed animals that come with a code.  You can put that code into their website and play with your animals there too.  Ah, the marketing they do for kids.  Oh well, it’s helping a little girl learn her multiplication!