Life in the woods

Good Morning Everyone! Just thought maybe I should start jotting down some thoughts. I love living here but it is a lot more hectic than I hoped it would be. What was I thinking? Just because you move to West Virginia things will slow down? Life has a lot more to do with how we manage than our circumstances. Didn't that wise apostle say something about being content no matter what our circumstances?

I feel the pressure of needing to get things done. I started to create a "to do" list and became rather discouraged. We will need to devote a lot more time to the "to do" list if we are going to make any serious impact on it. Or maybe we should just chuck it and just tackle whatever we feel like doing at the time (if we feel like doing anything?)

Of course if I had more energy maybe things would go faster. It seems as though I used to be able to get 10 times as much done in a day as I do now. Of course, then I neglected some of the most important things in life (thought I didn't have time for them). Hmmm I think hanging out with the grand kids is more important than having a new house. What do you think? If I would have spent 1/2 the time with our own kids as I do with the grand kids....well I really can't complain, they turned out great in spite of circumstances. Not perfect but way better than their old man. Of course that is due to the influence of the best woman in the world (their mother). By the way Linda is excelling at work! Last month she was number one in performance among about 160 employees!!!!!

Oh yea, there is the solution! When she moves up the laddder and starts making the big bucks I won't have to work anymore. Having 30-60 more hours per week to work on the "to do " list would make a great difference.

It is starting to get light out. Time to go:
1. put a new exhaust system on the van (should be the last one it has 204000 miles on it)
2. go look at a double wide to move in for Eric
3. take care of the animals
4. pour some foundation at the barn
5. fix Eric's headlight
6. finish putting the swing set together
7. help butcher the deer that Tim and Terry are harvesting this morning
8. Rewire the heat pump on the double wide

Better get going I'm burning day light, I'll add to the list as I go!

See Ya!

I'M BACK!!!!!!!!!!!

It's been a long time! In my last post I said God knows when I'll post again; He knew it would be 6 months but I had no clue. He knows all about us past present and future, so why do we fret about tomorrow? Silly, isn't it?

I see some of the family is slacking on the blogging activity so I guess I'll have to try and pick up some of the slack! I actually was going to blog at midnight the other night while I was in a motel in North Ridgeville, but the hard drive on my laptop crashed GRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!, another thing to fix!

Do you know how intimidating it is to have an 8 year old looking over your shoulder while trying to do this. He surely will point out my errors. (I'm baby sitting the grand kids while Steph is taking Viv to the doctors). I hear Nolan "the bruiser" fussing so I may not get this done and it might be another 6 months before I'm on here.

Oh yea, I said I'd tell you about my new job! I am driving truck for an expedited freight delivery service. It doesn't pay much but I really enjoy it. I can gt called anytime day or night and often have to leave right away because someone needs something yesterday. (The name of the company is Yesterday Delivery Services.) I'm not real fond of the 11 p.m. calls after I've put a long day in around here and have to drive 12 hours, but it is interesting how the Lord has given me the strength to stay alert. Put me in the family car and I'm falling asleep before I get to the end of the driveway.

The best part of my job is the flexibility! I can take any days off I need, which allows me to get things done around here or to help with grand kids. It is also a trap because it is easy to find reasons to take time off. I took off one day to build a chicken coop. Figuring the cost of material and lost wages that chicken coop cost us about $300.00. We cherish our eggs since they cost us about $12.00 per dozen if you figure the cost invested. Are we trying to be frugal? Oh well, we never have been good with money. Rather ironic. considering I have a degree in financial planning.

I love the time I have to think while driving truck. I love meeting new people and seeing new places. (I seldom have been at the same place twice.)

Time to run! The troops are all up and going crazy!

God knows when I'll post again!

I have a Job!

I’m a working man!  Since I posted last, I’ve been hired, quit, and then hired by someone else.  Going to work is a real frustration with me.  I’ve enjoyed the past 6 months having Linda working and me staying home and wished it could have continued.  It is not that I have not been working; in fact I feel that I have worked very hard around here. But, for the most part, I’ve loved it.  Being able to help the kids and grand kids is a real pleasure.  I love having the grand kids with me when I work.  Yesterday Kellen was a great helper while I was working on the water lines.  (We are finally connected to public water but we have leaks,)  Lydia was also my side kicks while we were working.  Nolan tried to help and walked through a blast of cold water gushing from the water pipe and showed his Miller/Hershberger temper.  I could not have done the accomplished the work yesterday without Kellen.  He seemed to be real proud of being the man.  

More about my working life!  About a year ago I registered with the state for civil service jobs.  Actually, I was ranked number one the list for a position I tested for but was never called for an interview.  About a month ago, while working underneath the double wide,  I got called from Lincoln county Department of Human Services about a position as a family support specialist .  I had looked into this position once before and felt it would be a position that I would greatly enjoy.  It is basically a case management position trying to move families from dependency to independence (or partial).  After being interviewed I was quite certain that I would be offered the job.  It does the ego some good knowing that someone still wants you.

I started thinking of all the reasons why I should not take this job.  It would be a 45 minute drive from the house (of course it takes 20 minutes to get off the ridge, so there is no job closer than 30 minutes).  This job is a Monday through Friday 8-5 job (never worked one in my life).  I would not have the flexibility to help Eric with his many needs for help.  Steph can’t go pick up Eric’s kids; she doesn’t have enough room in her car and dealing with 6 kids ranging from newborn to 10 would be a bit challenging.  The pay scale for this job would start at minimum (over $16,000 below the maximum) in spite of my experience in the field. Since I’ve not been working my cholesterol level has dropped to the lowest point since we started checking it (maybe we can stop the build up in the arteries).  Being at home, when the pressure mounts I can back off.  I had it all figured out, when they call me to offer the job I would just say no.

After playing phone tag for a while ( I wasn’t trying to be very available), Human Services finally reached me.  What a glutton for ego massaging I am.  I really enjoyed the nice things she told me; how impressed they were at the interview; how I could try it and if I decided it wasn’t for me they would understand; how I could “move up the ladder”; how I could bid for a position closer to home if one opens up.  How could I say “no”?  What a sucker I am; I said yes!  How stupid!  There is no way I can do this job and help the kids and grand kids the way I want to.  I’ve spent too many years putting work before family (and always justified it).  After agonizing for about a week, I finally called and told them I would be unable to take the job.  That was hard!  I hated it!  It would have been so much easier to say no in the first place!  Will I ever learn?

I do have another job now!  I’ll cover that in my next post!  How long will that be?  God knows!

A New Life

A New Life

Our firm decision is to work from this focused center: One man died for everyone. That puts everyone in the same boat. He included everyone in his death so that everyone could also be included in his life, a resurrection life, a far better life than people ever lived on their own.
Because of this decision we don’t evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don’t look at him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons!

2 Cor 5


Place Your Life Before God

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out.

Romans 12


Content Whatever the Circumstances

I’m glad in God, far happier than you would ever guess—happy that you’re again showing such strong concern for me. Not that you ever quit praying and thinking about me. You just had no chance to show it. Actually, I don’t have a sense of needing anything personally. I’ve learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances. I’m just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little. I’ve found the recipe for being happy whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty. Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am. I don’t mean that your help didn’t mean a lot to me—it did. It was a beautiful thing that you came alongside me in my troubles.

Philippians 4


But let me tell you something wonderful, a mystery I’ll probably never fully understand. We’re not all going to die—but we are all going to be changed. You hear a blast to end all blasts from a trumpet, and in the time that you look up and blink your eyes—it’s over. On signal from that trumpet from heaven, the dead will be up and out of their graves, beyond the reach of death, never to die again. At the same moment and in the same way, we’ll all be changed.


I stumbled across this scripture this morning. It was something I used in a lesson or sermon previously. Just thought I’d share it. God’s word is full of such good stuff!

I was actually looking for an article that I’d written previously about taking risks that I wanted to share with Jake after our discussion yesterday, but sometime in a time of “giving up” on youth ministry, I deleted almost all the lesson’s, sermons, newsletter articles, etc that I had previously done. Does that mean I’m not to get involved in youth ministry again or perhaps, if I do, I can’t use my old stuff again.

I STOLE

This evening, while eating dinner with four of the grandkids, they started talking about wanting to go out to eat (and the Miller weakness continues).  They decided they wanted to go to The Texas Roadhouse and eat steak.  Little Lydia, wanting to be one of the big kids, echoed saying, “I want to go eat at Texas Roadhouse.”  When I asked her if she had money to pay for it (trying to teach her to be financially responsible, thus breaking the cycle of irresponsible spending), she replied saying she had lots of money.  When I asked her how much she had, she repeated “lot’s of it; I stole it from mommy.”  Oops!  She continued to inform me that mommy knows.  She also informed me that her piggy bank had lots of pennies and is real heavy.

She is a true Miller; wants to spend all her money “eating out”.  

WHY?

Today as I was working outside of Steph’s house I heard “Kellen Timothy”.  That translates into “this is really serious” or “you are in big trouble”.  A little later I heard “Lydia Renea”.  I started wondering why parents address their children by their first and middle name when they want to get their attention.  Linda and I did the same with our children.  Jason Paul!  Stephanie Lynn!  I guess we were lucky that Eric is deaf;  I find saying Eric Bartholomew to be sort of awkward.

I really got confused a little later when I heard “Nolan Miller”.  I couldn’t figure out why they would refer to him by his first and last name.  Oh this must be really serious, I thought.   Then I remembered that “Miller” is his middle name.  Later I talked to Steph about this and she asked me how our parents addressed us when they got serious since none of us 9 kids have middle names.  Traditionally Amish do not give their children middle names; instead they are given the first letter of the fathers name as their middle initial. Thus, all of us have “M” for our middle initial.  It helps keep track of who you belong to.  Steph wondered if they referred to me as “Paul M” when I got into trouble.
Since I never got into trouble, I do not know.  Hypothetically speaking,  if I would have gotten into trouble they probably would not have referred to me as “Paul M”; instead they would have used the rod (aka leather strap) to get my attention.

Since Linda’s parents always called her “Linda Sue”, I was wondering what they did when she got in trouble.  Did they add her last name?  Nancy, do you remember?  Oh course she will tell you she never got into trouble.  Was that because she was the spoiled one and could no harm?

So, why is it that people address their children with their first and middle name when they are in trouble?  Do most people do this or is this unique to people we know?  I’d love to hear your theories.

A Foriegn Language

I've been working with Eric that last couple times he has been off to help him find a job here. It is always extremely difficult for Eric to find new employment but finding good employment in WV is even more difficult.

Why is it so difficult? Eric has had only 3 jobs since graduating from high school and has never been unemployed. He quit his first job to move to Bloomingburg to appease his wife (BIG MISTAKE). He quit his second job after his wife threw him out. He needed to move to where his family was because he needs some assistance. Now he is looking for new employment in order to be with family again (he is currently employed at Rubbermaid in Akron).

Not many people have the employment stability that he has had. Every employer has bragged abour what a good worker he is. He is never late for work and shows up every day if there is any way possible. He has missed a few days which were totally out of his control and one time because of a communication problem he missed some days (he thought he was supposed to be on vacation). That is another story!

Eric has a disability. He is deaf and as with many deaf people he is academically challenged. His ability to read and write english is limited. He is limited to simple addition, subtraction, and multipication.

When I helped him find employment in the Akron area, he applied at tons of places and not one person contacted him. I would call places and get all kinds of stories, but I knew the reason he wasn't getting called was simply because he was deaf. He was qualified and had an excellent job history. (Eric needs help in applying for jobs because of his limited understanding of english.) He was never even called for an interview. Finally, we applied at Rubbermaid. It so happened they had a deaf person working there that could read lips very well and also voice almost perfectly.
They had found out that deaf people could be productive employees and hired Eric the day we applied.

Today Eric applied for a temp to hire position that sounds like could lead into a decent job. I had called the temp agency yesterday and fortunately they have a deaf person employed there who is working out well. We applied for the job today and Eric has a 4 hour interview/test on 2/23. When I informed them he would need an interpreter, they didn't undertand. "He can read the test," they said.

I've always heard and and agreed that ASL (american sign language) is not
english, but more recently it has become very clear to me. When Eric and I communicate via tty or im, we often have difficulty understanding each other, but when he calls me via sorenson (a service where he signs via video cam and his message is voiced to me), we seldom have any problems. It as though I'm talking with one of the other kids (actually he is a more talkative then Jake). It has given me greater understanding of Eric-he doesn't speak our language! Tim has done a terrific job picking up the language (asl); Linda does fairly well, but the rest of us are so so. I'm by far the weakest with his language (one of my regrets).

After going home and double checking the American Disabilities Act, I became bold and called the potential employer back and politely asked them to provide an interpreter as required by law. They agreed, let's hope they don't change their mind. I understand why employers are reluctent to hire and interpreter at 40-50 dollars per hour, but on the other hand we all have a responsibility to help those who have need.

It would have been easy for Eric to collect disability benefits (as many of the deaf people do). Instead he has chosen to work and has done his best. We are proud of him! We realize that he will always need a "helping hand" and thanks for all the help the rest of you have already extended to him.