Peace in our little Ghetto! (O;

I started this post by making a list of the things we like here in MI. The kids and I talk about it all the time.  It's a fun place to live. We love our house. We would build this house! (o:  I wouldn't want this to be our forever neighbourhood, but we still do love our area, even though some people may think of it as a bit ghetto like. (o: It's really not that bad, once you get to know it. These people are nice! Sure, there may be trouble makers, but we had a few of those in St Th and we lived in a very great, quiet, big yard, large treed, established, old personish, neighborhood. I think it's great for the kids to see that the world is a big multicultural blend.

But it got me thinking about the bigger picture, aside from the physical stuff.

Despite sometimes missing our people, in the big picture I don't think (we) I have ever been this settled and at peace in my whole life. That sure sounds odd. Our ties run deep in St Thomas and we are far from everything we know, but we are so thankful for the path He has put us on. We are not at rest because we are extremely adaptable or because we like adventure or any other reason that would give credit  to ourselves. We are at rest because the Lord is making it so.  He is giving us a beautiful peace and is blessing us in so many ways. My words aren't adequately explaining what I am feeling, but that is the best I could do. I started the sentence, "My God is......", but I don't even know how to finish it. He has so many attributes that I want to praise Him for and I couldn't just pick one! (o;

So if you were wondering, here is my original list in no particular order! (o;

1. Cheap gas - I saw a station that was 314!!! WOWSA! That is almost a dollar cheaper than it was  a few months ago. That mean we save about 14 dollars each fill up. Nice. 

2. The play area in the mall.

3. Dave Ramsey from 6-9pm on the radio - . We have learned a lot in the last few months. He's got some good stuff going on!  Read his book! (o; Our church is doing Financial Peace University in January and I am so excited! 

4. .We like looking at the vehicles. Josh likes the flashy ones. Some people live in a shack, but drive these amazingly expensive cars. They have weird priorities. But on the other side of things, people drive cars here until they fall apart.

I would compare our van to an old horse that broke it's leg a year ago and he is still mad about it. It is causing us a lot of problems. We couldn't even drive to church last week Sunday. We went to the one across the street!  We are praying we will get another year out it. But here, our van looks like a BMW, compared to some of the rust buckets on the road. I have even seen duct tape on a vehicle. Sometimes, you expect the body of the car just to fall off and leave the people sitting in the seats holding the steering wheel. Haha, I can just picture that! (o; Some people even drive them after having accidents. Maybe out of necessity! Some of the vehicles are big, old cars from the 80's. I even saw a little Chevette. My first car was a Chevette and it was incredibly awesome. If I had my camera, I would have taken a picture.  We don't see nearly as many old klunkers in Ontario. I have no idea why. We may be weird, but it makes us smile! (o 

FIVE. (My five is broken!)The self check out at Meijer has a full length belt, so you don't have to bag each item. You can just bag when you are done and paid. It's the small pleasures!

6. Multiculteralism. The other day I took all the kids out for the evening and we stopped at the mall to get Siah's hair cut. Grace and Siah LOVE playing in the little play gound there. Josh, Micah, Nads and I were watching all the cute little kids as we sat on the comfy bench. We noticed how many different nationalities were there. - Asian, African American, Mexican, Philopeno and then just plain ole Americans. It was so neat to see. Ken also experiences this at school. I like to think of it as a quilt of all different languages, colors and countries. Beautiful.  

7. Cheap milk/butter. Although, I have to say that I find good yogurt here more expensive. 

8. The Homeschool Bookstore is only 7 minutes away and has almost every thing I could possibly need. No more going to conferences to buy books or shipping for me! (o:

9. Living across from the church. It is a strange comfort. I can't really explain it. 

10. 24 hour grocery stores

11. Rob and Jen live here. 

12. The loooong Thanksgiving break.

13. Josh is done exams by May 31. (The days are longer than in Canada and the Christmas break is shorter. So sometimes this doesn't feel like an advantage. It's hard slugging now. Sometimes it feels like all he does is school stuff.  But when May 31 comes, he/we will be thankful!)

14. The dutch businesses I see everywhere. Some of them even have a fish on the sign. 

FIFTEEN. The library is ground breakingly awesome compared to the one in St Th, or even the London ones. It's pretty too! (o;

16. There are a trillion churches here. I love that!

17. The money! We love dollar bills waaaaaay more than toonies and loonies! We even like the black and white. Canadian money has started looking a little bit like monopoly money! Although, sometimes I have a wad of bills and think, "Wowsa, I have got a lot in my pocket!". But then I realized that it's only 6 dollars. Bummer. In Canada a wad of bills has be at least 20 dollars! (o:

There you go! My list is extensive, but not exhaustive! (0;