Tuesday, January 30, 2024

RETIRED AND MOVING TO THE PHILIPPINES - OUR HOUSE IS FINALLY READY FOR THE MARKET

 Hi y'all lovely fellow wanderers.  This week had been fantastic, what with the weather being sunny, warm and just beautiful as it will ever be considering that it is still January.  Now these are my types of days - blue, sunshiny skies and warm temps, perfect for a swing on the porch.

 

We are finally done with the house prepping, we've met with our realtor and today his company photographer is in the house taking pictures and videos in and outside the house.  Tomorrow we are meeting with our realtor again to sign some papers.  We will definitely know then what day our house will be live and on the market.  Part of me is excited but I'm also scared mainly because I worry if the house gets sold in a short time we will need to find a place to rent until June.  But then again I know God's timing is always perfect and He will make a way for us as He always does.  He had carried us through in the past and I trust that He will be with us in this journey.


I remember my dad's artwork at my grandparents' church in the Philippines.  He painted an open scroll across the worship center's wall and in it is the verse from Hebrews 13:8 "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever."  That is how I memorized that verse at a tender age of 7 because every time we go to church that's what I see.  When I married Michael and moved to the States, I always repeat that verse.  One year I went back to the Philippines for a visit with our two boys.  My grandparents have been gone a long time by then so I didn't go to visit that old church anymore.  But when we went to my folks' church, I saw that same verse plastered across the wall of the worship center of this new church where my parents attended.  Yes, things and circumstances may change but one thing is certain, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.  I know when the house gets sold we will become homeless, LOL.  But hey, God will have a place prepared for us by then for certain because that's just the way He is.  He has provided in the past and he will provide for us presently and in the future.


We give you a tour of our house after the photographer leaves and might as well listen to me and Michael banter at the front porch while waiting for the photographer to finish what he needs to do.  You may watch it here: 


Thank you all for following us in this journey.  We love you and hope you enjoy today's content.  May God keep us and bless us in His care


Thursday, January 18, 2024

Midlife Wanderings now Retirees - From Kansas to the Philippines - No place like home

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A RETIREE.....

 Hello fellow wanderers.  I pray all is well with you and your family despite the very, very cold weather we are having this year.  If you are from the tropics, count it a blessing to be where you are.  We have frigid weather here, schools are cancelled for three days now and it's very tricky to drive in the snow.  Michael and I just realized that we are thankful JJ didn't ask to go sledding - yikes!  Back then we were the ones asking if he wanted to go sledding and we would gladly take him, even sled down the hill ourselves a couple of times.  Well, those were the days.

Mike has been enjoying not getting up early and work outside in this kind of weather.  And we are all glad he's no longer working in this kind of weather too.  He told me the other day that his body has relaxed, not stressed out and he'd been sleeping through the night peacefully.  When he was still working he always tells me that his dreams were weird and it always involved him working - even in his dreams he IS working.  Well not anymore, thank goodness.

We are still working on the basement, Mike tackling the storage room in the basement while I am tackling the family/recreation room on the other part of the basement.  As of today, we are all done with the painting.  I will work on the stairs tomorrow after we take some small furniture up to the garage to store for the moving sale then I will call Chen, our realtor tomorrow.

This is our You Tube video about our day in the life as we get ready for the big move to the Philippines:



We hope you enjoy watching our video.  Please hit the subscribe and like buttons to support our channel.  We appreciate you all.  Blessings!


Sunday, January 7, 2024

WE ARE OFFICIALLY RETIRED - Episode 10

 Hi y'all Happy New Year!!  As we turn the page to the year 2024, I pray that El Elyon, God Most High, be with you in everything you do and everything you hope for in this new year.

So we are officially retired - now what?  We have waited with great expectation and anticipation for this day to come and now that it's here, we went straight to work even harder to prepare the house for the market.  We have three full balikbayan boxes all ready to ship to the Philippines and we still have some stuff that we need to pack and ship.  We have slowly cleared some of our stuff out of the house, some are in my booth at Owl's Nest hoping to sell them, some are donated to Goodwill, some are in the trash bin ready for the landfill, some are priced ready for the "moving sale" that we plan once we sell the house.  We invited a friend (a single mom) over, who is moving to her own place to see if there is anything she need, so there are small furniture that we will deliver to her place toward the end of this month.

We have made huge progress in the last two weeks.  We will paint part of the basement and install new blinds on the windows then we will meet with our realtor.  This funny de-ja-vu feeling of being homeless again when the house gets sold is surreal.  We have done this before in 2015 when we sold everything and moved to the Philippines so I could be with my mother - and now here we are doing the same thing all over again.  But this time to retire to the Philippines, and this time we have a house of our own waiting for us when we get there.

Anyway, in all these life journeys, God is, was and will be there with us.  Some nights before I fall asleep and before I rise up in the morning I always begin my prayer with "Lord, through all the generations you have been our home.  Before the mountains were created, before you made the earth and the world, you are God, without beginning or end." (Psalm 90:1-2 NLT)  No matter where we may go, to live, to settle or whatever, the Lord Most High, El Elyon will always be our home.  I pray you will make Him your home too in 2024.  Blessings to y'all!

If you want to watch my content on You Tube you can watch it here:


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RETIRING TO THE PHILIPPINES - IT'S OUR FLIGHT DAY!!!

 WE ARE FLYING BACK TO THE PHILIPPINES TODAY!! The day has finally come, today is the day we fly to the Philippines.  We have been so extrem...