Friendships, both old and new, hold amazing blessings.There’s a lot to be said for long-time friendship, and there’s something exciting about forming new ones. One of the most interesting times in a friendship is the initial time of getting to know one another. I’ve been experiencing that with a new friend over the past few days, with the sharing of personal stories and life experiences.It’s been interesting listening to her stories, both happy and sad, and sharing my own. What is particularly intriguing is that she seems to find me as interesting as I find her.

More in a moment…working on the yard sale…

Okay, so that was a very long moment.

The yard sale didn’t go so well, but I think we made enough to buy gas for the car for next week, which is what we were hoping for. We boxed up the yard sale leftovers and put it all in the shed to try again in a couple of weeks. Maybe.

It’s been a really long day, starting off bright and early at 7am (well, really it started for me at 4:40am when I got a phone call from my daughter’s cell, which scared the crud out of me until I found that she had rolled over on her phone and called me accidentally) getting everything out and ready for the sale. Each time I do one, I remember why I do NOT like doing them. You’d think I’d learn. But really, it all comes down to 1. wanting to get rid of stuff, and 2. wanting to turn the aforementioned extra stuff into needed cash. It definitely isn’t my favorite way to spend a Saturday morning.

All that said, I probably had a less tiring day than did my friends who were heading home to pack.

I’m heading for bed, I think. Tomorrow’s another long day. Love to all.

We’re getting settled, although life seems a little strange during the transition. Man, seems like our family has been in transition for weeks…months…a year? I’m ready for things to settle down some so we can get on some kind of schedule again, something actually doable and not breakneck and unpredictable. I just feel like I need calm, understood, attainable for at least a little while.

We’re working on schooling this morning, although a few of our books are still hiding among the boxes. I’m still getting over my upper respiratory thing, which has made sleeping for the past few nights next to impossible. I wasn’t able to sing on worship team yesterday, but Rosie sang for both of us and did a great job. Her voice is developing in amazing ways. Trevor did a stellar job leading despite fighting off the last of his illness from last week. Matt thundered on the bass particularly well, to the delight of his friends who were watching and listening pretty intently.

We had a good service yesterday and there was a table with goodies for our family afterward so people could come over and talk to us and say goodbye. It was nice reconnecting with the H’s again, and all our other God-sent friends. The P family touched our hearts in a way that had us all in tears; they may never know how much it means to us. It’s a beautiful thing when people are so willing to allow themselves to be used by God to help their brothers and sisters in their time of great need. It makes an impact that is not easily forgotten.

In some ways it feels like we were gone for a very long time, and in some ways it’s like we never left here. I still find myself looking around at my surroundings in disbelief as though I’ve just awakened from a dream and I’m not sure where I am.

I have most everything in the kitchen put away, and so far have gotten all but a couple of boxes opened. There aren’t as many cabinets here, obviously, so I’m glad to be able to organize and utilize as much as I am. Thankfully the pantry is rather large, so that gives me a place to put some of my larger soup pots, the crock pot, bread maker, and roaster oven when they aren’t in use. I am really grateful to be able to live in our little two-story country cottage in a friendly family neighborhood (with NO homeowner’s association, bless the Lord!).

There’s no dance tonight so hopefully we’ll be able to chill and hang out as a family for the evening. Steve is working some overtime for the time being so I am making sure he is getting plenty of rest. We never know how long OT will hold out so he takes any they will allow. It keeps me from being pressured to go out and look for work outside the home and allows the photography work that comes along to be a bonus.

We were unable to rent the trailer to bring home the rest of our belongings so we stored them in the Pruetts’ garage and brought home what would fit in the Suburban. We got our other two bikes home thanks to the use of the Pruett’s bike rack, so we can take family bike rides around the neighborhood after dinner. Speaking of dinner, I’m thinking it’ll be pot pies tonight.

We’re drowning in boxes piled everywhere, but we’re glad to finally be home and getting settled. Steve is replacing the cord on my dryer since the one it has is newer than the 3-prong receptacle in the house. We’re hoping to get that all done this evening and hopefully get the lawn mowed as well. I have much to write about, but it’ll have to wait a bit longer until we get our cable internet hooked up in a few days.

Love and Hugs to All.
Blue

I finished reading The Shack this morning. I started it yesterday and had read about halfway when we had to head out on some errands. I couldn’t sleep last night (I always get this way in anticipation of big things happening), plus I was eager to get back to the book anyway so I donned my little reading light necklace dealie and curled up in the wingback near the end of the bed to finish. Pausing long enough to spend a few moments with Steve before kissing him goodbye on his way out to work, I remained riveted to The Shack until I finished it at around 8:30am.

I want to put a few initial thoughts down while they are still fresh. The thought occurred to me a few moments ago as I prepared to write that something I might say could be a spoiler to those who haven’t read the book, but the truth is the thought was almost unnecessary as in my mind I quickly slid back over the thoughts wanting to be shared and it dawned that what I would likely write would not be a spoiler at all but rather an eager invitation to the wonder that is this book.

In short, my response is that I wish every adult could read The Shack. I expected to be moved by it, simply in light of the responses I’ve heard from people I know who’ve read it. What I didn’t expect was such a profound impact on my heart, mind, and spirit. I was left wordless but with a million things to say.

I admit that I read the book with some little part of me constantly on the lookout for Scriptural untruth. Uncertain whether it was simply human nature to ferret out untruth or some kind of discernment kicking in to guard my mind and keep it seatbelted securely to Truth, I foraged on. It could be that I am missing something very obscure, but I never found any such untruth.

While right now I simply can’t word exactly how this book has touched my soul, I feel sure that in the days to come, its wisdom will find its way into my journaling in one form or another. That’s really all I can say at the moment.

Is there any such thing?

There’s been so much going on, I haven’t known how to start. About the time I started to journal about how things were going, they changed and I was off to the races again. It’s been one heckuva roller coaster, I can tell you that.

We’re two weeks out from the move. I’m pretty sure God is doing something really amazing with regard to the house we’ll be moving into here, but I want to make sure of exactly what it is before I write about it. I’m waiting on an informational phone call. More on that later.

Rosiemay has her dance company audition this morning, and then a Nutcracker audition tomorrow afternoon. She’s stoked about both, and I’m excited for her. It’s just wonderful to see her smiling deeply again when she dances. She started assisting yesterday in a class of mostly 5-year-olds and she said it felt like she was in heaven to be back assisting again. I told her it’s because she was born to be a dance teacher.   The girls and the teachers at the new studio have been amazing, so encouraging and sweet to her. They love her and she loves them. It’s a God thing.

Palin, regarding her daughter, Bristol’s pregnancy:

“Bristol and the young man she will marry are going to realise very
quickly the difficulties of raising a child, which is why they will
have the love and support of our entire family.”

Obama:

“Look, I got two daughters – 9 years old and 6 years old. I am going to teach them first about values and morals, but if they
make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby.”

Hm. Love and support of family, or babies are punishments? Talk about capsulizing.

For the first time, I feel hopeful about this election.

I recommend a great blog entry on this HERE.

Still going.
Clothes getting looser.
Feeling better and better.
No soda.
Very few sweets.
Tiny portions.
No overeating (even when we went to a pizza buffet yesterday).
Drinking mostly water.
Not depriving myself of any particular food I want.
Normal exercise through daily activity.
Not struggling or craving.