Our "former youth" farewell:
Ryan - the "guitar hero"
Maggie - the "world traveller"
Andrew - (my brother) - another "world traveller" and summer hobo
Nathan and Brett - the "deep thinkers"
Patti - the "knifer"
Ryan - the "sword swallower"
Maggie - the "fondue-fork fiend"
I'll let the pictures take it from here...
Hence...the scary dreams mentioned in the title...
Moving is 3 weeks (23 days) away. It still doesn’t seem real. The house isn’t packed yet. It’s not even sold yet, for that matter. We’ve had some “see-ya-later’s” already… people we won’t see again before we leave. But most people we will still see around before we leave, so even that doesn’t make it seem real. One thing that makes the move seem as close is the lack of food in our house. It’s quite funny, actually.
Our deepfreeze:
- 3 turkeys (thanks to the last 3 Christmases when I cooked a chicken instead)
- 1 lasagna (I’m looking forward to enjoying it after a long day of packing)
- 2 Pizza Pops
Our fridge has a few more things, and our cupboards and pantry…but I’m trying to do as little shopping as possible and when we run out of things, we just do without. So, as of today, in the next few weeks we will be eating a bit of farmer sausage, a frozen pizza, a couple home-made pizzas, lots of rice and KD (which is also easy to move, so I don’t plan on finishing everything!), and frozen vegetables. Mmm… I may bake bread/buns yet before we leave so I can use up the last of the flour. I think we’ve done a pretty good job of cleaning out the food in our house. We won’t have to move much food. As my meal options get smaller and smaller, the move feels closer and closer!
I’m getting really excited about moving. We’ve been offered that we can paint Nathan’s parents’ guest room, which will kinda be our “permanent address” in Canada while we’re gone. I’ve been dreaming of different options for paint and curtains and set-ups. Even in our house, with only 3 weeks left, I haven’t been able to stop re-organizing and switching up the layouts and accessories in our rooms. When I’m inspired, why hold back, right?
Being able to look ahead on our calendar and figure out where we’ll be when has been fun. This also makes the move seem more real. We have lots of ideas of things we want to do and people we want to see while we’re in-between here and Cali. I think perhaps we’ll have to start scheduling (loosely, of course!) things in so we don’t miss anything and still feel like we have some down-time before the next big thing!
Last night, I lay in bed for quite a while, thinking about moving and people and random stuff. I started thinking about the “what if’s” of our finances. With the house not sold, I can’t see us affording more than one semester of school. And what if we can’t get student loans? I wasn’t thinking about it in an “Oh, no, our life is going to fall apart!” panic-y type way. More in a “Well, if the house doesn’t sell before Christmas, we’re going to have to have a backup plan in place,” calm and thoughtful type way. I’m sure it’ll all work out, but the house selling would make things MUCH easier in the financial way.
As I have been praying about the house selling, I’ve been wondering what exactly to pray for. Of course I ask God to please help our house to sell. But how much control does he really have over our house selling? Sure, he can influence certain people to look at it or help certain things to work out, but eventually it boils down to human free will and God can’t won’t force anyone to buy our house. So when I pray, should I be asking God to provide for us, instead of for our house to sell? Should I be focusing more on the big picture? I think, probably, that I should. I should focus more on the big picture of asking God for his care instead of always the specifics of the house selling, but perhaps a mix of both are ok. Children, for example, feel free to ask their parents for a honey sandwich with no butter and no crusts and peanut butter on the side for dipping(???). These are specifics that would make the snack, in the child’s eyes, absolutely perfectly ideal. The parents look at the situation from their parently viewpoint and know that the child needs, and would like, a snack, but understands that an apple might be more appropriate or healthy for their child at that point. So they give an apple (with peanut butter for dipping). The child could be quite disappointed because it’s certainly not the snack that he asked for, but it is, in fact, provision, so he shouldn’t complain if he’s truly hungry. If our house doesn’t sell, but God chooses to teach us about faith or walking in the unknown or provision instead, shouldn’t we be grateful that He sees the big picture, even when we just see the picture of our house not sold? Sigh…why are lessons so hard to learn sometimes?
Ok, that got long. I’m going to leave it for now.
Bottom line: Moving is a learning curve.
4 comments:
Turns out life is a learning curve as well :).
I remember Carrie cleaning out our food last summer and in an attempt to finish off baking supplies she would often have to run to the store and buy more baking supplies just to use up what was left. The folks at MCC really appreciated it when she kept coming with coffee break snacks! They thought she was generous and she thought, "handy food disposal!"
And when you're making you're "who are we going to see plans?" you can feel free to put me on the list! I know, kind of the wrong direction. But I've been missing you and wishing you could come and see me and see where I live and all the lovely grass I mow! Maybe someday. Pictures will suffice for now I guess.
wait a sec, what's Andrew doing there?
Wow! Those pictures of Nathan had me reeling! He's pretty cute with the short hair!
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