Red light, green light

Remember that old game from childhood?  Your foot balanced precariously to a pause, holding the energy of your weight as it prepared to spring forth into frantic galloping toward the goal, as soon as the call came... "green light!"?

We got the green light.  And our little legs are sprinting us forward on an exciting new path, full of adventure. 

Friends, I don't aim to make this blog a preachy sort of place, but I can't stop myself from telling everyone who will listen... Our God is an AWESOME God.

There are ways we've had to lean back and expect many miracles in the last few days -- trust that what He requires, He provides for, and ohhhh, we have not been disappointed but rather overwhelmed with an absolute overflowing of blessings and small miracles and real-life supernatural wonders.  It is good.

I'm happy and very grateful to be done with the waiting game, but now comes the craziness of packing and moving and saying goodbyes to family (a particularly difficult part of all this -- especially since some of them are not so pleased with our choice).  We're moving across the country -- to TEXAS! -- and entering into a kind of ministry that will allow us to work closely with kids who need lots of love, working in a children's home.  This is sorta scary... something I don't feel entirely equipped for... but I'm trusting that the old notion is true:  He does not call the equipped but equips those He calls.  He has already moved heaven and Earth to help us prepare in more practical ways for this, and I have no doubt that much growth and learning is upon us. 

We've got about two weeks before we head out, and our days right now are spent paring down to only the bare essentials -- selling furniture and excess, since we're moving into a furnished "cottage".  In the middle of that two weeks is a 4-day trip out of town for a wedding, my son's 11th birthday, and the start of the school year (which will mean temporary homeschool for us until we get to where we're going.  I didn't see the sense in starting them in school for a week, plus we'll be on the road for a week, so we're aiming to make it an memorable and educational experience for the little ones).

Anyhow, I'd better run.  We've got a grip of furniture (well, okay, a horse trailer full of furniture) going out to various Craigslist buyers today, and I've got to flex a muscle or two and help Mr. Smitten get it all loaded up. 

Thanks for reading.  Have fun and Get Smitten!

Bad Blogger! Bad!

Alright, so I'm pretty sure no one has noticed my absence (wow, that sounded very Eeyore-esque, didn't it?), but I thought I'd pop in here and wax and wane a bit about life and how its still wonky and uncertain and I have nothing creative to share.  Something about the up-in-the-airness of our life at the moment makes my creative brain sort of paralyzed while massive amounts of fatigue set in.  We are getting closer to having a direction -- I think.  We traveled across the country for a bit of what-iffing, which was helpful, and now, we keep waiting for the green light, or a red one, for that matter, to get us up and at 'em for whatever lies ahead.

I haven't been doing much creating lately.  I'm working on an old dining set I picked up for pennies -- you know the standard country set with the spindle-back chairs and such?  Anyway, I started to apply a distressed ivory finish to it, but the brush-paint is looking dull and chalky and I'm really wishing that I'd have opted for spray paint instead.  I'm only two chairs into it, so I may re-route the whole thing and try spraying it.  We'll see.  I'm so tired lately that I can't manage to scrape up the gumption to play with paint and sandpaper -- a sign, perhaps, that something is terribly wrong for me, haha.

No, not really.  I think I'm just sort of unconsciously sopping up the last bit of laziness that I can eek out of this season of life.  I don't do lazy, but that's precisely what I've been lately.  I know it won't last and that soon enough, I'll have to return to schedules and alarm clocks and exhausted evenings, but for now, I'm taking the hours as they come and trying to learn something in the silence.  I'm taking naps (gasp!) and sleeping in and watching TV and doing all those things my life has been substantively void of and will be again soon, but it's worth it to take a pause, even if the magnification of the intensity of waiting is so difficult when one slows down to watch the clock.

Yawn...

Ok, folks.  This girl is gonna take her lazy-bones self off to bed now, and hope that next time, I'll be armed with something beautiful and inspiring for your viewing pleasure.  Thanks for sticking with me!