Home Sweet Home

It has been 21 days since I last made time for and remembered to blog. Guess that's no surprise considering all that's happened since last I wrote:
12/16-Pat graduated
12/16-We moved
12/16-18-Pat's nephew, AJ, and his expectant wife and 2 boys spent moving weekend with us helping expedite the  resettlement
12/18-19-Immediately followed by my mom coming for a quick overnight to deliver the Christmas tree and the first load of our possessions from "storage" (one of mom's spare bedrooms)
12/24-25-My parents both coming for a special, unplanned overnight Christmas Eve
12/25-Christmas!!
-And, now, almost new years!

God is so gracious and we couldn't be happier with our new home. We're completely moved in and unpacked, shy 2 or 3 boxes. We managed to get the tree up and fully decorated just 2 days after moving and had a perfect way to display our stockings on the mantle of our fireplace. Now, after such a short, understated, partially appreciated season of Advent in our family, the decorations are coming down and the new year is upon us. We are glad to be settling in in Durham and foresee this being our home for many years, but we certainly feel our eagerness to move compromised our ability to appreciate Advent the way we should. We are well motivated to fully create the space needed next year to appreciate the season like never before and hope our children are ready to be fully vested in the experience as well.

So the holidays have come and are almost gone, we have established our family's footprint in Durham and are eager to begin opening our home to our friends through dinners and, if I can talk Pat into it, an open house (but I doubt it!).

So here's to a very Happy New Year to all our friends and family. We hope you had a wonderful Christmas as did we.

Workin' 9 to 5!

Ok, so maybe I'm not exactly working 9 to 5 (8:30-5 more like) but it's whipping my tail! Who knew going back to a full time out-of-the-house job would take so much out of me. And it's probably not the work day but the 45-75 minute commute twice a day that's doing it.

That's where the excitement comes in. 8. Count 'em. EIGHT days to moving day!!

We are all super excited. The house is in boxes. The moving truck is reserved. All the deposits are paid. The utilities are all scheduled for disconnect and connect. Friends are lined up to help. And the cleaning schedule for move out is bouncing around in my brain.

It's a good thing that all this move-related chaos is coming along because the daily keeper of the household related chaos is a disaster. I can't tell you who has bathed this week, or the last time I cleaned the toilets, and I even forgot to cook Pat dinner tonight!

But despite me being one frazzled female, Pat and the kids have been amazing! Doing dishes and folding laundry and grocery shopping… even Julie wrote a grocery list for me! Meanwhile, Pat is steadily making headway toward the conclusion of his education at Southeastern, graduating next Friday (moving day).

Please continue to pray for us as we prepare for God's new direction.

Praise God. Alleluia.