Randomness...

....or just some tidbits so you realize that I am far from perfect.

I love my husband.

I love my kids.

I really love my husband.

Our kids pick and bicker more than I would like to admit. Yet, they continually surprise me by their flexibility and the fact that they don't have nearly as many hissy fits as I feel I have had.

I've had a year that I wish to never repeat.

I home school our kids. This means we pay for good books, a great science class for them to go to, let our son skin and dissect dead animals and chase snakes, we buy Teaching Textbooks math programs and I drive to the library at least once a week. We talk a lot too...some days.

I am getting used to being back in the United States.

I LOVE Winco grocery stores.

I spend too much time on the computer.

I am content in the knowledge that God is God and I am not. He is completely sovereign and I am trusting his care in spite of the fact that things haven't gone as I thought they would....in much of anything.

I am a huge coffee snob.

I don't really love chocolate.

I get my nails done occasionally. My toenails are ALWAYS painted. Always. I would love to get spa gift certificates for every birthday, anniversary, and/or holiday for the rest of my life. My husband knows this and has fulfilled that wish more than once.

My whole family ballroom dances. Or we're trying at least. :)

I feel guilty over having things so easy these days.

I love to clean and organize, I hate clutter and would rather have one really good *anything* that costs more than 6 trashy versions of the same thing.

I can't decide if I'd rather live in an urban apartment or have 5 acres in the boonies.

I'm grateful for the last 5 years of adventure that we've had in different zones, countries, languages...but am learning that seasons come and seasons go and I will choose to not resent that fact. Now we get to be part of it from a different angle.

Working at keeping calm and carrying on,

Faith

Now What?

It looks like we're going to be living here (Vancouver) thanks be to the LORD for the job Alan has. So now what?

Living arrangements.

At the moment we're still living in the parsonage at our church. This place has been a HUGE blessing. Not only is it rather convenient to the 50 times a week we're at church, but it came furnished and with the invite to stay as long as we needed. :)

This is especially helpful when we remember that we sold IT ALL when we left five years ago. We did keep a few things in a storage unit for one year but frankly, after a year of paying for storage and living without those things, you begin to re-evaluate how much you need that stuff. So we went through it back then and got rid of even more.

So we're left with those odd ends and bits of life that only make sense to you as a person or your life up to that point. Pictures, wedding books, baby clothes, family heirlooms and china. So, bless my parents' heart - they let us store some things under their house and saved us a bundle.

We've culled through even more of that 'stuff' as we've been here. Man - do things go to pot quickly in storage....just saying. Yet some of those bits and pieces have been fun to have back again. Although the china is staying under the house though until we wind up somewhere permanent.

Permanent...hmmmmm....I don't even know what that looks like or feels like anymore. It's an okay thing but I will admit to feeling somewhat gun shy about making decisions that seem like they would be permanent.

Yet, here we are. For our family's sake, at some point we will be moving to a more permanent place of residence.

Not for a while though. A couple of weeks ago we met with someone about finding out where we stand financially with our options. Well....it seems 5 years on the mission field doesn't exactly show up in the work history, so we need to wait a bit longer to be legit.

Oh well. If there's anything I've learned over the past years it's that God has His own timing. It never looks like my expected either. For me now, it's enough to know that He will provide. I can look back and see that one quite clearly.

Faith