I'm back!

Home... yes, our new house starting to look like home. Except for the boxes of books in the living room waiting for some bookshelfs, and an empty shelf in the dining room (I need to put some books there too), and the piles of leftover junk when you walk in the back porch, and stacks of boxes waiting to be organized or moved in what will be my craft room/laundry room, I would say it's starting to look like home. I have a laundry basket of clothes waiting to be put away. There are toys and dvds strewn across the living room floor from kids playing. There's a homeschool teacher project waiting for me to finish (I've got all the supplies in one place so I consider that to have started). I have pictures on the walls (some...), and pillows on the couch (no, wait, they're on the floor too!). I do have a lot of work to do yet, for example my windows desperately need to be dressed. But we are finally to the point where we can start to have some routine again. YAY!

We really are loving this place. Oh sure, our house has its quirks. But then we are a family with some quirks. It's great to finally be back in the country again, instead of in the middle of town. I have some great ambitions for this summer with gardening, and I'm even considering raising chickens... we'll see. But mostly we're loving this place where God has our family. This is without a shadow of a doubt where God wants us to be. Right here, Right now! There have been so many blessings that we have received through this move. Out of all the five moves of the five years of our marriage, in this move we have seen God answer prayer and bless the most.

The fact that we are renting this house on eight acres in the country is an answer to prayer. After talking the first time to the landlord and getting all the information, Matt and I talked it over and decided it sounded like the best place out of all that I called about. So I called the landlord back the next day to set up a time to look at it (this was Christmas week). He told me that someone else was going to look at it the next day and he was pretty sure that they would end up renting it, and besides he thought it would be too small for our family (never assume you know the needs of someone else!). I was devastated. All the other places available to rent in this area cost more and would have been more headache for our family. So I prayed. I told God that if he wanted us to make this move, He would have to work out all the details. And I specifically added that it would be great if the other people wouldn't rent this house. Well, the landlord called be back the next day, the other people never even saw the house. They called him and said that it wasn't going to work for them. God very clearly let us know that He wants us RIGHT HERE! Another blessing was that we were able to sell (on craigslist) some furniture that we no longer were going to need and our oven quickly. Then on the Sunday before we left, our church family surprised us with a love offering. Between the love offering and the sale of the oven the amount of money came to the exact amount that we needed for the moving truck and the load of firewood we had delivered (we heat our house with wood)! Isn't God great! We had perfect weather for moving (sunny and temps in the 30s, wonderful for da nort wuds of Wisconsin in January unlike when my sister and sister-in-law moved New Year's weekend and it was barely above 0.). There were no injuries while moving or accidents while traveling. Then to top everything off, the pastor's wife of our new church brought us a meal (lasted the girls and I four days!), and our new church collected bags and bags of food to get us started and help offset all the extra moving costs. I must admit that I was a little over whelmed at that point! As I said, God has affirmed over, and over again now more than any other move of our marriage that this is where He wants us to be. The best thing of all is that we are together again! I am so THANKFUL! that My Man doesn't have to travel for work any more! Sure, him working nights takes some getting used to, but it's great that he is home and available for us during the day.

THANK YOU LORD FOR ALL YOUR MANY BLESSINGS!