On the market

We've signed the papers and our house is officially on the market. It is scary because we don;'t have a place to go. Our realtor told us this morning that the house (seen below) that we had looked at twice and were planning on as our back-up house got a contract on Saturday. It wasn't in the neighborhood by the church that we are hoping to get into, but it was a cute older house that had been fixed up nicely and it had a great yard. We won't accept a contract without giving ourselves some time before closing, and we're praying that God will provide a house for us in that time.

This is definitely a step of faith--moving from our much-loved space in the country to a smaller place in town. We know that God has a plan and are grateful to be following it through something as easy as a housing transition when others are following it through job loss, cancer, death, pain, and long term uncertainty. Pray that we will grow in our faith during this time as we follow where He leads.

Rainy Saturday

I haven't written much recently besides family updates because my brain just isn't at the capacity right now to think deeply. Not getting many continuous hours of sleep can do that. Katie had a short, but strong post yesterday that I have been mulling over though. Maybe when my brain clears I'll add my agreeing thoughts to hers.
We are putting our house on the market on Monday and we'll see what happens. Today we are cleaning like madmen.

Happy Independence Day!

Thinking about leaving this house has sweetened the time that we have here. Tonight after we got home from the prayer meeting (where Joe taught since the senior pastor is out of town and where our family made up more than half of the attenders), we had fireworks in the front yard. Now, when you are under 5, fireworks that consist of sparklers, Roman candles, and bottle rockets are top of the line because you don't know any better. And actually a smaller show was nice because I didn't have to worry about the little ones getting scared. Even timid David ran around with a sparkler by the end of the night--imitating his brothers and squealing with glee. A game of tag ensued after the fireworks. When I jumped out of my usual chair to join in for the last few minutes ("Mama is running!!!"), I realized that I had been pregnant for a long time--especially in the mind of my boys who probably don't remember Mama running. The game dissolved into chaos because everyone wanted to chase and tag Mama. And Will really hauls off and hits when he is "tagging." Ouch! A rousing good time for all!

At home

I'm home from church today with 2 sick children and one newborn. David and Will have a diarrhea bug and David has been running a high fever too.

I only fed Charlie once in the night last night! When he woke up at midnight, I was just too exhausted to get up and asked Joe to give him a pacifier and he went back to sleep. He woke up again at 2 and I fed him and then he held off until my usual wake-up of 6:30. I hope this is the start of a trend!