S I M P L E

We moved. Again. This past October it was a local move to a bit larger home on 7.5 acres. We had relocated to this area as a transfer for employment. (We like to eat so we chose to move.) We were told, however, that it would be temporary. Since our move here had followed the flow of 75 other families to the area, the rentals were hard to come by. The one house we did find, we were thankful for: nice neighborhood, clean house. Small, but nice enough. After months of waiting to relocate, we decided to look locally for more a place with more space. We found it instantly and made the move that weekend.

Even though we have been here some months and the end-of-the-year holidays are past, I still don't feel settled into our new home. Being a Marine Wife for 20 years, I learned not to let the things I owned own me. I had to be able to let go of anything. Frequently. This really worked for my benefit to live a simple life. But here I am six years after retirement and the usual peace that comes with a move and settling in hasn't been present. Am I being owned by "things" we live with?

I found this project.



I am beginning next month with someone else leading the project. I pray that this nudge along with the cyber-company of others will help me get all settled in so I can focus on all the fun spring and summer projects our family has planned.

18 weeks

There is a countdown going on at our house. We have done this so many times!!

My main memories of "counting down" have been when William was on deployment. The children and I would spend the first several days of him being gone cutting and connecting strips of paper and making a chain. I would try to keep it fun with the children but wow was that hard standing there looking at all...those...rings. One link represented each day and I remember silently wondering if I'd make through the whole deployment when I was barely making it through making the paper chain. The rings covered the entire floor! We hung the chain around the room in swags and then each child would take a turn each morning removing a piece of the chain. How fun when we got down to halfway. We'd celebrate!

I have also done a countdown until vacation, a countdown until my parents arrived to visit us at yet another duty station, a countdown until a special family event and many pregnancies we counted as God would choose to bless us with another child!

Well, this is a new countdown for me, one I have never had the privilege to experience before!! This is the countdown to the "due date" of my very first grandchild! My oldest son's wife, my beautiful daughter-in-love, is pregnant and today she is 18 weeks from her due date! She is past halfway!!

Two weeks ago when they were here visiting, we had a surprise Halfway Party and it was so much fun to celebrate LIFE!