Friday Foto Friends - Moving Right Along...

Greetings to our Friday Foto Friends!

I "pray" you have had a good week:

This Praying Mantis spent a day "praying"  (or "preying?") on our window, watching me as I took his picture, and also "praying" for a tasty catch of bugs who happened to venture into his territory...

Not a lot of pictures to show this week, but this was an interesting little purple wildflower I noticed as we took a walk one evening with our "newlywed kids" in their neighborhood...

We took a walk down the road from their home and enjoyed the view of the very smooth glassy Lake Ida nearby their home...

This "Cooper's Hawk" kept a sharp eye on us as we walked their two doggies down the road...(I forgot to take pictures of the doggies!)  Thankfully the doggies are too big for Mr. Cooper to tackle now...

Here's our sweet "newlyweds"...it will be one year of married bliss the middle of November. We visited the scene of where they first met...at sweet daughter-in-law's place of work...I guess I'll have to stop calling them "newlyweds" soon...but they still seem newly-wed to me!

We love these two and enjoy being near them...so much so that we have made some BIG decisions this week...

I invite you to come and visit and sit on our porch and have a cup of tea while we chat, but better do it soon because...

This is what happened this week....

 Yes, we have listed our wonderful home in the woods for sale.  I can hear the gasps out there right now...but hear me out....

This decision comes after many months of prayer and thought and discussion on the subject...ever since we started visiting the little community where our "kids", the newlyweds, live, and since we started attending church in that same community and found much joy, fellowship and a place of sincere worship and love of the Lord...our hearts have been drawn to wanting to become more actively involved there.  This community is about 30 miles north of where we currently live, and as time goes by, we would prefer to live closer rather than have to travel so far through the woods to get there!

In addition, we believe it is time for us to "downsize" and try to live more "simply"...at least that is our intention. We don't know yet what size or kind of house we will find, but most likely it will be smaller than our current 2300 sq. ft....so I know I've got my work cut out for me.

But rest assured, wherever we live, I will be looking for that special spot to set up a "secret garden", and also a place suitable to have friends over for tea parties and a guest room ready to receive guests...as well as we expect there will still be plenty of wildlife to enjoy nearby.  The town we are moving to is very rural, with lots of woods and lakes and dirt roads to walk on...so not much different than where we are currently, except they don't seem to have too many bears. They do have some...but not like here. And they do have plenty of deer!  It is also a bit closer to shopping, doctors, etc., which will be a help in the future...

So time will tell what kind of adventures we will experience in our new "neck of the woods". It may be a while before we actually make this move, as we cannot move until we sell this house...and only God knows how long that may take. Please pray for us in the meantime as we seek our new home and prepare our hearts, minds, and bodies for the BIG move...  Those of you who know how much "stuff" we have will be sympathizing with me.

I didn't write the usual "Sermon Notes" post this week as I've been preoccupied with this event above, but here are the scripture verses we studied in our lesson...and you will perhaps see that the message was speaking to our hearts as we contemplated this big move:

Matthew 13:44-46

"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid;

and for joy over it he goes 

and sells all that he has and buys that field.

Again the kingdom of heaven is like 

a merchant seeking beautiful pearls,

who, when he had found one pearl of great price, 

went and sold all that he had and bought it."

Simply put,

we feel much like the man in the verses above who found a treasure hidden in a field...or who found one pearl of great price...and we believe that God is leading us to "sell all that we have" and go and "buy that field" or "that pearl of great price" and live where we believe we are being led by God to go.  And that is why we are doing what we are doing.

Thank you for your prayers for us as we "move ahead."

Now let us "move right along" over to Deb's place at "Breathing in Grace" and see what our other Friday Foto Friends have been up to...God bless you all and have a wonderful weekend!