Last Message From Here

Well folks, today will be our last day in our house in the woods...

This was the view on our front porch on the 4th of July, when rain was threatening in the skies and we decided our flag was safer on the porch than out on the pole...

There I am taking this last picture on our front porch...

This week has been a busy week of packing, taking care of paperwork for the sale of our current home and the purchase of our new home...

I was washing these pretty silk flowers before packing them, and I set them on the dishtowel to dry, and realized that they matched quite perfectly!  Just a little bit of whimsy while I work...

So this is the scene in our dining room and kitchen right now...(actually, this was yesterday, but it doesn't look any better today...more boxes...)

Much of the work that has been done in the dining room has been accomplished by my two dear friends Maura and Marian...They came and worked two days in a  row to help pack the many china dishes, teapots, cups and saucers and general knicknacks and paddywacks from the curio cabinet and two china cabinets...

I don't know what I would have done without their help. I praise God for these special friends who have been with us through thick and thin over the past seven and 1/2 years.  They have truly blessed our lives with their love and willingness to give of themselves to bless others. Thankfully we are not moving all that far away, and we will be able to stay in touch and hopefully see each other often.

 Since we decided to move the majority of everything this weekend instead of waiting until next week, I've been put into turbo mode to get everything done on time. We will rent the largest UHaul truck on Saturday to take the furniture, appliances, and whatever else will fit.  Then we will make little trips next week with our son's pick up and covered trailer to finish up with whatever is left over and clean up and close up and say good-bye to this house...

Once the pictures and personal items are removed from the walls and shelves of a house it kind of loses its "homey" feel and becomes a shell of what once was...a place where much laughter, joy, some tears and sorrow, many memories were made with loved ones and friends and our wildlife neighbors...

We haven't had much time for walking this week, but when we did Mr. Osprey was out there to greet us:

And one day there were three of these kinds of planes flying very low over our house. I think this may have been on the 4th of July.

This ladybug was enjoying its breakfast on the leaf of this wild kind of milkweed plant growing alongside the road:

This is what the buds looked like a few weeks ago on this plant:

And I guess I didn't get a good picture of the flowers, but now this seed pod is growing on the plant, which is strange... I never saw this stage of it before...Oh well, I will miss watching this plant grow back each year...it is all alone on the side of the road, and it disappears in winter, and then comes back each spring!

But I will soon be on a new road of adventure...staring tomorrow we will be staying in our church parsonage, which is a very lovely home and we are blessed to be able to camp out there for a few weeks until we close on our "new house".

The Church Parsonage

I apologize that I did not post the sermon notes from our new pastor this past week. Yes, our new pastor and his lovely wife began their ministry at our church on Sunday, and his message was powerful and wonderful, and I did take copious notes, but I just couldn't get my head organized to sit down and share it with you. I hope to do better once we get settled.  In case you are wondering, the parsonage is available to us to use because our new pastor already has his own home within a close enough distance to commute, so he will not need this house.  The church plans to use it for special meetings and events throughout the year (after we move out in a few weeks, of course!)

This is just one of many blessings from the Lord in this move.

Once we get our internet back up and running next week, I will keep you updated as much as possible on our comings and goings.  We are so thankful that the Lord, and our church, have provided this lovely home for us to stay in during the interim. It will be a peaceful haven in midst of the chaos of moving.

Oh, those of you on my Facebook already know this, but all you may not know...we got to meet the new owners of our current home yesterday. Remember, they had purchased the home sight unseen, and yesterday was their first look up close and personal at what they had bought. I was a little nervous that perhaps they may want to change their minds once they saw it for real...but again, God proved to me that my fears were unwarranted.  They LOVED the house and were delighted with all of it interesting character and points of interest. They are moving here all the way from Idaho, and are quite happy to be escaping the cold winters and heavy snowfall there. They didn't even seem to mind the 100% humidity and hot muggy atmosphere here.  

So, thank You, Lord, again...for preparing all of this ahead of time, in YOUR time, exactly as it should be.  I know that You are with us in this move...and today I am relying on Your strength to help us get all of the work done so that we can be ready to roll when the truck arrives to take us away to our new adventure! 

Okay, duty calls... I must get "moving" or we'll never make it...

God bless you all, and I'll see you later...