An Open House and an Open House

  Happy Belated Thanksgiving.  We celebrate both here.  I grew up in Canada and the idea of Thanksgiving in October stuck.  There's something about having a big turkey dinner and being thankful that just feels better when all the colors and smells of fall are in full swing.  Now, I'm not saying by that I'm going to dump the other one, I can go for turkey and thankfulness in the snow too ...
  We spent this most recent Thanksgiving with our good friends.  For the past bunch of years we've spent it with them - and now that they live far away we got to spend a few days together on account of the long drive.  It was wonderful.  You know when you have those friends who know and understand you ... and are still okay with you?  That's them.  We got to see their new house, new town, and new church.  The kids got to catch up, and we got to pick up right where we'd left off.
  While we were gone, we had our first open house.  We cleaned like mad all weekend, and then packed like mad to go away, then cleaned like mad again.  Only one couple came to the open house.  By that I was a little disappointed, but as the realtor says, "it only takes one".  I know that God is leading us, and I know that He will take care of all the details.  I know that he gave us this house and He knew when we'd need to sell it.  Some days I just need to keep reminding my feelings.  So, now to keep it clean for the next showing ...

New Season

  I love the change of seasons.  I think fall is my favorite season, though.  I love the bright leaves and the chilly weather.  I love sitting with a blanket and my crocheting in the crisp evening.  Ooh, that makes me think of apple crisp.  I love that too.  I love pumpkins, mums, apple picking, cider donuts ...  The only downside of fall that I can see is that it ushers in winter.  But, you know, isn't it just like God to give us the most beautiful season right before the hardest one?  He awes us with His beauty in the fall, making the blow of winter somehow softer.  I love the tree in front of our house.  It's a late turner.  When all the other trees are almost bare, our tree turns bright red.  Right now all the trees around are tinged with red, yellow and orange.  Our tree is still perfectly green.  It'll change though.  It always does.  And it makes fall last longer.  When the first snows come, there stands that flaming red tree as a reminder of the beauty of the fall.
  This fall brings a new season to our family.  We are saying goodbye to our wonderful church family where we've been loved, cared for and encouraged for 9 years and we're moving into the wide unknown of God's leading.  I purposefully don't say "scary unknown"  because somehow it's not scary when God is leading.  It's wide.  We really don't know what God has next for us, but we know that if God is leading, it's good.  So we've put our beautiful house up on the market.  We're saying goodbye to all of our "kids" who will always stay in our hearts.  We're packing up and gearing up for adventure.  The road ahead is not really clear, but God never promised that, right?  He never said that He would tell us far in advance what our steps would be.  He promised to the the light to our path, and to direct our steps - and I'm okay with that.