Tea and Sunshine: We moved, started another school year, and various ramblings.

Our summer break is over and school is back in session! But before I get into all that, WE MOVED!!! 3 years ago we packed up our little house, 4 kids, and Henry Bob and we moved to a much larger home, because that is what I thought we needed. We kept our little house and God sent to us, the best tenants we could ever have asked for. They were an answer to prayer. 18 months after we moved in, we welcomed baby #5 and I thought this was the house that we would live in forever. But the newness wore off, and I missed the closeness that comes with a small home. I felt like my kids were strung all over the house (mostly upstairs), and I missed those earlier days in our little matchbox home. I also felt like I had become a slave to the house. It was impossible for me to keep it picked up and organized the way I liked it, and it seemed that when I finally got things in order downstairs, the upstairs was a disaster. You know the rest....I would spend a few days getting the upstairs back in shape and the downstairs was chaos. I do not do well with chaos. I need things to be where they are supposed to be and it was a losing battle in that huge house. So we began to pray about what to do, and just a few short weeks later our renters notified us that they were moving out. Fast forward to Labor Day weekend and we were moving out of the "big boy" and back to our sweet little house. We had to do A LOT of paring down. We had a garage sale and made many trips to Goodwill, but we did it! We moved back in with 5 kids and yes, Henry Bob. And 3 days later we started our new school year. Because we like to do things THE HARD WAY.

This year, I have a 9th grader, 7th grader, 3rd grader, Kindergartener, and a 20-month-old curly-headed little tyrant I mean helper. But not.

Here are a few thoughts I've had over the past 2 weeks.

~ Why am I doing this?
~ I don't want to do this.
~ Am I cheating them out of the public school experience?
~ God, why did you ask me to do this?
~ Could he possibly scream any louder?
~ I cannot believe it is only 10:30 a.m.
~ I could still totally enroll these kids in school.
~Why am I doing this?
~ I do NOT want to read all 900 pages of that Dr. Seuss book, please, please, please do not pick that one.

It was a tough few days getting started, but then I was reminded of this verse:

"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up."
Galatians 6:9 (NLT)

And I love what Elisabeth Elliot said, "Don't dig up in doubt what you planted in faith."