Let me first make the bold recommendation that if you can ever help it, do NOT move over the Christmas/New Year holiday. Especially if that move involves major renovations that you intend to complete yourselves while living in your new home.

You can now probably guess what we have been up to over the last several weeks. But instead of lamenting on kitchens with no water, or cabinet doors, or even appliances, let me tell you why the dog’s empty food dish is currently sitting in the front seat of my car and how tonight it struck me as a picture of what life is really like.

I have realized that I keep looking for the day when life looks neat and orderly. I keep thinking that as soon as this sport, or this project, or this move are finished days will go as they are planned. Hours will pass  quietly and uneventfully. I am beginning to realize that it might never happen.

We are currently living in a house I swore I would have never moved to. (More on that in the coming days.) Our old house sold in a market we never thought it would have to buyers who were looking for something completely different. Our days have become an adventure in which God is leading us and I am breathing easier through all the changes knowing we are following Him.

This is life…

In sub-zero wind chills we left Urgent Care to pick up an antibiotic for Mae and the sore throat-congested crud that has made her such a joy the last two days. We also had to return a bathroom rug and pick up more bathroom storage containers while we were out. It was a shopping trip with a 16 year old and a 13 year old and I swear they are more difficult and slower than when they were 6 and 3 and I could load them in a cart and just keep moving. But they are also filled with more laughs as they clown around in the curtain isle, pretending the drape samples are fancy scarves and speaking with French accents. Next stop while I had my (not-so) happy helpers was the hardware store to buy a couple of kitchen pantry cabinets that my husband promised would fit in my car. We got the cabinets (and a sled and driveway reflectors because our new driveway is a little hard to find-the cable guy ended up making his own path through the front yard last week in the snow. He required two tow trucks and a few hours to get freed up.)

And we had one more item that would change the course of our evening, causing the dog’s dish to end up in my car, a pair of insulated work gloves.

This is life…

Of course only one cabinet fit, and then just barely. We got thawed out about halfway home with plans to unload and go back for the second one.  Five minutes after we were home I was desperately patting Ty’s cheek trying to get him back to consciousness after he cut his finger with a utility knife trying to unpackage his gloves. He had gone into shock, lost consciousness twice and was the gray pasty color of the drywall that is partially done in the family room. I helped him down the steps to the car, grabbing the empty dog food bowl as we passed it and he said he was going to be sick. We headed back to Urgent Care for the second time in 3.5 hrs. But not before Mae helped me haul the pantry cabinet out of the car, leaving it standing as a totem pole abandoned in our driveway.

 Thankfully, Phil beat us to Urgent Care, parked my car, and then took over and stayed with Ty while they got him put back together.

This is life…

We try to dress it up and put a pretty face on it, especially for other people but in reality it’s bloody, and messy, and unpredictable. And it can change in the blink of an eye.

Tonight, with boxes everywhere, flooring half done, drywall half up, and pizza for dinner, again, I am thankful for so many things. A warm fire in the fireplace, Cabin socks (some of my new favorite things) but mostly having my family safely tucked in their beds tonight. Battered and bruised but none the worse for wear.

I started a book study last November that coincided with our decision to sell our house. “All the Places to Go . . . How Will You Know” by John Ortberg. This excerpt is what started it all for us and I have so much more to share about where we are headed in the coming days and the journey that it’s been to get here.

“We chose it because the adventure of yes seemed more alive than the safety of no. Very rarely in the Bible does God come to someone and say, “Stay.” Almost never does God interrupt someone and ask them to remain in comfort, safety, and familiarity. He opens a door and calls them to come through it.”

Hopefully you all had a Merry Christmas and a more restful start to the new year than we did. I’ve missed you!  Here’s to God’s open doors and living His adventure…Here’s to life!