Moving

Well I was looking through my blog and realized the last thing we said was that we were NOT moving. Well...I should just wait to post these things until God has His finally say I guess. We are moving at the end of August. The original post from April 16, 2008 is the most accurate description with a few changes. I won't opening a music studio just yet. And we cannot breed Keiko. Other than that things are going to proceed as planned. :)
I ran across a verse today that I had never seen. I thought I would share it with you :)
Isaiah 46:3b, 4
"I have cared for you since you were born. Yes, I carried you before you were born.
I will be your God throughout your lifetime—until your hair is white with age.
I made you, and I will care for you. I will carry you along and save you."

It's a no go...it's all about margins

Margins...this is a word that I have come to think about a lot lately. What are my must haves in life? What are my margins?

I must have, as far as it depends on me, a happy stable family. There is NOTHING that is worth losing that.

Shaun and I had the great opportunity to rethink our decision to move and change our whole world this past weekend. And you know what? We also were given the freedom to back out of the contract we had signed. And guess what? We did! We are not, after all that, moving! YEAH! There is a great sense of relief and joy for both of us.

As you know, we were on track to move away from this area. to change our whole way of life. What was the clincher for us? Margins. One word with so much meaning. If we had done that move we would have had no margins...no give in our schedules, our family life, no room for error, no space...no margins. Yes we could have sacrificed. Yes we could have pushed very hard and pushed through...but for what? At what cost? A roof over our head at that price is not worth the cost of having stress come into our home. We have, in general, a very happy and relaxed family. We intend to keep it that way.

Shaun and I have come to realize that we are people who excel in life with those margins. They are very necessary to our world. That's just us. So it's around that that we make our decisions. This past month and a bit has been a great exercise in learning. We learned a lot. It was fun. And it propelled us forward. Life IS indeed change...but not always how I think it will be. Life is full of surprises...and that's just why I love it!

And so we stay! And we couldn't be more thrilled.

Deluge of Change

Well so we have some news! My preface is...No! I'm not pregnant!
We are moving. This will be move #14 in a little less than 10 years of marriage. And we're excited! We are not moving far...just over the bridge. But it's a whole nother world over there. We got married on that side of the bridge. We're moving to Fort Langley. What bought this about you may ask?
Well we had been tossing it back and forth for about 4 years now...Shaun's parents live there. Well they came to us about 3 or 4 weeks ago and made us an offer we couldn't refuse. We are going to rent to own their house. And if you know anything about this market...for us being self-emplyed...owning a house is a minor miracle. So we are pretty excited about that.
This decision changes several things:
1) I will not be homeschooling the girls as we had thought. They will be going to a phenominal Christian school. We had out interview last week. They wear uniforms and everything! M starts kindergarten in the Fall. I simply cannot fathom that at this point.
2) I am starting a music studio teaching newborn to 7 year olds the introductory parts of music through play. So I will be going back to work. I am actually quite excited about this. I already have my degree in music and I will be starting a 3 month course here at the end of April to get certified in this particular program.
3) We are starting a Boxer kennel and should have our first litter of puppies come fall. This was not something new it's just that it's all happening at the same time. Our girl has to go through a battery of tests to make sure she is breedable. She starts those tomorrow.
4) Shaun has to move his renovation business over to that side.
5) we will be renting out 2 bedrooms to Trinity students. We are looking forward to this experience. It should be fun but it will change how life as our family knows it happens.
6) we will be leaving our fabulous church. Which is the saddest part of this whole thing. We have bee going there for nearly 3 years and we really love our church and are quite involved with and attached to the wonderful family that we have come to know there. We will be going to 2 year old church near our new home.
So as you know there is what seems like a billion details in that list of 6 things that have to get accomplished in the next few months. They are all major things. Starting 2 businesses at the same time and maintaining another one is in itself quite challenging. But we believe that this is where we are to be.
Life IS change. We are people who, for the most part really enjoy change. So we are excited!