Nerves, butterflies, and deep breaths!

We relisted our house with another realtor about a week and a half ago. 3 days later a young couple looked at the house, then 2 days later put in an offer. We accepted as it was very reasonable and agreeable. So, this weekend and today we've been enduring the inspection process. I thought I would be so happy to just get an offer and accept it and start the moving/selling process. However, now that it's here and our house is being picked apart to the worst degree, I feel even more nervous than before when we were hoping someone would be interested. Whew.

So, even though I'm excited to get this process over, and claim my sanity ;) again, I know that the next step is not always going to be easier. We still will take it a day at a time and hopefully this is the family that will be the new owners, but if not, it will be ok...breathe...

It's interesting how that so much of our lives may consist of "if we can just through to the next step, decision, place in our lives", yet in doing so, we may be stepping into a more difficult position that we would have had to grow through the previous one to endure....does that make sense? Each thing that happens in our lives literally can break us, or make us. That is so true. And the more we choose to breath, rely on the Lord's leading, and hold fast to patience and surrendering it to the Lord, the more that we'll be refined and allow ourselves to become more holy.
Just as He said "Be ye perfect as I am perfect." I think He does expect that from us. Unfortunately, the hard part is the perfecting. ouch does it hurt sometimes. But...if we had everything our way, there'd be nothing but stale, empty, heartless Christians out there that can't help or sympathize with anyone but themselves...

So....for all those people that are going through selling a home and all the fun of inspections, and other situations in life...I understand now. But only now.

So, I'll let you know later how all this process has turned out!

A "natural" process....

When adversity strikes (and it will to us all in one way or another...or many ways all at once), our human nature directs us to see the "physical" way we've been affected...anger descends and threatens to extinguish our light of hope and crumble our foundation.
However, if we allow ourselves to give it to the Lord, our hurts, anger, questions, and fear...our eyes will be opened to see that our physical problems are symptoms of the spiritual battles that are going on for souls - maybe our own. There is so much more going on than we "see".

It has been so hard for me to "see" the spiritual side of things, because I am encumbered with the physical problems that seem to drown me. Only until very very recently have I come to this point to be able to see past everything...

The big picture though, is that God works in the good and the bad. He ultimately cares for the souls, and will use the circumstances that come along for that purpose. How often I want things to work in my time, my way, and my results...it just doesn't work like that.

If we are a follower of Christ and want to grow closer to Him, we are stepping further from the devil's grasp. We must expect that he will work harder to gain control of us and try to make us lose our faith.
Regardless of what transpires, we must hold fast to the faith...because it's not about our physical lives...it's about our spiritual ones.

I have found that growth is impossible without pains...just as a seed has to die for a plant to live, so do we have to die daily to grow closer to the Lord.

Cherries, Cherries,.... Fruit and Berries!

The picture of the wild black raspberries (taste just like Georgia blackberries)are from what we discovered on our acreage!!!! whoo-hoo! They cover our woods, but don't seem quite prolific enough.

I finished the cherries for the year! A friend and I picked a great number of them off our one little tree and after she was done helping me, I was compelled to keep picking them. It seemed the tree wouldn't quit producing the wonderful red juicy berries.

They are tart cherries, so best for pies and ice cream, however that does not stop my daughter from eating as many as she can ~WITHOUT SUGAR~. She just loves them.

I was busy at the time that the last bit were ready, so I picked, pitted...pitted...and pitted some more ( all by hand )and froze them. They froze beautifully and this week I finally finished canning them. Here's some lovely pictures of my favorite color and now my favorite pie filling!

Note...I'm a little more excited because it's my first summer to can without my mom and actually remember what I was doing;) What I wish I'd picked up whilst at home!

We ended up with over 30 qts. and 25 pts. of cherry pie filling or just cherries. And whats more....that's one tree and I didn't even get most of them! Geesh!

An update to our lives....Yes, we are still here:)

So you may have thought that I've abandoned the blog, because we were too busy, had no news about the house selling, or our computer's been down... and even though you'd be correct on all 3 accounts, I'm still here. :) We've been to weddings, had company, canning, spent every spare minute working at the farm, made clothes for Bekah (or at least trying to keep up with her!), and keeping up the daily duties of making a home.

As of late, we are still trying to sell our home, our contract is up with our current realtor and we'll be signing on a new one, in hopes that they'll have a better idea of how to work with us on this venture. The current market has been a hurdle, however it's not effected Nebraska nearly as much as other areas of the country. So, we keep believing when the Lord knows we are ready it will all come about. It has been a trying time to which anyone selling a home would agree. However, we count our blessings and continue to trust the Lord (although frustration definitely has been there)and know that eventually it'll all work out.

We are still working on preparing the other place to move. We aren't wanting to leave it there over winter, and so our thoughts are once Chris is done with his projects, I'll get the painting done and hopefully by Oct. 1st. we'll be moving - regardless of what's happened with this house. We'll try to sell and worst case scenario rent it out during the process. We'd of course rather not, but we've changed so much in the last year as to our desires and priorities, that it just seems like the next step.

The pictures above are of course at the farm...my wonderful husband and daughter:), and the other two are of Bekah modeling her bloomers I made her. I've been making bloomers for her to appropriately cover her when she's wearing a skirt or dress. We both wear either dresses or skirts daily and for one her age it's still very hard to 1. remember to keep her legs together and dress/skirt down, and 2. do any of that while playing!
I don't want her to have to worry about when people pick her up, when she's playing, or any other time, so I've been on a mission to fill her drawer with these bloomers so she never has to worry.
What's even better is that she LOVES them! Since they are out of soft cotton blends, they are super comfortable and move as she does. They are elastic banded at the waist and legs, to give her ease of just slipping them on in a hurry. No buttons and zippers to fool with.
I've also learned to do the french seam so all her bloomers are extremely durable so I can pass them on to future children - daughters:), of course.

Anyway...they've kind of caught on in our area and now my friend and I will be making them for customers who value privacy for their daughters, as well.

That's...what's been keeping us busy!

This summer has been a dream, for sure and it's hard to stay at the computer for too long. :)Enjoy your summer, for winter will be here before we know it!