Painting

Pop and I spent most of the day (and some of the night) Friday painting the living room of the new home. We chose the same mocha color we had used for the living room in Florida. We find it a soothing, relaxing color that really sets off the artwork well. We didn't know if it would be too dark here, but find there is actually more light in our Maryland living room than in the Florida house. The white molding at the ceilings and around the windows and door makes a nice contrast, too.

At some point in the afternoon I noticed my right hand was beginning to cramp, but I didn't feel tired and I had been painting at a steady rate with no interruptions!! , when I began to ask myself "Why do we paint, anyway?" Certainly there is reason to finish the interior walls of any home to offer security and insulation from heat and cold. A finish coat of paint to protect the surface of the walls from grease and dirt makes sense. But why had we chosen to devote an entire day, with all the aches and pains of painting in our dotage, to recoat walls that were in generally fine condition? Were we justified in our investment of time, energy and financial resources?

A home is a small world of safety and comfort. The family is blessed by surroundings that calm. Looking at the world God designed we see He selected colors that relax, sooth and calm. The greens and browns of the landscape are easy on our eyes. What a relief that the sky is ordinarily blue and not a shocking shade of red. And yet, there are remarkable accents in the world around us, too. I saw the flash of a goldfinch in the yard yesterday. The first daffodils and tulips of the Spring overwhelm us with their beauty. God could have limited Himself to a contrast of blacks and whites but instead chose to use an extensive palate to decorate the world.

Not everyone is going to choose "dull brown", as we have done. Some will be content with their favorite shade of white. Others will be bold enough for orange or purple walls. But color is one tool we have been granted by the Creator to re-create, on a small scale, the world He has entrusted to us.

Homeowners Again

Not long after we moved to Maryland Maria, a woman from Bishop Cummins, told us that another friend from church, Gail, had been thinking of selling her house. Maria knew it had four bedrooms and thought it might suit us. I asked if she would make a phone call and see if that was still the plan. Meanwhile, Gail was wondering if the new pastor's family would be buying a house and if they might be interested in hers. She received the phone call from Maria that same afternoon. Pop had already seen a number of houses, none of them as well-built and maintained as Gail's. We made an offer shortly after seeing the house, but have been waiting for Gail to find a new home of her own.

Finally, the wait is over. We signed all the paperwork today, so the house is now ours. The closing went smoothly and even cost us less than we had anticipated.

Gail closes on her new home next Friday and moves on Saturday, so we should have possession at the end of next weekend.

Some men from church are going to work on a few projects for us before we move in. Space in the basement will be walled off and painted for a bedroom for David. Shelves will be added to the broom closet in the kitchen to convert it to a pantry. A storage shed will be erected in the back yard. We're allowing Monday and Tuesday (the 8th and 9th) for that. We'll begin moving the light-weight items from our present house on Wednesday, and a local moving company will pick up the heavy furniture and all that's in storage on Thursday.

William will be the first to celebrate a birthday in the new house--on Sunday, May 14.

Maryland Update

I rarely get online these days since we are not connected to the internet at home. The younger children take a gym class on Monday afternoons that gives me about an hour "off". If Pop is not using the computer or counseling in the office he lets me use the computer there. As I check everyone else's blog and read the Baylyblog the time slips away.

Tonight after Evening Prayer I again have free time in the office while Pop is in a meeting and the children are still in their classes to post a quick update.

We have located a house we like and have begun the process of purchasing it. It has four bedrooms with space in the (finished) basement that can easily be walled off to make a fifth. In addition, it has a small den that I will be able to use as my own study! There is a living room, dining room, kitchen, one bedroom, a full bath and the den on the first floor. The second floor has three more bedrooms and a full bath. The basement has a family room, half bath, open room for a fifth bedroom, and a large laundry room with storage. It is about a five minute drive down the main street of Catonsville to the church and convenient to the Beltway (695), too. Financing it will be the biggest challenge, but Pop is working hard on all those details and, thankfully, leaving me out of it! If all goes well we expect to close at the end of April and could be moved in at the beginning of May. The home is beautiful and needs no work that we can see (the home inspection is scheduled for tomorrow) and has a very nice yard, too. Not big, but in a nice, established neighborhood.

I have interviewed for a teaching position at St. Stephen's Classical School in Eldersburg, MD, about a 40 minute drive. I had hoped to be considered for a logic or rhetoric level humanities position, but those have been filled. Instead, the open position is for a 4th or 5th grade class. I have not been offered the job (yet), but I did have a very productive interview last Friday and will be teaching a class this Friday on the art history of the American Revolutionary War era--primarily miniatures and other portrait work. If I am offered the position it would allow the four youngest children to attend the school for free. This is the education philosophy I most admire but have been unable to sustainably teach at home. The first year would be particularly difficult for them since the curriculum would be more rigorous than they are accustomed to, and a lot of work for me as well, so I appreciate your prayers as I consider this huge step.

We are looking forward to having company during Spring Break next week. Matt and Thomas will arrive early on Monday (after stopping in Pittsburgh to watch a Penguins vs. Flyers game). We expect Ben and Michal later in the week. I haven't heard if Jon is coming. He recently began a new job that he loves, but I don't know if he's free to take the time off.

Transitions Update

We are in Maryland.
It hasn't snowed.
Pop preached from Jonah in his inaugural sermon yesterday.
Stephen is enrolled in the local public middle school.
Elisabeth, William and Jesse are playing street hockey at a homeschool gym class as I type this.
I forgot to put blue dots on the box containing the napkin rings. I have the cloth napkins, but no rings.
Hurrah for Aldi.
I have missed blogging reading your blogs.
I hope to be connected to the internet at home soon.

Love, Mom

Transitions 2

A few days ago I was feeling claustrophobic. This was not the comfortable hedge surrounding the believer--God's protection and security. It was a confusing, chaotic lack of focus with a sense of pressing demands that left me feeling trapped. I knew there was so much to be done and I had no way of determining what to do first. I am grateful that that feeling passed and today the momentum toward moving day feels more like a steady march than a headlong plunge. God's hedge of protection is never stifling; there is always sufficient breathing room as He calms and gives rest. I am thankful for the Sabbath. I will greatly enjoy a day of rest and refreshment.

The children have packed their duffle bags with the clothes they'll need while staying in SC, and backpacks with "entertainments" for the trip. Their underbed boxes are packed with the toys and comforts they will most want in the temporary house in MD and have been labeled with blue dots. Blue dots are on all the things (or containers of things) going to the temporary house. All other household boxes and furniture will be going into storage. I've put blue dots on pictures and furniture. There are blue dots on the kitchen cupboards and bedroom closets containing things to be packed for the house, and a table with "blue dotted" items in the dining room ready for packing. I'll need to go around first thing Monday morning to make sure everything that needs a blue dot has been taken care of. That's when the packer, Bob, and his assistant will be coming to finish getting everything into boxes.

Pop got the garage almost completely packed up before he left for Colorado. He's having a great time, from the sound of his voice, but suffering a little from altitude sickness. It's hard to drink enough water to stave it off. He returns late Monday night.

Transitions 1

Now that Pop has accepted the call to be rector of Bishop Cummins Memorial in Catonsville, MD we are in the process of preparing to move. There are so many levels of preparation it is easy to lose focus, and I find myself more easily rattled than usual. I melt down at a lower decibel level and need refuge more often.

A big part of moving is the packing. We did a good preliminary job of getting rid of lots of "junk" but we still have an estimated 10 1/2 tons of furniture, books, clothes, pictures, etc. that we will be taking to MD with us. We have done some of the packing already, and I am glad that we will have the movers finish up, but the difficulty is in packing some things for storage and others for use in our temporary home. The house we're moving to is 1/2 (or maybe only 1/3) the size of our home here. Every room is smaller, and there are fewer rooms. I need to separate the essentials of kitchen, bedrooms, bathrooms and classroom and figure out a way of organizing and storing them in a smaller space. In addition, we will be helping Thomas pack and move his things to the Pattons before the weekend is over.

The second challenge is in preparing to say goodbye to Thomas. Parents and students usually have several months' advance notice when their high school graduates are heading off to college to make that transition. We have had only two or three, and the time of our departure is rushing upon us. I remember the evening we said goodbye to Matt, Ben, and Jon when we left Bloomington. That was so painful, I'm not looking forward to doing it again.

Our schedule for the coming few weeks looks like this:
Thursday--Pop flies to Colorado to spend a long-weekend with Peter's family
Sunday--the children and I will attend Westminster for the final time; Thomas will probably be moved in to the Pattons
Monday--the packers come to finish packing; Pop returns from CO
Tuesday--the packers come again, if necessary
Wednesday (Jan. 11)--the moving van arrives and is loaded; we say goodbye to Thomas and begin driving to SC
Thursday and Friday--we stay in SC and sign the papers for the sale of our house in FL
Saturday--we leave the children in SC and Pop and I drive to Catonsville, MD
Sunday--Pop preaches at both morning services and we meet the congregation at a reception between
Monday or Tuesday--our shipments arrive; we unpack in the temporary house, deliver Pop's books to his new office, and place the rest in storage
Wednesday--we fly back to SC
Thursday--we drive to MD and begin to get settled

We'll have the following week to get David and Stephen enrolled in their new schools, get new driver's licenses, register the cars, etc. The current interim pastor will preach the final two Sundays of January and Pop will begin work the first week of February.

Church Search Update

Pop received his proposed severance package from the Session this week. He will be preaching only three more weeks, but will be paid through the end of December. His final Sunday will be November 6. In addition, the money we owe the church on their no-interest loan for our house down-payment has been forgiven. That is equivelent to almost two months' salary.

This is comparable to the financial arrangement I hoped for, but the impending closeness of his final Sunday took me by surprise. Questions, primarily personal, flooded my mind. What will I do about teaching the monthly evening Circle Bible study on November 8? (Pop says "teach", that's his final official day--the Presbytery meets then and will approve, we assume, the severance.) Will I attend the weekly Tuesday afternoon Bible study? I don't think so. Will the children be able to continue with the youth group activities? Yes. Do we continue to co-op with the other homeschoolers? Yes, at least through the end of the first semester which ends before Thanksgiving. Second semester doesn't begin until January.

Within the next couple of weeks we will determine when to put the house up for sale. We have already begun Phase 1 of a four phase packing schedule. Phase 1 is de-clutter. We are removing any unnecessary furniture, decorations, etc. from all rooms to present the house to its best advantage. Stuff worth keeping is packed neatly in the garage. Nice stuff we choose not to take is given away. Trash is ruthlessly discarded. I actually enjoy this phase--it's challenging!

We heard a week ago from the Cape Cod church, that they expected to be reviewing Pop's "package" this past week, but we have not heard anything further. We know the church in Anchorage has received his ministerial data and sermon CD, but we do not know if they have contacted any references yet. This week Pop sent his application to a PCA church in Danville, KY and received an e-mail saying it had arrived. So now we are in the "sit patiently and wait on the Lord" stage. I think we are all feeling quite calm and secure in His kind intentions.