what spills out

The last days have been a lot of spinning plates with a wedding, three arts' camp performances, a girlie to church camp, TB tests, a neighborhood party in our new neighborhood, house showings almost every day, church, Ben's dino bday party, VBS, gymnastics, school registration and school supply shopping, counseling, and tomorrow Matt heading out of town to speak at Indian Springs Camp Meeting. 

We are officially in the chauffeuring days, and it takes some work each evening to figure out the next day! This is why mamas start to long for more structured school schedules!  After trying to sell the house on our own for 2 weeks and exhausting all our contacts/channels/leads (would have been SO good to save that so badly needed 5% :( , we handed it over to our friend/realtor five houses down today, so more showings scheduled in the days ahead. The "clean up, put away, get out" craze is one I will NOT miss, and we have promised to take all these dear kids (who have been SO flexible and good sports about it all) to SkyZone for an hour to "jump for joy" once this beloved house is sold.

We can move into the new house as soon as August 1st, but Matt is the speaker at Cherry Run Camp Meeting July 29-August 9, so we are having the house painted August 1st instead and then officially moving in once Matt gets home.  I am obviously crazy, but not crazy enough to move seven kids and I into a new house the first week of school for two of our girls by myself. 

So, we pack some everyday, can't find much of anything, and also try to keep around what we need for the next 3+ weeks. We are trusting the Lord to sell this house to the right people at the right time, and I battle to refuse to worry about the money and/or the timing continually, mostly successfully with Lady Jane's advice to give it to the Lord and "just refuse to think about it again."

Sweet slices this season have been baby snuggles (even when there is a lot to do and she never wants put down), Ben's joy over his birthday (this little man is MAJOR into the holidays. All of them. Any of them. Always), Lily and H having the opportunities to go to their respective camps, and any little moment with any one of them: learning about leopard geckos with A, learning VBS dances with a very-serious Nora, chatting in the car with Lily up front and unable to escape me, morning coffee with Sofie and Emma, whom she simply always calls "little mate", books over the bathtub with Nora and Ben, bedtime conversations with each of them, morning devotions the same. 

Pray for Matt as he travels and speaks and preaches and prepares to start teaching again in August. Pray for the family looking for this house. Pray for the upcoming move, for these precious kiddos, for the Lord to provide all the things. 

Pray for His strength and courage and patience and love abounding in our hearts, so that as we are shaken, love and patience and courage and strength spill out.