So, things have been quiet for several days. I have moved my morning devo time to include the children as we get ready and head to school in the mornings. It doesn’t provide the reflection time that I usually would include, but it is helping to add a dose of daily normalcy for them as we continue to clean out the house, paint and order rooms before we put it on the market, hopefully next week.

I’m not lying when I say that I will be glad not to touch a gallon of paint or a roller again for a while, and the idea of an apartment that doesn’t include any maintenance duties sounds really nice right now. Home ownership is a great thing, but there are some seasons of life that make it just a smidge more difficult.

It’s funny taking a home where you’ve spent the last 7+ years raising your family and making it into a sterile environment. All the signs that you’ve been there removed. All the colors you chose covered up with white so the next person has a blank canvas to work upon. Patching nail holes, fixing dings and nicks…all those signs of our living here smoothed out and hidden away.

Granted, I love purging and getting rid of all those cluttery little extras that build up in your home over time. I love filling up toters and cans and hauling away things that have been gathering at the periphery. And when you find those boxes that you haven’t even opened since you moved the last time, you know that it’s either an heirloom treasure that cannot be handled or some piece of junk that you shouldn’t have moved the last time. But in either case, why keep it? Right?

So, we simplify and build up towards a yard sale or two and wrap up all those Honey-do list items that were glanced over for so long. Old toys cleared away, old books sold off, that thing you were hanging on to for some reason long forgotten gets filed away for the garbage men to haul off. And everything is simplified.

I think that’s the one thing I do really enjoy about this process: simplification.

It’s good to clear out the cobwebs, set yourself toward a new goal and leave behind anything that doesn’t help get you there. It’s time for a restart. And that’s not a bad thing.

So, please continue to pray for us in this process, and may God’s will be done!