Well, boy has it been a while!  With all of life's ups and downs and unknowns, I backed away from blogging here until our big "whatever" happened and I could have some stability once again.

If any of you remember my blog entries from years past, we have been on a long journey to selling our house and finding work with a Christian camp.  It's been a roller-coaster ride to be sure (just check my archives under the Camp Quest category!!) but has finally come to fruition. 

I will likely write a book about this great adventure, since there were so many lessons to be learned along the way and God did, many times, show Himself in both large and small ways.  I give Him all the glory for the process as well as the result!  And, of course, it isn't over.  No, this is only the beginning of the adventure, as the song from "Narnia" goes.

We did indeed finally sell the house.  Last winter.  In the worst housing market in decades.  Within three weeks of listing!!!  That, my friends, was a miracle.  And I don't say that lightly, I truly believe it.

The rest of the story gets interesting, but bears telling, at least in outline form.  The same week we received the offer on the house, we were contacted by a camp manager who saw our profile with CCCA.  To that point, he was the only one to do so.  Wow!....Cool!  Sell the house and get the camp in the same week!  Well, not exactly.  Hah!...did you expect it to be so simple?! 

Long story short:  my husband decided not to take the camp position.....

Our "Plan B", if you will, had always been to head to Florida.  My dad lives there, which is why we chose that state.  Also, despite the bad economy, we figured there were at least more job opportunities there than in our little rural NH area.  True, in theory.  Reality??...not so much.  We did come to Florida the first week in April.  Moving itself was a nightmare and I won't get into those details now (mostly becasue I don't want to think about them!  lol!).  We thought we had a good plan in place before we left, and in another time it might have been, but basically every lead we had in both housing and jobs just fell totally flat.  We spent a lot of time wondering what in the world we had done.  I never "blamed" God for any of my circumstances but boy did I cry out to Him for help!!  You have to remember, God often sends you to your knees to get your attention.  He had mine good! 

We did eventually find a place to live, but DH never did find "real" work.  God has sustained us, much like the Israelites in their wandering of the wilderness, but just like them, this was never meant to be the final destination.  I know that now.  It's been a place of growing and learning and trusting God for ALL things.  We love it here, by the way, but it's expensive!  We could never stay here and live the life we want for our family.

Meanwhile, back on the ranch (literally...), my husband has kept in touch with the camp he "almost" went to work for.  Why??  None of us can really figure that out, except to say that it would seem the Lord wanted it that way.  They still hadn't found someone to fill the position, and he we are still looking for work....

*DING!*.....You are now free to move about the country....

Two weeks ago we hopped in our van and headed west to Texas.  We spent 10 days at the camp, during which time DH was able to help out and both see what it would be like as well as show what he can do.  It was a match made in Heaven.  Truly!  Oh, and the house we can live in?.......

Is my long-dreamed-of HOMESTEAD!!!!!!!!!!!

Next time I will post pictures of the house and the grounds, and they will serve as my "before" pictures for all I have planned!

....is a wonderful thing!  lol!  Unless you are naturally someone who must have every hair in place, so to speak, you deal with clutter at least once in a while.  Some of us more than others.....  

Preparing to move is a great time to reevaluate your belongings and, in most cases, do a little purging.  But even if you aren't in that position, it doesn't hurt to do a little "spring cleaning" once in a while, regardless of the season!

I have about a dozen boxes in the basement that have been there for about two years.  I started packing some things up at that time when we thought we were going to a camp.  I just never bothered to un-pack them when we determined that we were staying put that year.  I went into a couple of those boxes recently, seeking out some treasure or another, and what I discovered was quite a shock:  I don't remember what's in most of the boxes, I haven't missed it, and it's time to purge and repack them!  Sometimes,  you just have to let go of "stuff."

I'm overdue for an update here, so I'm going to try to bring my followers up to speed on what's been going on. 

The house is back on the market.  And we are, literally, waiting for a miracle.  The world says it can't be done; God says "Nothing is impossible with Me...."

DH's job remains, but remains very tenuous.  He's used up 2 of his 3 weeks of vacation time already, leaving one week and a handful of "personal" days.  After that it's unemployment, which is something like only 60% of your normal weekly income.

We just sit here and wait, because there is nothing else we can do!

We have our profile active with the camping organization, but so far no bites.  And the job postings are either for summer help, or in fields where we have no expertise (too bad we don't know how to cook for large groups!....seems there are LOTS of postings for cooks!).

Deep down inside, I keep telling myself  that God is in control of all of this.  And I know that He is.  And all the while I've had this great confidence that He will come to our rescue and do some big thing that everyone will be in awe of. 

And then the little thought crept in.....What if He doesn't?   I have no doubt that He is with us.  But are Christians immune from the economic situation in this country right now??  I don't think so.  Christians are losing their homes right along with everyone else.  There are others in our church who are also suffering a financial blow.  I don't see this hedge of protection around the Christians, I see them going through hardship like everyone else.

Sooo.....what if we do lose our house?  What then?  With no money to pay off debt and no money to move anywhere, where do we go and what do we do?

I can't see that far.  God can. 

I don't keep up with this blog daily like so many of you, but it has been my little refuge when life has gotten rough and has also been the place that I've poured my heart out over our camp search and the effort to sell our house.  It's been a long road...

I was thinking the other day about how two winters ago, we had two great camp offers but just couldn't get the house ready to sell in time.  The market was "ok" then, too.  Last winter, we finally had the house on the market and had 3 "almost" sales, none of which worked out.  My entry last March titled "The End of My Worn, Frayed Rope" pretty well sums up what I was going through after all that!  Now, here we are in winter again, but this time I feel backed into a corner.  We are looking at losing our home unless God intervenes.

I feel like the Israelites standing at the edge of the Red Sea, with all the Egyptian army bearing down on them.  They are doomed.

Unless God intervenes.

And He did! 

I dunno, maybe now is the time that God is going to show Himself and do that "something" whereby we will know without a doubt that it was He who moved.  I have tossed up my hands and raised the white flag in utter surrender.  There is literally nothing we can do to "fix" this situation right now and I am on my knees praying for a miracle.  All I do know is that like Peter, I need to keep my eyes on Jesus and not the storm around me....

I am very thankful today for many things. 

I have a roof over my head.  I have heat in this cold New England winter climate.

I have a table full of God's bounty, and I celebrate this harvest.

My family is whole and healthy.  That is HUGE.  I know so many broken families, and quite a few with major health issues.  My family is my biggest blessing.

There are two cars in my driveway, both paid for.

I will be able to buy my children a few Christmas gifts this year.

I live in the free-est country in the world.

I have Jesus Christ in my heart and my life as my Lord and Savior!

I also have a lot going on that would merit complaining, but it's not worth the space for the words.   It's in the Lord's hands.  He remains in control.  I heard something the other day that stuck with me, and IS worth the space for the words: 

There is no such thing as "trust" if we know all the answers!

and...

If we only focus on what God is not doing, we will miss what He is doing.

I wish a happy and blessed Thanksgiving to you all!

So, the old saying goes "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade."  We have been "drinking" a lot of lemonade around here lately! lol!!  If I could offer one word of advice from our experience, it would be to never, ever get smug and cozy in your circumstances.....they can change completely at any moment.

Back when life was going ok, we used to talk about moving simply because we wanted a change of scenery, so to speak; to get out of New England and see other parts of the country.  But it always came back to DH's job and it's perceived security, and is it really wise to up and leave that.  Now, things are much more tenuous, and no one at his level really knows what's coming in that place.  The Lord wasn't kidding when he told us in His Word "do not store up for yourselves treasure on earth, where moth and rust destroy, but store up your treasure in Heaven...".  Amen!  Nothing here is certain, or guaranteed to last!

We will batten down the hatches for winter and try to muddle through, but right now I can honestly say that God only knows what spring will bring.  DS11 was playing around with Google Earth last night and somehow found himself hovering over the Yukon!  We zoomed in and had a good look at Dawson City.  I found the church we helped out at way back in '92!  I was showing him the Top of the World Highway and the ferry to cross the river.  Then I followed the river down to Eagle, AK - we did that trip in a 16' row boat when we were there!  I remember stopping at Fortymile and spending a few moments marveling at the history right before my feet, before the epic mosquitoes drove us back to the boat and open water.  We camped on an island, on the sand facing the wind, again to keep the bugs at bay.  Best. Summer. Ever.  And all that little tangent was about, was to say that I miss the Far North, and there is still a part of me that really longs to go back.  Despite the distance from "home."  Despite the extremes in climate.  It's a stunning piece of real estate, Alaska is!

Any maybe, just maybe, all this hoop-la we're going through now will be the catalyst to get us back there!

Well, life is getting interesting, that's for sure!  Money is tighter than it's been in many, many years.  It seems more dire this time, though, because we have our own house now.  God is in control, I know full well, but I can't look ahead more than a few months as far as what our plans may be.  I'd like to be able to say "Oh yeah, we're going to put the house on the market in the spring, wait for it to sell, then move [wherever]." 

And true to my "fickle" warning in my "Colorado" post, each day that goes by makes me realize that Alaska is NOT out of the question.  All I know is that when the time comes to move on, DH and I will do what is best for our family, and that covers a wide spectrum of factors.  Alaska has a lot going for it.  Period.

On the home front, we have begun running the wood stove at night regularly now.  It was a scant 23 degrees this morning at 8:30!  Hard frost on everything.  And yet I still picked a handful of grape tomatoes off the last two plants!  Amazing.  Hardy little things.  My oregano plant hasn't succumbed to the frost yet, either, so I ought to pick more of that and dry it.  The chilly weather has put me in the mood to bake, too!  Time for more breads and soups.  Mmmm, yummy!

It's funny how spring and fall seem to bring out the work-hound in a homesteader!  I guess winter is just a time to hunker down and survive (well, for those of us in the north anyway) and summer is a time to enjoy the outdoors and have vacations and such.  Here around our place we're still busy putting up wood, of course, but hubby is also tackling some long-overdue house projects as well.  He finally got the back deck cleaned and Thompsonized - it looks brand new!!  There is still some staining that needs doing on the shingles on the back side of the house, too.  Another few weeks and we'll have LOTS of raking to do.  Again.  But I'm willing to pay that price.  I can't stand a yard devoid of trees!  So empty and barren (around here, anyways).  I like my little cottage in the woods. 

I have the opportunity to pick up some hours again at my old work.  They are getting busy with holiday orders and before I left, I offered to have them call me if they needed extra help now and then.  I'll put in a few days next week, then stay home when my dad is up visiting, and resume again the following week.  Sounds like they have plenty of work coming and I'll take what I can get right now, since DH has no overtime available at his work.  It'll be interesting juggling this with the kids' school work, but we'll give it all we've got. 

We have been blessed....  We had a good supply of wood going for this year.  Weren't really sure if it'd last all season but most of it anyway.  90% of it we got for free, just for clearing out the dead trees from a friend's lot.  That person is now going to be completely clearing an area for a garage on their property, so not only does DH get the clearing job, but he gets to keep all of that wood too!  Most of it will be green but that will lay in next year's supply!  So, assuming we're still here, I am looking at the next two winters of not having to spend a dime on propane for heat!!  The only other thing we use gas for is hot water, which barely makes a dent in the tank on its own.

God is so cool.

.....COLORADO!!  I'm a fickle gal sometimes, so I can't promise this won't change, but at the moment, Colorado it is!

So here's the low-down.  DH and I absolutely fell in love with Alaska 16 years ago when we spent the summer there on a short-term missions trip.  We have dreamed of going back, and once or twice actually started to formulate a plan to make it happen.

Then we had kids. 

I used to swear that having kids wouldn't change my dreams.  And it hasn't, for the most part, but it has caused me to make some adjustments.  Alaska is just too far away from New England for us to feel comfortable just packing up and moving there.  Basically it would mean saying good-bye to everything and everyone we know and not looking back.  Yes, we live in the jet age, but flights are expensive, esp. for a family of five.  The dream is still there, but we have decided to put it to rest for now and stop trying so desperately to get there.

Almost 2 years ago (it's archived somewhere here on my blog, I think) we were looking into finding a job in Christian camping.   We came oh-so-close to heading out to Colorado, but in the end we just couldn't be ready on their time-table and we had to pass.   But Colorado is still there, even if that particular job isn't!  It's not "close' to New England but at least it's still in the contiguous Lower 48.  It's got everything we're looking for - large cities to visit, expansive wilderness to explore, tons of "old West" history, Native American history, lotsof horses, and the unequaled backdrop of the Rocky Mountains.  I am starting to do some research on what it's like to actually live there, relocating from the northeast.  DH won't be looking for any very specialized type of job; he's in manufacturing now and wants out.  He much prefers work with his hand- and power-tools and enjoys construction and fix-it work quite a bit.  All I need is a stable to clean and I'm good!

If anyone reads this who is from CO, I'd love to hear your comments on living there!  Are you a native or did you move there from somewhere else?  What part of the state are you in and do you like it or would you prefer another location?  Anything!