Finding our "new rhythm"

     It has truly been a wild ride here!  Several posts ago I listed some of the happenings in the past year and then got tired from reading them....and a little bored.  We ALL have a year like that.  I doubt any of us sit around and think...."wow, there has been nothing going on".  We are all so unique in our abilities and accomplishments and gifts.  Some are BIG in the world's eyes and some not so much, but all are exactly how God intended us.

     As we are searching for our "new rhythm" in our new home, there are struggles.  Struggles for STILL, yes I said it, STILL unpacking, trying to locate items in their new places, re-locate some that don't seem to fit where we put them and just simply FIND things.  This house is SO much bigger and while that is a tremendous blessing, it is also a great responsibility.  Things take longer to do (mainly because we still can't find things.....I am mentioning that a LOT aren't I)!  Laundry is in more places. there are more bathrooms to clean and more trashcans to empty.  We are dirty and trashy so this is a PROBLEM!  Ha!  We are so thrilled to be here and to be blessed like we are.
     Now we must find our rhythm.  Chores and chore lists have to be re-vamped and schedules adjusted.  We are getting there...slowly, much more slowly than we would like.  School happens in a weird sort of way, and life happens as it does and we are needed to do .....all kinds of things.  The "wall" is built, but will we ever finish painting, having carpet re-laid, etc.  I don't know!  It seems to always be a mess, but the mess does change.  Bookshelves are getting organized, closets....well, let's just say they're a work in progress, but praise the LORD for so many!
     Now, we are approaching Thanksgiving and my parents suggested our house.  We actually have a dining room complete with my beloved in-laws dining room table in it.  It has been in storage since Locke's father passed away and I have prayed for a day to have it in our home.  It is a joy to see it and think of eating around it and yet it is bittersweet thinking of the meals shared around it with Locke's large family.  Since the death of his father (his mother passed away a few years before that) we don't get together.  Lots of reasons for this and all make me sad, even though one is that we are ALL over the country.  I still long for us all to be together.  To hear children's laughter running in the house, a kind a organized chaos occurring with laughter and old memories shared, but there are some hearts that need mending as well for this to happen. Maybe one day it will be here!  I would love to see my darling great niece and nephews playing with my children (yes...I am a great aunt, but that is only a word...right?)
    For now MY family will come, but it will only be my parents and possibly, only a slight possibility, my only aunt and uncle, along with my only cousin and his wife.  More than likely it will only be my parents.  My brother and his family will come at Christmas and my sister and her husband and his family are trying to find a new normal with their sister being gone.  She was a year older than me and died in September of cancer.  Life is different for them and their family is trying to cope with her loss when she was really the center, the one who held them all together.  Tough stuff and yet life continues and will always be fragile!  My thought....get over "your junk" if you have any and love those close to you.  You may have different opinions and more than likely will, but you are still family or friends and you need to come together and leave the differences outside.
     I hope, as a side not, that I do not offend anyone.  I don't have many family members who read my blog and for those who do I feel like they would agree with me.  If not, this was not pointed at anyone at all.  Friends, same for you!  Let's all share this thing called life and love while we are here on earth.  It's only for a little while.