House Keeping and House Closing

When I first posted about Joanne Heim’s need for prayer, I had prefaced it with a blogroll housekeeping issue that felt really out of place once I looked at it a couple of times so I deleted it for a future post.  I sincerely hope that you all will keep Joanne, Toben, Audrey, and Emma in the forefront of your prayers and continue to check for updates from Toben at The Simple Wife.  Bless him for knowing how to blog and for caring enough about Joanne’s broader circle of friends to keep us updated on how we can pray.   UPDATE:  Y’all check out Janna’s ‘Blessing Bunting’.  Amazing.   There are instructions on her blog on how to have your scriptures added.

Back to the housekeeping.  I’m so happy to tell you that the updates to the M2M Blogroll are complete and I hope to have both corrected a problem that was causing many broken links as well as get all of the new requests added.  Now that everything is in pretty good shape, I am pleased to introduce you to Chrissy (DePirro’s Notes) and Viola (Along a Widowed Road).  They have graciously volunteered to help keep this area of the website updated and come up with ways to feature your blogs on an ongoing basis.  It’s a work in progress but please know it’s underway and that my chief prayer is to provide this list as a resource for those of you who are seeking connection with other minister’s wives.  But hey, if you aren’t married to a pastor, that doesn’t keep you from visiting these girls.  Believe it or not, preacher’s wives are pretty normal and do socialize outside their kind. 

I’m also working with Rachel (The Hinton Home) in developing submission guidelines for the column I talked to you about a few weeks back.  She’s perfect as an editor considering she has typed many a seminary paper for her hubby.  Again, the column is still a work in progress but you’ll be hearing more about this soon!  Thank you so much to all of you who have expressed interest in sending in articles. 

More housekeeping:  We have a Travis book winner:   #27  Mary Lou!! ( Email:  dlowan1(at)comcast(dot)net.)   I asked Sawyer to pick a number between 1 and 69 and he chose 27.  I’m so tickled Mary Lou won because she was careful to include her email in preparedness to win.  Yay, Mary Lou!    Send me your mailing address and I’ll get the book out to you!

And now for house closing.  Yes, I said it.  PRAISE THE HIGH HEAVENS, WE CLOSED ON OUR HOUSE TODAY!  I can not even express to you the tide of relief, the overwhelming gratefulness, the sheer shock and awe that after 20 years of marriage I stood in a house today that we built and now officially belongs to us.  But not just any house, our home.  I’m verklempt.  I have lots of photos that I will post in the next day or so.  Today, I’m just taking it in.  I’ve also broken my media deadline by 45 minutes so no time to load pics. 

In final news, we are entering Day 5 of the Great Snow In.  I went on a nature hike with Sam and Sydney yesterday and had the best time.  There’s just something about the stillness of a town shut down by snow that’s magical.  What’s not magical is the inside of my house and the state of the playroom or the heightened tension between four kids who are sick to death of each other.  Also confirmed today they will not go back to school until Tuesday. 

Wonder if anyone will miss me if I move on to the other house?

Because did I mention……. I CAN DO THAT NOW BECAUSE IT IS OURS!!   Wahoooooo!!!!