We love almost everything about living in the city: the restaurants, new places to visit, and especially all the people we are forming new relationships with. However, there was one thing I knew when moving down here would be a bit of a sacrifice, the commute. On a good day, I’m in the car for about an hour and a half. To put it plainly, it sucks. Yet God has a funny way of using bad things to bring about good.

My friend, Michelle, gave me the idea of turning off the radio in my car and spending that time in the car praying. It has been great. It’s amazing when you sit in silence what you are able to hear. Here are a few of the revelations I’ve had.

1. Church planting makes you take ownership of your faith. It’s probably similar to what happens when you first have children. When you realize that the decisions you make affect other people’s faiths, you make sure you know what you’re doing.

2. My “idol” is comfort. I’ve been reading a book, No Other Gods, that talks about what things you put before God, and I’ve struggled with what mine was. After some long talks with God, I’ve realized almost everything I seek (or shy away from) involves my comfort.
-I spend too much time on the computer and watching tv, and not enough time serving others, my husband included.
-I don’t like meeting new people because it makes me uncomfortable, so I don’t make an effort to meet my neighbors, which was one of the big reason we moved into the city.
- I shutter at the thought of moving to another country to share my faith with people that will never get the chance to hear the name Jesus because that is so out of my comfort zone I wouldn’t even know what to do with myself.

3. I need to work a lot harder at being a wife. My friend, Jen, sent me an email with things to pray for your husband for a month. As I go through them and ask God to make my husband a leader in our marriage and make him faithful to our vows to love and cherish, I begin to wonder how am I following those vows; what am I doing to cherish my husband? Makes me realize what people mean by marriage is hard work. It’s more than just trying to live with another person.

Most of these thoughts don’t have a conclusion and aren’t wrapped up in a tidy bow. Mostly because I’m still working through what a lot of these mean. But I am so grateful to be given the chance to be aware of these things and work on them.

This was after 4-5 trips to the new place.

In the past, I’ve been very motivated to stay organized during the moving process, and then as the move gets closer, I just end up throwing everything in a box. Or making piles, as you can see from this picture of last years move. This years going to be different because I’m going to be prepared.

Here are really great tips that I found:

1.Keep, Donate, Trash

A month before moving, go through your storage areas, open up those boxes you haven’t unpacked since the last move and make 3 piles: Keep, Donate, and Trash. You should also do this for every room of the house, but start here first. If you deal with it now, there’ll be less stuff to move later.

2. Open Me First

Create Open me First Boxes for each room of the house. This will really help you on your first night and when you can’t find the toilet paper or towels. Definitely been there.

3. Room by Room

Pack one room at a time  labeling each box by that room name and box #. This will help in a number of ways: 1)prevent your utensils from being packed up with your bathroom stuff, 2) make sure you aren’t missing any boxes,  and 3) if you are organizing to the extreme like me, it will  help in making a inventory of everything. If you aren’t a list maker, try taking a quick picture with your phone of each box before you close it.

4. Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff

Tape small parts like screws and bolts to the furniture they belong to as you dissemble them. Also take pictures of complicated set ups like your entertainment systems before you pack it up. I’ve seen people use color coding to help them remember what goes where. You should also get zip ties for all the cords. It can be a nightmare trying to unpack it later if you don’t.

5. Last One but Definitely my Favorite

Place a string on top of the box before you tape it shut. When you are ready to unpack, just pull the string. No need for box cutters. How smart is that?!

Anyone have any tips for me? Or stuff you wish you would have thought of when you were moving?

I was playing with my tablet and a message from my bible app pops up asking me if I wanted to read the bible. Thinking this was weird, I clicked yes. What came up was Galatians 5, and boy was it speaking directly to me.

“Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you. I am emphatic about this. The moment any one of you submits to…any other rule-keeping system, at that same moment Christ’s hard-won gift of freedom is squandered….When you attempt to live by your own religious plans and projects, you are cut off from Christ, you fall out of grace. Meanwhile we expectantly wait for a satisfying relationship with the Spirit. For in Christ, neither our most conscientious religion nor disregard of religion amounts to anything. What matters is something far more interior: faith expressed in love.”

What I had been missing was the only thing that was going to allow me to change was a change of heart. I was hitting a brick wall trying to take on all that I’d been doing wrong. I needed to be reminded that God doesn’t want us to act of guilt or obligation but out of love. And thankfully He is patient with us and constantly reminds us of this…sometimes in the most creative ways.

If you are interested in ordering a tablet cover, I just need to know what type of tablet you have and what colors you want the cover to be.

I added shelves along the sides to take the place of bedside tables. The  hidden storage creates a clean, clutter free look to the room.

Pumpkin Pie Cheesecake Cups

Sweet Potato Soufflé in individual ramekins

Ingredients

• Sugar cookie dough
• 4 (8-oz.) packages cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups canned pumpkin
• 1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice

Preparation

• 1. Take sugar cookie dough line bottom of cupcake cup liners.
• 2. Beat cream cheese, sugar and vanilla at medium speed with a heavy-duty electric stand mixer until blended and smooth. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating just until blended after each addition. Add pumpkin and lemon juice, beating until blended. Pour batter into cupcake cups.
• 3. Bake at 325° for 1 hour to 1 hour and 10 minutes or until almost set. Turn oven off. Let cheesecake stand in oven, with door closed, 15 minutes. Remove cheesecake from oven, and gently run a knife around outer edge of cheesecake to loosen from sides of pan. (Do not remove sides of pan.) Cool completely on a wire rack (about 1 hour). Cover and chill 8 to 24 hours.
• 4. Add pecan praline toping (combine melted butter, brown sugar, pecans (or walnuts). Other recipes call for heavy whipping cream or evaporated milk but I didn’t have any and it worked out).

The best thing about these hurricane candle holders is you can change out the leaves when the holidays are over.