Libby’s Lines

..it’s scary, exciting, frustrating and causes one to disencumber oneself and family of unnecessary things.

We have accepted a job offer that will take us to another town in another state. As difficult as that decision can be, the hard part starts after the decision has been made. Now comes the process of finding housing in the new town, processing school transfers, sorting, purging, packing, moving, unpacking, setting up in a new home, setting up at a new office: and that’s just the physical stuff.

The emotional stuff comes right along with it; dealing with getting rid of things you don’t need even though you may have an attachment to them, your childrens fears of the future and the unknown area, school and people they will encounter, your own fears of the unknown, saying goodbye to close friends and afraid to make new friends because it seems disloyal to your current ones.

Well, with all of this in mind we have to make our lists and plan of attack on getting started and completing the tasks ahead. With organization comes some peace of mind, even in the midst of chaotic feelings. I have a lot of stuff to get through in our home and it will take a lot of time. We don’t have a move date, a new job start date or new housing, however, if I wait until those things are set then I have wasted valuable work time. There are things that we need to get rid of, either by selling, donating or tossing out. There are things we will keep but can do without for 2 months while in the moving process, so these I will pack. There are other things I can be doing while in the limbo mode; scrubbing the house, touching up paint, treating the wood floors and spending time with friends.

We will miss our friends here and look forward to visiting them and their visiting us after we move. But we will make new friends and enjoy developing those relationships too.

We will continue to follow the path we feel God is laying out in front of us and are looking forward to where it leads.

We don’t look forward to them, they aren’t fun, they don’t give warm fuzzy feelings, they can make you cry, they bring an end to something.

We have all had to say goodbye: for one-week travel assignments, till the next family reunion, because of moving out-of-state, moving to another neighborhood or town, leaving one organization to be a part of another, saying goodbye to loved ones who have given in to death.

Goodbyes are not easy, but sometimes necessary. Healing comes, we begin new relationships, the family grows and the cycle begins again. We just have to remember to welcome those new relationships and though we may be hurting from the goodbyes, newness brings healing and freshness to our lives.

The past couple of months I have experienced many hurts and disappointments, have had to say some goodbyes and begin attending a different church. I have felt like I need to distance myself from the people at the new church to protect myself, however they are so kind and welcoming to our family and us as individuals that I am finding it easier and easier to begin working on new relationships.

We are not discontuing relationships with most of the friends from the church we left and this, I’m sure is part of why the healing is moving toward completeness rather quickly. We don’t have to start completely over, just make a few changes. I welcome the changes now and look forward to the friendships that will come.

So, though they are hard and we don’t look forward to them, think of goodbyes as possible beginnings as well.

Mmmm….

I have returned to bread baking and boy are we enjoying the results! I used to bake bread on a regular basis (a few years ago…) and enjoyed both the process of baking it and eating it. Due to work and increased schedule activities I stopped baking bread and felt that I had lost my knack for it.

Well, I haven’t! The first batch on Saturday left a little to be desired. The flavor was wonderful, but it didn’t rise as much as I would have liked and baked a little faster than I prefer, giving it a harder crust than the type should have had.

At the same time on Saturday, I started a sourdough starter and baked my first batch today. Boy, did it turn out tasty. The kneading, rising and baking processes couldn’t have gone any better and the outcome is as close to ‘perfect’ as it can get. We cut into one of the loaves this evening to ’sample’ it and we couldn’t, any of us, find one thing wrong with it.

What a great feeling for me. I haven’t lost my knack with bread baking and it will be difficult for things to cause me to stop again. I will enjoy making bread twice a week for my family (and myself).

Looking forward to it getting better and better (if that’s possible).

:)