A season of busy!!!

Hi Everyone,

I am indeed still on the planet, though sometimes these days I wish I could take a brief vacation from being so in order to catch up on some rest!

Spring is usually my season of busy, and this year is no exception; in fact, I do believe it's more intense than usual!

In the end of January was the Statewide-rally for the non-profit I work for. A lot of time and energy was invested in getting it hosted. In early February, we started investigating the possibility of moving. The real-estate market is really depressed, which would enable us to get into a home that would be better suited for hubby's business. It's sort of stalled out in terms of growth. In our driveway, it can't get any bigger or more profitable. Every time it rains, he loses those hours/days of work. Sometimes the rain comes unexpectedly or sooner/later than expected, and ruins a job in progress. Our driveway only holds so many cars. Being outdoors puts him and the paint he uses (which only catalyzes in a certain temperature range) at the mercy of the weather temperature. Being so close to neighbors limits the hours he can work and still be polite. God has been good in granting us much success this past year but if he's going to stick with it, it's getting time to make a change.

Our options are to move to a property with the space and building to do the business on site, rent a commercial space for him, or convert the space at the company he currently contracts with and hope the city approves the conversion and re-permits it for activities it has previously banned. Option B is completely impractical: when we consider the cost of our current mortgage plus the cost of rent on a space, we're looking at the mortgage payment on a half-million dollar home. A home in an un-annexed part of the county with plenty of land would cost substantially less and have the added benefits of being owner rather than tenant, being at the home, and being able to expand his client base beyond just the current one. Option C is very possible, but requires the mercy/compliance of the city.

So, we decided to pursue option A. Along with the very kind and generous help of DH's parents, it is a realistic possibility. Problem is that OUR house is not ready for sale. So we kicked it into high gear on fixing up things around here, which has been sort of "robbing Peter to pay Paul" in terms of time allowances, since we were already short on enough hours to go around. As we can, we're fixing, cleaning, purging, researching, moving, etc. We haven't made substantial progress, but we've made some. We're also trying to squeeze in time to look at/research homes for buying.

In the end of February, my sweet friend C (whom I've mentioned here many times) remarried, and I catered her wedding and helped with other odds-and-ends tasks. It was a wonderful day, but the responsibilities were exhausting. The very next weekend was the annual benefit banquet for our non-profit. I coordinate this benefit, and it is a huge time-sucker! I helped "birth" the first one, and have coordinated all but the one that occurred the year I was on hiatus, so it's my special pet project. I love seeing it grow and change each year. By God's grace, we raised over $20,000 this year, which is a huge number for our little grassroots cause. Now we kick it into high gear for our conference in September.

The following weekend (last weekend) was the wedding of a dear friend, with whom DH went to high school and we both went to college. DH was in the wedding and was gone a lot last week for wedding tasks and I did my best to putter around the house.

THIS weekend is ANOTHER dear friend's wedding and we are both in this one; I am a bridesmaid, and DH is a brides-dude. So we had a 2-day bachelorette girl's weekend these last two days, I'm cramming all my hours at work into today and tomorrow, and then Thursday-Friday we have wedding tasks, and Saturday is the big day!

Phew! I'm exhausted just thinking about it. And both of my bosses have asked me to consider taking on more hours!

The good news is that it's been a fun season with lots of occasion to celebrate and be joyous. And truthfully, it's been a good distraction. I've just not had the time to sit and dwell on things. The bummer is that we've not had any time to make any progress toward our financial goals, as most of our extra funds the last few months have gone into either home repairs, savings, or, most recently, a bridesmaid dress, 2 tux rentals, 2 shower gifts, 2 bachelor gifts, 2 bachelorette gifts, 3 wedding gifts and a partridge in a pear tree. So the lack of progress is a little disappointing. And we know the quiet is coming again...the quiet is the worst time, because we have plenty of time to think about things.

I'm praying for protection against bitterness. Several times this weekend I completely killed conversation with dark-remarks about the state of affairs in this part of our lives, and they were so wholly unexpected, even by me, that I didn't even know they would be coming out of my mouth until they were. I don't like being in that place.

So, that's what's new with us. Nothing too exciting, just busy! I am looking forward to a little bit slower pace in life, and I'm just praying that the regained time is used wisely, that our hearts will remain patient and gentle, and that God moves some money-sized mountains to bring baby-sized answers to our prayers.

Hope you all are well!