We lost the ocean but gained a lake.
Below are some pictures of the play area that our place overlooks. You’ll have to wait a few more days until we give a tour of the inside, but the outside needs no setting up.
Overlooking the inlet from our Lanai
Not a bad place to live
Checking out the ducks
Just before the duck bite/nibble
A fall doggy
The big moving day is approaching and as I look around the house there are boxes and bare walls. We’re heading for the northwestern most state Sunday morning so internet access and blog entries won’t be likely for several days. Stay tuned though, we’ll be sure to put up pictures and info on the new Fouche digs by the end of next week.
We’re less than one week away from the big move….walls are bare in our apartment and we are slowly accumulating a large stack of boxes in the garage to be U-hauled up to Washington! Andrew spoke in church yesterday and we said goodbye to most of our church family. It’s easier saying goodbye to everyone knowing that we’ll always be back to visit since Andrew’s family is here.
Jude is a big help with the move- just yesterday as I was packing a box of clothes he helped by putting a shirt in the box for me! Never mind that he also took 3 things back out!:) He’s become quite attached to a little stuffed monkey friend that he carries around by the arm everywhere- see the pics below. He also took his first 2 steps on his own yesterday- he’ll be running around in no time!
That’s all from the fooshes today…I’m off to bake some pumpkin chocolate chip muffins and pack some more boxes!!
Last weekend we continued a Fouche tradition of going to the pumpkin patch. This year we took some recent additions to the family, little Jude, and my new brother-in-law Damieon. Jess, Jude, Damieon, Sarah and I had a great time as you’ll see in the video below.
First off- big news of the day- Jude said ‘Papa’ for the first time this morning!! So adorable!!
And now my random thoughts…
Up until Jude was born and actually a few months after, I had been pretty regular about sitting down at some point each day just to stop, think, pray, read something that stirred my soul, etc. But for the last 6 months or so those times have been far too sporadic, and mixed with still not sleeping more than about 3 hours at a time I have been feeling a little emotionally on edge lately…in need of time to just be and think and grow in who I am. So, dear internet reader, my fall and winter goal is to get that daily (quite time, devotional time, whatever kind of time you’d call it!) in and make it regular again.
Today after getting sweet Jude down for his nap (he’s still sleeping…thus the blog entry!:) I made pumpkin spice tea and sat down on the sunny corner of our couch and had a refreshingly simple hour where no packing, no cleaning, no projects mattered, just me and God and my hot cup of tea. And here’s what stirred my soul this morning….
A story in ‘Fresh Brewed Life’ by Nicole Johnson (I highly recommend this book by the way!) about a lesson learned after a woman’s sister had died- as the family went through her things the woman’s brother in law came across a bundly carefully wrapped in tissue paper in one of his deceased wife’s drawers. He handed it to the woman and told her how her sister had been saving this exquisite piece of lingerae- a slip- she’d bought at least 8 or 9 years ago and had been saving for a ’special occasion’. Now she would never wear it. “Don’t ever save anything for a special occasion, every day your alive is a special occasion.” He said. Every day, every minute, every breath truly is…a gift from God.
What do we leave undone because we think we have lots of time ‘another day’ to do it? Who do we forget to tell we love or not call because it can be done ’some other time’? Why do we wait for our lives to ‘really start’ when all the while we could have really started living if we’d made the choice to. These were the questions I was thinking about after reading that story. Life is too short…don’t take one day for granted.
I’ll end with a thought from the same book: “The deepest question of our lives is not only ‘do you know where you’ll spend eternity?’ That’s a good question, and one that must be settled, but the deeper question is ‘If you wake up tomorrow, do you know how you will spend the rest of your life?’”
