I'm back!!!!  Well, sort of!  LOL

I did a lot of thinking while I was having my time away and have decided to make a few changes. 

One change is I decided to come clean with my readers as to what is going on in my life.  I have referred many times in the last year that I have been going through a challenging time.  Well, here is the story...

One year ago today my husband started a job 1221 miles away from where we live.  We were (and are) very grateful for the job.  He had been unemployed since the beginning of November and being a one income family we REALLY needed some income.  The "plan" was that the kids and I would stay behind and sell the house and join Dad as soon as possible.  Sigh...As most of you know if you live in the US the housing market is in BAD shape.  The area we live in has been hit particularly hard with foreclosures.  Soooooooooo we had our house on the market until the end of October and it was shown a grand total of 2 times.  At the end of October I decided to take it off the market.  Honestly I was tired of keeping the house "show ready" when no one was looking and I desperately needed to reduce something from my load.  With Christmas coming I was going to have to do all the shopping, decorating, baking, wrapping, and activities on my own.  I find the Holidays overwhelming anyway; I knew this was not going to be an easy year for me.

So, I probably don't need to tell all the Mom's that read my blog that 2007 was an incredibly HARD year for me.  Homeschooling, housekeeping, being all things to all people plus working part time has been more than a full load.  (I honestly don't know how single parent's do it!) It was a year of just making myself get up every day and putting one foot in front of the other.  I have done things this year that I had never done or even considered doing before. (Like mowing the lawn and changing the cat box!  LOL) One particularly funny night comes to mind.  I woke up one night and I heard a wind storm had blown in.  Normally I would just say "Honey, does anything outside need to be put away?" and go back to sleep.  But we had just gotten the inflatable water slide and I knew it was blowing around the back yard.  So I got up and ran outside in the dark and wind.  I decided I would just scoop the whole thing up and bring it inside.  Well, I didn't think about the fact that it was wet underneath and wetness draws bugs in the desert!  So I scoop it up along with about a hundred of the nastiest big black bugs you can imagine! It was awful!  I was wet, covered in bugs and completely freaked out!  It is funny now, but I am sure glad no one was there to witness my attitude!!  LOL  I am sure there have been a lot of posts on my blog over the last year (Like the one about spreading 11 1/2 tons of rock with my son and his best friend.) where you all were wondering "Why on earth isn't her husband helping?"  LOL  Trust me he would have been doing it if he had been here!!! 

So, what is happening now?  Well, we have the house back on the market.  It has been on for about 10 days and it has already shown once.  Which is encouraging compared to the last time we had it listed.  But, for the most part we are making plans to move without the house selling.  We may end up having to rent it, which honestly is NOT something I want to do!  (But, then again I didn't really want to have my family apart for a year either!!!)  We are planning a trip to go see Dad in about 4 weeks and we will start looking for a place to rent.  So, the future is unsure, but all we can do is try to move forward and see where life leads us.

I am very grateful that Dad has been able to make lots of trips back in the last 12 months.  It is amazing to me how many things of importance happened while he was here, given the fact that he wasn't here much!  Some of the events that happened while he was here was my daughter learning to ride her bike, my daughter losing her first tooth and my youngest potty training.  I am so glad Dad got to be part of those memories!  Plus he made it home to celebrate birthdays and big holidays.  It could have been much worse!

I can say that the positive of the last 12 months is I have truly learned "I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me." Philippians 4:13  I have grown in ways I never imagined.  No, It was not without my complaints!  I know there were times I drove my husband crazy and I am sure there have been moments that God was considering sending a lighting bolt for me!  LOL  I have learned so much about how God uses hard times to grow us into the people He wants us to be.  Don't get me wrong, it has not been easy!  I have questioned and argued with God more in the last 12 months that I ever have in my life.  But, He has been faithful to me.  I have learned more in the last 12 months about God and myself than I ever could have imagined. However, I pray it ends soon because I miss my husband terribly!

Now, for more change.  I am realizing that I cannot keep up my blog on a daily basis the way I have for the last 2 years.  I love blogging and quite honestly it is one of the main things that has kept me sane this last year.  But, I just have to remove the pressure from myself of posting every day.  I may post every day and I may go weeks without posting.  I honestly don't know what the future holds for my blog.  I am very much an "all or nothing" type personality.  If I can't give something 110% then I would rather not do it at all.  But, I am resisting my "all or nothing tendencies" because so many of you have encouraged me to keep on blogging.

So, there you have it!  My crazy life in a nutshell....I would truly appreciate prayer. Prayer for our house to sell ASAP, prayer for my mental state, prayer for our family to be together soon.  Prayer, prayer, prayer!

Again, if you want to keep up with what is going on with us your best bet is to subscribe to my blog.  I am not going to post when I am taking breaks and such.  I am just going to post as things happen and try not to make myself crazy. (Okay, more crazy!  LOL)