1. Quality Music:
I know this is just about every Hillsong lovers theme song right now, but seriously people.
This has been my jam these past few weeks. My Rocky music. I'm making a playlist through grooveshark as my AMAZING pandora station keeps showing me new tunes. ( I know some of you elitists roll your eyes to pandora, and my husband always pokes fun at me when I 'like' a song. He then proceeds to go into a (funny, and ridiculous) rant of the 'far too delicate balance of pandora's mixing equation") but my 'Gungor' radio station, however it is mixed-is near perfection. This song in particular is so so so good.
Speaking of good music: Shane & Shane, Gungor, Ellie Holcomb, JJ Heller are a few amazing introductory music choices for anybody that isn't super familiar with the christian music scene (and likes my kind of music). I'm sure there's several even more obscure musicians, but I like these souls quite a bit.
If you're more into the harder stuff, I'll have to ask Ben to list his faves. Our music tastes are a venn diagram with my side being 'coffee-shop esque' music and his being 'screaming nonsense' (I jest.) We meet in the middle with alternative-esque music (relient K forever! The Afters, Anberlin etc. )
2. Moving Companies:
Two guys show up on Tuesday, we show them around. We were dismissed. We returned (throughout the day because we were paranoid) and stood amazed at how AMAZING they had done at packing all our remaining stuff up.
Ben even described moving day as a "pleasurable experience." At one point one of the men asked if we were believers (because they saw so many bible verses and what have you all over our stuff) to which we affirmed. He and Ben then proceeded to have a "it's great to love Jesus" chat thus affirming to me that these two were indeed celestial beings.
Really though, we're big fans.
3. Guava Family Pack N Play.
We found an awesome pack n play at a garage sale many moons ago, and were plenty happy with it. Then came the need to not have a 25 pound bed for our kid whilst travelling. The more travel blogs I've read, the more they recommend either becoming savvy at finding good hotels, or find a lightweight bedding solution to take with. We bought this beauty as one of the more affordable (some were upwards of 400) options and we have been super pleased with it. The Lotus case turns into a backpack and truly is light. She's been sleeping in it for near a week and it has this little zipper side that makes it into a sort of fort with a blanket. Plus it's like 8 pounds. It's weird how I get excited about stuff like this, but it IS pretty awesome that we don't have to worry too much when we travel on our adventures. No more ensuring we get a cot/crib for our girl.
4. Suitcase Organizers.
Now that we're talking about products. Suitcase organizers are awesome. We got three for our travel clothes and they've made this whole week calmer. All three of our bags fit into our carry-on, so we just pull out Ben's, mine and Eowyn's and we never have to dig through each others stuff. Perfecto!
I may be writing a whole post on travel gear that have proved useful. We haven't bought much, but our purchases so far have indeed made things more enjoyable.
5. Ben and Jesus
Cheesy? Probably. But I really have to hand it to Ben for how he's been responding through all this. We've done a practice run of moving (when we went to Colorado for a mere 6 weeks) so we already know what comes out of us as pressure is applied. If you're wondering, I become a weird mix of calm and collected, then mopey/manic. Sounds enchanting, I know.
Ben has spoken a lot of kindness to me, even when he has full reason to have a tally of my incorrect and unkind responses to things. Plus, he's taking care of so many of the (very stressful) details. I give the guy incredible props. This second time around he's been an even better friend, a phenomenal partner in the cleaning and organizing, and overall just pretty awesome to be around.. If ever there was a good man, it's him.
I keep saying the same thing it seems, but this whole past year I've continued to stumble upon the same truth. Each of these seasons, past and present and future, can all be boiled down to discovering another characteristic of the God our family believes in. I'm learning how in control He is and how good he's turning out to be.
I don't know when it happened, but somewhere along the road I bought into the belief that while God does give good things (this took me a while to sink my teeth into as well), he never makes things easy. Sure, he's always good, but I believed that his 'good' always meant hard. These past several months have had hard things, sure, but there's been a lot of 'easy' days. Like...'wow how did that go so well?' Easy days.
It's humbled me. I'm learning so much of how incorrect my understanding of gospel really is.
Mostly, I'm learning God is a legitimately a good gift giver. Sometimes that means he gives gifts that are hard to work through. Other times, those gifts look like movers that do everything right (despite the horror stories,) cleaning days without a grumbling heart, a toddler that actually sleeps straight through the night after a few days of struggle, peace in seasons of easy and in crazy. The pleasant days smack dab in the middle of a million to-dos.
If ever there was a good God, it's Him.
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Ben's last day in Minnesota is today! We'll be cleaning up our apartment in the morning (Part II, because part one included me alone with Eowyn and her thinking IKEA screwdrivers are fun to put into light sockets. I now understand why so many have offered to babysit. She's still alive and unfried, but the day ended early.) and then visiting with a dear friend, plus running last minute errands. Friday brings visits with my momma and dad, and a trip to the airport to load our 8 suitcases, 5 carry ons, and three spragues onto a plane.
This will most likely be my last post till we're over there. Thankful to all of you for your prayers, kind words, and hugs that last long. Of course, you doing that makes me cry, but I'm thankful for it regardless.
I don't think a million thanks will ever really sum up the way we feel towards you.
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