The Craziness Begins

Today was my very last MOPs meeting at Middle Creek. The gals were incredibly sweet. They had some really yummy food, including venison meat balls (I really love venison, but we aren't hunters), cheese and crackers, fruit, and a cake, plus Milo's tea. They even had a banner! One of the girls made me a Vera Bradley type bag, but in a much cuter fabric (she matched my blog style, actually, except that it was black with white polka dots.). I love, love, love it! It was such a fun surprise. We played Catch Phrase, but my team lost both times, by a lot. I think it was fixed. Okay, not really, but I hate to lose!

When I got home, we started the very long process of organizing the gigantic moving sale that we are having this weekend. I'm overwhelmed. We have to go through everything. It's amazing to see how much we own. Almost everything that we have was given to us, so it's an amazing thing to see the generosity of the people in our lives.

Organizing for this sale is a different matter from organizing from previous yard sales. It's no longer a matter of, "Well, do you think that we could use this?" It's now an issue of "It doesn't matter if it's cool; it's gotta go!" It's a good spiritual excercise for me. We're getting rid of things that we have thought of as essential to everyday living, like the absolutely necassary iced tea maker. It's freeing, actually. I don't have to think about it. I just price it.

The girls' stuff, however, is a little more difficult. I don't like stealing my children's toys out from under them. I have come to terms with this process, for the most part. As opposed to calling it "parental thievery", I try to think of it as teaching them to store their treasure where moth and rust cannot destroy. That's how I try to think of it, but it isn't always easy when DeLaynie is clinging to a toy that I'm trying to price. We are keeping several things that they are particularly fond of, and Christmas will find a few new things underneath the tree. It's not like I'm leaving my children to play with a paper plate or anything.

This craziness is just a first step toward the complete insanity of following Jesus overseas (technically, you don't have to fly over water to get to Nica, so I guess it's just out of the country). It's a good insanity. A wonderful, adventurous nuttiness that only our King could devise.