An accumulation of various stray thoughts over the last several days…

• I’ve often wished I could take photos during the drive to TN, but it’s pretty fast-moving traffic on winding roads for most of it. There is a shoulder, but I wouldn’t stop there unless it was an emergency. Once when it had been raining off and on, there were little wisps of clouds right at eye level.

• Every time we’ve gone to the hotel in TN, I have planned to take a photo of the carpet in the hallway, but I keep forgetting. The design in it looks like fish bones. I wonder if the designer had fish before coming up with that design.

• This last Thursday morning at the hotel, Jim went on to work and I stayed at the room a little longer, planning to leave at my leisure. He had told the front desk I would probably check out at 9 or 10, and I put out the “Do Not Disturb” sign so they wouldn’t come in to change towels til after I left. I was at the desk using the computer when two ladies from housekeeping barged in at 9:07. They apologized all over themselves — they had thought I was gone already. I was glad I wasn’t dressing or using the restroom — I don’t always close the restroom door all the way when I am in there by myself, but I did for the rest of the time I was there!

• The hardest thing about looking at houses is that no one house has every feature we like. There was one gorgeous house, but it was squished up against the houses behind it — very little yard space, and very little distance between the kitchen table and one neighbor’s house. It would be disturbing to have neighbors right outside your window while you’re eating (at least for me). We loved the living area in one, the kitchen in another, the screened in porch, back yard, and bedrooms of another. We even gave a fleeting thought to building, but there’s not time at this stage, and I’ve heard that can be a major headache. We did find one that is nice, has the space we want, and is arranged well, with some extra features we like. The bedrooms are smaller than some we had seen, but I think they’re ok: the bathrooms aren’t as up-to-date as other houses, but they have the basic requirements. We’ll see what happens!

• One house we looked at had a pink toilet! Really! I thought it was cute. Jesse said he would never use it. Jim said he probably would if he needed to badly enough, but Jesse maintained he wouldn’t. I told him a pink toilet was better than a yellow one. We saw one of those in another house.

• A lot of houses up there have gas log fireplaces — just flip a switch, and voila! I’m assuming there is probably a little more snow up there than here, so that will be nice. We have a fireplace now, but it is wood-burning and we pretty much only use it when the power is out in winter. It’s smelly, requires tending, and you have to deal with cleaning out the ashes. So I am all for just flipping a switch.

• We’ve known about the possibility of moving for almost a year, though we only decided to for sure a few months ago. We’ve needed to keep it quiet for various reasons, but we let Jesse tell his classmates so he could tell them good-bye, and word started to filter from there. Then we made it public a couple of weeks ago. So I understand that what we’ve had time to get adjusted to is new for many people we know. But some people have said things like, “I’m mad at you!” or “Why do you want to go off and leave us?” I know they’re teasing and basically mean, “We’re sorry to see you go,” but it comes across a little negative that way. With some people we’ve almost had to defend why we’re leaving. Only a very few people have said anything positive. One lady today told me she was going to miss us, but she was excited for what the Lord was doing for our family. That was such a balm.

• Our church is going through a time of change: we’ve been without a youth pastor for a year, our business manager is retiring, our custodian is moving away, and our family is moving. I don’t mean to elevate myself to any level of importance, but the ladies’ ministry, especially, will undergo the most change by my leaving. And change can be disconcerting. I have one last ladies’ booklet to do, and one thing that has come to mind to share there is the last line of a stanza of a verse in “Be Still My Soul” — “In every change, He faithful will remain.” “For I am the LORD, I change not” (Malachi 3:6). “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and for ever” (Hebrews 13:8). God is with us throughout each change in life. He promises to work everything together for good. I’m sure He will raise up someone to take the ladies’ group to the next level, to take it places that I could not.

• I’m sure I will need to remind myself of that many times as well. We’re excited about many of the changes coming up for our family, but actually facing getting to know new places and people, and especially the change of our family being scattered will be hard. I’m thankful we can count on God’s grace in every circumstance.