Why does it seem like everything always happens at the same time? It seems like life is either super relaxed and boring or super crazy and hectic… but rarely somewhere in between. For example, my husband is finishing his Master’s thesis in the next few months which means that he will be starting a new job before the start of the year. We are very blessed that he already has a job lined up but unfortunately it means that we are going to have to move. So, that means that before January we need to get our house ready to sell, sell our house, find a new house to buy or to rent, move out of our house, move into a new house, finish a Master’s thesis, celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas, start a new job, and oh yeah… have a new baby somewhere in the middle of all that! I have faith that things will work out for the best but I just really wish that things were all figured out right now. Does anyone have any good advice or tips for selling a house? Or for moving when your baby is only a few weeks old? Ack! Don’t think about it… just don’t think about it.
I have really loved the Celebration on the Family that has been going on the last two weeks. There are have been some incredible posts and I feel like my understanding of the Proclamation has really grown. So thank you to all the wonderful people who helped make it possible. It was great. I thought I’d link up to some of my favorite posts from the Celebration:
The Family Proclamation Includes Everyone by Because Life Moves On
The Rights and Entitlements of Children by A Well-Behaved Mormon Woman
Tarzan, Vines and Forgiveness by Middle-Aged Mormon Man
Oh, and Middle-Aged Mormon Man also linked this one up to the blog hop “We Are at War ” and it made me laugh so hard that I have to share it. It would be really sad, because it is so true, except for the fact that we know we are the winning team. So too bad little minions.
On Sunday afternoon we took a walk up the canyon by our house. It is starting to feel and look like fall and I love it! This is my favorite time of the year. The best part of the walk though was that Asher found a caterpillar. He was so excited about it and carried it all the way back to the car– which was a good 45 minute walk. He kept talking to the caterpillar the whole time telling it, “Caterpillar, you are my best friend. Heavenly Father sent you to me and I will take good care of you. You make my heart feel good Caterpillar. Don’t be scared. You are going to be a butterfly.” It was adorable.
We put the caterpillar in a jar when we got home and he carried it around all day. He even drew it pictures and hung necklaces on its jar so that it would be happy. On Monday morning I woke up to a mason jar being pressed into my face and a little boy telling me “Mommy, my caterpillar is sleeping”. Well, it “slept” most of the morning and I was starting to get worried that we had somehow killed his caterpillar. I didn’t know how to break the news to him… but he was undaunted and about mid-morning we realized that the caterpillar wasn’t dead but that he was spinning a cocoon! By Tuesday morning this is what we found in the jar.
I am so excited about this… maybe even more so than Asher. I can’t wait to see it hatch and open up and am so excited to see what type of butterfly we are going to get! I hope we don’t get a moth, though I guess that would still be neat.
I care about women. Deeply. I long to see them experience healing and wholeness in Christ Jesus. I do them a disservice when I apologize for the Bible, fail to embrace its unvarnished beauty and power, and shrink back from sharing the Words that are perceived by some as foolishness and a stumbling block, yet are actually the power and wisdom of God for righteousness and sanctification and redemption. I fail women when I try to make God or His Word more palatable. I empty the cross of its power (1 Cor. 1:17-30). Gender and gender language is important. It touches on the essence of a woman’s identity, the essence of the character of God, and on the essence of the gospel. We get things so very wrong when we think we can improve on the Bible’s teaching on gender or the gender language it uses. The big picture informs us that from the very beginning, God’s plan for gender has very little to do with us and very much to do with Him. And we need to trust that even if we don’t fully understand them, the words, images and means He has chosen to display His glory are not only right, they are also good. Very good! And also very good for women! Read the rest
I know that there was quite a bit of discussion about gender-inclusive language in the scriptures when I posted the article “Women in the Image of the Son: Being Female and Being Like Christ” and so I thought this might be of interest to some of you. I’d love to hear what more about what your thoughts are about gender-inclusive language and what this author has to say.
If you haven’t entered the giveaway for the celebration of my 3rd “Blog-iversary” it isn’t too late! The giveaway will be open until Sunday at midnight. So make sure you go over and enter, there are some really great prizes… if I do say so myself.
Oh my stars! You've got some busy months coming up … the advice that helped me the most? Be willing to accept help when it's offered! I didn't when I was last selling my house–and I was scrambling the final night. Also, box up as much as possible to simplify your home–we sold our house in 7 days (several offers above a pretty high asking price) in a down market.
Thanks for the link about gender language–looking forward to reading your other post as well. I actually had starting writing a blog post on that topic, so I may have to pan it now 🙂
When my fourth child was 3 weeks old, we moved from Utah to California. My husband had gotten the job when he was 5 days old; he had to start right away. Instead of waiting until the baby was older, we decided I needed his presence more –and so move quickly, we did!
I started by telling the RS pres. that I needed people to take my children away for huge bulks of time (except my infant, of course) so I could pack. Because he was so small (and gratefully not a screamer), I was able to pack and pack, nurse, pack and pack, nurse, etc. I had my cousin and sister help whenever they could. Brandon worked four days a week and then would fly back to help with more packing. Honestly, the biggest help was just having women in the ward take our bigger kids for the day.
I remember it was definitely a busy time –not only did we get the new job, choose to rent out our home, have to find a new home to rent, pack the whole house, have a new baby, but the month before, we had had extensive water damage in our basement. So, while I was packing, we had construction workers in our basement putting in new window wells, walls, and carpet. It was crazy! And yet, looking back, I don't really remember how busy/awful it was –just that we did it. And we did just fine.
We blessed our sweet boy the day we moved. I remember our house was packed up, the truck was packed, the van was packed –all we had to do was go to Church, bless our boy, attend a great family dinner afterwards (at a different location, obviously), and then we got into the vehicles (my FIL and his girlfriend drove with us) and headed west.
On the other side was more service. Brandon did a great job calling the Bishop and the ward we were going to be in to have the EQ come help unload. The next day, five women from the ward came over to help me unpack and watch my kids.
Honestly, it's about asking for help. Don't wait for it to be offered! Just ask. They want to help; and you need it! Good luck with all your BIG things happening at once. When you get to the other side of them, you'll be amazed at how much you've learned and how much you were able to do. But you'll know it's because you asked God for help, and He gave it. 🙂
As for selling, that's tough. It's a rough market to sell in. But the thing I learned most about selling our condo recently is that praying for specifics is much, much more productive for praying in generalities. We prayed for a while to sell our house and for everything to work out and nothing happened. Then my car broke down and I was pregnant, so pregnancy hormones kicked in, and the thought of having two mortgages was making me overly emotional. So that night we started praying specifically to find a buyer for our condo that would be willing to pay enough that we wouldn't have to dish out cash at closing so that we could save more money for our down payment and focus our attention more on getting out of debt, as God counsels us.
The next day a lady called to see our condo. The next day she came to see it. The next day she put in an offer. 2 weeks later we closed. It was such an answer to prayers and a lesson to me on how we need to incorporate communication better in our prayers.
Also, did John's new job offer a relocation package? If not, work up the nerve to ask for it. Having packers and movers saved my sanity and health. So if that's an option, jump on it.
I'm 100% for gender inclusive language. It seems that author is saying that women will be blessed for the extra work of trying to relate to the scriptures, so let's not make it easier. For me, religion is all about making it easier to relate to divinity. Why make it unnecessarily difficult for a woman to see her own divinity? For her to relate to Christ? For men to see women as divine beings? That just boggles me. I have had so many beautiful experiences since trying to read the scriptures more inclusively (liken the scriptures as it says in Nephi!) in my study of the NSRV this year. I guess I just don't understand the desire to keep things difficult- life is hard enough already, let's make understanding God easier!
That is so cool that the caterpillar spun a cocoon in the jar! It must have felt Asher's love. 🙂 Whew! Good luck with the moving challenge! I'm so happy for you that your husband has a job lined up. I know you have a baby wrap. I use that all the time. It can be exhausting to feed a new little baby so often – as you well know – but hopefully your baby will be content.
I love the dialogue of your little boy with the caterpillar! It reminds me of my 4 year old with grasshoppers. Everytime he finds a grasshopper he tries to get it to climb on him and tells it that he's their friend 🙂
We have moved a LOT lately. I think the best moving advice is to de-personalize your house. That was so hard for me to do but pack as much as you can and take down all your family pictures and things so that your house, not your stuff, shines. And I second getting lots of help. When we sold our house, I gave in and let the Relief Society help clean and it was amazing. Something like 10 women showed up and the entire house was clean in just a couple of hours. And I recommend praying about your pricing. It totally worked for us! Good luck with everything! Good thing we know the Lord won't give us more than we can handle, right? 🙂
Oh Asher is just too cute!
My advice would to not be afraid to take up your Home and Visiting teachers on that perennial offer of help at the end of each visit that we all almost always say no to (even if we DO need help).
Having your husband's priesthood quorum help move the big stuff will help, and don't be afraid to let the Relief Society help you pack up boxes. That's what they're there for. To help.
Wasn't the Celebration of the Proclamation great? I thought there were so many amazing posts– looks like we had a few favorites in common. 🙂
That story about Asher and his caterpillar is absolutely darling! What a sweet little guy.
And I would just echo the same advice everyone has already given you. Ask for and take as much help as you need and don't feel guilty for a moment about it. ♥
Tophat,
I like what you said about helping women relate to religion easier. I know that for me learning to SEE to hundreds of women in the scriptures has made a huge difference in my testimony. I think it is important that women know that they are not left out. I know that even general authorities sometimes use gender inclusive language, saying sons and daughters of God when the scriptures only say sons, because the want women to know that they are included as well. So I don't think gender inclusive language is bad, but I do think that the author brings up some really interesting points. Especially the idea that changing language changes tthe meaning, and that if we change what God said we might miss the real meaning. Also when you make changes to the scriptures it means that people can "wrest" the scriptures to mean whatever they want it to mean. There is a fine line to balance between using invlusive language and loosing the divine truths of gender and divinity that many of the gendered passages teach us. It is definetly something to think and ponder about and I though this author had some really interesting points.
Opps, jon was me.
That cocoon is amazing! We moved from Virginia to California last winter with a three week old. I highly recommend getting all of the help you can, and movers if you are able. Rather than travel with two cars and the three children we shipped our cars, and rode the train. The sleeper cars were comfortable, the food was included, and the little ones didn't have to be strapped down for several days! Good luck!
Tips on selling: Bake some bread just before showing! Makes it feel like HOME! Good Luck!
I'm not wise enough to give advise or comment on most of your topics, but I do have a 5 year old daughter in love with all things buggish, and we collect caterpillars regularly. Unfortunately most of them die, so hooray yours is making a cocoon! I believe (again, not an expert) that fuzzy caterpillars make moths, and the "smooth" caterpillars make butterflies. Please keep us posted on the developments! 🙂
I guess it depends on why you're reading the scriptures. If you are a New Testament scholar or are reading for understanding the original author's intent for the intended audience, then keeping it non-inclusive is anthropologically important, but if you're reading it to get a few minutes to feel the Spirit in your hectic day, making it easier to relate to seems to be more important to me. There's a place for both, for sure.
All I want to say is start packing now ! While you can still move around- get everything packed but the bare necessities- it will be so much easier to keep your house clean when you are selling it. We had a 2 bedroom house with 3 littles (2, 1 and newborn) I had the youngest in pac'n'plays so when people came to look at our house I could pack them away and show our home better. Good luck to you!
While moving can be an exciting new start, selling a house and packing really stinks! Sorry you have to do it while pregnant.
This is a wonderful post! Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us! I hope to read more of your post which is very informative and useful to all the readers. I salute writers like you for doing a great job!
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