Dan and I have made a deal.

Well, let me back up.

I started blogging five years ago at the insistence of my sister.  Back then, life was far from perfect.  But it was very simple.  When I look back I just sigh at the wide expanses my soul wandered back then.

But life, as they say, changes.

Add a second child.  A mortgage.  More classes to teach.  A husband’s academic and career dreams to support.  A ministry and more friends to serve.  A school-age child’s activities to engage.  More kids’ friendships to help coordinate.  A wider community. 

All. good. stuff.

But sometimes…

We’ve been thinking through what the next phase of life is for us.  Most likely it will involve a career shift for my man.  And in two short years, both my children will be in school full-time.  So we’ve been thinking through what’s next for me.  What are the passions God’s given me?  How do I want to intentionally spend my time Monday through Friday, 9 to 4 soon?

There are several options:

Get more certifications and teach more classes or train more individuals.  But that likely will involve running around town even more and sometimes missing things like field trips. 

Get an office job.  But that makes me want to cry.

Or I can pursue my dream of writing.

Yes.  That one.

It will free me up to go on those field trips.  To engage in ministry.  To have lazy, after-school play dates.  To work my schedule around my family and community.

And, praise Jesus, we live in a time where that can happen.

But the deal with my man is this: If I’m going to spend a large amount of time and energy on this, it needs to generate some income. 

So, here we are.  I’m leaving my sweet little organic blog.  I’m going to have a professional help me set one up that allows people to advertise.  I’m going to remind myself that people do this all the time and it doesn’t make me a sell-out.  Or maybe it does, but I’m gonna go for it. 

I’m going to put myself out there.

What I love about God is He insists on us relying on Him.  Not because He’s co-dependent with us.  Thank goodness.

But because He wants us to be satisfied in Him.  And let our lives bear fruit that could only be explained by Him and His involvement.  And because without faith it is impossible to please Him.

And because He said so.

And every time He says so, it is for our good, not suppression.

Anyway, we’re fairly confident this is the path for our family to begin pursuing.  If we’re wrong, we’ll tweak or start over.  But we won’t stop seeking Him.  Or the simplicity that having single eyes will give us.

Thank you if you’ve read even one post on this blog.  I hope you’ll join us at the new one (still in the works, but we’ll be sure to keep you updated). 

Thank you for being part of a training process God designed for us before we took the next step.

We didn’t even know what He was up to.

And now that we see a tiny glimpse, we only love Him more.