Moving Time

"All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go..." Fortunately, this is a move that doesn't require boxes and tape, just an address change.  Since we are entering into a new season of life in many respects, I've started a new blog.  Please continue to follow our antics at Peregrine Shine.  Thanks for reading for all these years.

Home Again, Home Again?

I know that there's been a lot of silence 'round these parts this year.  My hat goes off to those in the blogosphere with more than two children who blog on a regular basis.  Or do anything on a regular basis beyond breathing, eating, and occasionally sleeping.  Time whizzes by me like trees on the interstate.  Is Eva really almost 6 months old?  (And still she's never slept through the night?  But I digress...)

We are currently in the middle of another move.  If not for the extra child we have this year, I would feel like I am having major deja vu.  Didn't we just do this?  Weren't we just camped out at grandparents' house while our worldly possessions made the trek before us?  (And good Lord, whatever happened to that long winter that upset everyone so badly?  Has it ever not been hot and muggy?)

This time we are migrating much farther north to the DC metro area.  Though they claim to be southerners there, we who hail from Georgia know the truth.  Northern Virginia is a state all by itself.  I've moved enough by now to know some cold, hard moving facts and I am speaking the truth to myself about them in order to keep myself from the pit of despair that normally looms ever present on my horizon during these times.  Truth #1, I will hate our new home at first.  I've never not hated where I lived when I first moved there.  Even Beaufort, SC.  If you can hate Beaufort, you can nearly hate anywhere, especially if it has a lot of traffic and non-southerners.  And no Publix.  Truth #2, I will call my mother far too much.  Sorry mom.  Get ready to deal with some telephone sobbing.  Even more so since B doesn't get cell reception at his new place of employment and currently doesn't have a "work phone" either.  (Have I ever mentioned how much I love him being employed by the government?  I mean, I really do.  Except when I don't.)  Truth #3, although hater-Kels will resist it at first, something magical will start to happen in me after about six months in our new home.  It will creep up at first and surprise me, and then it will roll over me, wave upon wave of gratefulness.  I will begin to love where I live.  I've never not loved where I've lived in the end.  Even Macon.

People ask me all the time if I'm excited about the move.  Truthfully, I really have no idea.  My pat answer is, "I might as well be."  Ann Voskamp wrote two days ago about how we are pursued by the goodness of the Lord in everything.  "Even the discipline of the Lord can be a grace of the Lord and all the interruptions of a day can be the intercessions of Christ," she wrote.   This is my stronghold through this time of transition and often extreme loneliness.  This is all grace.  This is the hand of God in my life and while it's not what I would choose for myself, it's what's best for me.  

"So if I stand, let me stand on the promise that you'll pull me through,
And if I can't, let me fall on the grace that first brought me to you.
If I sing, let me sing for the joy that has borne in me these songs,
And if I weep let it be as a man who is longing for his home."
-Rich Mullins

Forever Mine

"When my peaceful bow appears, painted on the watery clouds,
It's to dissipate thy fears, lest the earth should be o'erflowed.
Tis an emblem too of grace, of my covenant love a sign,
Though the mountains leave their place, thou shall be forever mine."
-John Newton

Eva Louise, Child of the Covenant

Eva Louise

Wow, I know this is so late in the game, but I have three children under the age of four right now, so sitting down at the computer really never happens.  So, without further ado, I would like to introduce Eva Louise Magee.  She was born December 18, 2012 (almost 6 weeks ago, Ha!).  Eva came into the world four days after her due date but right on time.  It was by far the easiest and least stressful of all my deliveries.  She is beautiful, sweet and extremely cuddly.  The child never (I mean NEVER) wants to be put down, which I love most of the time.  This time around I'm trying to just enjoy these newborn days where nothing seems to get done and I and my house are generally a mess.  These days are short and they are a blessing.  Soon I'm sure she will be galavanting with her full-of-life brother and sister.  

The first time I held Eva girl

In the nursery.  What a beauty!

Our first, and to date, only picture as a family of five

With Mommy and Daddy the night she was born

This is seriously the only way I get any sleep at all.  I don't mind at all.  For now.  

Merry Christmas From Els

No Santa Clause

We love Christmas music.  And by love, I mean, we start listening to it on November 1st.  Fortunately for us, there are lots of good sources for free Christmas music out there.  We recently downloaded Fiction Family's Holiday EP from Noisetrade, an incredible site for discovering music (and frequently getting it for free).  All this to say, I can really relate to the first song.  The gist is "I don't need no Santa Clause, I just want my baby here with me!  C'mon Eva, we're ready to meet you babe!

The Image

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.  For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or rulers or dominions or authorities-all things were created through him and for him.

Colossians 1:15 & 16