Mmmm...new recipes. (And moving.)

So I'm still working on that meme and still working on painting (just the trim left - in the bathroom at least) and still trying to get the house (ridiculously) tidied. We were supposed to meet with the realtor this evening so we can get our house on the market ASAP, but we ended up all having some scheduling conflicts, so we are now meeting on Monday at 5pm.

I don't know why, but I'm nervous about the whole process of selling our house, due in part to having never been involved in actually selling a house, but also just the uncertainty of knowing where we'll end up next. Knowing that the orchestration of selling the house, moving, renting or buying again, finding the next 'dream' job, and keeping our sanity is more up to God than up to us, should be reassuring, but the more I think about it, the harder it is to let go and remember that we're not the ones in control of all that.

In some ways, I feel like we haven't really given Northern Maine a fair shake. We persevered (read: suffered!) through the worst winter on record since 1953, we still haven't made many friends here (not that opportunities abound any more than they did when we first arrived), and we haven't seen nearly as much of this area as we had hoped to. Still, this move is precipitated less by our loathing of the physicality of our surroundings as it is by the fact that we just can't afford to live here. Maine taxes Mainers nearly to death! Everywhere you turn, they make you pay for something and there is NO help for people like us who are riding the fence between getting by and not knowing how to pay the oil bill more often than we'd like. Not that we are in dire financial straits by any means, but it would be nice to be in a place where it isn't the norm to live from paycheck to paycheck, even if you're making twice as much as we are.

So, if you're the praying type, pray with us that God will direct us to a new place that will really feel like Home, whilst being cheap yet prosperous, closer to Manitoba, full of parks and libraries and public transit and private schools and good churches and friendly people and the perfect house (a girl can dream, right?). Also pray that we will be patient while we're waiting to see what comes next.

But hey, in the meantime, LET'S COOK! RA from Definitely RA and Nic from Not Perfect came up with this great idea to occupy some hours over the summer. And what better way to occupy hours than to experiment in the kitchen, right? So, behold:


Whip it Up runs from 6 July until 29 August and each week on Friday, RA or Nic will post a collection of the weeks recipes as submitted by us participants. For full challenge details, click here. I am SO excited about this so come join the fun, okay? It'll rock your pans off! (har!)