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Letting Go and Moving Forward

Extravagant Purse has been my blog home for five years now. I love order and continuity so what I am about to do is difficult for me. My life over the past fifteen months has been all about change and letting go and moving out of my comfort zones. There has not been one area of my life untouched. for a while now I have been feeling that I need a change. Thus I am closing Extravagant Purse and moving my blogging to what began as a photo blog, Wings Open.

My biggest fear has been that I will lose all my faithful followers. I hope you will move with me.
Secondly its a lot of work for me to set up a blog and I love all my sidebar stuff here. I will work away at it as I go.

I appreciate each of you and look forward to seeing what 2014 brings in your lives as I continue to follow your blogs.

Click here to visit me on wings open.

http://wingsopen.blogspot.com

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year from frozen northern Maine. Stay tuned for more...

December Reversals

This was a big day for our little girl. She spent her first full day at her little school. How far we've come in a year! 

On the LPM blog a week or so ago, Beth Moore posted a video about reversals in the 12th month. She shared how it had been a rough year in her family and they needed a turn around to close the year  in victory. God gave her a word about reversals in this month of December. 

2013 was a year of great testing for my family, too. Already this month we have experienced reversals that had God's fingerprints all over them.

I took the month of November from blogging here and it stretched into December. I just had to share this with those of you who have faithfully followed my blog.

I will try to post a couple more times here before the year closes.  May God bless you with a Christmas turnaround, too!

November Transition

If you read my blog, you know that transition is a well-used word this year. So why not one more time? For the month of November I will be taking a break from Extravagant Purse and posting mostly on my photo blog- Wings Open. I hope to post a photo a day of something for which I am grateful.

My plate is quite full this month. I have two Bible studies going, a writing course, Unravelling, and real life happening. The holidays are fast approaching as well. 

I have been feeling like this is a time to spend less words sharing and more in gratitude and prayer.

There is always the possibility that something comes up and I just have to share it :) 

For the month of November, please make the transition and join me on Wings Open. 

See you back here in December. Blessings sister bloggers.

Lily's Eyes

Lily has another cold so she stayed home from school this morning. At one point she grabbed my glasses and tried them on, making me laugh. I bundled her up mid-morning for a short walk. 

"Crunch, crunch, crunch." I kept repeating this as we walked through piles of crispy leaves. One neighbor's lawn in particular was covered in leaves, overflowing onto the street. I told Lily that they had fallen from the tree, getting ready for snow. 

That's when we looked up. There we stood, at the side of the street, our heads back, our eyes fixed on the golden leaves overhead, hanging by threads, fluttering in the breeze.

"I will catch them." Lily said.

I realized she thought they might hurt when they fell. 

"I will catch them." 

The magic of the moment pulsed through me. This is why I'm here. 

She may be trying on my glasses, but it's really me that needs to see life through Lily's eyes. 

October in Flight

How can it be only a week ago that I drove home to the County? And one day more since we were in Portland watching our grandkids run a 5K or play soccer? I recall the heat of the sun warming my simple fleece jacket and its bright rays creating shadows as I took pictures. Today the sun peaked out for a few moments in the late afternoon, but it was a cold late fall day here in northern Maine.

It has been a busy week, but a good one. I managed to clean my house (clean is a relative word), finish office work, spend a day with mom, work on my writing course, and attend a women's conference to hear a friend speak yesterday. I'm afraid Susannah's "Unravelling" course is taking a back seat these days to my writing course through the University. 

I got in over my head, wanting to fill any empty hours I had, so I didn't let homesickness overwhelm me. Uhhh, I jumped in full force. Now I'm trying to keep up with "A Confident Heart" study over at proverbs31.org and do Beth Moore's study on the book of James. In all fairness to myself, I signed up for Unravelling and A Confident Heart before I realized my friend's church was going to do the Beth Moore study. Now that I live so close to the church, there was absolutely no chance I would pass it up. So I have had to decide where to focus my attention the most.

The book of James wins out, along with my University course. I feel badly about not participating fully in the other two, but all the pieces seem to be fitting together.

Tomorrow I will head three hours south to my home away from home once again. The weather is calling for a chance of rain or snow. Yes, it is that dreaded time of year when one never knows what the roads will be like traveling. As I was doing my James study this morning, I was struck by the thoughts that God often hides gifts in the testings and trials we face. Sometimes the gifts are simply character additions such as maturity or patience. But always, eventually there is joy according to James. 

It is always difficult to leave after a week at home, but I know gifts await me. My girls with smiles and hugs, a cup of tea with my sis-in-law, my little home away from home. Those are the things I am grateful for but I think God has other things hidden away for me as well.

Once again bags and totes litter my kitchen, ready to be packed and travel south. October is fast flying into November where we will set our clocks back and think about upcoming holidays. Change is in the air once again.