It has been a pretty full few months and all the good intentions in the world have not gotten me to sit down at the computer and document this for you guys. Tonight however, i have lain in bed sleepless, mind racing between the amazing blessing of being a son of the most high Father God and the million details entailed in building a house on the beautiful piece of land that we own. In short our house sold, actually it closes Oct 29 th, after a deeply convicting realization of my place as steward of that land and my responsibility not to just shift the selling of it onto Jesus shoulders, but to ask as steward what His intentions and desires were and then to pray along with Him for the "on earth as it is in heaven" So after two weeks on concerted praying, something shifted and we had a miracle as a buyer came along, made us an offer, accepted our offer and signed the deal, all while i was out in the back country on a Father son trip, doing business by cell phone. The wonders and usefulness of modern technology.

Well there has been several days since i wrote that and our house has closed and we no longer own a home in Anacortes, a chapter closed and a season ended. Winter is fast approaching, frosty mornings, the leaves have lost their stunning colors and the sky is grey. We are racing the snow to get the roof on our house here in Plain so that i can spend the winter finishing off the inside. There is an interesting nesting instinct that happens here in the fall, somehow the knowledge that everything will be covered in several feet of snow for the next 4 to 6 months makes you want to tidy up outside and cover up and build shelters and get the firewood in and hunker down for the winter. We are blessed with a great little house that we are able to rent for the winter, perfect for our family, room for friends, warm and a great meeting room above the garage for doing men's group, setting up the slot cars or hanging out with a bunch of people.

Each day we are delighted more and more by this amazing community of people that we get to live amongst. So many new things for the boys and for us. I got to bow hunt this fall with my own home built longbow and learned a lot about deer, but did not get one yet, though i have 2 more weeks to hunt in late November. My hunting partner John got a doe and we got the boys all out there to witness field dressing it.

The weather has definitely changed to winter, rain turning to snow. I think that we'll get the roof on just in time. Here are some pics of the project and the amazing views from upstairs.

So each full day goes by, cabinet work keeps coming in like a flood, a new mens group with 6 guys on thursday mornings, a sunday school gathering with men before church on sundays, Royal rangers on thursday nights, squeezing in hours wherever possible at Gateway, managing framers, getting bids purchasing materials and doing whatever work i can fit in to build the house, work on the facility for the new community pantry to reach out to the needy in the community, training to be Family Foundations facilitators, praying and dreaming with God for this community, wrestling through the tensions of Fathering 3 boys as i deal with the lies about myself that i've made agreement with for so many years, and overall just basking in the sunshine of Grace and an ALWAYS good Father.