Texas - Spring

----- Texas in the Spring -----

HOME

As another semester is coming to a close, my mind has become, once again, preoccupied with the packing up of our home and with the preparations of a move back to Alberta for the summer months. And to be honest, as excited as I am to be with family and friends there again, I am weary - weary of packing, weary of transition, weary of settling temporarily, anxious to have a place to more permanently call home.

HOME

This word has been on my mind a lot lately. 

What is home? Where is home?

In this transitional and temporary stage in our life, there are many places in our vocabulary that we describe as home. Home is here, in Texas, where we have been blessed to make memories, to build friendships, and to spend the majority of our life over these past two years. Home is Alberta where we spent our first year of marriage and have been blessed to escape for our summer months to work and enjoy family and friends. Home is Ontario where we have invested many wonderful weeks visiting more family and friends.

"Home is where your heart is." --- Pliny the Elder ---

"My home is not a place, it is people." --- Lois McMaster Bujold ---

"Where thou art, that is home." --- Emily Dickinson ---

But there are some things that all of these "homes" lack that my heart often longs after; there are things that another move is deepening a longing for: consistency, stability, permanence. When will I have such a place to call my home?

And then, in this longing, the Holy Spirit has been quietly reminding my heart:

THIS EARTHLY TENT IS A TEMPORARY HOME

"For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." 

--- 2 Corinthians 5: 1 ---

"For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ." 

--- Philippians 3: 20 ---

"They desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them."

--- Hebrews 11: 16 ---

"In My Father's house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also."

--- John 14: 2,3 ---

"Life's a voyage that's homeward bound"

--- Herman Melville ---

Conclusion to the Summer Building Project

Ten months & a lot of fond building memories later, that family project 

(mentioned in previous posts here, here, & here) is completed...

And what sweetens it all is that it is...

Here are some finished-project pictures:

*Photo Credits go to Mandy

The Front Entry

The Front Entry Railing

The Kitchen

The Fireplace in the Main Area

The Den

One of the Bathrooms

The Main Area in the Basement

The Outside (taken back in October)