Thoughts about the store

A long-time customer walked into the store today and said, "Wow! Look at all that God has blessed you with!" My gut instinct was to say, "Yeah, and look at all he is about to take away!"

You know, I don't really believe that God gave us all of this to "take it away." I believe that we all have seasons of our lives, and the season for us to own this business may be about to pass. That doesn't mean that our next season will not be rich with blessings. The business has TRULY been a blessing to our family. It has allowed my kids to see their grandparents at least once a week. It has brought our family closer together, although there are times it keeps us apart and distracted. It has allowed me to be with our wonderful daughters daily and homeschool them to boot! It has allowed me to meet some of the neatest people in the world and to call many of them my true friends. It has taught the girls how to work hard, how to treat people nicely, even when we don't feel like being nice. A good work ethic is very important. It has introduced me to some awesome curriculums for my daughters, some that actually do the job. It has paid for my daughters' outside classes. It has given me the privilege of employing some of the best employees by far. It has taught me how to multi-task, given me a stiff upper lip (although I could use a little more backbone). It has allowed me to express my creativity, my interests, upgrade my people skills, my research skills, my computer skills. So, you see, it was not for nothing. Whether the store lives or dies, I have come out of it a better person. I am not a failure. I am a survivor, and I will survive the next season of my life, as well.

Many of you have asked how you can pray for us. Pray that the website will take off if it is meant to be, pray that we will be open to hear what is truly God's direction in our lives. Worse case scenario is that I will have to go back to work full-time. If it is meant to be, we will work through it. God brought me into this business kicking and screaming. Pray that I don't leave it the same way, that I will be at peace with his decision.

I have not cried yet because I know that there is hope, that we have not tried everything we can do. If it gets down to that, I probably will. But like they say in The Sound of Music, "When God closes a door, he always opens a window."

"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow."

"What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us."

"I do not want to get to the end of my life and find that I just lived the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well."