Back on the Job

So its been a week of leave during the best weather we've had in ages in September! I love it when the seasons change on cue... I think we may have started a tradition based on the last 2 years - taking a week of leave in the week that our anniversary falls (30 August). Speaking of falls, here are the falls we went hiking to during our week of leisure. It was a fair bit of fun - we packed the boy into a back pack we purchased for the purpose (and for international travel) and did the family thing. Rhys thought it was great - I think he could have spent hours playing with the strap in the back of my hat! Check out the Photo Blog for a shot. Altogether a good time. That night we went out to dinner just the 3 of us and then Kristen and I went to a movie while his godmother came over to babysit. A nice Anniversary day.

Rest of the week we've been getting the house ready for sale - we've listed it online to try to get our best price, free of real estate fees. The more we have looked at houses, the more we have appreciated the place we have. It will be sad to leave.

Spent some of my week catching up with people, so had a good chat with Deurty on the telephonic apparatus and a very brief interaction with Nate "Dillon" Smith, who was a little shy (he's like that isn't he?) Also had a chance to catch up with Phil Struckmeyer (Impact church) which is always good. Met with Mike Yates for coffee on Wednesday to do the church planters thing - we meet fortnightly to steal ideas from each other. So a resourcing week in that respect.

All things going well, we will put in an offer on an apartment today. It will be a change! No lawns to mow...relatively spacious for an apartment with a small downstairs office area that I can use for church. Will be another interesting chapter in the whole house saga as there are still plenty of things that could close the door. I think some people are a little bemused at the whole downsizing thing, but we feel pretty sure about the process. This week we saw an amazing house that would have been pretty much as good as where we are but maybe $60K less. It would have been an easy move. But, we have been feeling for a bigger drop in the mortgage, to help us take the next step with our savings goals and also to remove finanical constraints salary-wise in the church reaching for its next steps towards established church status. The option we're looking at could also become the church office in due course. As it says in 3 Ephesians 93: "The Lord moves in mysterious ways"

Right, time to jump into this perfect Spring day! Need to wash the house down and clean up the gardens before our first "open home" at 1pm. We only just got the ad up so not expecting much this time. But our ad has been viewed 15 times already! Here's hoping...