House, Narnia and Kenosha Update

Well, our house is now appearing in the MLS, supposedly available to show today. I think it's going to take a phone call from a realtor saying someone's COMING for everybody to really kick into gear, but it's close enough at this point. Our realtor friend said it would be fine to leave a note listing the work still to be done--the rest of the basement and the bathroom down there will be painted on Tuesday, the carpets will be cleaned on Wednesday.

We did knock some huge things off the list. Blondechick14 spent all day Thursday and all day Friday painting her room--I'm so proud of her! And on Saturday, some single friends from church blessed us with a work day! One guy washed all our windows, another weeded and fixed up a planted area near the driveway where the black landscaping divider had come up out of the ground and looked terrible; a gal worked with Bantam12 to spread mulch on the flower beds in the front of the house.

Papa Rooster and the guys carried a huge, heavy desk and a bookshelf out of the basement guestroom/junk room/workout room, so for the first time since we got the treadmill for Christmas, I could get around it to the STUFF lined up in boxes along the far wall. I made a lot of progress while Papa Rooster made three trips to the hardware store before coming home with the right bifold closet door to replace the broken one in the second bedroom.

At about that point on Saturday, the friends left and we all had to stop and go to rehearsal--the first run-through of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. I haven't said much about the musical lately because it's certainly taken a back seat, mentally, to getting the house ready to sell. For me, that is; I'm Mrs. Macready, so I'm only in two scenes. I've only had to go to one rehearsal before this weekend, and I only have a handful of lines to memorize.

But the rest of my family has been busy learning lines and songs and going to rehearsals about twice a week, though they're not usually all called to the same ones. Papa Rooster, who is Aslan and Professor Digory, is rarely in the same scene as Bantam 8, the Dwarf (the White Witch's minion), for example. Blondechick14 as Susan and Bantam 12 as Edmund are in many scenes with their dad and some with just each other. Chicklet4, as a Ballerina, is only in a couple of songs. (And so cute!)

So the rehearsal schedule hasn't been too bad, but now we'll be doing run-throughs every time now till opening night in 2.5 weeks. It's great timing that we have most of the work done on our house, finally.

We had a beautiful service yesterday morning at Light of Christ in Kenosha. A family that's come sporadically told us that they're planning to come regularly, and the mom volunteered to get on the coffee and kringle table schedule. That's what you eat in Wisconsin--a Danish pastry called Racine Kringle. (Even in Kenosha and Union Grove, it's called Racine Kringle, they tell me.)

Friends from our sending church--a priest and his wife, a deacon--attended and helped with the service. It was such a blessing to have them there, and we had a great time catching up with them over a long, leisurely lunch. We sat outside at the restaurant, watching the boats on Lake Michigan--it was perfect.

And we had visitors! Here is the coolest thing. This family from Florida emailed me a couple weeks ago to say that they were going to be in Kenosha on Father's Day, and by Googling on "Anglican" and "Kenosha," they had found my blog and read about our church plant--where and when did we meet?

Let me digress to ask: What hath God wrought?

That’s how I feel about the internet sometimes. Much maligned as a source of misinformation, scam artists, prowlers and perverts, I think it's so cool when God redeems it for great good--to spread prayer requests, to help needy families, to provide Christian resources online.

How else but by Googling the internet would this family have been able to find out about an unadvertised, barely-started, orthodox, Anglican service in a hot spot (NOT!) like Kenosha? For some reason, it fills me with joy to think of it.

So they came, seemed to really enjoy it, hung around talking with us afterward, promised to stay in touch, and maybe even build a Florida-Wisconsin connection. They're part of a coalition of churches trying to keep their buildings but leave the Episcopal Church--like so many others across the country--and they are considering joining AMIA, the same network of Anglican churches we are part of. It was so encouraging to meet them and have them worship with us.

Well, time to wake the kids and crack the whip again. Which I could do, literally--they gave the Dwarf a bull-whip to practice with, so he can crack it at the Cruelies who pull the White Witch's sleigh. It's around here someplace....