Sometimes packing up and getting away from it all is the best answer.
I put our house up for sale last week. The prospect of keeping it show ready with 6 children is nerve-wracking. 6 children can wreck a house in a hurry.
Two days before listing, this house looked like World War 3 just happened. A long week of a Momma struggling to keep up, plus a passel of kiddos with a stomach bug (requiring laundry mat visits for at least one child’s bedding every single day) took its toll.
Enter our amazing family. My sister-in-law got the house on the market for me, while my in-laws and my parents worked like crazy to check off a mile long to-do list. New doors, new glass, new molding, holes patched, pressure washing, paint touch up, cleaning, straightening… check. check. check.
I really should have taken a before picture. It was very, very, very bad. It made sense to leave the house ‘show ready’ and take the pressure off an already stressed out family by leaving town for awhile.
Too bad there were no showings while it was so perfect! Ya’ll please, please pray- this house needs to GO! The children and I need a fresh start, and we need it quick.
We needed that time away, I had no idea how much. The immediate change in my children away from the ‘home’ that holds nothing but sadness and broken dreams was huge.
Happy, carefree, surrounded by love, feeling safe and secure. These are things that should be a given for a child. The last 18 months have been rocky, and they’ve felt the stress of that.
My parents’ home is called ‘Lakehaven’. I had a part in helping to come up with that name. Little did I know at the time that it would also be my haven; my children’s haven.
The place we would come to let our cares go for a moment. Safe, secure, loved. 
Pressing pause on worry and decisions…just being, loving, playing.
It was a much needed break. A reminder that life will be good again once we can put this chapter behind us and move on.
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