Amy is clicking her heels and reciting, “There’s no place like home… [click, click, click] There’s no place like home…”

We exchanged our spacious Florida home for a two-bedroom apartment in California back in September. (Pardon the redundancy to faithful readers and people in real life.) My handsome rocket scientist already travels more than we’d like, so the children and I decided to join him for this project. My entire personality baulks against change, even more so when the change is difficult. And if I need any salt on my wound, now that I’m getting used to the change, it’s time to…change.

We’re leaving for home today.

I’d like to spend a few minutes musing on the lessons we learned while living without a yard to play in, a convenient laundry machine to wash in, and a few less square feet to breathe in—but my brain is buried under the boxes.

But I expect if I had to sum it up while I’m walking out the door, there are two things I wish I’d told myself from the beginning, “Self–lose the attitude, and smile when you don’t feel like it.” I’m not into psychobabble, but there’s something about behaving different that makes you feel different. I’m not into spiritual-babble, either, but there’s something about obeying God that makes enjoying God a little easier.

In closing, I’m reposting some old thoughts. See you on the other coast.

6 Reasons to Celebrate 6 People in an 888 Square Foot Apartment

1. Valuable Legal Lesson Learned. Never, never, never enter into a lease or any other contract unless you’ve SEEN with your own eyes what you are purchasing. Pictures do not count. Nicely furnished models are deceptive; your apartment will NOT look like the one they show you. It won’t have the same appliances (or as in our case, some may even be missing).

2. Compulsive Habit Possibly Broken. I have the tendency to check on my babies several times a night to make sure all is well. Being in a tiny apartment, one doesn’t have to get out of bed at night to hear everyone breathing.

3. Exercise. When the laundry facilities aren’t in the vicinity of your dwelling and you have a family of 6, there is ample opportunity for daily cardio workouts. The parking spaces are also not near your door, so that $200 Wal-Mart trip is also cause for calorie burning. This all makes up for the advertised work-out facilities that never materialized. (The exercise room has been under “remodeling” since we’ve been here. It opened this week. Three days ago. Yes, we’re leaving today. Yes, this is the story of my life.)

4. Valuable People Skills Being Honed. Having to call the management office on a weekly basis to report what has gone wrong now has helped me refine the fine art of motivating people. Offering the maintenance guy a caffeine-free Coke will not get him to return. When he says that he likes his caffeine, get the guy some caffeine.

5. No Need to Watch Reality Shows. When you are the prime witness to your upstairs neighbors’ every footstep, cough, door shutting, shower taking, and toothbrush hitting on the sink, why watch a reality show? Hey, why even watch TV when you can just listen to his?

6. Cultivating a Longing for Home. Yes, I miss my house in Florida. I look forward to returning. But why long for a temporary house when the Bible promises an eternal Home?

1 Thessalonians 4:15-18:

For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.

Then, in Hebrews 6:19-20 we are told that this is a sure thing:

This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us…

And finally, Hebrews 11:13-16 gives us this glimpse of the promise to come:

All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. And indeed if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, 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.

If you know Christ, you have this hope. And that, my friend, is a reason to celebrate.

[click, click, click...]