I have eight more of my 91 Little Things. Just over a year ago, God encouraged me to write something every 4 days for a year. My first post (click) was a couple weeks after our youngest child’s wedding, and a couple months before the calendar declared it to be 2020.

Little did we all know what a year it would be!

In this year, we have added THREE new members to our family (one precious granddaughter born in May, one precious grandson due any minute, and a soon-t0-be daughter-in-law). We survived a worldwide pandemic (insert maniacal laugh) and all that entailed, we lost our barn in a terrifying storm, we acquired a business property that we have been remodeling*, we had our family come stay with us more than once (pretty much March-May we had five additional people plus a grandpuppy living with us), we added an employee to our business, I totaled my car when a deer hit me, plus some personal, relational, and business challenges that have knocked us to our knees…

What a year to write my way through! It’s almost like God knew I’d need to get my words out in order to survive. So, today, as I tried to decide what to write about as no topic was at the ready, I asked Him what my remaining 8 posts should look like. I know there’s a grand finale post. It’s framework is already taking shape. I’m so excited about that, I can hardly stand it!!!! I also know that I’ll want to tell you about my new grandson, so that will be another post. With those in mind, I have six posts that I would like to use to lead up to the finale. They are going to be important for you to read as the last will wrap them all up and put the bow on top. As you read them, look for an asterisk. When you see one, take note. That will be an important clue for later. I will include links to other posts I have written over the years if you would like to know more. Look for the word “click.”

Today, I am going to reintroduce myself to you as Part 1, so that the end makes sense. In case you’re just joining, this will help you know me more and put all of these years of writing into a more condensed intro. Having set that up, I need you to know that this blog is not really about Alison. It may seem like I talk about myself a lot. I cannot tell you the struggle I have about that. Most people who love us know that we can be very private people. We have been called secretive more than once. We have been told we hold our cards too closely to our chest. So why in the heck would I write about us then? God and I have a deal. He has given and shown and healed and revealed and all He asked in return was that I shout it from the rooftops. This is that.

Christian* (my sweet man) and I were high school sweethearts (click). We’ve been blissfully married for 29 and a half years.* He and I are now giddy empty-nesters who do everything together. We both work from home, hunt our property, find our grandkids to be God’s smile upon our lives, travel, and drive Hummers together. We tell each other dumb jokes, play cards, ride dirt bikes, sing, love eighties, new country, and worship music. We have three beyond amazing children and three amazing partners for each of them. We can see how God fit puzzle pieces into our family that we never could have designed so well on our own. They are gifts.

Six and a half years ago, God moved us and our mostly grown children 500 miles north from where we had lived for 40 years to a land neither we or our families had ever seen. In preparation for us to make this HUGE move, God gave us the ability to road-trip with our children to see all 48 states. The last 13 we saw when we bought an ’88 motorhome and went coast to coast and some 13,000 miles together. This helped us become aware that there was much more to life than we had known thus far (click).

As we prepared for our move, there was opposition, both from folks who didn’t get it, and also when we almost lost my sweet man to a mysterious illness that took him to ICU in West Michigan and then Detroit. He was released from the hospital after almost two weeks in intensive care just in time to close on the sale of our old house, and then drive north to close on our new one. We know now that the call on us to move was more important than we even realized at the time. Legacy matters. And God had plans to create a new one for us in this place. (click).

I taught piano for 24 years as we raised our family and homeschooled our children beginning when the oldest two were 8 and 10. I cook. A lot. Hence, That Which Nourishes. I also do some volunteer work for our local crisis pregnancy center. My sweet man began his own business a handful of years ago, and he is legendary.

That is all for today. This is certainly to be continued so hang in there!