Sara's Soaps 'n Such has Moved!

There comes a time in every family's life - sometimes sooner, sometimes later - when the rental game is just not cutting it anymore and God presents the perfect opportunity to move. That happened to us last month. Well, obviously, when it comes to moving, it's not just a matter of deciding one morning, "I don't want to rent anymore" and then being in a new home the next day. Our process started in April.

During my daughter's Spring intersession, she and I spent a couple of days at the coast, desiring a change of scenery and wanting to get a jump on the house hunting. With the help of our lovely realtor Rebecca (with Coldwell Banker/Sea Coast Realty), we found this little gem in a town about half an hour from the ocean. The price was right (and got even "more right"), interest rates were still low and as several people said along the way as one thing after another just fell so easily into place, "God wants you to have that house!" Sure, there were a few people who were skeptical. We heard things like, "You're being taken advantage of" and "This sounds too good to be true, and if it sounds too good to be true..." I can't explain it, but even with all the nay-sayers and doubters, my faith stayed uncharacteristically strong.

Several times my husband and I heard, "Why" this town? I can't really explain it, except for the fact that this is where the houses were most affordable. It's farther from the beach than we'd prefer, but it is still close to the beach. There's no Target here, let alone a Super Target, and even people who live here wonder why we'd want to move out of Durham, which has everything as far as entertainment goes - theatre, concerts, minor-league baseball, shopping, movie theaters, restaurants galore and easy access to Raleigh (home of the Carolina Hurricanes) - to move down here, which has nothing without a half-hour drive. We say, "Well, the crime stats for the whole county for a year are equal to Durham on a weekend. Here we don't hear sirens twice a night or gunshots." All we've been able to figure out is, God has a reason for planting us here, so we're going to bloom in the meantime.

Of course, business goes on. A few people have suggested I show my wares at the Wilmington Farmer's Market, and I've already found a couple of events I want to do. Summer's not going to be for shows, though. I'm spending the rest of this summer restocking the several soaps I'm out of or low on, unpacking and preparing for the baby's coming, which is just a little over 5 weeks away. I'm also using this time to make some soap just for my own benefit, to experiment with new soap formulas that I'll likely share with my customers. It's no accident that my loving, supportive husband set up my soapmaking supplies in the garage right by the door to the kitchen, nor was it an accident that my front seat held my coffee maker, crockpot and coconut oil on the very first trip down. (He even said that the crockpot was so I could make soap; the first thing it held was barbequed ribs. Really nice thought, though.)

I've already used that crockpot to make one batch of soap, but that's for another post.