Tag: moving

Just waiting

Hi Everyone!

Thank you for your patience during my extended absences. I hope all is well in your world and for those of you in the path of Dorian, my prayers are with you.  My heart hurts for the people of the Bahamas.

Just like the Three Amigos in the picture above (aka Spark Plug, Cinder & Asher) we are just waiting right now.  They are waiting for breakfast in the photo.  We are waiting on life changes.

Since I really didn’t think you would be all that interested in the fact that I am enjoying the downtime and have been doing boring things like roasting figs, painting a lamp (80’s era brass to dark bronze), knitting and reading…I haven’t subjected you to the details.

Dad is hanging in there. He mainly sleeps most of the day. Mom has gotten more daily help for him so we are relieved that she, hopefully, is not wearing herself out so much. One kid has had tropical storm Dorian turn into a hurricane over his head, but is ok. Now the other kid is waiting to see if they need to evacuate.  I absolutely do not wish for hurricanes, but won’t turn down time with the grandbaby if the hurricane happens to send them this way!

We are in the last few weeks of renting and finalizing loan paperwork.  I’m somewhat superstitious so I don’t talk too much about our next move. I will happily fill you in when the ink is dry and the moving truck has pulled away.

I am also planning something new that is actually a very old life goal. More on that to come as well.

My apologies for being so cryptic, but details are not ironed out.  I mainly just wanted to drop in and let you know I’m still around and should be getting back on a regular schedule soon.  Until about October things will still be a little sporadic.  Stay safe, enjoy the last bits of Summer if you are on the top half of the world and rest in the waiting if that is where you are too.

 

 

 

 

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Winding down summer

Hi Everyone!

I apologize for missing last week.  To be honest, everything was in a holding pattern and there wasn’t a darn thing new to talk about. I just didn’t want to bore either of us to tears.

Luckily, this week we have progress! Last Friday we FINALLY closed on our property up in the hills. We truly didn’t think it was going to happen then either.  The closing was scheduled for 9:00 am. At 8:00 pm on Thursday we were going through the closing disclosure with our realtor and caught several mistakes.  We were sitting in the attorney’s conference room Friday morning and there was STILL a mistake on the paperwork.  We signed our part of the paperwork, came home to feed the animals and had to drive back about noon to get our check after the correction had been made. Yes, we went out for a nice lunch to celebrate.  There haven’t been restaurants in our life since the beginning of June because we were paying rent and mortgage.

Our weekend was so strange. Saturday afternoon D. and I looked at each other and realized that for the first time in about six months we did normal Saturday stuff. You know, take off the trash, mow the yard, do laundry, etc.  No packing or unpacking boxes. No running to the hardware store to get supplies for repairs. No carrying furniture. IT WAS AWESOME! Just normal, mundane Saturday chores.

This week school started.  Yes, I know I’m not the only one to be doing the School Starts Happy Dance. We love the kid, but she’s 13 and comes with THE ATTITUDE now. Trying to keep a 13 year old entertained for weeks on end can be difficult at best.  We don’t believe in entertaining them as much as keeping them busy with life lesson chores.  Those come with quantities of huffing and puffing and procrastination and eye rolling. Fun stuff that.

Today brought one of the best surprises we have had in months. Dad has been in a bad state for weeks. I really haven’t wanted to discuss it or write about it.  He has been sleeping for days on end, barely getting up to eat or go to the bathroom. He has barely been eating or drinking,  We have been watching him fade away in front of our eyes. Every now and then he would sit with us for a few minutes and we would get a glimpse of our real Dad.

This morning I drop by their house to visit after feeding the horses and my bees. I’m in the kitchen when lo and behold, Dad comes rolling into the kitchen on his own, without coercion, with his walker and sits down at the kitchen table with us. I’m just amazed and so is Mom. He says something about sleeping his life away and joins us in conversation. I had planned to leave after a brief visit this morning, but it was so good to see him up and coherent and engaged I just stayed much longer than planned.

Dad has always made faces and rolled his eyes behind Mom’s back when she does something he thinks is silly or gets on his nerves. I got to see the familiar eye rolls and goofy faces this morning as she fussed about trying to help him with his hearing aids. He asked about my bees and what we had been up to recently. Before I left he rolled on into the living room and settled into his chair. When I got home, Mom called and said he sat and watched the news.  Dad has always loved the news…loved to curse at the news actually. It has been the earliest part of this year since he last sat and watched and cussed at the tv.  Dang, it’s the littlest things that can make sunshine in your heart.

I don’t know how long this will last, but I know that my Mom, my sister and I will hang onto every second of it we can get. Summer may be winding down, but this morning I got a big shot of Spring again when I saw a glimpse of my big, strong Dad again peeking out of his now very frail body.

Have a great week and soak in some sunshine.

 

 

 

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On to the bread box

Hi Everyone,

I apologize for missing last week.  By the time I had time to write, I was too exhausted and escaped into YouTube and Pinterest for what little brain power I had left.

Let’s see, where did I leave off in the ongoing and going and going saga of our epic move?  As of Friday, July 26th, we had been moving for one month and 26 days! If we weren’t physically carrying boxes and furniture, we were doing repairs, sorting, trying to find things and cleaning up. Friday morning we officially packed up the last truckload of stuff, locked the doors for what we hope is the last time and drove away.  We haven’t unloaded that truckload, but it is at least in the same county with us.  We started celebrating in the afternoon.  We have not closed on the property yet though.  We are now on our FIFTH closing date.  Yes, you read that right. FIVE times the closing has been set.  Please cross your fingers, say prayers and send good vibes our way for this coming Wednesday…to actually sign the papers and have it DONE.

We started celebrating the final moving trip because it seemed like it would never end. Add to the physical exhaustion, there is always stress involved with a move and there has been even more stress with Dad’s condition, getting Miss L’s paperwork to school, arranging her 13th birthday party (yes, we officially have another teenager), having her braces put on, D. started a new job, having to go two different places to feed animals, etc. etc. etc.  I have had to apologize for a few stress induced meltdowns.  Have you noticed that everyone and everything seems to hit your last nerve when anxiety and stress lingers for a long time?  My last nerve is worn to a nub.

How did we celebrate? Well, D. saddled up his horse, KC, and went for a nice, two hour trail ride. He rarely gets to do that.  I probably should have warned the neighbors that he could possibly show up on your doorstep to say hello…with KC also standing on their doorstep. Expect it.  At least one neighbor had that happen.  She was not expecting it.

Miss L and I went to the community pool and I read and visited with my sister for awhile when she came to chill by the pool also.  We talk virtually everyday now, but it is usually a run down of how Dad and Mom are doing and what do we need to do that day. She is under the great banking cloud of doom from a merger of the bank she works for with another bank. Daily she has to face the stress of the upcoming layoffs and wondering if she will be with or without a job in the very near future.

Fun times we are having in 2019.  Our friend Alan says it all has to do with Mercury and its place in the heavens. Sounds like a good enough excuse for all this crazy.  Oh, and by the way, a HUGE thank you to our friends Alan and Sharon for helping us wrap up the last of the repairs.  They saved us another weekend or a couple of late nights finishing those.

So my little celebration was a small project that I have been wanting to do for about two years now.  Other than a knitting project I started, there have been no creative endeavors for the past month and 26 days.  If you have read any of these posts you know that I am a much saner person if I am making or gardening.  My current tiny garden is below. It is not big enough for a major stress reliever.

My celebratory project was painting this vintage bread box.  Ok, so it’s not a huge thing, but it is. It is my first project for our future selves.  Everything else we have been doing has involved trying to close out a chapter.  It has often been depressing and hard because we have been waiting to move forward but couldn’t. Now we can.

The bread box belonged to D’s Great-Grandmother and then his Grandmother according to his sister. It was a fixture in his Grandmother’s kitchen as long as he could remember.  Other members of the family may know the actual age, but my best guess is the 1920’s – 1940’s. Now before the antique/vintage purists give me grief about painting it, know that we have no intention of selling it.  We plan to use it and enjoy it as long as it holds together.  That said, it’s cute but needed a fresh coat of paint.  It is going to reside in our new, to us, kitchen that will have a vintage vibe.  I’m glad it was originally red because I have always liked cheerful pops of red in my kitchen.  I have another upcoming paint project that will be having a color change. More on that to come.

So I am happy to report we are closing out a chapter and looking forward to the new one.  If you have been reading this blog lately, you are probably pretty darn happy about that too. I know that my whining has been somewhat endless.  My next goal is to FIND MY ART SUPPLIES!

Here is our freshly painted breadbox!

Have a great week and may your future be bright!

by Categories: art, creativity, farm life, focus, garden, life, moving, productivity, risk taking, simplifyTags: , , ,

Divine timing

Hi Everyone!

Yes, I’m back finally.  There may still be a skip or two, but I am trying to get back with the routines of life.

Today is going to be a quick update because there hasn’t been any time for creative endeavors, just endless hauling of boxes and furniture.

Status update: 7/8’s moved. We have about one carload of stuff that doesn’t fit in a box to bring to the rental and one truck bed of stuff to go to a storage unit and one trailer load of farm/yard equipment to drop off at the family farm for the time being.

There are minor repairs to finish up before closing on July 23rd of our old place and some plants that are coming with us.  The closing has been moved twice and though it caused stress and some worry, it has been a blessing in disguise.  We might have put ourselves in the hospital trying to meet the first closing date of June 28th and we get a final crop of our blueberries before it’s all done!

We are enjoying our rental house.  It has been a perfect fit. Close to my parents and our animals that are in three different places, off the road with some woods and fields behind us and the view of a corn field in front of us.  The photo is our view from the front porch where we enjoy sitting and watching the clouds and storms pass by.

I don’t think I mentioned our future plans in the past posts. One reason was because they were still a bit in limbo.  We now have a contract on a property across the road from my parents house.  The one week sale of our property surprised us and left us no time to get the financing started for either building or buying a new place.  If everything comes together we should be moving again PERMANENTLY by the end of September.  More details to come.

Dad is hanging in there. A few more treatments to go and he will be done.  They have taken a lot out of him.  He has lost weight and is very tired.  Our move happened at the right time.  Never doubt divine timing even when it is exhausting and/or frustrating.  We are back to spend what time he has left with him, to help out Mom because we don’t like to leave Dad alone anymore and to help my sister and brother-in-law keep up with the family property.  Eventually we will tackle that *&$#* kudzu!

Another plus to our move is that we are closer to our kids and grandkids. One hour closer to Charleston, SC and St. John USVI where my kids live, doesn’t seem like much in my case, but it centralizes all their family in one geographical area for ease of travel when they do get home to visit. We got to babysit one of the grands last weekend and get to know more about her 7 year old world.  Until now our time with the grands has been when there was a big family gathering and no real one-on-one time to get to know them. There are plans for a once a month Sunday lunch to see as many as possible as often as possible and keep up with their lives. It’s not easy when you have eight kids and six grandkids all going different directions.

Overall it has been a good move and we are excited to spend time with friends and family we have been too far away from.  We are looking forward to settling into the new place and making a new home to build good memories in.

Have a great week and trust the timing.

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Boxes, tape and stress

Hi Everyone!

I have time this morning for a quick visit before I start boxing up more stuff for our move (if you noticed a lot of eBay tape in the photo, I sell on eBay and get the tape for free). I hope you have had a great week.

Tomorrow we take the first of many loads to the rental house. As happens with every move, no matter how organized I am, already I am finding myself needing things that are packed up. Somehow I inadvertently took D.’s box of books he’s reading to the storage unit and now have to dig through to find those before he gets grumpy. There will probably be a couple of nights sleeping on air mattresses before every thing gets moved. We sketched out a plan this morning of what goes when. Horses, bees and cat will likely be the last to leave here. They are all pretty self sufficient and can get along just fine without us.

We will be spending at least two days repairing the fencing of the pasture where the horses are going. We are spoiled here because they have a creek for water during the day. The new place, at least to begin with, will not have that option so we also have to set up a watering system for them. If it were just humans moving we could probably knock this whole move out in two days. Accommodations for our furry, feathered and winged family members adds much more time to the process. 

I would like to ask for your thoughts and prayers for a few people please. A close friend of my Dad’s had a bad accident on his farm. It’s going to be a very long recovery. He’s lucky to have survived. This morning I got word from one of my dear friends that her husband had a massive heart attack yesterday. He survived, but is also going to have a long recovery and she has been battling cancer for almost a year. Please wrap these folks and their families up with prayers. Thank you. 

My sister and I were discussing this week the different ways we have been trying to combat the heavy stress load that 2019 has heaped upon us (and it seems like lots of people surrounding us). If you are struggling with stress, illness, anxiety, etc. here are some ways that might be helpful to try:

1) Eat healthy. Put down the chips, cookies, energy drinks, alcohol, etc. Don’t even buy them. They are going to mess up your sleep, blood sugar, energy levels, skin. Veggies and fruit primarily. I know it’s hard if you are staying at the bedside of a family member in the hospital. When friends ask what they can do, ask them to bring you healthy food. Don’t ask me why, but it seems like hospitals usually are one of the hardest places to find good food. 

2) Do not watch the news! You have your hands full right now taking care of a personal crisis. You can’t do anything to change the world at this particular time so don’t even watch all the crazy that the media bombards us with.  Find old comedy shows like I Love Lucy or The Andy Griffith Show that will make you laugh and release some of those much needed endorphins. 

3) Exercise. Walk the halls of the hospital, do yoga in your bedroom (YouTube has plenty of instruction), just stretch often to release tension. Stress builds up in your body and the next thing you know you are sick. I was the lucky recipient of shingles thanks to stress. You DO NOT want those.

4) Escape. No, don’t pack your bags and leave no matter how much you want to.  Find books and movies that take you somewhere else. Keep it light. My sister and I are both devouring books right now. I prefer fantasy and science fiction to take me away from earth completely. I try to avoid any with lots of violence. Now is probably not the time to read or watch Game of Thrones. 

5) Hobbies. If they are portable, hobbies can be great when you have to wait, and wait, and wait for appointments. Something you really have to focus on is wonderful if worry keeps running around in your head. I have been knitting like a fiend. If my brain won’t shut up I knit a complicated pattern. If I just need to burn nervous energy then a simple boring sweater sleeve is perfect. 

6) Journaling. The act of writing worries down often lessens the impact. Sketch, scribble, doodle if writing is a struggle. No one but you has to see it or even have a clue what it’s about if you just make abstract marks that have meaning to you. There is a reason that Art Therapy exists. A cheap little notebook and a #2 pencil is all you really need. 

7) Fuzzy friends. There is also a reason that therapy animals exist. Your pets sense your stress and may even be stressed themselves if you have been away from them frequently. Find some quality and quantity time to spend with them. I’m surprised our cat, Sweetie Pie, has fur right now. Most evenings SP and I have been having snuggle fests on the back porch. Horse therapy is a real thing too. If you have a horse you know that, but if you don’t maybe you have a friend who does. See if they will let you just spend some time brushing theirs. Seriously, you can feel your blood pressure drop while grooming a horse. 

Life is constantly throwing something at us, but sometimes it comes in waves instead of drops. I hope some of these help whatever you are facing. 

I’m off to box, tape and load. Be careful out there this week!

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Loading the gypsy wagon

Hi Everyone,

How has your week been? It is becoming summer here. Temps in the 90’s starting today. Just in time for us to start the arduous task of loading the gypsy wagon(s) for our move back home. This will be my fourth move in seven years. I had hoped for it to be my last, but we will have to rent for a while until will decide on our permanent landing. Hopefully we will have that settled before the end of summer. As of right now humans, two dogs and cat will be in one place, chickens, bees and one dog in another, horses and donkey will be in a third location. I knew this was going to be a complicated move, but this exceeds my expectations. 

We are waiting on the results of the home inspection to see what we need to fix before closing. Packing has started. Today I make and start on the list of  calls and forms to switch utilities, mail, etc. (it’s so exciting to know I will have to do it all again in a few months 😦 ). 

Somewhere in all this I need to get an oil change/inspection for my car, two dogs to the vet for their yearly checkups and two girls organized for mission trips that land before and just after we move. D. is looking for a new job where we are going and trying to coordinate the whole horse & donkey move. I’m in charge of chickens. They are probably the easiest to move. 

I started knitting a new sweater last week just to burn off the nervous energy. Wool is not good this time of year but it’s what I had at hand and it serves the purpose. This may be my fastest knit yet. 


I also started this drawing for the same purpose. It’s not finished. Not sure it will be any time soon, but I have to focus more when drawing so it helps to stop that running list circling my brain around and around. Am I the only one who has an OCD brain? I hope not. I would like to know there are more of my people out there.  D. just puts his brain into his “nothing box”. Did you know that there is scientific evidence that men can actually not think about ANYTHING? It’s like they flat line while still being alive! I AM SO FREAKIN’ JEALOUS! I can come out of a dead sleep because my brain is simulaneously running three different To Do lists at the same time. 

Sooooooooooo, it is highly doubtful that I will be posting here for a few weeks. If I can, I will, but next week will be all about changing addresses and packing. Official moving begins June 1st. There is an enormous amount of organizing and moving to make sure the chickens are not in the pasture and the horses in the rental house. I also have no idea when I will have wifi again after the move. 

For those of you in the U.S. enjoy the Memorial Day holiday, but please take time to remember why we celebrate the lives of those who sacrificed their future so we would retain the freedom we so often take for granted. For everyone, be safe and be happy. 

Boy in red wagon photo credit – Blake Meyer 

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I was soooo wrong!

Hi Everyone, 

I’m writing this early so life doesn’t get away with all of my time this week. Ok, so I am also stuck at home while we get a new heat pump installed and am limited on just how much I can do here today while the installation is happening. Just fun stuff like laundry and oven cleaning. Anyone else have one of the new stoves with “steam cleaning”? Hate it!  Worthless. Our stove went out during the hurricane last Fall and the big box store couldn’t get in any new appliances so I was stuck having to take a floor model with the “new” “steam cleaning technology”. Glad I only paid the floor model price! Don’t get one unless you plan to let your toddler clean the oven. It’s that safe and useless. 

What was I wrong about, you ask? I was wrong about it taking six months to sell our place. We got an offer last week just a few hours after I posted here.  Yes, in one week we were under contract! Our realtor had said that property always sold fast for her in our area, but I was kinda skeptical. When I told her that I had settled in for a six month ordeal, she told me that she had been getting worried because we hadn’t gotten an offer in the first few days!

It still hasn’t quite hit us, but when it does there will be wide spread panic around here because we have NO PLACE TO LIVE at the moment. We have talked to a couple of people and are waiting to hear back. We have until the end of June to get moved. Yeah, I felt the panic oozing in as I typed that. Those of you who live where we are moving to (they know who they are) please message me if you know of any rentals that will be available June 1st. 

Saturday my uncle passed away and another piece of my heart is gone. He was the life of the party wherever he went and many holidays he graced our table and kept us laughing. Recently I went with my sister and cousins to visit him. We spent about two hours catching up, laughing and maybe choking back some tears. Gosh I’m so glad we had that time with him. He will be dearly missed. Please keep my Dad and his sister in your thoughts and prayers. They are all that is left of a great big, loud, close knit bunch of siblings. Take every opportunity to spend time with your special people. You won’t regret it. 

Well, that darn oven is not going to clean itself (but it SHOULD!) and it has to be shiny and clean by June. Have a great week!! Send boxes and tape please!

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The struggle is real

Hi Everyone!

I hope life has been treating you well while I was away. We had a lovely Easter weekend in Charleston, SC with my daughter, son-in-law and grandson. The drive down was somewhat stressful as we dodged severe thunderstorms from our house all the way there. We were carrying cargo of a handmade dining room table that my brother-in-law made for their new house and a rocking horse he made years ago for my daughter when she was a baby, that I am now passing down to Brayden. Precious stuff that we did not want ruined in the rain. Yes, we had both carefully covered, but driving a truck at 70 mph seems to force rain into every nook and cranny. Luckily we managed to miss the worst of in, but did endure long waits in traffic due to wrecks and downed trees. What normally takes 5 hours took more like 7.

Enjoy the struggle for the perfect family portrait! 


The rest of the weekend we helped landscape their backyard, explored their HUGE neighborhood and cooked an Easter feast Sunday morning before heading home. We were thankful for nice weather, normal drive time on the way back and for our awesome neighbors who chicken sat and looked after the place while we were gone. 

Now we are back to reality and this week has been a doozy. Lots of driving to appointments and errands plus a couple of hours rearranging storage units as we cram more stuff in. People have asked me why I am still keeping up with how much I declutter. The reason is that while our house now looks more open and spacious, the storage units look just as crammed full as ever and if I didn’t know how much has left I would still be overwhelmed by it all. 

Because we have no idea what we will eventually want to keep in our new house, we don’t want to get rid of the quality furniture yet. We have now consolidated all the furniture into one unit and when this place sells we may have to add more to it depending on where we live during the house construction. 

The second unit now has one half full of stuff we have packed up that we want to keep, but do not NEED right now. Uh, those boxes of family photos, extra pillows, hunting gear (sigh), ART SUPPLIES, etc.  The other half is still stuff that I have to clean out. The third unit now HAPPILY has a walkway down the middle and shelving to store things. This is the stuff I have to finish cleaning out from my former life.  Ideally we would get rid of this one when I’m done, but we are afraid we will need it to store some of our current furniture if we have to downsize to a two bedroom home while we are building. It’s all very complicated! 

This coming week the house officially goes on the market and I have one problem area of the house to finish clearing out. We have had our lawnmower in the shop for repairs since February. We are praying it will be done today so we don’t have to keep borrowing a friend’s mower. There is a list of small repairs that we will be working on for a few more weeks and of course the dang HVAC has to be fixed. Arrrrrgh. 

To add to the fun, we have to finish cleaning out the tool shed that includes my large stack of beekeeping supplies and I will have to become the cleaning Nazi every day, not just on the weekend.  I have to give some cred to Miss L. because she has very dutifully sorted through and packed up a great deal of her stuff. We will finish up her room today. It’s not easy for a twelve year old to go minimalist! 


Have I done any artwork you ask? Not much. I got about an hour and a half in on this sketch Monday. That’s all for the week. Will I be able to return to my hour a day schedule? I am having doubts.  Staying on top of the cleaning and yard work while showing the house will probably be my full time job. While we only planted some greens in the garden here, we are hoping to plant some basics in my parents garden. Since they can no longer maintain a garden we will be taking over that…an hours drive away. There is also that whole problem of clearing land for a pasture, building a barn, finding a place for apple trees and all the flowers and herbs we will be taking with us. It’s VERY complicated! 

For the record I’m not complaining, really I’m not. I see progress and am more than ready to make the move, but this will be, by far, the most complicated move I have ever made and I think D. would say the same. We decide each week what the two or three most important projects are, focus on those and try not to think too much about the rest until they are priorty. 

If you are facing a big ‘ole project or problem, my only advice is break it down into manageable chunks, then try not to lose sleep over the remainder. I will go now and try to take my own advice. Have a great week!

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Konmari and a big shovel 

Hi Everyone,

I hope you are off to a great start this week. Once again I apologize for going MIA last week. It turned out much more hectic and stressful than planned. Every day except one was spent running to appointments. Some days had several. I also visited a dear friend who is in the hospital and she is in pretty bad shape right now. That alone took a toll on me. It’s so hard to see someone you love suffering and not be able to do anything to help. 

So this week I’m trying to catch up on the pile of stuff that should have been done last week. I somehow got a good start on the commissioned drawing. Well, actually that happened in the middle of the night when I couldn’t sleep. It wasn’t a good sleep week either so I have decided that on those nights I’m going to quit laying there trying to solve the world’s problems and quietly do something productive. Luckily drawing is a pretty quiet activity! Here is a sneak peek. 


If you have been reading this crazy blog, you know that I am in a major clean out phase. Unless you have had your head in the sand or like us, don’t watch TV, you have heard about Marie Kondo’s show on Netflix. I know about her because I read her first book several years ago, am reading her second book currently, and it seems like everything I read or watch on YouTube is talking about her right now. Don’t quote me, but I think I saw last week where donations to charities is up by something insane like 336% thank to Ms. Kondo. Last week I helped contribute to that by hauling a stuffed carload of clothes, household items, baby clothes (My babies are 23 and almost 26 years old. It’s past time, don’t ‘cha think! ), books, etc. to a local charity shop.  The hubby has gotten on board and started cleaning out the old tobacco barn which had become the storage unit for broken and unneeded stuff. He took a trailer load of old equipment and I’m afraid to guess what else to the landfill. The two barns are his domain. I have a hands off policy on those. 

I have been doing the 30 day minimalism challenge this month (google it for details, I’m on a time crunch today) so here are my numbers for last week. Decluttered and donated 74 items and trashed 60 items for a total of 133 items. That’s 73 items short of what I needed to do but I still have time this week to meet my 498 items for the month goal. Total items for the month so far is 376!  

If you are a new reader here is the backstory: 1) D. and I got married in 2016 combining 30+ years each of “stuff” that will not fit into his 1300 square foot home thus adding a storage unit to our monthly bills  2) In 2017 his younger sister passed away and her young daughter came to live with us and our already stuffed house became even more crowded. His sister was also the keeper of four generations worth of family stuff and after other family members got what they wanted we were still left with TWO more storage units of stuff to sort through while PAYING FOR. 3) Now we have decided to sell our farm, move back to our hometown and build a slightly larger house. 4) We are NOT GOING TO MOVE ALL THIS STUFF! 

I am doing the challenge to jump start the process as quickly as possible. We will be putting the farm on the market soon and if you have sold a house you know that whole staging and storage thing is a big deal. I am a deadline person also and need the deadline to keep me on track. I appreciate the Konmari method of asking if something “sparks joy”, but frankly I just don’t have the time to be pondering the whole joy thing. I need a timer and a big shovel to get this done! Three weeks in and I still don’t yet see a difference in the house or the storage unit I am currently working on, sooooooo February will be another 30 day challenge. In all likelihood it will continue until the unit is cleared or I have reached burnout and need a new method. 

Are you Konmari-ing your house? Are you watching the show? I would love to have some compadres in this quest for breathing room. Let me know your thoughts and progress. Its lonely out here. Have an awesome week!

by Categories: art, commissioned, creativity, farm life, focus, life, moving, productivity, recycling, simplify, valuesTags: , , , , , , , 2 Comments

Percolating 

Hi Everyone! 

It has been a few weeks, but I finally made it back. Brace yourselves, this is probably going to be a long one. I hope all is well in your world! For my own well being I limit the amount of news that I let into my life, but I know that the turmoil and tragedies seem to be running rampant right now. More and more of my prayers are for healing and peace for our world and  earth as well as individuals. 

So on to fun stuff. Even though our crowd was smaller and the weather a bit damper than last year, we still had an enjoyable family gathering at our annual chicken stew.  Our menagerie of animals is always a draw and the highlight of the day (other than good food) is horseback rides for the kids and any willing adults.  We alway enjoy watching the kids who have never been on a horse before. Often they start out with a level of fear that quickly turns to sheer delight. We had that experience with three of the young cousins this time. So. Much. Fun.  


Spark Plug the donkey surprised me immensely. Normally he is a bit standoffish with new people, but he was absolutely Mr. Friendly with the kids. 


The following weekend we headed South to attend my daughter and son-in-law’s gender reveal party. Normally we stay with them when we visit, but with boatloads of family in town we rented the cutest little Airbnb Tiny House. I have been in love with the tiny house movement since it started and have often tried to imagine if I could live in one. I think they are one of the most creative ways people have come up with to avoid outrageous mortgage debt as well as have a very portable living space. These are pictures of where we stayed. The wooded lot made it feel like we were secluded from all the city around us. The huge window…I NEED one!


To answer the question of whether I could live in a tiny house, well, that is a yes and a no. Could I live in a 256 square foot space with a husband and a 12 year old?  Only in a survival situation!  The husband has long legs that get in the way and the 12 year old has too much energy as well as the family trait of loving to climb in high places. Could I live in a tiny house alone or with a dog? Absolutely! I might need a separate one for my art supplies though. 

The gender reveal revealed that it’s a GRANDSON on the way! I didn’t care one way or the other. And though I worry about this crazy world he’s entering, I am still looking forward to meeting him and finally getting to spoil a kid instead of the often difficult job of parenting. 


Behind the scene of all these events, something has been percolating since mid-summer, but was not defined or solidified enough for me to reveal. Hopefully the rudimentary plans have us going in the right direction and will eventually come together and hopefully on time. 

D. and I began to realize that our house really isn’t big enough now that we have another person living here full time and that I really need a work space. We aren’t in a tiny house but our house is smaller than most. We had talked about adding on, but there were some problems with that. Then we started talking about selling our place and buying another one nearby with more house, but more and more often I have been spending hours and hours on the road driving family members to appointments and the distance that we are away from everything was taking a toll.  I’m looking a several more years of taxi driving. Then my daughter announced her pregnancy and I began to remember how hard it was traveling from Virginia to North Carolina with babies in tow and knew it would be an ordeal for them to get up here to visit when most of the other family was in another area. 

To make months of discussions short, we have decided to move back to the community that D., myself and Miss L. are all from and build a house on my family’s farm. Yes, evidently my gypsy soul has one more move in her (this will be move #4 in 6 years when it’s all said and done). 

When we finally circled around to the idea, we realized that it solves several problems. We can get the size house we need, I will cut half of my taxi travel time, we will be closer to our church, we will be right there to help my family with maintaining the farm, there to help my parents, MUCH closer to all our kids and grandkids and Miss L. should be able to start high school with friends she had to leave. Whew!

Now the logistics of pulling this off are pretty daunting to me right now. I hate selling a house, much less a small farm. Trying to deal with showing a house and keep it spotless in our situation honestly makes me nauseous. It was bad enough when I did it with two kids and a dog in a suburban neighborhood. I’m wondering if we could actually live in a tiny house or RV long enough to sell the place so that it would stay show worthy clean. 

We also have to clear a good bit of land on the farm for a house, barn and minimum of three acres of pasture for the horses and donkey. Folks, where we are seriously considering has a good covering of kudzu. If you know about that %#*& stuff then you know what we are facing. Let’s just say that a herd of goats is in our very near future.  We have road frontage and hopefully a usable well already there. Our other option would require a driveway that would cost almost as much as the house and drill a well. Not easy options.  

That is our big news. Our intended timeline is the summer of 2020. I am simultaneously looking forward to this and dreading it.  Expect to see pictures of me wielding a chainsaw soon! It’s a beautiful place as these pictures I took Sunday on our walk around the place will show and it’s where I played and worked my entire childhood. Many memories bubbled up during our recent walks and I look forward to showing that new grandson this special place. 


Have an awesome week!

by Categories: creativity, Earth, farm life, life, moving, risk taking, simplify, Uncategorized, valuesTags: , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment