Downsized Dining Tour

First of all, thank you for not only the comments, but for the ones for my eyes only, and for the emails, and for snail mail. Sometimes I am really slow in responding, but, Lord willing, I will get there.

I’m not in the “nesting” stage yet but I sense it coming. I’m still hoping to get the house all put together before the baby comes, so I can just relax and enjoy the holidays. I’ve been working hard also to finish some online schoolwork; lots of reading, reports, exams. But, slowly, this house is coming together. And–praise God!–our other house is pending sale already to someone who loves it and, I feel, will take very good care of it.

Ready for a dining room tour? I enjoy sharing with you all; it keeps me going, one room at a time!

For reference, this was our dining room in the previous house. We had just put up the wood walls and it *finally* felt like what I was wanting. We also had a secondary dining area off the kitchen so in reality we had two large tables to use for ourselves and for guests. We also had a very large hutch built into the cabinetry with lots of doors and drawers. If you saw my last post on downsizing the kitchen, you saw where my “hutch” went.

And here is our dining room today–only one table. Ironically, I got the walls I really wanted–all OVER the house 🙂 Through the window there is the mudroom; you can see my baskets hanging off the ceiling (pics soon).

I was so worried the house buyer would want my big chalkboard. It is real slate, given to me by a previous schoolteacher knowing that I was leaving the profession to homeschool my children. My husband made the frame. He also built in the bookcases and that is where we store a lot of our homeschooling books and dictionaries and so forth.

Looking in the other direction, to the left is the hall and to the right is the living room (pics soon!).

Little houses get short tours 🙂

I’m finding myself sitting or lying down more. I finally pulled out my handwork projects and started picking at them when I needed a break from physical activity or academics. I’m hoping to make this into a fabric book of my favorite things. I also need to start getting busy preparing for the baby; I enjoy making all of the herb teas and baths and powders and so forth.

What a crazy season it has been for me. There are days I am still in unbelief, that we really sold our house, that we really moved, that we downsized at the same time as upsizing our family with another baby (our 8th) on the way. I am almost finished earning a certificate as a master herbalist, and a book cover is in the works for Present. That’s been a slow process, also a season of just planting and watering and waiting. I’ve been ignoring the noise of creating a big “platform”, pushing for email sign ups, taking on advertising. It’s not who I am. Instead I am just trusting that whatever I do and whomever I am will just either bless or annoy; like Jesus, I crave hot and cold and dislike lukewarm. Maybe I am entering a season of being ok with that, of letting expectations and perfections and regrets go with the wind. I hope that in my life, I will bare much fruit, and, at the end, die and fly away knowing that my God was glorified in some way by it all. I’m sure looking forward to seeing our good Lord face to face; aren’t you?

Thankful for the cross,