On Waiting…

A month in, and I’m finally to the point of settling into the bottom portion of the house. The upstairs is still in progress, but it’s a slow process. Little by little, as my neighbor reminds us.

 

I’m finally back into my art journal, and enjoying seeing all of my art supplies at hand again. There is no shortage of beautiful flowers and birds nearby to capture onto paper. I’ve been waiting to get my own little spot back, for art and study and writing.

 

 

Twenty-five pounds of green beans were snapped while sitting on the rocker out front, watching my children play and my husband cut wood for the upstairs bedrooms. It was altogether the most pleasant experience, the warm air and sweet breeze winding through the shade of trees. I’ve been waiting to get my kitchen in enough order to start thinking about restocking my pantry.

 

 

The reed has been sleyed (that’s so much fun to say) so I’m getting ready to draw the cotton threads through the heddles and finish the warp. I want to weave a sweet baby blanket, and I have some yummy nubby cotton for the weft. I’ve been waiting to organize and get my handwork supplies out, putting baskets here and there to pick up mending or creating.

 

 

Outside, everything is as beautiful as ever. I think I fell in love with the outside before even seeing the inside of the house. And once I saw the inside, well….here we are, by God’s grace. I’m so enjoying the flowers popping up and I feel like a kid….“oooo…what’s that….hm…that’s so interesting…wonder what that will do….”

 

I’m still waiting to have a kitchen garden again–I’m hoping in the spring. We’ll see how soon we can get the outside work done, once the inside is finished.

 

 

The children are waiting for normalcy. Bedrooms are still in complete disarray, and no one really has their own quiet spot other than me. But I started homeschooling again, giving diagnostic spelling tests and reviewing where each one was and planning out the roadmap for the year. We made and played with tangrams together, and enjoyed the small scent of routine coming back into the home. We’ve been waiting for routine.

 

 

Ruby had the best time with the fingerpaints. And she was so excited to see her little readers again, and insisted on sitting with me to read each one. I was amazed; she really has memorized a lot of sight words already. Ruby–reading? I’ve been waiting for a little encouragement on that front.

 

 

And then….and then the septic went kafritz. Meaning, something in the pump or whateveryouhaveit stopped working. We finally had to stop using the drains altogether and make other arrangements for doing laundry, washing dishes, taking a bath and using the toilet. Let me give a shout out to Survival Mom, who helped me be prepared for that. It’s not fun to be without a septic system, but I will tell you that not being prepared at all would have been less fun. I can see I still have holes in that to work on…washing tubs would be helpful for dishes, and a laundry plunger for hand washing. I’m also thankful for my friend who let me take over her facilities! This is our fifth day dealing with this, and hopefully it finally ends this evening with a repair. Didn’t know I’d been waiting for a kick to the hiney to get even better prepared for disasters and trouble.

 

 

Well, I’m certainly not leaving you with a photo of our dirty dishes. Here is the pond I can see right outside my kitchen window. The building you see on the left there is the garage and utility room. My three ducks have been enjoying this pond very much, and it seems that the additional circulation they give to it does it some good. I like to sit in that chair and just watch the ducks, the frogs, the insects.

 

 

 

Tom says I’m not just making a home here, but it feels like I’ve “come home”. I think so, too. I feel very comfortable here, even with all of the trial of downsizing and moving and just plain making things do for the time being. I’m looking forward to getting the rest of the house into order, the woodpile stocked for winter, the garden beds weeded and mulched, and our daily routines into habit. I have faith that it will come, “little by little”. And that, in the end, it all will have been worth all of the waiting.

 

Blessings,