a closed door...

The seller chose the other buyer and so the door to that home, the home spoke of in the previous post, is closed. There is a little part of me that is bummed, but I am at such peace about it as well. We prayed for God to open or close the door and He did. We gave it our best and have no regrets.

I am curious what our home does look like. Where it is, who our neighbors will be and such. I choose to look at this as an adventure because honestly it would be so easy to jump on the downer train and ride that baby all over the place. I fight that choosing to put on different spectacles. The truth is God knows everything about our next home. He knows what light bulbs are burned out, what floor boards creak as well as every crack in the wall and dust bunny hiding in the corners. This brings great comfort. I don't have to know it all yet. We are thankful to be able to stay in our current home as it is listed for sale. So, the door closed but you know the old cliche, a new one shall open!

Either Way, It's A Good Day

Our tribe is moving back to town, we just don't know when or to where. We've been looking at homes for sale casually over the last 6 months or so. We haven't found a right fit and decided about 3 weeks ago we'd look for rentals instead. This new search had not yet yielded any promising possibilities. 2 weeks after we began looking (at rentals), the owners of our home informed us they were planning on listing the home. There is now a for sale sign in the yard and we are welcome to stay here during the interim. We weren't scared when they told us, just more motivated to continue our search.

Well, we looked at a home for sale last Friday and we fell in love with it. It caught us by surprise. We looked at it again on Monday and the love was revealed to be genuine. Some friends came along with promises to be honest and give it to us straight. They gave it the thumbs up. We placed an offer late Monday night and will hear back today. (I should mention we were the third family to take a second look on Monday and another offer was received as well.)

The house. It is things we've dreamed of, but never thought could be a reality. It is in town, older with character, in a great school district and on a small chunk of land larger than a postage stamp. The home has a mother-in-law next door. I have an out there dream of some day having a place to teach art and writing classes to kids. To begin with, we'd rent the lil house and use the extra income for expenses associated with home ownership. But, there is the option down the road to do so much with it! The main home has 4 bedrooms and a large flat grass space for outdoor play. It is perfect for us! It is beyond anything we could've imagined. Yet, we've asked God to slam the door today if this isn't His plan for us. So, we wait. In a mere 3 hours we shall know if we are moving forward or if the door was closed. Either way, we trust God has His best for our life. Either way, it's a good day.

funny story friday #1

One of my favorite things to do in life is laugh. Life is funny. Funny things happen and I am going to start funny story Friday's for the next bit of time. Each Friday, I will share a funny story from my own life. I commit to only write true events that happened. I hope they give a chuckle to you whenever you happen to find them. Because what the world needs now, besides love sweet love, is laughter!

I was on the golf team in high school. Stop laughing, that's not the funny part. I rarely tell people I golfed on a team, even back then, because there is an immediate assumption that I must be quite the good golfer, to which I am not. At one particular tournament I was in my usual territory, off the fairway in a huge grove of trees. (Yes, we have trees in ND!) Never wanting to take a penalty stroke, I hit the ball where it lied. I swung, looked up and searched for my ball. I heard it hit a tree. I looked around and saw the ball heading straight for my melon. It hit me square in the forehead. (I forgot to yell fore and warn myself.) Not only did I hit myself, but it left an indent of the ball in my forehead for the next couple of hours. Thank goodness for that hat in my golf bag! And just for the record, the ball landed a hair further back from where the shot began from.

Portlandia: Put A Bird On It

Oh my goodness, I think this is HILARIOUS! Over the next several weeks, I will post ways I put a bird on it. Tweet Tweet.

Butcher Paper Letters

Snail Mail Definition: Snail mail is so retro and reto is cool. You take paper, pen, envelope and stamp and hand write a letter to someone. You mail it to them by placing it in that tin box at the end of your driveway, you know the one that houses junk mail in it everyday. You lift up that cute little metal flag and voila! It is picked up and hand delivered to the recipients tin box, often referred to as a mail box.

Here's a fun variation on a standard sized letter and envelope.

Materials:
*Butcher paper - This can be purchased at any craft store, Target etc... It is usually housed in the kids art supply section, like with the Crayola stuff.

*Markers of various colors - You could even use scented markers to awaken an additional sense to the butcher paper letter experience. (I prefer Mr. Sketch as they are a bit of nostalgia for me.)

*A sturdy cardboard mailing tube

Procedure:
Role a good length of butcher paper out and cut. There is a 6 foot minimum rule and I believe in this instance bigger is better.

Choose who your recipient will be and begin to compose a letter to them on the butcher paper.

This isn't a novel, use BIG letters. Add pictures either hand drawn or cut out ones from magazines. Not an artist? It's ok! Draw stick figures and label your drawings. The butcher paper letter my mom created for me when I was in college used symbols in place of some words. Hers was a letter of encouragement so when she told me I was amazing there were bursts of large stars drawn everywhere. Instead of using the letter "I" she drew a big picture of an actual eye.

So far, I have written at least 3 of these. One was to a college roommate telling her how awesome she was. Another, to my sister and in this one I retold funny memories from growing up. The last was to an author and amazing woman I really was hoping to meet. I requested tea, but never heard back. (Bummer! I had hoped my unusual letter would grant me a meeting.) If you are reluctant to try it, invite a friend over to do it with you. Ask them to bring their marker stash as well and make a party of it. The point is you will have a blast and the recipient will be overjoyed to receive a truly unique form of snail mail.

Letter it up!

Uff da and a new recipe finally tried

Well, this is overdue! The week I had grand plans to cook up a storm for us and a friend fell to pieces or was flushed down the drain would be more accurate..... Our youngest farmer was very sick. Daddy was in Cambodia. She did not sleep. Mommy did not sleep. Daddy was in Cambodia. The sickness lasted 9 days. It was a bacteria that entered her system after playing in the chicken coop, most likely. Daddy was in Cambodia..... You get the point. Uff da.

This would be a good time to introduce the Uff da phrase. If you don't know what it means, it is a Scandinavian term often used in the Midwest, where I am from. By definition, it can be used as an expression of surprise, astonishment, exhaustion, relief and sometimes dismay. In the context to which I am speaking today, it was all of these things except relief.

Our young farmer healed and was well the day dad arrived home, thank goodness! I decided it was time to try a recipe from my PW cookbook. An appropriate welcome home to my hungry man. I chose twice baked potatoes from page 152 - 153. Oh goodness, these did not disappoint. They were absolutely amazing. I paired it with asparagus and grilled steaks and I'll just say it was a very quiet dinner. What I love much about this cookbook is the detailed photographs of each recipe. Pictures guide you through step by step. So many of my other cookbooks don't even show what the finished project should look like. I often complete a recipe and am left wondering, did I do this right? If you ever write a cookbook, I implore you to photo the baby up!

I can't wait to try more recipes, things I've never attempted or thought of before. My next venture will probably be from the dessert section. I'll let you know how long it lasts in our home.

washing machine

More than coincidence...

I love my washing machine. It is a front loader and can handle the great amounts of laundry my tribe produces. Over the weekend, it quit working. My hubbie looked it over, made some adjustments and we hoped it was good to go, but it wasn't. Last night we contemplated what to do. A new washing machine wouldn't be cheap and although craigslist is great, who knew what we'd be getting. We slepped on it. Not literally, as our bed is quite comfortable and the washing machine would not be.

Today at work, at the end of the day, Ted overheard the word washing machine. As it turns out, a co-worker had an extra he was going to list for only $75. Hallelujah! I am serious, hallelujah! To some, this may seem like a mere coincidence, but we've learned that God's hand is all over stuff like this. God cares about every detail of our lives, down to a mom's stress for a washing machine out of order. I am so grateful by this awesome personal reminder to me that God has me right in the palm of his hand. He's able, willing and ready to handle any hardship our family faces. If you don't know Him, I'd love to tell you about Him. I'd love to share with you how he redeemed and saved me. The way he took a marriage the world tried to break and made it new. I am sold out for Him.

Ahh.... the gentle stirring of our "new" washing machine. I am so thankful!