 |
| Where we've been for the last five months. Time to start packing boxes again! |
The time has finally come for
us to break camp here at the little red cabin.
It has been an eagerly anticipated day for our family. As of today, we have 9 more days until we
close on our new home. We are now down
to single digits! Yeah-rah!
I find it amusing our
character trait this month is gratefulness.
As I have shared with you in previous posts, we’ve learned a lot about
that this year. One of the activities we
did as a family was to make an acrostic of the word gratefulness. What I thought would be a very quick activity
actually turned into a really neat family experience. It was fun to listen to their responses, some
serious and others silly. Everything
from God, eternal life, and names of best friends to Skittles, unicorns, and
underwear! It inspired me to do a little
“homework” myself, so I decided to come up with a top five list of things I’m
actually grateful for about the cabin itself instead of the lessons we have
learned while living here. The
assignment also had to be worded in a positive way. For example, I couldn’t write down I was
thankful that the “Potty Kitchen” was located downstairs instead of
upstairs. (That’s what we affectionately
call our conversation piece in the basement here.) It did not come easy, but after some time I
did find five things.
 |
| Our family activity. Give it a try yourself! It was fun!! |
1.
The backyard. It’s wonderful with a covered patio off the
garage and a large space for the children to play.
 |
| Covered Patio we have enjoyed! |
 |
| Big, beautiful backyard! |
2.
The bathtub. What the bathroom itself lacks in number and
size, the bathtub makes it an enjoyable space.
The rental house is older and so is the tub…a nice large old fashioned
tub where those of us that are a bit fluffier than others can actually soak in
without feeling like a sardine smushed in a can.
 |
| Pretty! |
3.
The flowers. Whoever lived here before planted one large
flowerbed out front with spring bulbs and they are blooming. New things springing up daily. Very, very pretty.
 |
| More pretty stuff! |
4.
The wildlife. The subdivision we live in is established
with mature trees. We’ve enjoyed seeing
many different birds, gray and brown squirrels chasing one another and doing
death defying feats on the power lines, and a few unexpected visits from the
raccoons that live in an old hollow tree out front.
 |
| This is from the internet, our squirrels wouldn't cooperate with me today. However, we did see them playing outside on our tree just like this today. |
5.
The sense of community. This was the
big one and the most unexpected. In a
word – amazing!
There is a sense of community
here among the 6-8 neighbors up and down this street that I have never experienced
before in all our adventures together as a family. The first day we moved in here at the cabin, the
ladies across the street presented me with a map complete with names of all
family members and phone numbers in case we needed anything. During one of the larger snows this winter we
discovered while locking up for the night that someone had used their snow
blower and cleared our driveway, in fact all driveways up and down the street
were done. I found out later it was a
neighbor across the street. There is an
older couple next to us and everyone networks and keeps an eye on them. The older gentleman goes to dialysis several
times a week. On move in day they told
us about them and how they like to help out and keep tabs on them and might
even take them a meal from time to time.
After our first week, the
cold weather hit and we all hibernated inside the homes up and down the
street. We’d wave from our warm cars
when out, but not much communication yet there is this sense of being a part of
something bigger. It’s getting warmer
now, people are slowly coming outdoors and the neighboring lessons continue as
I see them interacting. I’ve been
watching and I’m convinced it’s an art -the art of neighboring those around
you. It’s been one of the unexpected
blessings of being here at the cabin. God
is still working and teaching us more things before we leave this place. He never wastes an experience and will use
those to help us minister and encourage others.
 |
| Where we are headed in 9 more days! Yeah for us!! |
We’ll soon start packing up
things and getting them ready to put in boxes and move across town. The goal is to move the items here at the
rental house one weekend and get those things unpacked and settled since they
are the things we need daily. Then we
are planning to have the boxes on the truck brought the next weekend. Looks great on paper, but we’ll see how it
actually works out. Our journey
continues and soon we’ll be breaking camp!
I can’t wait!
