He Knew Me Then...

If you've visited me for any length of time, you know that amongst the somewhat trivial posts about moving or crafting, or tending to my aching joints, I sometimes feel compelled to share things of a spiritual nature here.  When that happens I do wonder if it looks like I compartmentalize the spiritual from the physical, even "worldly" aspects of life.  If you knew me in person, I think you would come to know I don't tend to compartmentalize these things.  Now worries, problems, cares of life... yeah, I can be a world-class compartmentalizer of those things for the sake of coping and moving through my responsibilities, but in terms of who and what I am, I don't tend to separate the spiritual from the physical aspects of this life.

All that is to say that today's thoughts are fairly normal in my daily existence and like I sometimes do, I've decided to invite you into those thoughts.   

A few days ago I came upon a song, He Knew Me Then, sung by Dallas Holm (in the mid-70's).  I became familiar with Dallas Holm's music when I was a young adult in the 80's, but I'd never heard this simple, beautiful song.  I was so touched by it, and my heart filled and lifted, that I decided to share it here - in case someone else could benefit from its message.  I encourage you to take four minutes and listen to it:

Being raised in the Christian faith, I'm no stranger to the message of God's love.  His love for the whole world.  For you personally, and for me personally.   But while I've been a baptized believer since I was 14, I'll admit sometimes I struggle to fully receive God's love and forgiveness.  Those times are almost always when I come face to face with my failures.  My sins.  Especially my failures and sins that affect others.

I'm not the only one.  In the second and third chapters of Genesis we read about Adam and Eve.  Before they ate the "forbidden fruit", they apparently enjoyed a happy, burden-free relationship with each other, and with God.  But after they ate fruit from the one tree they were forbidden to eat from - the tree of the knowledge of good and evil - their eyes were suddenly opened.  And in their nakedness, which prior to eating the forbidden fruit they were happily unconcerned about, they were overcome by shame.  In their shame and fear, they covered themselves and hid from God.

They were literally and figurative exposed.  They had no excuses, though they tried desperately to make their case, each in turn, for why they had done the very thing they were told not to do.  I don't know why their nakedness suddenly caused them to feel ashamed, when that wasn't an issue before their "fall", but whether you believe Genesis is a true account or not, who doesn't understand the shame these two would have felt when their sin was exposed?

It is part of the human experience that when our sin finds us out, we are ashamed.  In the case of wrong-doing, shame is a good thing.  It's where conscience is awakened and we suddenly see parts of ourselves that are downright awful.  Sometimes we want to hide and cover our wrong-doing.  When the wrong-doing is exposed, we're sometimes compelled to lie or make excuses for it.  The better part of us is usually motivated to come clean and make it right.  To make restitution.  To ask for forgiveness from someone we've wronged.  

I'll take the idea further and say that this is all a good thing.  Because from this place of wrong-doing, earned shame, and wanting to make it right... we may not only become instruments of healing the wounds we inflicted, but we also grow in compassion for others when they are in the same shoes - and we can choose to act on that compassion with understanding and forgiveness. 

Do we bear God's image more than when we have compassion and forgiveness towards others when they fail? 

There's more to all of this, of course.  Ultimate forgiveness comes through Jesus' paying the penalty for our sins through His laying down His life for us - "while we were yet sinners" according to the Apostle Paul in Romans 5:8. 

And 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John are filled with some truly encouraging words about how much God loves us, and Jesus being our advocate when we sin.  I have needed that message so often - over the past year, especially.

If these thoughts seem a ways off from the message of Holm's simple song above, they're not.  I think this is exactly what Holm's song is about.  God knew Adam and Eve would sin.  It's tempting, I know, to be indignant, thinking He set them up for their fall.  Clearly, I am not God. I don't know why the whole garden of Eden drama had to happen, but one thing that seems very clear to me is that God created Adam and Eve (and you and me) knowing we were going to fail.  Knowing when we had achieved our full faculties and became fully responsible for our actions, we were going to sin.  But He created us anyway.  In His image!   He knew us then, and loved us.  And He loves us still. 

Boggles the mind.  

And clears the heart of shame if we let it.   

The den...

We've been settling in - busy with unpacking, then Christmas with our boys home and sister-in-law visiting (celebrated on Christmas Eve), and then a lovely meal at just about the only restaurant in Indianapolis open on Christmas Day (with brother-in-law and sister-in-law).  And then with the holiday behind us, more unpacking.  

It's all been complicated (and slowed down a bit) by a sore knee (that started the weekend after we were totally moved in) and a sore thumb joint that's plagued me off and on for a few years, but it got much worse with all the packing and unpacking.  They both get to feeling better with ibuprofen and ice and braces, so I keep hoping they'll heal up on their own, and then I do something to strain them again and I feel like I'm back to square one.  If they don't start to get to noticeably better soon, I suppose I should have them looked at.  Sigh.  I really didn't want to start a new year with new reasons to see doctors. 

Anyway...  now that some of the rooms here are looking presentable, I feel better about sharing some pictures of our new place.  At least spaces here that inspire me, delight me, or maybe even need some help.    

To bring anyone who might be in dark up to speed, here's the background...  Hubs and I had been talking for several years about looking for a one-story home that would be easier to grow old in than our tri-level of 23 years would be.  A fire was lit this summer when I was visiting a friend and she told me there were two houses behind her that were for sale.  They were lovely homes, in a quiet neighborhood, and we did go to see them, but as much fun as it might have been to have a built-in friend as a backdoor neighbor, we just weren't ready to jump at that point.  

But the fire was lit.  We got our heads into the game, figured out the financial part, started talking about what we wanted in our next home, and the search began.  Last summer I didn't write much at all about the search, but we often joked that meeting our realtors (they were a couple team) at new houses every weekend, was some of the best socialization we had during those four months.  

We really liked our realtors - both professionally, and as people.  Never pushy, they knew we wouldn't jump to make an offer unless we were both confident in buying a house, and that house needed to check some important boxes we both had.  They seemed perfectly content with that arrangement.

Near the end of October, we bought (closed on) a 30 year-old house in a small country neighborhood just a couple miles outside the town we've lived in for the past 23 years.  Thirty year-old houses come with issues (some we knew from the outset), but overall, it's a very pleasant house and property.  

My decorating style is pretty simple, and it could be many months before we start hanging anything on walls, but today let me invite you into our favorite room at the moment - our den:  

Pictures were taken on different mornings - just to see if I could get better pictures in different light:

It's challenging to get both the window and it's view, and the inside of the room to show well together, so your first glimpse of this room, unfortunately, makes it look very dark in here.   But it's actually the lightest/brightest room of the house when the shades are open on those three large east-facing windows.  

The reason this is our favorite room is, any time of the day, but especially in the morning, we enjoy sitting in the recliner (we take turns) sipping a cup of coffee (hubs) or tea (me) and watching the birds flitter around eating up birdseed like it's their last meal.  

Even on a drizzly cold day, the birds need to eat!

The previous owners left behind this large bird feeder hanger thing, and some of the bird feeders.  It is proving to be great entertainment - as long as we can afford to buy bird seed.  You can't tell from these pictures, but normally each feeder has multiple birds on it, and the birds go through the buffet of seeds like crazy.

While there are at least two downy woodpeckers who like to regularly visit the suet feeder, I think we may have either a red-bellied woodpecker or a yellow-bellied sap sucker, too.  It's more elusive, and I haven't had long to look at it when it's shown up, but it has a distinctly different red cap than the downy woodpeckers.  Honestly, when looking in a bird book, I thought it looked like a ladder-back woodpecker, but Indiana doesn't appear to be in their range.  So I have to just wait patiently and get a few more good looks at him to be more certain.   I only know it's a couple inches larger than the downy, has a beautiful red cap, and black and white wings.  And has shown up exactly twice for me.  

I look forward to removing the window screens this upcoming weekend when it warms up a tad, so hopefully, there will be some clearer bird pictures in the future.  We also have some beautiful blue jays, cardinals, nuthatches and finches of various colors - along with a mob of sparrows.  Who knows what spring and summer will bring.

The past owners called this room a sunroom - which the room probably was originally, but once upon a time someone enclosed the back patio/porch, and with two walls of windows we're calling that the sunroom.  Perhaps a nice picture of that room will come closer to spring time.  At the moment, what we're calling the sunroom is serving as overflow space as we still try to figure out where everything goes.  

Oh, okay..  since I imagine you'll appreciate me keepin' it real, here's a peek into the sunroom: 

That view, at the moment, isn't very pretty, so usually the blinds are closed.  One of these days we'll either figure out where the stuff in those boxes go, or maybe decide we don't actually need that stuff.  Sad to think we had to move it here to realize that, but such is life.

Back to the den before we leave:

That couch above, we brought home (in 2020) after hub's mother passed.  It was his parents' formal living room sofa for years - hardly ever sat upon, though we have pictures of us (pre-children) sitting on it nearly 40 years ago - it's that old.  After bringing it home, I said, "that would look great in a sunroom", but it sat in our living room for over a year, looking very old-fashioned and too small, hoping against hope we'd someday live in a house with a sunroom so it could prove me right.  It may make its way out to the sunroom come spring, but for the winter it makes a nice cozy spot to take a nap on.   And that blue crocheted blanket looks like it was made for it!

Ceramic wolf's head painted by middle son when he was a teen.  Gorgeous dry-brushing.

And that, dear reader is our den.  I can't believe I made a whole post about one room.   Little by little, I'll show you around more.  Some rooms still are in process.  I do hope to soon be crafting again.  In fact, I'm thinking about inviting you into my craft room for some organizing and maybe downsizing of supplies.  But as for actual crafting, I need to give my hand a bit of a rest - not sure when crocheting or knitting or stitching will resume.  Crafting is beginning to feel like something I used to do - a long time ago.  'Till I get back in that saddle, I'm enjoying crafts vicariously through other's blogs.

Thank you for visiting! And please come back again for another visit.  Now that life has resumed some normalcy, I'm going to try to find ways to not be so scarce.  😊

Happy New Year to you, and I hope you have a healthy and happy 2022.

Still breathing...

So...  about a month and a half ago, when I wrote my last post, I was full swing into packing for a move, and now well into December we're snug in our new place, but with still too many unpacked boxes to deal with.

It's been quite a ride - getting our new place ready to move into, all the while finishing packing, taking the move in stages, putting our home of 23 years on the market, and two days ago we closed on the sale of our old place.  

It has been an exhausting whirlwind, and I can't tell you how glad I am that we are only responsible for one house again.   We've been sleeping in the new place for nearly four weeks now, though how that much time has passed already I haven't a clue.  I suppose things like an unplanned doctor visit, some tests a couple of weeks ago (that didn't show any problems, but also didn't explain some annoying things), a son having surgery in November and our helping him out for a few days, and Thanksgiving that, in the end, didn't happen (due to a couple different COVID exposures among the invited), combined with taking care of issues at two houses... I'm sure it's all messed with my sense of time...

And somehow I've gotten a sore knee in the process of moving and I feel like I've aged 10 years, but other than that, it's all gone swimmingly.  😅

I'm looking forward to life eventually resuming some normalcy, eventually getting back to some crafting, and catching up with my blogging buddies.  I know I've missed a lot in the last month or so, but I hope to catch up a bit with what's been going on with my favorite bloggers - even though I probably won't be fully back in the swing of blogging for several more weeks, I'm guessing.

I hope you're enjoying this season and all that it brings.  This Advent, I'm feeling a real sense of joy seeing the signs of Christmas, hearing carols, and ultimately being reminded of Jesus' birth, and the great gift of salvation God offers to all through his Son.  I'm looking forward to our first Christmas in our new home, and even seeing the first winter snow fall on our new yard, though I wouldn't mind if that holds off until January, and I hope it falls when I don't have to go anywhere.  😉

I have nothing of note really to write about in any detail.  And while I've been exceedingly busy and productive, the house is still too disheveled for me to want to share pictures, and I don't know when or if I'll be decorating for Christmas, or even getting back to my crafting.  Unpacking my crafting stuff is pretty low priority at the moment.

I've really only come in here to let my blogging friends know that I am doing well and I haven't abandoned blogging, I'm just taking a hiatus.  I will start popping into blogs here and there, and expect to be back in the swing of blogging again myself before the year is completely over. 

I hope you have a very Merry Christmas!    

Making Space...

Checking in with a progress post on our move.  Tomorrow is closing day and it's hard to believe we're at this point already.  Packing continues, and life doesn't slow down for it.

There is so much I could write about things going on alongside all the packing, but one of the biggest highlights was that we had the opportunity to meet the sellers of the house we're buying.   They had a garage sale last weekend and while I stayed home on Friday to wait for a furnace tune-up, Hub went over to the sale and met the couple we're buying the house from.

As they talked, Hub & the sellers found they had some things in common.  Mr. seller graduated from Purdue, which Hub also did, and I attended.  Not necessarily unique around these parts, but it's always fun to meet another Purdue Alum.

Then they asked if Hub knew T...  B(ourlastname), and Hub was thrilled to tell them that was his brother.  Now... to our knowledge, Hub's family are the only people in the state with our last name. We live about an hour south of where Hub's brother & sister lives, so it's not very often that we run into each other's people.   You might be able to imagine when it does happen, people instantly are curious if we're related since our name is pretty unique in these parts.    

Anyway, turns out when this couple lived further north, they attended church where my husband's mother, father, sister and brother & his family all attend(ed).  What a small world!  

Then Saturday, I went over to meet them (and Hub went again, too).  We ended up buying some office furniture which will be great because we have an old computer table that is looking seriously shabby, and it probably wouldn't move well if we tried.  

I addition to that, when I saw in the garage sale a picture I had admired when looking at their house, I started to offer to buy it, and before I could get the words out completely, the Mrs. gave it to me.   And through our realtors they had previously offered us three nice bar stools they have at their kitchen island, so it looks like we're set in there, too.  It was so good to meet this terrific couple (and some of their family, even).  They seemed genuinely glad to meet us, too.  It's nice to know we're not meeting complete strangers tomorrow at the closing.

Immediately after the closing, we take possession of the new place.  We plan to take a couple of loads over tomorrow late afternoon.  I'm lobbying for getting Chinese take-out and having our first meal there at the kitchen island as a celebration.  

Meanwhile, packing continues...

I don't know how it is, but with each box packed and put in the garage, it seems I become aware of how much more there is to pack!  It feels a tad overwhelming, but then I remind myself that we get to make this move in stages.  The plan is to move small stuff ourselves during the week after closing.  We have a smallish moving van rented for next weekend and will move medium-sized stuff when we have more help.  Then finally we've scheduled (hopefully big, burly) movers to handle the truly heavy stuff - like furniture, an upright freezer, a piano, and anything else we're too pooped to deal with...  

We've never done a local move before and this concept of moving in stages is interesting to plan out, and I hope will be a lot less exhausting in the implementation.

This past Thursday a friend helped me pack up most everything in my china cabinet.  Before we started I told my friend I wanted to take some pictures of the process.  I thought I'd be artsy and get fun angles of her hands placing nicely wrapped dishes in boxes, reaching for dishes in the cabinet, things like that...  Half the time the dining room table was covered with dishes and packing material and even that would have been a great shot.  But do you think I could actually remember to do this?!?   Of course not!  I seem incapable of being part of the process and documenting it at the same time.  So instead of artsy pictures that could provide me great memories in my old age, I have pictures of stacks of boxes containing dishes and china cabinet stuff as they fill my living room, that will only serve to remind me of my aching back in my dotage.

Books have been the easiest thing to get packed, but I will tell you - packing is seriously making me rethink being a collector of books.   In order to not create too heavy of boxes, when I can't put my hands on a small box, I've found that packing books and yarn (or any soft, lightweight items) together is a great way to make sure I'm not packing boxes that are too heavy to actually carry.  

Who knew my closet full of yarn would come in handy in this way?  My books and yarn will possibly end up in the same room at the new house, so the items are a natural to pack together. 😄 

I know a few books slipped out during this challenge before I took a picture of them, but looking back through these posts and counting books pictured, I can see (including today's post) I've gotten rid of at least 194 books in the last year.  Today, I've just counted 50 that came out of the family room!

And lastly for today, I've finally decided I'm just getting rid of the rest of my Taste of Home magazines and am not going to look through any more of them to determine if there are recipes I'd like to save.   I think I counted 29 below:

So this week I have 79 more things leaving the house and I've more than met my goal of 1,000 things gone in a year's time.  If I could take this packing business slower, I could probably get rid of 1,000 more things in the next few weeks, but I can see that isn't going to happen. My decluttering journey (while I probably won't document it further here - at least, not in the same way) will, no doubt, continue at the new place.

I'll try to remember to keep a camera close and snap some pictures this next week.  Once we have possession, I'll feel freer to post some pictures of the new place (or at least spaces in the new place).  A whole empty house isn't going to be terribly interesting, but I'll see what I can do.  

Making Space Week 51:   1029  things gone!

We've found it!

I have been looking forward to the day I could share my good news, and I think it's finally safe to share it!   I haven't been writing much about our house hunting, but up until recently it's been going on in the background consistently since I first mentioned we were starting to look - back in June.

After visiting houses nearly every weekend from June through September, we found our new home on September 24th!  While we weren't sure about it just reading the listing description and seeing the pictures online, neither of us had any reservations at all once we saw it in person.  This had been my prayer from the beginning - that the house we would choose would feel right to both of us when we saw it.  If you knew Hub's and my personalities (not always in sync), how often we vacillated over what this next house should be (nearly weekly), how few houses that "checked our boxes" were showing up on the market (few to none), you would know that was no small prayer.

Whether or not you're considering buying a house right now, I'm sure you know that in today's market, good houses go fast!  The house we're buying was listed on a Friday afternoon, we made a 6:00 pm appointment to see it, and at 9:00 pm we were leaving the realtor's office after signing our offer to buy.  It sounds crazy, but that's what buying a house is like in 2021.  Whoever "they" are, "they" aren't kidding when they say buying a house in this market is not for the faint of heart.  

This house not only checked all the boxes of what we felt were important, but it also had everything on my personal wishlist, and then some.  I am so undeservedly blessed by that.  In four months, while we had seen some very suitable houses, this was the only house we both felt equally compelled to make an offer on.  And (no surprise) we weren't the only ones who felt that way.   

Knowing by Friday night there were already multiple offers, and knowing the chances were very low that the first time we'd make an offer on a house it would be accepted, we waited just over 40 hours assuring ourselves that we would be just fine if we got it or not.  By Sunday the 26th, we were becoming pretty sure that we were not the winning bidders and were truly okay with it - and then a call came when we were out to lunch with friends.  We were asked to provide bank records to prove we could back up our offer, and a few hours later the second call came telling us our offer was accepted - out of seven total offers made!  We were told the offers were competitive, and later heard (through the grapevine) that ours wasn't even the highest, at which point our delight expanded to wonderment. 

While the house and property please us, it is not really what we envisioned when we set out on this search.  Though, to be honest, our vision kept changing as we looked at various houses - none of them being quite right.   At some point in the process I began to realize that this house hunting was as much about us adjusting our expectations and hopes, and even being willing to walk away from many nice houses that just didn't feel right for us, as it was about finding the right house.  Walking away from several houses was sometimes a step of faith, but we always had peace about it, or quickly gained peace once the decision to walk away was made.  What a process this was!

So... we've begun packing and expect to close at the end of this month and begin moving the first week in November.  Hopefully, we'll not experience winter weather before we get moved in, but regardless, we look forward to celebrating Thanksgiving in our new place.  And this morning at church I signed us up to host a small dinner gathering in early December.  I'm already looking forward to it.

I hope to take some pictures of the process of moving, but I know that may be a challenge for me.  I'm either good at throwing myself into a process, or being a photographer, but rarely do I manage to do both very well at the same time.  We will see...

Meanwhile, as we try to eat our freezer inventory down, we sort and pack, sort and pack.  I am so thankful I've gotten rid of so much this past year (easily it will be over 1,000 things), but still I'm discovering things I didn't know we had.   Living in the same house for 23 years makes that happen, I suppose.

This past week I started packing books, so culling out those least likely to get read has been my goal. This is just one book case's worth, so hopefully, it's just a start:

And a couple of weeks ago, I had culled through my closet, so I have this little stack of clothing to go:

And, as always, there will be collections of random things we realize we don't need, and certainly don't want to move - like this:

The only noteable thing above is the cat drawing my artist sister made of our first kitty, Sy Snootles.  Sy has been gone for over 30 years, and we no longer display the picture so I asked artist sister if she'd like the picture back - perhaps to pass along to one of her grandchildren.  She seemed thrilled with the idea.  It's on its way to her as I type.  😊

With just three more weeks to my 1000 things gone goal:

Making Space Week 49:   950  things gone!