Work

          First, I wanted to chat a little bit about my last post with Saint Joan of Arc’s quote before going on to the next quote.  I have felt like a fraud.  I have not felt brave at all this week.  I have worried about the new house payments.  They are steeper than I would like facing retirement.  On the other hand, I fear staying in our current house.  My dreams have ended here.  I need to dream.  All of my dreams on the new property.  Of course, then I worry that I won’t be able to work my dreams.  Ugh, I need to get out of my head.  So, yes, I can be brave, but I can also be scared.  Today, I went and spent time praying at the chapel on campus.  I felt much better.  God will work it out.  I will work my dream.  I will trust him even when I have a bad day or week.  But onto this week's quote about work.

He who labors as he prays lifts his heart to God

with his hands.

                                                                    Saint Benedict

Last year, I studied Saint Benedict and his book that he wrote, “The Rule.”  The book is written for those in a Benedictine monastery, so some of the chapters didn’t completely relate to the life of the laity.  Other chapters were amazing.  What I love about the overarching theme was praying while working.

I am not good at this.  I want to be, but I usually forget to pray until halfway through a task.  Hum, if at all.  In fact, just thirty minutes ago, I washed a bunch of dishes.  I didn’t pray.  I worked in the garage earlier.  I didn’t pray.  I get very frustrated with myself.  A lot of the jobs I do around the house are perfect times to pray.  Instead, I am in a hurry and forget.  I need to listen to music, but my daytime housemate grumbles.  

When I am in my quilt room, I am better at praying.  Many times, I turn on my Christian music or some traditional chant.  This puts me in the right mindset for prayer.  If my mind wanders, the lyrics bring me back to my prayer.  Of course, many times, the music is the prayer.  Yet, the prayer doesn’t always come naturally.

The garden is my natural environment for prayer.  Okay, church is the main place, but the garden is the next best place.  Outside always brings me closer to God.  I actually feel like the two of us work together in the garden.  I plant, water, weed, and mulch while He gives the plants a little nudge to grow.  He adds color to the leaves and pedals.  At times, He calls for a ladybug to join us or a curious bird.  I am always thankful in the warm sun with the blue sky above me.  Oh, and nothing is better than sipping a cup of coffee in the crisp morning air as we contemplate what area of the garden we are going to work on until the heat forces me inside.  Yep, I love gardening season when I feel Him most.

Until spring, I will continue to try to pray while doing the dishes, laundry, making the bed, sweeping, moping, and all those domestic chores.  Oh, I need to also pray while I pack up the house.  There are so many opportunities to pray.  The ultimate goal is to pray without ceasing.

Blessings.

Poor Richard's Farm - Beginnings

     Wow, what a week!  Most of you know that a few years back, Jerry started a catering business called Poor Richard’s BBQ.  He had a few catering events; plus, he did quite a few barbecue competitions.  In fact, last summer, while he was in between deployments, he participated in two competitions.  Part of our reason for buying property is to have space for his business.

Now, as always, the family has big dreams for the land, huge vegetable and herb gardens, fruit orchard, fruit bushes, meat and egg chickens, goats, pigs, and miniature cows.  We want to sell the farm fresh food along with my quilting items and who knows what el
se.  We are going to marry the farm adventure with Jerry’s adventure.  Hence, we are naming our place Poor Richard’s Farm.  So exciting!

The beginning of the adventure started with a dream of wanting to be more self-sustaining.  For two years, I have been watching the real estate market.  We talked about it off and on with excitement.  I had thought we would buy land for a house for Clay, but then this little piece of heaven popped up.  We put in an offer.  The buyers counted.  We accepted.  All in a week!  

Last week, our house went on the market after seven mad days of getting the house ready.  I felt like I was doing my mom’s house all over again.  I even wondered if I was a bit of a hoarder.  It is amazing how much stuff is collected in 22.5 years and 3 kids!!!  The house on the inside looks amazing.  Well, since the house listed, we have had 15 showings.  Two of the showings were people coming a second time.  I am over the moon with how it all has been going.

I am so antsy to get the farm started.  I want to run to Murdock’s to buy a chicken feeder and waterer.  I have refrained because I don’t want more stuff to store at this place and move to the new place.  Ugh!!!  Yesterday, I couldn’t resist beginning a new project.  I went to Hobby Lobby and bought materials to work on some potholders.  One, we need some new potholders.  Two, I can put some up on Etsy to begin trying to sell products.

A friend of Clay’s advised that we take things slowly and to not bite off more than we can handle.  This is exactly how we are planning the adventure.  I am on a ten-year plan.  Jerry is on a five-year plan.  So typical for both of us.  We have agreed on our one-year plan.  Once everything is sold and bought, we work on laying hens, gardens, trees, and catering.  We will begin to sell some quilting items and any products above what we can use if we have any.  Clay will start his chicken tractor if we are ready later in the year.  Madelle will find a puppy.  We will also begin to do the research on a house for Clay.  That is it.  That is plenty!!!

Currently, we continue to show the house.  With the nice weather, I will clean the yard.  Leo bombs need to be disposed of in the dumpster.  My garden pieces of art and clutter need to be rounded up.  I know there is stuff under the snow, but some of it is peaking out.  I need to continue to clean up the garage and move the items in the shed into the garage.  In the mornings, I will work on potholders.  In fact, I think I will do that now.

Blessings to you all!

Courage

 

“Go forward bravely.  Fear nothing.  Trust in

God; all will be well.

                                             Saint Joan of Arc

“Go forward bravely.”  I have gone forward many times in my life.  I will admit that I haven’t always done the movement bravely.  When I was a little girl, I feared so much.  I was very timid.  I am sure it drove my dad nuts.  Always wanting to please him, I would stifle my tears and work at going forward.  Luckily, I spent half my summers with my older cousins and my aunt for four years.  They worked at making me tougher by pushing me and demonstrating moxie.  A different aunt also helped me become my own person.

Signing up for the military was tough.  I had to leave my new husband to attend BASIC training and my individual training, a little over four months of separation.  The statistics were against us.  Most couples divorce due to the stress, separation, and changes in the couple.  I put my trust in God and Jerry.  I put my trust in our belief of marriage.  I did worry from time to time, but all ended well.

While raising the kids, my biggest fear was them being on a boat without me.  My dad loved taking them fishing.  I cringed every time.  This was such a stupid fear.  Dad took me fishing all my life.  Not once did we get in a bad situation.  I trusted him with my life.  Yet, I always worried when he took the kids out.  I prayed.  I trusted God to take care of all of them.  I still worry.  Since we bought kayaks, they have gone out with friends.  I pray and pray.  I distract myself so I don’t worry.  All has gone well.

The past couple of years, I have feared death approaching in all sorts of directions.  I really feared Jerry, or I would die before he came back from deployment, and we would never see each other again.  Silly, I know.  I would pray and ask God to take the fear away.  He did until I started thinking too much.  I don’t so much fear the death part.  I know heaven is at the end of the journey.  My fear is separation from those I love.  We have lost so many in the last few years.  I miss them so much.  Frankly, I need a break from loss.

I try to move bravely forward after I pray, giving the situation to God.  Okay, maybe I move crazily forward.  My goal for retirement was to have my house paid off with no debt.  Last year, we bought a camper for Jerry.  The debt is minimal, and I have it ¾ of the way paid off.  With the camper, we needed a truck to pull it.  I don’t completely count this debt because vehicles are a must.  But now, I have convinced all of us that buying property and moving is a great idea.  We are going to have a mortgage again.  Uff da.  Is that bravery or stupidity?

Part of me worries a bit.  Will we sell our house at the right price?  Will we be able to pay the new place off soon?  I have a plan, but will life blow up my plan?  For the most part though, I am not afraid.  When I was forced to take a medical retirement early, I was concerned about my plan to pay off the house.  My plan was fifteen years, it took seventeen instead.  All ended well.

I have prayed about buying property for two years.  Everything could fall through tomorrow, and we don’t get the new place.  We may get the new place and not be able to sell our current place.  I have no idea how this is going to work out.  God knows.  He is in charge.  I trust him.  When I have doubts and concerns, I pray.  Then I step “bravely” forward.

Revamp

 

A picture from our yard last summer.

I love the beginning of the new year.  I also love January.  This month I get to work on all my new plans for the year.  Sure, the weather is cold.  Yep, I don’t go outside as much as l like.  The winter nights are long, but I have a list of items to work on.  Yep, I love the beginning of a new year.

As if new plans weren’t enough, I also pick a word to meditate on for the year.  All last year, I worked on purpose, my purpose.  I felt lost and adrift.  What did I want to do when I grew up?  I read a midlife crisis type book.  I prayed.  I went on a silent retreat.  As the year closed, I thought my word for 2023 would be purpose.  Well, a friend told me about a word generator on a website.  For fun, I pushed the button.  I received the word Revamp.  Perfect.  I love when that happens.  So, all last month, I worked my five purpose statements that are intended to “revamp” my life.

Now that February has arrived, I am laughing at my list.  Well, I am laughing at the last item on my list.  Hum, maybe I should explain.  I have five purpose (mission) statements.  I won’t bore you with the wordiness of them.  Here is the shortened version.  The first is about growing my faith, becoming a better person, and sharing my faith with those who are interested.  Next, I want to be work on being a better wife, mother, and friend.  During the last year with Jerry in Kuwait, I buried myself in the quilt room.  I was just too depressed and grumpy to release myself onto polite society.  Now, I need to become available again to those I love.  My health is and always will be precarious with the autoimmune diseases I have, let alone the nasal issues.  However, I need to exercise more and hopefully lose a little weight.  

I of course also have a purpose statement for my hobbies.  I knew with Jerry home the number of quilts would go from twenty a year to more like ten.  This is actually why I am laughing at my list.  I haven’t worked on a quilt for about two weeks.  I barely finished a quilt for a dear friend.  Thank goodness I don’t have any quilts I am making for gifts because, well, I don’t see any getting done in the near future.  My new goal is maybe five completed by the end of 2023.  This is because of my final purpose statement, work.  Yep, work is going to waylay all my plans for the year, and I am so blasted excited.  I am so revamping not only my life but my entire families.  Opps.

For the last two weeks, Jerry and I have been working at buying a new house and a huge shop that are sitting on eleven acres of land.  Yep, we are going for the new dream of being multiple acre landowners.  We have been working finances for a loan.  Our current house is going on the market tomorrow.  Madelle and I have been decluttering and packing like crazy while Jerry and Clay have been moving boxes to a new storage unit that is helping the process.  We have had numerous meetings with our real estate agent.  Signing tons of paperwork, the whole nine yards or should I say eleven acres?

Where in the world did this come from?  As a kid, I hated living in town.  I wanted to live in the country so I could ride my horse every day.  I wanted to have animals to take care of and places to explore.  Years ago, Jerry offered to buy me land.  I loved him so much for the sentiment.  However, we were too busy.  We both worked full time, were raising kids that were busy in tons of activities, and we lost two weekends a month due to our parttime military career.  We were a town couple, a town family.

The deployments, state of the country, and loss changed all of us.  For the last couple of years, we have discussed owning land as a family.  The kids love the idea of being neighbors and the someday cousins being able to play together all the time.  All of us love the idea of fresh eggs, fruits, vegetables, and meat.  Madelle wants to raise beagles, and Jerry needs a place for his catering.  I would love a bigger garden that isn’t so crowded that I have to
step over plants.  And fresh meat, well, that is just an amazing opportunity.  Clay is all set to help with fencing and animal tasks.  He is in charge of a chicken tractor.  Oh, the things I have been learning already!

    Stay tuned for the progress on Poor Richard's Farm.