Update - Moving is......a process

I thought I would stop working for a bit and write a little update on our progress with the house and moving.  The last two weeks have been a bit crazy, even for me.  Actually, the last two or so years of my life have been either stressful, strenuous, trying, or crazy.  That is definitely another story for another day.  Thankfully, I have a faithful God who has proven that His peace is never far, if I am only willing to tap into it.  I must admit, however, that I have fallen apart more in the last few weeks than I have in my entire life, no kidding.  I have just about reached my limit of trials, tests, setbacks, issues, and drama.  I am normally one of the calmest, un-angry (my word) people I know.  Not lately.  I mostly fall apart either by myself or around Jeff.  I have been trying to hold it together around everyone else, although Amber and Josh seem to be fine-tuned to my moods and always know when I am having a bad day.  They get HUGE credit because they have been my faithful assistants through it all.

At any rate, most of the projects we were in the middle of during the last update are either somewhat or mostly completed, but none of them are completely completed.  We are very, very close to being done with the flooring, but last night we ran out of flooring for the living room, so off to town we go later today.  I estimated the flooring based on the floor plans for the house, so something was obviously off.  That's okay, because Amber blessed us with money to go on a much-needed date while we are in town.  We have been neglecting that area more than we normally do, and are thankful and excited to get to spend non-working time together.

We got the tile laid in the small corner of our living room where our wood stove will go.  Jeff did a really good job.  I always have the job of grouting and sealing, but I haven't gotten to it yet.  We will probably end up tiling the wall as well where the pipe will be, but he hasn't decided that for sure yet.

The only truck we currently have running is Jeff's small Nissan Frontier, short bed.  This is the only thing we have been using to move our furniture to the new house.  Slowly.  One piece of large furniture at a time, with a couple boxes thrown in to complete the load.  It seems that we aren't destined to be able to do anything easily, but that's life as I know it, so I am used to it.  I try to just roll with the punches, but I must admit it is a part of the stress.  We have our bed frame at the new house, the kitchen table of my mom's we were storing in our attic, our new-to-us sofa sleeper, a couple of wardrobes, a couple of desks, a couple of chests, and one kitchen cabinet from our other house.  We have a LOT more left, and right now we have nowhere to store anything that goes outside. 

Amber, Josh, and I have been ramping it up this past week, taking at least one load just about every day.  Fortunately for us, our new house is only about 8 miles from our old house.  Then, Jeff and I come back every evening after work for at least 2 hours to see what we can get done.  I installed some new stainless steel shelves in our kitchen, hollow wall anchors and all.  I was truly proud of myself because Jeff is normally the one to do all that. 

I should say that he has been the one to do all that in the last five years, because at our other old house we lived in for 20+ years, I did just about every project alongside Jeff when we built the addition of a master bedroom/bath and extra bedroom.  I bought and transported block 9 months pregnant, screwed and nailed walls, flooring, decking, crawled under and put up insulation with hangers, the whole caboodle.  So I can do stuff, I just normally prefer to stick with my wifely/motherly duties.

So today, I am putting stuff away that we brought from the house, and Jeff is building a set of steps for our back deck.  I have bruises on my legs from crawling up onto the deck (it's 5 feet off the ground), and I have almost twisted my ankle a couple of times jumping down at night when we are leaving, so I am glad for the addition of steps.  I may have said several times that I was too old for this.  Joshua is busy cutting firewood for back at the house, and Amber is back there cleaning and keeping the home fires burning.  Jessie and Dylan are working on their camper, getting it ready for when they get married in January.

I hope everyone has a good day, and I am going back to listen to football on my Sirius and put stuff away.  If you pray, Jeff and I would both appreciate prayers for peace and sanity.

Love you all,
Debbie

Why it shouldn't anger you when Christians have biblical beliefs

If the atmosphere of today's society could get any more politically correct, I couldn't imagine it.  I am thankful for the right we have to stand for what we believe, for what it's actually worth these days, even when those beliefs don't line up with mine.  I'm glad that everyone can figure out what he thinks for himself and aren't made to adhere to any certain creed.

What I am addressing today is the scorn, anger, and even hate that is directed at Christians when we uphold traditional biblical beliefs that contradict popular socio-political thinking.  I can understand in a way that us thinking certain things are wrong, even sinful, could offend those who don't agree with the Bible or its teachings.

However, when we are true, born-again Christians, we are SUPPOSED to hold every single word of the Bible as truth.   If we fall prey to popular thinking and start to embrace certain things that the Bible makes clear are sin, then we are failing as Christians, or else we were never Christians to begin with.  The Bible is our truth, and it is very, exceedingly, and abundantly clear on a lot of things.

Among those things are abortion, which God considers murder and equivalent to the sacrifices to Molech of old.  Sexual perversion from God's clearly, unarguably established way (one man, one woman in covenant bond of marriage) is wrong.  That means pre-marital sex and shacking up, post-marital affairs, pornography, lustful thoughts and daydreams and yes, homosexuality, is sinful.  Not because I say so, or the preacher says so, but because the one true God, the creator of everything, says so, and He says so quite clearly (regardless of what some people try to argue) in His word (the Bible).  And as a believer, I am supposed to agree with Him, even when and if I don't really agree with Him. 

And that is why, if you don't believe in God, you shouldn't get mad at those of us who do when we believe what the Bible says.  It's part of our job description.  It is really kind of non-negotiable, even though a lot of "Christians" don't think so.  When you read the Bible all the way through, study it, and take God at His word, there is no room left for argument, at least about the above-mentioned things. 

Who you really don't agree with is God himself.   And that's okay, because He gives us all a choice to accept Him and His truths or not.  He wants willing followers.  Just know that He has also established an end for those who ultimately reject Him, and refusal to believe in Him or that end (Hell) doesn't make them any less real,  just like not believing in gravity will not save you from splattering on the pavement when you jump off the roof.

So, coming to terms with who you really have a beef with (God) will release you from the anger you feel towards us Christians when we just do what we are supposed to do- believe God and everything He has said.  That way, we can just agree to disagree and still be friends.  :)

Blessings,
Debbie

Update: a liiiitle progress

Well, I can honestly say we have a whole lot going on in several different directions .   My daughter just had her 4th baby, another daughter has a bridal shower this month and a wedding in January ,  and also everything related to our new house, which has me running and figuring just about every day . Some days my brain misfires a few times with the overwhelming -ness of it all .

We still haven't finished the floor in Joshua's bedroom ,  but we have all of the posts set for our first deck/porch.  We have so much to do, we have to have multiple projects going at once.  This is the deck off the laundry room door, and will go down into the yard opposite side of the forest.  This side will be fenced for dogs and ducks.

We only have one day this weekend to work on it because we have an appointment Sunday.  Something will get done ,  though .

The contractors didn't do something quite correctly ,  so we didn't pass our first final electrical inspection .   Blah.  I was hoping to have electricity while we worked Saturday .

Hopefully ,  they will rectify that quickly .

Right now, I'm sitting in our lower meadow waiting for the water dept guys to show up and turn our water on.

2 hours later......

We have water!  Thank you ,  Jesus ! !  "Whole house water filter" ordered and on the way .

Here's our future back deck....

Update: Progress

We have been preparing for delivery of our new home.   We had a tree near the driveway to cut, and some bobcat work to do to make sure the home could fit up our (very steep) driveway.   Come to find out,  it's so steep, they need a dozier to get our home up it, which, of course,  costs extra.

But, hopefully,  delivery will happen in the next week or so.

Here's a picture of the site, with the piers the contractors just poured to set our home on.

Will keep you updated!
Love,
Debbie

For those who keep up with us - an update on our plans

I wanted to update our plans for those who keep up with what is going on in our lives.  I appreciate those who do and thank you for caring about our family.  I don't care what anyone says;  I love my online friends, some whom I have never met.  It might be a different kind of relationship, but it is real nonetheless.

So, as a quick overview - about 5 years ago, we moved from the house we had owned for over 20 years in town to my mother-in-law's house in the country which no one was living in.  We did a LOT of work and spent quite a bit of our funds making it livable.

In the past year, we learned that we aren't going to be able to stay here long term, which was our original plan.  We had to start looking into alternatives, and ended up buying 18.5 mostly wooded acres not far from where we are, which we closed on last December 30.  We spent that winter and spring clearing and cutting about an acre, and also tearing down an old single wide trailer that was there.

After we got close to finishing that up, we started trying to figure out what we wanted to live in and how we wanted to go about it.  Neither one of us wanted to go back into debt with a mortgage.  We figured we were too old to start all over with that again.  So we drew up some plans to build a small 650+ square foot tiny home using the trailer frame on the property and pay for it as we built it. 

It was going to be small, but I was excited to downsize and make it work.  However, this spring, my mother-in-law moved in with us and it has become a permanent living arrangement.  Therefore, our tiny home plans will no longer work.

Back to the drawing board.   There was no way I ever wanted to build an actual mortar and brick home again.  On our first house that we lived in for over 20 years, we had built a 700 square foot addition, mostly by ourselves.  I hauled supplies and block at 8 and 9 months pregnant.  I hammered floor boards and screwed walls with a newborn (Jessie) hanging from the rafters.  So I was completely unenthusiastic about including that in our list of choices.  Too much work.  And contractors are too expensive and too unreliable. 

We started looking at manufactured homes.  It is easy to get sucked into the upgraded, fancier models, but we don't need all that.  We settled on a moderately sized base model and set about finalizing things.  Our retirement fund took a big hit to come up with the down payment, but one must do what they must.    We are currently awaiting a delivery date, which should be in the next few weeks.  It will be interesting watching them maneuver it up our STEEP driveway. 

It will be awhile after they deliver it before we can actually move in because we ordered it without carpet.  After years of no carpet, there was NO way I was going back to that willingly.  However, they don't allow substitutions, so the areas that would have been carpeted (living room, hall, and all the bedrooms) are going to come with only the sub-floor.  We will be installing our own flooring, probably hardwood.  After that, we have to have the fence around the yard completed to keep our dogs safe.  We don't do projects quickly, so it will undoubtedly be awhile before we are done with everything.

So, sometimes the best laid plans have to be let go.  We will have a mortgage again, but not a very big one.  We also will have it paid within 15 years or less.  I am certain that the Lord will provide and that all will be fine.  I don't begrudge having my mother-in-law here, although anyone who has experienced a parent of any kind living with them will attest to the challenges.  That's a whole other subject in itself.  Learning to live well with others is good for our walk with God and personal growth.  I miss my own mother, who has been dead for awhile now. 

At some point, I will compose my post with the before and after pictures of our property.  I am excited to share our new journey with you.

As always,
Debbie

Saturday on the Homestead March 18, 2016

Right now, all of our free time is spent clearing trees and hauling limbs off of our new property.  For any who didn't get to read about it, we have purchased 18.5 acres not far from our current location.  There was an old trailer on it that we have torn down except for the steel frame, which we are keeping to build on hopefully next spring.

There are too many large trees surrounding the frame,  so we need to remove the future danger of them crashing on our house.  So far, we have been snowed on, sleeted on, rained on, and now we get to enjoy tick season while we work. (Not)

I have drawn to scale on graph paper the layout of our future tiny house (684 square feet). I have all the furniture we are keeping measured and situated in place on our graph  I also color coded the flooring type for each room.  I have a list of what we will need to buy, like windows , doors, and bathroom fixtures, so I can try to find some of it at the Re-store in town.

In deference to my limited energy and time, we have turned  the gardening at home over to Jessie for the season.  I'm sure I will still preserve the harvest, but she will be taking care of the rest.

I guess that's it for now.  Til next time.  Be blessed.
Debbie

Married? This Post is for You

For several years now, God has given me a burden for marriages.  More specifically, He compels me to post articles and to also blog about things that pertain to making marriages better. There are times I can't relax or think about anything else until I have shared what I feel Him telling me .  So if I seem obsessive, or compulsive, at times with my posts, that is the reason why.    I can't rest with a peaceful conscience until I listen.

We all know that marriages are failing daily.  As an "older" woman now, I am instructed in the Bible to encourage women to submit to their husbands, make their houses into homes, and love and train their children.  I take this command very seriously, and I pray that more older women rise to the challenge as well. 

For the past couple of weeks now, I have been praying faithfully for all of my Facebook friends who are married.  There are those who mock Facebook, and there is undoubtedly much to mock, but there is a real community on there as well, people who are hurting and who look for answers nowhere else but there.  I know that with as many FB friends as I have, there must be many hurting, and even some failing, marriages.  I care and want to help you, because with over 25 years of marriage, I have experienced many things, including being on the brink of separation.

In fact, there isn't too much we haven't experienced, some things I am not at liberty to be specific about yet, but you can take me at my word.   It takes a lot of dedication, prayer, determination and forgiveness to make a marriage successful.  I think a good first step is to completely and irrevocably remove the word DIVORCE from both of your vocabularies.
 
When divorce remains an option, couples tend to not be willing to do the hard things to make it work.  There are seasons of marriage when hard work to make it work is all that is happening.  But the eventual intimacy and love that develop because of  hard work are SO worth it.  Not only that, you can also assure yourself during the process that the grass is NEVER greener on the other side, and it is also not greener to be alone.

I am going to make this into several posts to share a few things I have learned in my journey of marriage.  But I wanted to start out by letting you know I have been praying for your marriage.

Some of the things I have been praying for you and your spouse:

- that you will have a determination to make your marriage work, regardless of what it takes.

- that if any pornography is being viewed by either side, or together, that the offender will be convicted to stop immediately (this is a death sentence to intimacy, trust and sexual ability)

- that wives will be willing to submit and let their husbands be the head of their households in every way

-  that husbands (and wives) will be faithful and monogamous with their thoughts and eyes daily and in every form of media and in real life and with their actions as well

- that wives would stop every form of emotional or sexual manipulation they may be using against their husbands (to include the silent treatment, sexual withholding, eye rolling, huffing or sarcastic remarks, bribing)

There are other things as well that I will get into in future posts, but that is plenty to think about for now.  If you have specific prayer requests for your marriage, you can message me and be assured that it will go no further than myself.  I love you guys, and I desire fervently for all of your marriages to be glorious.  I also believe that every single one can be glorious eventually with hard work, prayer and God's guiding hand.

I sincerely hope that you will be willing, along with your spouse, or despite your spouse, if necessary for the moment, to do whatever it takes to prosper your marriage.

Jeff and I have made it through a lot of things, and some of it has been very ugly.  At times, it has seemed that quitting would be easier than working it out, and no doubt it would have been the easy way out.  But I will always be thankful that we stuck it out, worked it out, prayed it out, and loved it out.  Our intimacy has never been sweeter because of it.  I hope this gives someone hope.

For now,
Debbie

Our Big News

Good morning!  It is a COLD one here in Tennessee, and we remain thankful for our warm wood stove.  We have had some big news to share for a couple of months now.

To recap our current living situation, we moved from the city where we had been for over 20 years in a house we had purchased .  Jeff had desired to move to the country for years, and at the time,  I was quite content to be a city girl.

My mother-in-law thought she was getting dementia, so she moved from her old home to several miles away with her daughter, Angie- Jeff's sister.  This left her house unoccupied, so we sold our house and moved to her house in the country.

We have lived here about 5 years now, and due to circumstances beyond our control, have had to look into doing something else.  We had the option of putting a small home of some kind somewhere else here where we are, but after consideration, Jeff decided we needed to look elsewhere for something, either unfinished property, or a small home with a few acres.

The acreage was more important to him, so near the holidays, we ended up focusing on bare land.  After many false starts, we found a place only about 7 miles from where we are now.

It is 18.5 acres, and it has an old trailer on it that we are currently tearing down.   It is completely wooded, except for around a 1/2 acre.  It sits up on a hill, and our driveway is VERY steep.  Once we clear the part towards the road, an acre or so will be cleared.

It is going to be so beautiful when we are done.  God has blessed us , and we are thankful.  We don't know yet what we will do as far as a home goes, but I will share the stages my thinking has gone through in the last few months.

First, I knew I didn't want the stress of building.  I said we were too old for all that malarkey.  Then, we decided to put a manufactured home on it.  We looked at them, and some are really nice.  In the last few days however, God has put a verse in my heart that I want to share.

"Be content with the things that you have...".   As I pondered this message, I came to the following conclusions:

                            1.   This world is not our permanent home, so we
                                 really don't NEED anything fancy or expensive

                            2.  I don't want to put my husband in debt for
                                 years to come.

                            3.  We won't have the kids at home too much
                                 longer, and two people do not need much
                                 room.

So, in light of that, we are going to use the frame on the trailer we are tearing down, and are going to build something small on it.  We already have cabinets, tubs, appliances, etc that we purchased for this house, which is another good reason not to waste money on a manufactured home that comes with all that stuff.  We may even do something redneck like attach our camper to it as well.

Who knows?  But I am greatly relieved and excited that God has changed this city girl's heart enough that I can be happy with this choice and not put us under the bondage of more debt.

I'll post pictures soon of our progress.  Oh, and since it doesn't have a spring on the property, I will be changing the name of my blog once we move.  Something with "acres, woods, or hill (s)" probably.  If you have suggestions, tell me in the comments.

Blessings,
Debbie, Home at Serenity Springs

Saturday on the Homestead, January 23, 2016

It has been quite a long while since I have written, due in part to trouble with my laptop.  I have a lot to say, so I am glad to be writing again.

Our family has had a heck of a year.  Some things I don't want to share at this time, but one thing I don't mind sharing is the sickness and death of my mother.  Losing her changed the dynamics of our whole family, and it has been a big adjustment.  Her death precipitated the change of my dad moving into an assisted living home, so at times it has felt like our family was adrift at sea with no land in sight.

All of these things, mentioned and unmentioned, have ultimately served to draw us closer to God and to each other.  It was either that or let it all fall apart, which has never been an option for me. 

We have some big changes on the horizon within the next eighteen months, which I will elaborate on more when I know more, but suffice it to say that God continues to work on my dislike of change.

I just wanted to give a quick update on what is going on with us.  Like most of you, we are riding out the latest snowstorm and hoping things thaw out soon because we have a lot to do.  

Our laying hens are all on strike, as we haven't seen an egg in almost 2 months.  We have over 15 hens of varying ages, so it is quite baffling.  We may be filling our freezer with chicken soon.

We have 2 lemon trees residing in our living room loaded with slowly ripening lemons.  I can't wait to try them.

I guess that's it for today.  I appreciate everyone who keeps up with my family.

Debbie, enjoying staying Home at Serenity Springs