MOVING DAY

Blue Skies,  flowers in bloom, and lots of help!

Still settling in.  More photos coming.

Stay tuned....

GOING....GOING.....GONE !!!

My plan from the last post looks so efficient.  Right about now it's almost laughable.

*The movers would like us to move up one day -- didn't have to, but thought we would try to be cooperative. Not sure we should have been so helpful now.
* Barry has had a funeral up in LA which we just didn't want to refuse.
*He has also had numerous long appointments and phone calls, all to do with the move.
* He picked up some kind of stomach bug this weekend and is working half steam.
* We've run out of boxes, bubble wrap and ENERGY!

On the positive side...
*The weather is gorgeous, the new house garden is a blaze of color.  I will try to get a few photos in a day or so.We are more and more pleased with our choice.
*It is in top notch condition and spotlessly clean, ready to move into... if we can ever get ourselves together enough to do the final push.
*Have help coming tomorrow.
*Scruffy has gone to the kennels, I am sure he will be much happier there for a few days.  Loud voices, coming and going, moving boxes etc., etc., it's all so different from what he is used to.

We will be off line from tomorrow and I'm not sure for how long.  For we dinosaurs, the computer is not a top notch priority.  Got to get in and get sorted and get a telephone line.  Barry spent an hour on the phone today just trying to get telephone, cable and something else 'bundled' -- not sure what that all means.

We are plugging away.  Surely the next day or so will be the worst and then things should get better.  The energy level is the worst thing to deal with.

Thank you, all you kind folk who have kept commenting... and praying. I'm sure I will look back and see all the blessings and hopefully learn some of the lessons in all this.

One day at a time, grace under pressure and giving thanks for all things are my goal.

Will be visiting again soon. Oh for the normality of it!

Blessings to all.  Off to bed, -- if I can climb up the stairs.

H IS FOR...

H is for HOUSE or HOME

The house is ours -- soon to be made into a home! 

All cupboards, closets, drawers, shelves in this house are emptied -- a major factor after living in this wonderful home for forty years!

STAGE ONE
Sort into Categories:
1.  Throw out. (Most of this has been done).
2.  Garage Sale (A massive one with lots of good stuff, including extra furniture) 
3.  Packed boxes to be moved from the old house to the new home.
4.  Things to go to the new home IF there is room. (so glad we don't have to completely vacate this house).

STAGE TWO
Most boxes and furniture will be moved next week. 
Unpacking and placement will be done as energy allows.
Undecideds will be moved if needed, the week after unpacking.
Garage sale sorted, set-up and opened for sale, soon after that.

STAGE THREE
Preparation for sale of our old home -- mainly painting inside and carpets. Fortunately not much fixing up to do, thanks to my husband's conscientious  ways.

Most major decisions still to be made: To rent or sell.  
If selling, popcorn ceilings are to be removed. (Major undertaking!!) Bless the man (or woman) who came up with the idea of popcorn acoustic ceilings in the sixties!!!

If renting, we have two property management business owners in the family and they will take it over.

It has been like seeing our whole life pass before our eyes. Our overwhelming emotions are what a great and happy life the Lord has given us! Our sons, now in their mid forties, were, one in preschool and the other not yet in any school, when we first came here.

I have no regrets.  This house has been a wonderful home.  Like everything, and everyone else there have been the ups and downs of life, but any 'downs' have ended with 'ups'.  My husband chose the house and I moved in, sight unseen. I will miss my patio but I have a back porch overlooking a creek.  I will miss my Jacaranda tree but I will swing by each May to see it in bloom.

I will not miss my friends and my church because we are moving only a mile down the road and one thing I have learned over the years is that people are more important than things.

The other thing I been saying to myself is the old adage :  "You can't take it with you."

I'm ready to move on to the next stage of my life -- who knows how long that will be, but this I know:

GOD IS GOOD ALL THE TIME -- ALL THE TIME GOD IS GOOD!

So I've managed to join ABC Wednesday this week, but will have to skip a couple more I suspect.  In the meantime kudos to Mrs. Nesbitt and Roger Owen Green for heading up this project. To see many more posts for ABC Wednesday please visit by clicking HERE.

Real Progress!

All closets, drawers, cabinets and cupboards are emptied -- except for kitchen..  Many boxes filled.  Much clutter tossed. Garage Sale stuff gathered.

And ESCROW closes on MONDAY!

We can start moving things in at the weekend.

We went for the last walk through this afternoon.  The temps were in the low 80's and all the flowers were out. Beautiful!  It's going to rain next week -- which is to be expected.  We still have about a month more of rainy or showery weather.

Lest you think it's been all work and no play, we have not done any work in the evenings, just to pace ourselves.

Here is the product of my time off -- yes, more doodles.

DAISIES

I'm finding distinctive differences from Zentangles.  Mine are planned and of course in color most of the time.

TEAR DROPS

I choose a shape or design that I want to emphasize and then choose other shapes that are compatible that I particularly like. But I also consider balance and composition.

VALENTINE

I'm kind of thinking about colors as I go along, but I do everything out in pencil first, then in ink and finally in color

CELERY

I saw this on a web page somewhere and loved its crispy, crunchy lines which of course made me think of celery.  So I made my own version and then...

CELERY IN GREEN

...just had to edit it through Picasa in green.  I SO love this color green.

CHAINED

I experimented with some new shapes in this one.  The colors are more muted too.

I have decided that I don't like my doodles to be too over-crowded and I DO like them in intense color.  The one above is a little too obviously balanced for my satisfaction, but the shapes were not easy to keep in proportion..

I really love doing this kind of artwork.  It lets me feel more free than when I am copying a picture. The colors are bright and rejoicing and the overall design is quite complicated but not cluttered. so there is a sense of satisfaction when they are finished.  With the doodles or tangles I started doing in the beginning I never seemed to know when to stop. Now these are definitely finished when they are finished!

I could come up with better titles I'm sure but for now I'm just naming them to distinguish between them. I think if I decide to display them together I think there should be something more plain and simple between each one -- something like the celery ones, otherwise there is sensory overload.

So now I am developing a philosophy of doodling.!! Whatever I will do with them all I have no idea.  They are drawn on 3 1/2 X 3 1/2 inches and colored with Prismacolors.

Next week is going to be a very busy week with all the actual moving of stuff, but I have to sit down part of the day and this is probably what I will do.

By the way, Happy St. David's Day

I will have to try to come up with something Welsh for my next Doodle.

PROGRESS...?

Well sort of... You cannot imagine how many trips to the dump my husband has made in the past two weeks.  We've turned up nothing of value, except a box of Legos and a few Hot Wheels.  Much of what has gone is mounds of paper work -- me from my writing and the operation of the school and Barry from his years of travel and church work.  I must have gone through at least two thousand photos.  Kept the ones of family and friends and a few other significant ones which amounts to a couple of hundred total.  It doesn't help to have photographers in the family.

We have filled a few boxes with items from drawers and closets and still have a few more boxes to fill with books -- my Flamborough collection and Barry's theological ones.  We have gathered a bunch of stuff for a garage sale -- have to re-coup a little on the financial side.  Whatever else is left will go to the church's big Garage Sale in May and to the Salvation Army, and some has been given away.

This house is our resource for retirement funds.  Most pastors don't get pensions.  We are fortunate to have this large house and have kept it in good condition. We have already had the outside painted and once we are out, will paint the inside. We close escrow next week.

Then comes the process of selling. We are praying for a fair price.  Not thinking of renting at the moment even though we have two property managers in the family.  But we will face all this after we are settled in the new home.  Looks like we will be moving in before Easter.  Find it hard to believe!  January 24 was the first time we seriously thought of moving.  So it will be about 8 weeks total.  Amazing.

We are continuing to pray for smooth negotiations and operations and then hopefully a normal life once again. If you are someone who prays, please join us in prayer.

No photos today.  Thinking about too many other things.

More news to come.

E IS FOR.......

E IS FOR ESCROW EXCITEMENT !!!

Yes, the cat is out of the bag!  We are moving!

We've been talking about downsizing for quite a while, but haven't ever done anything about it.  We  live in a four bedroom house with a lot more yard than we need.  Our boys moved out more than 20 years ago and we should have done it years ago.  So for the past 40 years we have lived very happily in this house, accumulating more and more stuff.  Imagine, 40 years of STUFF!   But less than a month ago we suddenly decided to take a look around and figure how, when, where, what...etc.  Really, just out of the blue.

So in less than three weeks we have taken the plunge -- actually more of a high dive into a whirlpool.  We found what we wanted and expect to go into escrow at the weekend.

Of course it wasn't that simple.  Obviously we had a financial limit, but we also had a size limit (2 bedrooms)and a location limit, ( not too far away from the church).  Barry was concerned about security for me, since he is often away, but I didn't want to be crowded in with other homes.

We went looking in a senior living park that is only a mile away from where we live now.  At first I wasn't too excited as it seemed the homes (modular) were all on top of one another and most of them had next to no back yard, literally.  But then I saw a house that I said to Barry would be a great location. It backs on to the creek and has some trees around so I could still watch my birds, and had a deck at the back.  So we started making inquiries.

At first we got, "No, it's not for sale"; then we heard it was sold; then, "it won't be on the market for a couple of months.."  It wasn't even listed.  In the mean time we must have looked at ten or fifteen houses, but either we didn't like the floor plan, or it was too big or there was no yard space at the back,  I still liked this first house by the creek but I hadn't even seen inside, though it looked well cared for on the outside. We hadn't even see the floor plan, never mind looked at what condition the home was in.

From this...

...to this...

Finally it all came together.  The owners had just finished upgrading the home and were ready to sell. We had the inspection and it came through with flying colors.  It has two bedrooms, two baths, an office and a sun room -- as well as the covered deck at the back.  This is a park that quite a number of our church members live in, so we know its reputation.   In this park the home owners own not only the home but also the land it is on. It has excellent security and many other attributes I won't go into here.  Suffice it to say, we put in an offer and it was immediately accepted. It was as if the Lord was just holding it ready for us.

We did our homework too, thoroughly looking into all the pro's and cons checking out possible problem areas.  The inside of the home is in pristine condition even though it is an older home, and the floor plan is ideal.  The people who own it have done a great job keeping it immaculate.

We are continuing to pray that the Lord will smooth the way ahead of us  When everything is in place we will give Him the praise.  God is good all the time!  All the time God is good!

Now comes the REALLY hard part.  Clearing out and sorting through forty years of STUFF.
We still have toys the boys had when they were in grade school.  So one day at a time we are clearing closets and drawers and will be for quite a long time.

For those readers who are not familiar with our Southern California climate, our average year round temperature is 72 degrees and rainfall is 10 inches. Very rarely do we get frost and we have no rain from April to November, so modular homes are quite popular  and very adequate. 

So why all the secrecy? Mainly because my husband was pastor of a large church in town before he retired and is known by so many people. We know many real estate agents, personally, and just wanted to be free to make the right decision without any outside or well meant pressures. 

You can see why my blogging is going to be spasmodic for a while.  The home is move-in ready and we could move in by Easter, so we have to get busy clearing out our home here. But I will be back and will still visit and comment as often as I can.

This is my entry for ABC Wednesday,  letter E.  To see more intriguing entries, please click 

HERE

BIG NEWS COMING!

I haven't been posting blogs for several weeks and soon I will tell you why.

On Tuesday I will post my entry for ABC Wednesday,-- letter E, and this will be my big news.  So if you are curious about what is happening in my life, come back and visit Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday and I will tell the big secret.

See you then!