Yikes! Where do I start?

This is what your home looks like when you live in another house 4 hours away on the other side of the state AND your husband is living here, working 12 hours/7days a week, and trying to get it ready to sell.

He had to empty out the bedrooms so a guy could paint them. Most of the furniture is back in the bedrooms; this is stuff from the closets and misc. other stuff that needs sorted.

My job is to make sense of it all.  Oh joy! Those of you familiar with my other posts can just imagine how the fibromyalgia brain is reacting to this!

Good things:  I went through a big plastic drawer container that had cards, letters, pictures, etc.
 I found: 8 notes from my mom (gone now for almost 11 years)
about 20 notes and cards from dad (gone for  4 years),
2 letters from my Uncle Leo who's been gone about 2 years--he was favorite uncle,
the banner my husband put up 12 years ago with "Will you marry me on it?,
all sorts of other letters and notes,
and a notebook from my American Lit class with pertinent info on the material I now have to teach to my juniors. 

How's that for a gold mine?  I started to tear up at seeing my mom's writing again, so I put her notes away for another time when I can sit, read, and cry--it's been so long since I read something by her.   Some of you may think I'm a bit nutty, but I think those written words are priceless.

I went through another bin of my journals and read some entries---some date back to when I was 15---I blushed at some.

Threw about 5 pairs of shoes that I kept here 'just in case' when I came to visit and needed a pair. I will never wear them and they're not in good enough shape for Good Will.

Today:  There more plastic bins of notes that I may just take up home and look through.  But the big project is this room:

This is our bedroom torn up.  My husband has some more plaster repair work on the walls to do tonight. Then on Thursday  he will move all the furniture and his clothes into the living room, because the painter is painting this room next week.

My husband and I are taking a much needed break at a cabin in an area of Ohio called Hocking Hills.  Old Man's Cave is one of the features, but there's so much else.  Mainly we want to just have time alone with each other, our books, God, and nature.

Then there's another 'to do' list for up at my place (soon to be our home) before I start school.  He will return here after Labor Day and finish up.  Then the house will go on the market.

Meanwhile my brain is saying, "Stay here and read blogs.  Don't mess up my wires with all that 'stuff', PLEASE!"  Alas, I must face the mess. 

Maybe repeating, "This means we'll be living together again." over and over will help.


But seriously, this has been 7 years in the making.  We had a year break after 2 years, but then 4 years after that break (the break was when I was laid off and came back here, knowing they would call me back the following year after 2 retirements). Much prayer has gone into this and we are both grateful to be seeing the end of us living apart and the beginning of us waking up each morning to each other and kissing good night again. 

We got together late in life. I had gone through a divorce that I didn't want and after getting to a place where I felt on more solid ground (took 2 1/2 years) I called up my high school sweetheart.  Two friends had done their homework: he was not married and was completely out of a five-year relationship that had never been intended for marriage.

  Long story, short: 2 1/2 years later we married--both 44.  I had two grown-up kids, he had none and this was his first marriage. We just celebrated our 12th anniversary. 

God took heartache and gifted me with a man who didn't want to change me---who accepted me and loved me just the way I was.  Everyone's dream, right?  I feel the same towards him (I'm not counting the little quirks/irritations--that's standard stuff you learn to live with). It's not been fun living apart.

"For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise."
                                             Hebrew 10:36

"Give ear, O Lord, unto my prayer; and attend to the voice of my supplications."
                                     Psalm 86:6

God has taught me a lot in these past 7 years and particularly in the last 4.  Patience was one of my weaknesses.

 When God decides to teach you something, take a big gulp of air, because you could be in for a long swim, some of it underwater!


This is my contribution to tuesdays unwrapped