Time and a Sunday afternoon

Preacher's Regret:

"Being in a hurry.  Getting to the next thing

without fully entering the thing in front of me.

I cannot think of a single advantage

I've ever gained from being in a hurry.

But a thousand broken and missed things,

tens of thousands,

lie in the wake of all the rushing . . . .

Through all that haste

I thought I was making up time.

It turns out I was throwing it away!"

This is an excerpt from AnnVoskamp's book

one thousand gifts.

Her footnote tells us that it's from

Mark Buchanan:The Rest of God: Restoring Your Soul by

Restoring Your Sabbath (Nashville: Nelson, 2007), 45, emphasis added.

I have been reading her book slowly, carefully, underlining and then journaling

as I journey through it.

Much to reflect upon.

This section dealt on the busyness of life.

One comment of hers really struck me:

". . . the busyness of your life leaving little room for the source of your life."

The source she refers to is God.

Busyness in every day responsibilites can mislead us.

We need to start looking around us

and seeing new out of old--

beauty out of every day tasks--

turning drudgery into discovery.

(These are my thoughts.)

With that in mind, I went for a drive with my husband this afternoon.

We took the hauling trailer out to his dad's barn

and then he took me out to show me the work he and other men

had been doing on one of the men's barn.

After that, he took me on a driving tour,

pointing out where people from our high school days now lived,

the old reservoir, and so on.

At the barn, which is now ours as is the acre it's on,

I went exploring with my camera.

Below are some of what I found.

(click on any to get full page enlargement--will really show the deer)

I liked the iron gate and also the long one just resting there.

His aunt came over and pointed up on the hill.

My eyes and my camera followed.

The little one on the right was getting nervous and wanting Mama to leave.

It had already flicked its white tail several times,

communicating its concern about possible danger.

Mama and friend were in no hurry.

But they did eventually leave

and I went exploring again.

This is just one of many discoveries.

There are lots of things hidden in this bush: old machinery, tools, car parts, wood,

and "Who knows what else?"

That's part of this place.  It's the mystery, the attraction, and the irritation too.

Junk or treasure?

I guess the answer depends on the perspective of the person answering.

It was a great few hours away from books and the computer.

Time apart.

Time to look, discover, and enjoy time with my husband.

We are merely moving shadows, and all our busy rushing ends in nothing.

Psalm 39:6

I wanted to be more than a moving shadow today and to savor the gift of time

and of sharing life with a wonderful man.

Blessings as you begin your new week.

Corner View: The last thing I've learned

I learned at last week's Pumpkin Festival

that a person's choice of type and location for a tatoo

can still surprise me

(and gross me out).

This week I learned that I have some budding poets in my freshmen Advanced English class.

For more Corner Views on some last things learned

check out Francesca's Fuoriborgo.

Barn Charm #12 Southeast Ohio

This is a cattle farm of 86 acres of hills and woods

that I pass every day on way to and from work.

Sometimes the cows are down by the road, but not on this day.

They were scattered up into the surrounding hills of lovely southeastern Ohio.

Check below for more barn charm.

Words to Ponder, then Prayer and Scripture

"When I am alone in my head,
I am in the most dangerous
neighbor-
hood in America,

 far worse than any gangster neighbor-hood.






I want to stay in the best neighbor-hood in town----
the 'hood of gratitude,
surrender, and prayer."

"In the bad times, fear is my Higher Power."

"All the power I have comes from admitting my own powerlessness."

"I am well off when God is my Higher Power, and those are the good times."  

"You are always safe when you are in gratitude." 

"It is good to have a vision of who you want to be.

My vision is to be calm and trust in God."

"Stay in the warm pool

of

faith, trust, hope, and love.

That pool will be calm and safe and warm no matter what.

And if it's a really good pool,

it will also have friends in it."

Sayings are compliments of Ben Stein from his book

The Gift of Peace, Guideposts on the Road to Serenity.

Lord, I lift to You the situations of my life that concern me,

I lay my worries before You and

ask for Your mighty Intervention

to show me what's right when I can only see what's wrong.

I am determined to see the good,

so help me not to be blinded by my own

fears, doubts,  wants, and preconceived ideas.

I ask You to reveal to me

Your truth in every situation.

In Jesus' name I pray.

-------------God's Promise-----------

And we know that all things work together

for good to those who love God,

to those who are the called according to His purpose.

Romans 8:28

From Stormie Omartian's

The Power of Praying, Help for a Woman's Journey Through Life.

The blue flowers are my morning glories.

The pink is ???I can't remember, but I like them.

The white flowers are part of a climatis

that takes over a corner of my porch.

Blessings.

(I was sick again, but I'm feeling better.)

Corner View: Music

Music to my ears is listening to Peyton tell me about her day

and tell me she made this picture for me.

It's picking up the phone to hear her say,

"Grandma, are you buying your house?"

She had remembered my reaction when she and I drove by the Victorian home

and I squealed in delight at the for sale sign.

It was she who waited patiently while I called the realtor to set up a viewing time.

And it was she who remembered to call the evening after the viewing

to ask me about my dream home.

She's eight.

 

Music to my ears is hearing Aaron jabber and sing in the car.

Also it's aswering the phone to hear him chattering to me.

Music to my ears is the laughter of my daughter holding one of the children

she always dreamed of having

and the laughter of that little girl in her arms.

Music to my ears is the joy erupting in laughter from my grandkids.

Join Francesca for more "music."

House Explanation

These first two photos show some of the best of this home.  I would love waking up and getting to pass by
this window on my way down to my morning coffee!

This window contributes so well to one of the warmest, most welcoming foyers I've seen in awhile.

But these show only the beauty---only what's so right about this home.

However, there is much wrong.

All the beautiful hanging light fixtures have pull strings attached.

Yes, even this lovely gem below.

You cannot flip a switch in any room to turn on a light.

The house needs all new electrical wiring.

They attempted to update the kitchen with a dishwasher but stuck it at the end of the long counter, adding another part of a counter (doesn't match well) and butting everything up too close to the door of a beautiful floor to ceiling wood pantry.  Getting into it is a physical acrobatic act.

You can't see the other side of this middle counter but it's open and is plywood.  The entire kitchen is a hodge podge of what seems to be "after thoughts" or half-hearted attempts to modernize which only result in making this room more of an eye sore, esp. compared to the rest of the house.  The entire kitchen needs to be redone---ENTIRE.

This is just a glimpse of some problems outside.  Most of the gutters are rotted or not connected to anything or both! Lots of shingles are missing on the roof.   Sooooo--new roof, major gutter repair. None of the windows upstairs have storms and some are in terrible shape: new windows.

One of the ornaments from the roof has been left to further deteriorate on the front porch.

The porch is rotted through not only on the floor but in the banisters and well---everywhere: whole new porch --- to fully restore  it to original beauty would be quite costly.

Other problems:

Needs insulation--there is none.

There are NO HEAT DUCTS upstairs---none---little electric heaters are used to

warm the huge rooms.

Installing air conditioning would not be nearly as problematic or costly as putting in heat upstairs--

we would have to do both.

Basement is ancient and damp and has some kind of beetle damage (supposedly as bad as termites).

New plumbing is needed.

Garage is caving in and would have to be torn down and a new one built.

A conservative estimate for repairing this dream Victorian home

with my husband doing most of the work

is

$100,000.00

on top of their deluded asking price of $150,000.00.

The yard is bigger than most Victorian settings in Barnesville,

but it is still small and we would have to build a privacy fence

 in order to have the dog I so want.

Across the street, hidden behind my car (in one of pics in a previous post)

is a house trailer.

There are no zoning laws in this town regarding house trailers.

So you could sink a half a million into a house only to have

a rental house trailer

end up next to you.

Nothing against house trailers---I just don't want one next door to a home

I've sunk a lot of money in.

Actually rentals are becoming a norm here in this town

and too many end up in disrepair.

We could end up with someone buying the house next to us

and turning it into a rental and the renters not taking care of it.

So these are the reasons why we won't be buying the dream house.

I'm now okay with it.

Mike said if he were 20 years younger, he might consider it,

but he's just not up to that kind of long term physical labor.

Since I see do not want to be a widow living in this home,

I choose my husband over the house.

So we continue to look.

For background on this house, scroll down to previous posts.

Corner View: Silly

Silly playing around makes for good memories.

For  my husband Mike's retirement party silliness was the theme---

well that and pork (Mike retired from a company that sold pork products).

I had to put this pic in after seeing Francesca's post on silly t-shirts.

For more "silliness" check out Francesca's Fuoriborgo

My Victorian Dream House

For those pics not already enlarged, simply click on them to enlarge them.

I grew up in a Victorian parsonage house across the street

from this house.

I grew up loving this house.

Every time I would go by in these past two years,

I would think

or say to Mike if we were together

that I wish this house would come up for sale.

Then one day I was driving back from a grandma/granddaughter shopping day,

and I saw the sign.

It was not there that morning when we left.

I cried out, "My house is for sale!  My house is for sale!"

I jarred Peyton awake from her nap.

"Grandma, what's wrong?"

Then I explained about this house

and how I dreamed of owning it one day.

I called the realtor when we arrived at my home

and set up an appt. for Labor Day; (it was the Sat. of that weekend.)

These windows are in the third floor
attic which is huge and tall and full of
possibilities.

This top window is high up on the front wall of the attic and there is no way to get to it.

But I told Mike I'd have to be able to look out of it and he said he'd have to build me a ladder.

 The porch is off the master bedroom
and a huge front upstairs foyer.

This is the front porch complete with
swing.

 This is an outside view of the stained
glass window on the landing of the staircase.  The other windows are:
upstairs bedrooms and another attic window.

This is part of the foyer.  I posted a close-up of the oval stained glass window in a previous post.

 And----This is the staircase that I've shown before.  The door opens into the dining room then into the kitchen.

This is the family room.  Behind the fireplace is a half-bath and laundry room.

 This is another view of this room---I had to show off the piano.

This is the side door that comes into the family room.  Note the leaded glass.

This is the dining room with a built-in china closet.

A view of the front parlor from the family room.

Looking into the hallway and up the staircase from the parlor or living room.

We had some fun figuring out this window.  We were on the back kitchen steps and could not figure out what we were looking at.  It turned out to be the pantry.

 Beautiful wood throughout.

Then we all three (Mike, the realtor, and I) halted abruptly when we came to the kitchen . It's not added on ---it's on the original foundation and it just---
doesn't -- fit.

 A view of the roof line of the back mudroom.

 Looking up North Chestnut Street-- one of the two main ways into and out of Barnesville.


 This is the other side of the street.

This is looking toward town.  The big funeral home is catty-corner from this house.

The stained glass windows are in the walk-in closet of my old room in the parsonage.

(For those of you not familiar with the word parsonage:

it is a parson's or minister's house and is owned by the church.)

My parents room is to the right.  My front windows are to the left.

My Grandpa Jarvis built in a vanity area for me under those beautiful windows.

The roof line is all messed up. 

When "they" (a committee) had the roof replaced,

they had the attic windows covered up

 and all the beautiful Victorian angles were removed.

It sickened me when I saw it and realized what had happened.

My dream house is directly across the street.

Someone else occupies the parsonage.

As for my dream house---right now it's a "No."

I will tell you the rest tomorrow.

(Hint: Though they have kept the woodwork and such looking good,

they have been negligent.)

I must go to bed.

Blessings and goodnight.