Tumultuous is the new normal

Tumultuous is the best word to describe our lives. I keep waiting for normal, but it continues to elude us, leaving me to ponder whether tumultuous in our normal. The key is finding God's peace in the midst of the turmoil. Hanging onto peace and joy in the midst of the trial that begins before the last one is quite over. Just when I think things have settled down to a nice little roar, the next wave hits. But through it all, we must learn to not lose sight of Him and the peace He grants in the midst of the storm.

I think about the disciples on the boat and the storm raging around them. Jesus was right in the middle of it all, but they were still frazzled, until they sought Him out. Jesus is in the middle of my life also, but He brings me no peace in the storm until I seek Him. Sometimes I think the mere fact that He's in my boat will bring the peace I seek, but no, it's not until I go looking for Him, seeking after Him, that the peace and strength come. I pray for you, peace in the midst of whatever you are going through today and that Jesus would be in your boat!

God Bless,

Colleen

Little House, Little Housework?

The other day I came upon this picture on Pinterest:

The caption the pinner had added was: Little House, Little Housework. That pin has been on my mind as I've struggled to get our little living space back in order after the past tumultous couple of months we've had. A lot of people are under the impression that the less space you have, the less work you have to do. I find it to be quite the contrary.

In a smaller living environment you must be diligent about cleaning and organizing. You muse be diligent about getting rid of stuff. We used to live in an almost 3,000 square foot house and now are in approximately 600 sq ft. While a large space will accomodate some clutter and mess with little impact, a small space will not. What would be a little clutter in a large home or apartment, becomes an episode of hoarders in a small space. It takes a mere day or two of neglect and your space looks like surely you are the survivor of some horrible natural tragedy. Otherwise known as the good old adage, "It looks like a tornado went through here!" That was a favorite saying of my grandmother's and trust me, the rooms she was speaking of couldn't hold a candle to the mess you find in a small space that has been neglected for a couple of days.

So, before you go wishing for a Little House, Little Housework, type of life, be forewarned. There is a LOT of work involved in keeping a little house livable. There are no days off. There's no putting off laundry because you have something more fun to do, or you're not feeling well. You don't dare leave the dishes undone, because your sink only holds the contents of one meal comfortably. Everything else spills out all over the counter, which is only about 2 sq ft of space, so now you have nowhere to prepare your next meal. In a regular size sink you can leave the dishes go for the entire day and not have a mess to look at. But in a small space by the time lunch is over you can't find the faucet to turn the water on. Think you can just go shopping and bring home your wonderful new haul with no consequences? Think again. My closet is not large enough to accomodate one third of my old wardrobe, and forget it if you think you're going to be Imelda Marcose in a small home. I have one pair of cowboy boots, one pair of sneakers, and two pairs of sandals, and they are constantly in the way. Are you the type that likes to stock up on groceries? Forget about it! My pantry is now contained under my tiny sink. And don't even get me started on the miscellaneous stuff that a family tends to accumulate.

All that being said however, if you are great at organizing, cleaning and have the mentality of some of my children, which is "less is more", a small space may be just the place for you! My oldest daughter could easily live a tiny space and have no problem whatsoever! She has a gift for organization and can walk into a room and have it sparkling like a television commercial in less than half an hour, no matter what she starts with! My sons could do it easily, they would happily live with their Bible, one pair of pants and a t-shirt if I let them. So, I have to assume the problem is me and the rest of our family. But even a few things can create a mess in a small space. And it happens in a hurry too!

Still and all, living in a small place can be a blessing. Just have realistic expectations. I guess you could say, Caviat Emptor, Let the buyer beware.

No matter the size of your living space, I hope it is a blessed space that you enjoy.

Have a Blessed Day!

Colleen

Photo Credit:
http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com/

Linking to:
Time Warp Wife:

http://time-warp-wife.blogspot.com/2012/04/how-to-build-long-lasting-yoke-and.html

Life Can Change in the Blink of an Eye

It's been 9 weeks since my mother in law first got sick. So much has happened in so little time. It was Valentine's Day when we got the phone call that they had to take her to urgent care and less than a month later she was gone. It has been a crazy time in our lives. So much has happened it feels like forever, yet in reality it's been just over 2 months. Through it all I have seen God's grace and mercy run deep in our lives. I am so thankful for His strength, grace, patience and love. I am so thankful for the strength, grace and love He has poured out through me. It's funny to me that no matter how many times you experience God's amazing Grace, it is always surprising again. It has been a difficult roller coaster of emotions, but through it all God has been at my side keeping me going. Tomorrow we leave for a couple of week and then will come back to stay again. Right now our schedule it to stay here two weeks and then go back to our home resort for two weeks and back again. I am having pangs as I think about leaving him alone, but I know he needs this time and I have to trust God with him. It's funny, as I find myself in the position of feeling about him much the same as I feel about my kids.

I hope all is well for all of you and I hope to get on more regularly to post.

The Waiting Game

So, I've been missing from the web for a bit while we play the waiting game. My mother-in-law was rushed to urgent care awhile back suffering from severe dehydration. Two days later she was in the ER with constant vomiting and severe abdominal pain. It turns out she had a blockage in her small intestine which was the cause of the dehydration. The next day she underwent surgery to clear the blockage and after surgery she was unable to breathe on her own. She has been on a ventilator ever since. She is 83 years old.


I sit here now in the waiting room of the CCCU waiting til after shift change so we can see her again. We wait to hear how her pneumonia is doing. We wait to hear if her blood pressure is regulated. We wait to see if today will be the day she can breathe on her own again. We wait to hear if her white blood count is down, if her blood gases are good, if her fever is under control. Waiting is the toughest part of life. As we wait, we sit with another family who wait for their wife, mother, sister, daughter to heal from an aneurysm, she was rushed into the hospital the same day as my mother-in-law. We all sit and wait. We talk a little, pray a little, try to offer comfort to one another, encouragement to one another. We laugh together, try not to cry in front of each other, sharing our lives in this strange way. Strangers sharing this experience of waiting. We ache with each other, for each other, pray with each other, for each other. We sit in the room together, yet separate, together, yet alone. And we wait. And hope.


Blessings,
Colleen

Busy Bees

Wow, what a week it's been! We have been busily working on decluttering and organizing. It was our oldest grandson's birthday and we got to spend a fun time celebrating with him! And we have started teaching line dancing classes. We also got to spend some time with our other grandsons and our oldest daughter, their mom. And the biggest change of all is working to revamp the way we eat. Learning to eat not just healthier but more naturally. Valentine's Day party. Getting ready for our line dance rally in three weeks. Learning new dances, teaching old ones. I have pictures to come and updates to follow, but for now, I must sleep because we teach early in the morning. Well, early for us. Have a wonderful Thursday! I look forward to catching up with my blogs I haven't had time to sit and read for days!


Blessings,
Colleen

Tea Time Wishes

I have been thoroughly enjoying looking through blogs and pictures, and taking in all the beautiful eye candy. I love the elegance of tea. Of teapots and china, roses and finger sandwiches, linens and lace. I tend to be a rather high strung person so I can always use a little of the elegance and calm that comes with tea.

I thought I'd devote a little time today to some of the tea things on my wishlist. Like this beautiful Royal Albert Old Country Roses Teapot:

And this lovely Royal Albert Old Country Roses Coffee Service Set

These beautiful Royal Albert Tea Cups

And one of my favorite tea time items, this gorgeous Royal Albert Tidbit Tray

I have loved this pattern for years so imagine my delight when I showed up to a dear friend's home for the first tea time together and found the table set with my beloved Royal Albert Old Country Rose. She has two complete sets as she raised a large family. It was such a lovely surprise and now each time we have tea together that is the cup I choose and I enjoy getting the chance to sip my tea from it while we have a lovely visit.

The other couple of items on my wish list are this cute little Johnson Brothers Summer Chintz Teapot and Sugar & Creamer Set to go with my tea cups and tidbit tray

So, these are the things on my wish list. But we all know that the most important things aren't really things. The most important things I enjoy during my tea time is the opportunity to sit and visit with loved ones. A time to savor tea, goodies, and conversation. A time to build memories, strengthen bonds. I am thankful for all the beautiful tea things I have, but the thing I am most thankful for are the people who gather around and take the time to enjoy them with me.

One of my fondest memories of tea time with my youngest daughter was when we hosted a table at our church women's tea. We used some of my grandmother's tea things, some of my mother-in-law's china, and some of our china. It was a delightful time with treasured tea settings from three generations of our family. And for me, that is what tea time is really about. It's about building family.

But don't get discouraged if you have no tea items to serve, go ahead and make yourself and your loved ones a tea party anyway. Right now all our china and tea things are packed away in storage, but we still make our little tea parties. We set out our sandwiches and sit together, each with our favorite tea and enjoy each other's company. So, whether you have fancy china, or paper plates, take some time to sit down for a cup of tea and a moment or two of relaxation.

My tea time wish for you is that you have the peace, the elegance, the flavor, and the beauty, of all that is tea in your life! May your cup runneth over.

Today I am linking up with the following parties:

Tea Time Tuesday: http://sandimyyellowdoor.blogspot.com/


Tuesday Cuppa Tea: http://antiquesandteacups.blogspot.com/

Tea Cup Tuesday: http://www.marthasfavorites.com/

Artful Affirmations: http://artfulaffirmations.blogspot.com/

A Delightsome Life: http://www.blissfulrhythm.blogspot.com/

Table Top Tuesday: http://astrollthrulife.blogspot.com/

Tea Party Tuesday: http://sweetology101.blogspot.com/

Tea time blessings!  

Organization Quest

Oy Vey! We continue on our seemingly never ending quest to organize and make this space livable and enjoyable.

Our biggest problem is that when we moved into the trailer I was completely incapacitated and had to rely on others to do all the packing and moving. What happened is that so much unnecessary stuff got put into the trailer and so much necessary stuff got put into storage. I won't complain because I was blessed to have my family and a couple of wonderful friends who were willing to work very hard to pack everything and move it. It was a true nightmare and they were such a blessing and definitely did their very best. But there was no way for any of us to know what did and didn't need to be brought along and what could be put into storage.

The other problem is that when we started on this adventure we only planned on doing this for two or three months while I recovered from our accident and we had to be close to my physical therapy. We moved into the trailer in July of 2010 and when winter hit that year we realized that all we had was summer clothes! It seems that monthly we realize how ill prepared we were for this adventure. Now, nineteen months later, and many trips to and from storage, we have just got a crazy hodge podge of stuff everywhere. Things are crazily chaotic, especially since right in the middle of trying to organize, everyone decided to get sick. sigh.

I, however, was determined that nothing would sideline my on my quest for organization! My mission took me to Wal Mart where I bought a bunch of plastic bins to organize our storage areas. We got home and began organizing and putting things into bins, only to find that I have a serious problem estimating size! The bins were way too big for the space! So, back to Wal Mart we went to buy new bins, I proudly came home with my new bins, only to find out I had bought the EXACT same size bins!! So, tonight back to Wal Mart I traveled to return all the too big bins and replace them with the bins I thought would be too small that first trip. As we approached the bins I thought I saw the perfect size, yes, you guessed it, I was looking at the SAME bins for the third time! Thankfully I had memorized the size of the wrong bins so I was saved the embarassment of buying the wrong size for the third time! I am now the proud owner of several smaller bins.

I also picked up a wooden picture frame to turn into a wall art project, only to find when I got home that the frame appears to be too big for the space I wanted to put it in. My brilliant son has decided that my inability to grasp the reality of size is to be blamed on the movies and tv shows I watched as a child. Case in point, Mary Poppins with her bag that held mesmerizing items impossible to fit into such a small satchel. I would love to blame my whole, inability to come to terms with the size of our space, on the trailer, but truth be told, I have suffered this problem for years. Many times as we were shopping my kids would kindly remind me, "Mom, you remember we have a small car right?" What would prompt such a statement you ask? Well, confession time, more than once I have had to call a friend with a truck to please come to my rescue after purchasing something that couldn't possibly fit into our compact car! Like the time I bought a huge above ground pool, only to get out to the car and remember we had said small compact car. Thankfully a friend was able to come to our rescue.

Here are our two youngest with two of their friends enjoying the pool, so it all turned out well. But when we were standing in the parking lot of Sam's Club trying to figure out how to get it home the whole family surely thought I'd lost my marbles.

There were the bikes I bought, the combination, pool/air hockey/ ping pong table, the mounds of groceries my kids have had to ride home with piled on their laps. And the infamous trip to the garden center where our two youngest kids and our oldest grandson rode home looking like they'd been lost in a jungle. I will try to find the picture of that trip to post. If you can just imagine three little kids with assorted plants piled on top of them. You could hardly even see them back there. 

Here are the pictures of the kids buried under my new garden treasures. In full disclosure I should point out that the trunk was also full and we came home with stuff on the roof as well.

And we'll never forget the time I got a free artificial ficus tree that I had been longing for, and the kids and I had to wait at the shopping center while my husband drove the ficus tree home because we couldn't fit the tree in the car with all of us in it.

And then there is my problem with the refrigerator. Yes, I have the same problem with facing the reality of the size of our fridge and freezer. My kids joke every time we come home from the store about whose turn it is to play Tetris. (The video game where you try to fit falling blocks with assorted shapes into one another so there are no gaps) While we are at the store they remind me often of the fact that we have a very small space to put all the food I am busily gathering into our cart, and I, without fail, kindly respond that yes I remember thank you very much. And then we get home and I am once again faced with the reality that I am impaired in this area! Before you suggest that I try measuring, let me assure you that I do measure. And I have all my measurements neatly logged into my little notebook that I seem to forget every time I head to the store. Perhaps I will have to put the measurements online somewhere so when I get to the store and realize once again that I have forgotten my notebook, I can just look them up. In the meantime, my quest continues.
Hopefully I will soon have pictures of our beautifully organized space to post. But for now, all I have is a huge daunting task ahead of me. Wish me luck!

Be Blessed!