This Me and Thee Studios ball of wax began in October 2011. Very much out of the blue I had a “feeling”. An idea. A vision if you will. I believed we needed to consider selling our home.
This home was our 4th child. We had designed it ourselves and drove our contractor crazy visiting the site 3 times a day during construction. We invested time and energy painting accent walls, staining the concrete, digging trenches for the sprinkler system and hauling countless wheelbarrow loads of rock for landscaping. Even after 4 years the house smelled new thanks to the hardwood doors and hand-crafted pine baseboards.
But the house was the epitome of our “stuff” and our hefty monthly mortgage was keeping us from screaming, “We’re mortgage free!”
We began to look for a fixer upper in Portales. Quite honestly, we were praying for an amazing deal that would clearly justify the transition. And God was so good to provide. We sold our home without putting it on the market to the first couple to see the home for our asking price. In the meantime, we found a fixer-upper in an established neighborhood. It wasn’t on the market, had more square footage and storage than our custom home, and a bonus room. We cut our mortgage in half and our monthly payment by 60%.
We’d begun to settle in this past October when I began to chew on another “feeling”. Another idea. A second incredible change for our family. God began to reveal specifics for a collection of leveled books and my transition from the public school classroom to our homeschool. Looking back, it became obvious that the transition in homes was necessary for this to be possible.
After 13 years of marriage my husband and I know each other well. I know he’s hesitant to change and I see change as something to embrace. I know that after I share my thoughts with him he’s going to be very quiet for several days as he prays about them. I know he honors my opinion and values me in our marriage and yet I do not expect that he will always see things the same as I do. I know that if he feels God is leading us in a different direction he’ll share his heart gently with me and he knows I will honor his discernment…. And I know too my husband’s sense of humor so his initial comment did not surprise me but will be something we laugh about for the rest of our lives.
We were on a walk and I’d shared about 101 thoughts regarding the collection of leveled books and my transition from the public school classroom. He said, very quietly, “Well… I know yer not drunk ’cause I don’t smell no alk-ee-hol on yer breath.”
I do believe my husband would prefer Octobers be altogether removed from the calendar 🙂
