Summer in the City

We have been in a state of limbo as we are bearing down on our closing date and so far have not seen the inside of the house we have lined up to rent. The tenants were supposed to be out by the end of June but they decided to squat in the house and now we are waiting for their court date for eviction. We are hoping they will leave before it comes to that though. Because of all of this its been hard to pack to move because we don't know when we are moving. This has left me feeling lost and bored as I am not sure what to do with myself in the daytime. We are about 60 percent packed and I can't work on a projects like I normally would as most things I need are harder to get to now. Every day I ask my husband to stalk the rental house to see if there has been any change.  I have been rendering lard and canning bone broth in an effort to clean out our freezer so I can defrost it. Still these types of kitchen jobs don't leave me feeling very productive or prepared.

We have been having a good time lately hanging out with friends. I feel sad as for so long it seemed that I had a hard time making friends here but now that we are preparing to leave I realize that there are a lot of people that I care about and that I want to stay connected too. I have this bucket list hanging on the fridge that I call our Summer curriculum. On it are things like, catch a tadpole, roll down a grassy hill, cook smores, or take a walk in the dark and look at the stars. We have been ticking things off in a consistent sort of way and it makes me feel like I at least have something to focus on.

I combed my littlest girls hair and for some reason it would stay up in a goofy way. She liked it and called it her unicorn hair. The toys are limited these days as most are packed into the garage. I should start taking notes of the things they ask for to keep tabs on what we really use and need. I am nervous we are not going to have enough furniture in our rental house.  At the same time also nervous we will loose the skills we have learned from our small house. how to be mostly minimalist, keeping only what we love or need. I have concerned visions in my head of rooms overflowing with toys as we won't feel so pressured to purge due to lack of space.

I am glad that it is summer though, as summer is easy to be in limbo. I don't feel guilty for falling off the wagon of my expectations for rhythm and routine. The freedom to wake each day and take it as it comes has been nice. I have been enjoying feeling like I can decide to do fun things last minute. I don't know why I didn't feel that way before but something about selling this house has helped me to let go.

The End of Days...

We are at the end of our time in our little home. We have lived here for more than 5 years. My husband always said this would be a 5 year house for us but I saw so much farther into the future than that. I saw so many more dreams here than we actually achieved. All these years I could see our basement finished in my mind. I could see the layout of the rooms and the tile on the floor in the laundry room. I could see a bedroom for my son and a bathroom for guests. I spent many nights dreaming of finishing our attic like the rest of the little houses on our street. Like the basement I knew just what to do. 

Over the five years we have lived here I have worked so hard on our home. I have put my sweat, and blood, and soul into the walls of our house. I have painted beautiful hues to fill the rooms with lovely, ambient light. I have spent many hours restoring our historic, old growth windows. Like the basement, I didn't get as far as I wanted on the windows but I did make them better. I fixed the ones that mattered most. I have spent so much of my time working the soil here and turning our yard into a garden. I have canned the vegetables and butchered the chickens that grew too old. 

I had two of my babies in the walls of this home. They came faster than I anticipated, causing us to outgrow our 2 bedrooms sooner than we wanted. In fact when we bought the house I was already expecting our middle child, and first daughter. We didn't know it yet. Sometimes still I wonder if we would have chosen a different house had we known. Here, I have watched all three of my children learn and grow and live their lives. They have played many hours out in our garden and experienced almost all of their firsts, here in our first house. We have had to learn to do with less. We learned about that special bond that grows between a family that lives in a smaller home. We have learned how to be careful about what we buy, and careful about how we walk, as the squeaky boards can wake little people up just before dawn. 

Spokane has been like a desert to me, lonely, difficult, and spiritually challenging in ways I never imagined. For over two years we have wanted to move closer to my husbands work. Each time we tried to work it out in our heads, each time we would pray, we knew that it was not time. That was hard. We wanted to run away but knew that we shouldn't, that we financially couldn't. Then almost 5 weeks ago we received the news that was our open door. Right then and there we knew that it was time to go. It was crazy and fast and exciting. It was also strange and heartbreaking. I get so attached to the places I live. My house feels like more than just a house to me. It is like part of my family, my refuge from the storm, my art to live by. 

I am looking forward to the adventures a head of my family. I am excited to feel freedom again. I will have another garden someday just as beautiful as the one I built here. I know that I will bring beauty to where ever I call home. Most of all I am looking forward to being near my husband for 2 more hours each day. I am looking forward to doing fun things with my kids because we will be able to take the car. I am so grateful for this time I had to live in "an old house." I have loved old houses ever since I was a very young child and this house gave me the opportunity to live my dream. 

In Just a Few Days

In just a few days time everything can change. There has been heaps of new good news from all sides. We have been so busy around here cleaning up and preparing for the things that our summer is going to bring that I haven't had much time to take pictures lately, or sew. I have a bunch of things cut out waiting to get sewn together. I did accomplish a couple of flat sheets for my kids beds. Their papa made them a custom size twin bed to fit special in their old house bedroom that all three of them share. Since its custom its a bit tricky to find sheets for it. I have a couple of fitted sheets cut also, waiting and ready to go, but I am going to have to find the time. 

We did find some time last weekend to go to a Family Fair in our local city. It turned out to be pretty good. There were some free bouncy houses, princesses and a ton of games with great prizes. 

I have bought some garden starts and listed my chicken coop up for sale. I also have tried to start some new roses from my most beloved ones we planted here. I watched a bunch of videos online and for now just have them rooting in water. Roses are supposed to be super easy to root. Mostly I have been just admiring my garden. It has turned out so nice in the 5 years we have been here. I do love it so.  

Making May

I am still sewing and sewing and sewing. I am still loving it, although it makes a huge mess and I don't want to do any of my housework. I have also been trying to knit here and there. Right now I am on this self imposed knitting project where I am making all of my cotton yarn into washcloths. I am still kind of slow so each one takes me hours. I keep seeing people talk of them in the pattern places online and that they are a quick one hour project. I laugh a little at that. I am hoping to use all that I have up and then move on to little sweaters for the kids.

I had a wonderful Mothers Day with a brand new emergency dishwasher earlier in the week. I also made myself some chocolate covered strawberries. We were at Costco and they were selling these packs of them for what I thought was expensive for 6 berries. Then when we were walking through the produce isle I saw the giant strawberry container for half the price. In a stroke of genius I put it in the cart. I just used melted chocolate chips and dunked them right in. I picked some flowers from my garden and remembered how nice it is to grow my own to keep a constant supply of fresh flowers on the table. I spent a glorious three hours alone in a mostly clean house with no one to mess it up. The next day Hubbs caught us all on the couch and announced it was a Mothers Day picture. He got a few decent shots which surprised me knowing how tricky our camera is. Most of my pictures are terrible.

The weather here has been calm and warm and the windows are open from morning until we go to bed. I love the way the air feels in the spring, all green and warm and exciting. I keep thinking ahead to summer and all the fun things we should do. I have been feeling a huge sense of relief lately as I have been wrapping up some large projects that have been making me feel they are taking up my time. The garden is about to go in and then I am just going to read library books on the front lawn in the shade.

Purple and Pink and Green

Things are bursting in our garden. Every year I get handfuls of flower buds from my girls who pick them and bring them to me. I want to be mad because they are picking all my flowers but at the same time I know they are giving me them and are trying to be sweet. I take them and put them in vases scattered all through the house and then remind them not to pick things unless they ask first. The other day my oldest girl brought in almost all of the garlic greens that were growing and told me she wanted to make a salad. I let her but she didn't eat it too well and then had garlic breath. 

I am still sewing as much as I can. I have been finding a bunch of vintage patterns everywhere for cheap. I have been snatching them up, and now I have so many its making it hard to decide what to sew. I want to get this summer wardrobe wrapped up so I can work on winter clothes in a nice and lazy way. I have been making everything a couple sizes big so they can last for years to come. Recently I found this giant bag of notions at a thrift store and there were some vintage snaps in there. I have been using them and they are great because they require no sewing. They were the gems of the bag. Snaps are so much easier for the kids, and I have never been interested in sewing them on. So tedious. 

Lately all I can think about is pie. I don't know why. When I first got married I made pie all the time. There was something so domestic about it. I guess back then I didn't have all these kids and could make more pie. I made lemon meringue pie the other day. I didn't have any milk to make a cream pie so I went with lemon. I had to make it gluten free but it turned out great. I bought some organic cream that was on sale just for making a cream pie so perhaps today I might try again. Its a tough choice, chocolate cream or coconut cream. 

We needed to get out yesterday so we went to the Arbor Day festival at our local Arboretum. It was fun to gather all the pamphlets and talk to people about gardens and trees and such. While we were there we met Aqua Duck. My youngest thought he was great but my older girl wanted nothing to do with him. Afterwards she told me that she thought he was just a "quiet guy in a duck suit."