It is funny to see what a week will bring. Last week my house looked the same as it has for months, but this week, a wall has been torn down, a ceiling was taken out, drywall is up, electrical wires are covered, plumbing relocated......a whole new room has been created....in just 4 days. We had some motivation, someone was coming through the house for an appraisal (not that we're selling.....) and we needed to make sure it looked ok. That was all it took for RM to pull out all the stops. He can barely walk now, but man on man, was he ever busy non-stop for 4 days!
Our family room was never big, but it was big enough for our family. Everyone had a place to sit. At Christmas, RM took down the drywall and ceiling in that room to insulate the walls. It had been freezing in that room. We insulated, covered up most of the walls and knew the other side of the house needed to be done at a later date. That was when we had discovered the beautiful barn beams as well in the ceiling. We figured they ran across the other side of the house, so this week, when we took out the wall between the two rooms, sure enough, there they were. We were so happy! There is still a ton of work ahead for us now as the ceiling has to be finished nicely, but we still enjoy the rustic/cabin look even without the coat of varathane that it needs. Drywall is up, but needs taping, mudding, and then paint, never a nice job. The flooring needs to be completely redone.....get the picture? Lots of work still ahead, but now that the two rooms are opened to each other it is such a big space! It definitely has that open concept feel and with the ceiling taken off we no longer feel it is such a low ceiling. We gained a foot for sure. All in all, a nice little way to start feeling a little more springy. It had been so cold and people were getting a little blue around here about the weather. This little change has lightened everybody's mood just a little. I love change! (Who says that....?)
Now, the renos will be on pause again for a bit as the next projects require much more money, but this little change will tide us all over for a little while!
Last night we watched a documentary about two famous Canadian sisters, Susanna Moodie and Catharine Par Traill. I was always fascinated by these women. They were both homeschooled along with their other sister and 5 of the six sisters became published authors in England. These two sisters married men who longed for adventure and the idea of a new land in Canada intrigued them. Off they went with their wives and a baby. You would think, based on their two books, that they had gone to two different places. The one sister, Susanna, hated the whole dreaded experience and moaned and complained about everything. The other sister, Catharine, loved it, all the difficulties were opportunities! They both started having many babies and were very lonely off in the backwoods of Canada, but at least they had each other. The husbands moved closer so that the sisters could be a comfort to one another.
It was great for me to see how perspective matters. When I saw all that they had to go through, picking through ice for water, hanging laundry on a frozen line, barely surviving the winters with no food or even proper footware....it made my trials seem so minor in comparison. At one point Susanna's husband had to leave her for a couple of years to fight in a war. I have no idea how she managed.
The two sisters both wrote books on their experiences. I had to read them when I was in university and they became my two favourite books as well as the ones I remember the best, Roughing it in the Bush and The Backwoods of Canada. I had no children then, no husband, no real trials, except an exam or two. Now, I am married and I have as many kids as they did. I'm hardly living in the backwoods of Canada, but I can relate to the duties of a mom, and I'm married to a man who is trying to feed his family and who believes in adventure. Which sister do I want to be like? The one who only sees things as miserable? or the like the one who sees it all as a great opportunity? I don't believe Catharine's experience was any less difficult. No, she had all the same trials as her sister, but she just handled them with a different attitude. It is interesting to note, the more positive sister lived until she was 97! A merry heart is good medicine! There's the proof!
So, there's my little lesson in Canadian history. Our children watched with interest to see the difference between the two women. I will say, though Susanna was the miserable one at the beginning, she did have a change of heart as she grew older. She hated Canada when she first arrived. She longed for her "gentile" ways of England, sipping tea around a fire, with servants to watch her and her children. Upon arriving in Canada, she now had to do everything, from milking cows, to planting gardens, to catching fish....What she saw as horrible and challenging when she was a young mom with lots of kids, she ended up seeing as wonderful! She could see how she had grown and been stretched. She ended up reflecting on her time in Canada as amazing. She loved Canada and all that it offered her as a new settler. This was another great thing for me to hear. To know our challenges that are so difficult when you are in the midst of them, will one day be something you reflect on fondly, is a great encouragement to me to not fight the challenges, but to somehow embrace them and enjoy them. I try to fast forward and think, "What will I look back on one day?" Then, when I do that, I can see how there is purpose even in today's difficulties.
Susanna is not that different from me, it turns out. She had more lessons to learn. Catharine had a good perspective on life right from the get-go, so she was spared some of the harder lessons. I hope I can learn my lessons fast and not stay stuck in a moment like Susanna did for a long time. I appreciate these women and their honesty. Their books are still being read 150 years later and lessons to other women, like myself, are still being gleaned. I sure hope they were Christians as I want to thank them in heaven one day for recording their life lessons.
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