Feeling Grateful

I feel like I'm living in a new house.  It is not a new house.  No, no, it is far, far, from being a new house...over 200 years old actually, but to us it is new and remarkably larger though we've done nothing to add space to it. 

It kind of goes back to the original posts from several years ago.  In those early days when we had decided to really buckle down on spending and had even decided to not spend money on the house, God opened my eyes even then to contentment.  He showed me how much I had and that I needed to stop wishing I had more.  That was when, what I called, "The Multiplication Effect" occurred. 

One day I looked at my cramped family room and suddenly I saw the problem.  I quickly got some kids on board, moved around a few pieces of furniture, took a few out and in a blink of an eye, we had a much larger room that could accommodate all of us.  That happened in other rooms of the house, even in the barn!  Nothing had changed in our home, but I can only think God was just waiting for my attitude to change and that was when He opened my eyes to these strange blessings of multiplication in the space of our home.

Now our younger tribe has gotten much older and much bigger.  With 2 adult children and 2 more well on their ways, it was getting cramped.   This time it was my husband's eyes that were opened.  .  A couple of years ago he looked at one of our walls and decided it was time to tear it down and so he did!  We started with one and now, 2 more just this Fall, has seen our house open up to new exponential space.  My 5 year old said recently, "On the outside our house looks really small, but on the INSIDE it's BIG!!!!" 

Add in my new best friend neighbour who gave us two 7 ft. long couches and we have doubled our seating.  Every time someone comes over, I marvel, as now we have two large seating areas that accommodate a lot of people now.  This has always been my dream to have large groups of people in the same area, able to visit and fellowship, all under one roof, in one space. 

It kind of seems to go against the debt-reduction plan to do all of these renovations and several years ago when we first made that decision we had said just that, "No renovations", but then we found our heating costs so high that we found we actually had to do something if we didn't want to go broke paying the heating bills, so that's when we started the ripping out of outside walls just so we could insulate and update the old plaster and lathe.  We are one wall away from insulating the whole family room now.  The new drywall is up and is ready for the mudding and eventual paint. 

But, back to the debt-reduction plan....I like decor.  I try not to!  Decor is expensive!  Back when we lived in town all the stores I loved to shop in were so expensive and they just left me discontent as there was no way I could ever afford to decorate with their price tags.  But then what do you do with what I feel is a God-given desire to make my "nest" a cozy place?  Did I have to leave the walls bare?  Paint wasn't an option at this point.  I was anxious though.....would I have to wait for years for paint?  When would I be able to put things back up on the walls?  I was hosting a number of seasonal events.....I wanted it to at least have the facade of being done.  But then RM gave the green light, "Hang stuff up, we won't be painting for a while....."  Oh yeah!  So I did.  And that's where more mini miracles happened.....

I now had more wall space then I knew what to do with.  Like I said, in the olden days, I would have wished I could have gone to a store and purchased all sorts of rustic decor. then knowing the price tags, sighed, and given up.  Not this time.  I just walked over to my on-site rustic decor "store", i.e., the barn, and started hunting.  I found more window frames that I hadn't seen or used before and quickly dusted them off (I don't even bother sanding, no time for that) and literally threw them on my bare, unpainted freshly drywalled walls.  Then,  I ran outside, cut off some greenery, which up until last year, I hadn't even noticed we had, and threw that around the house.  It was looking good!

One more touch....we had no lighting!  We have looked at beautiful fixtures, but are waiting until everything is complete, so in the meantime, I grabbed all the Christmas lights and a son, and asked him to go around the ceiling edges putting them up.  He did and now we have beautiful white lights around almost the entire perimeter of the family room.  It gives such a nice glow to the house.

Not being particularly crafty, but knowing I had access to vines, I knew I had to do something with them this year or it would be a big waste of craft supplies!  Last year I cut all sorts of vines off the grapes and put them in storage for the winter thinking I would do something with them in the spring. Not smart.  Over the winter they turned to dust.  Each time I picked one up it crumbled in my hands.  This year I knew I had to cut them and immediately make them into something.  So on one of the last warm days of Fall, I went down and cut a whole bunch of vines and turned them into mini Christmas trees.  I absolutely love them and can't even believe I did them myself!  My own kids are in a bit of shock, "You made that?"  All it took was my time.  They're all over the inside of the house and I even threw a couple outside and they make the front porch look so festive.  Why couldn't I see these things before?  Why did I think I had to buy everything?  Why am I suddenly aware that I can do these things when I used to think it was only those people born with the craft skill that could make things themselves?  I can't explain it, except that my eyes were opened again.

The flooring is currently plywood, but that's fine for now.  We're waiting on a steal of a deal.  So here I sit in what seems like our new home.  I can hardly believe how the home has been transformed from what I always called "our dumpy farmhouse" to a new and improved version.  I never knew beautiful ancient beams were hiding under an unattractive drop ceiling.  I never knew there was free rustic decor at my disposal when we first bought this place.  I never knew it would actually be the biggest home we had lived in when all I saw was a tiny, badly-organized floorplan at first viewing.  It's one of those "don't judge a book by it's cover" moments or a badly wrapped gift that seems small and you only want the big gift with the fancy packaging.  Yet, here it was, under all the old coverings lay this gift I could have never imagined when we first bought this place 7 years ago.  It is far from being finished, but I am seeing the tremendous blessing it is to our family and not a single square inch has been added.....it is the Multiplication Effect again.

This is my nest.  Psalm 84:3, "Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young..."  I spend a lot of time in my nest.  I am no different than a bird.  I just want my nest to be cozy and a place where my birdies will be comfortable and happy.  I want them to stay as long as possible and I'll always want them to come back and visit.  I'm convinced this desire has been put in me by God Himself.  He could have made the world unattractive, but He made creation so beautiful that it really defies description.  It is a heavenly desire to long for beautiful things.  Of course, the world has taken this desire and turned it into an idol, but it doesn't have to be if we recognize the source of this desire and keep our sin nature in check.  Just as the mommy bird takes her time in making her nest comfortable so do I.  None of this happened overnight.  It has been a long process and I'm so glad God didn't give me what I wanted when I wanted it.  I don't think I would have appreciated it as much.  A friend came over yesterday and complimented me on the decor.  I was able to say, "The best part?  It was all free!"

A quick reminder this morning that there's work to do.....the water is frozen.....we didn't get the heater in the pumphouse soon enough!  So, it's not perfect, we are a work in progress....but I'm still grateful!!!!