Thursday, July 13, 2017

Moving is No Fun

We spent five days in Boise and bought a house:










There were a few I liked better, but the prices have skyrocketed in the past 6 months, so this is our 3/2 in a great neighborhood.  We're working out the details now after the inspection turned up some not serious things, but things that need to be fixed nonetheless.  

Now that we're back in Florida, we face the rest of the considerable packing up and selling this house.  My husband is 64 and I am 61, so it is slow going, but we're making a dent every day.  

I have to say, though, that at times we get discouraged by finances, time limits, our physical limits, and what sometimes feels like an impossible and endless task.  

I keep imagining where I am going to put the various things I am packing, so that helps.  The weather in Boise was quite hot, but dry so it felt much better than South Florida hot.  We were able to stand it better and the skies were blue as blue could be.  We went up to Bogus Basin, the road winding up and up and around.  At the bottom of the mountain, it is dry and desert-like, but lovely.  There are plants I have to learn all about, but I already know Sagebrush.  I picked a small bit of it and the smell was more powerful than pine from a Christmas tree - and delightful.  As we traveled farther toward the top, we entered the National Forest which is almost 100% pine.  The bushes and flowers along the roadside were different from the ones below.  I love the outdoors and learning all about new flora and fauna.  I saw what I think were House Finches with their pretty song outside our hotel window.  

Summer is beautiful and it doesn't get dark until well after 9pm, and I have missed autumn for 38 years, so I am very much looking forward to that.  We won't discuss winter yet since it is probably going to be tough for us, especially knowing how beautiful it is in Florida when it is so dreary elsewhere.  Winter will be a good time for me to visit my mother who is 2 1/2 hours away from me now in Central Florida.  Once good thing about our new house is the fireplace.  My first fireplace and we are going to put in a gas insert so that it is easier to use and safer for the environment.  Boise has rules about wood fireplaces that inhibit their use on the dreariest of days, when an Inversion takes over the valley and it is dark and foggy and cold and everything is black and white except the pines.  I will need the fireplace at those times the most.

So right now we are living amidst boxes and boxes and filling up ever more boxes.  But this, too, shall pass and we will be in a new and delightful place. 

Saturday, July 1, 2017

New Life



















I have retired from my career of 28 years as of yesterday at 3:00pm.  I started working again when my daughter entered 1st grade.  She is now 33 years old.  One day followed upon another for all that time - and here I am!

I am taking the pleasure of uninterrupted-by-work life to get deeply into projects that I attempted in the past, but never had the energy or time to finish.  I'm planning.....going over years of photographs and combing them for the REALLY good ones that I could enter into contests, frame or sell on Etsy or somewhere else.  

I will be putting some time into my Etsy store, which I have never linked to because it has nada in it right now.  Once we are settled in Boise I will work on the Etsy store because, in the meantime, there will be LOTS of packing and culling and discarding. You could say we'll be a little busy, but happily so.

We will be flying to Boise to buy a house very soon.  Of course I wish we could afford more - doesn't everyone except the very rich?  I have an ace in the hole that many people don't have - my Heavenly Father, who I am confident will provide the perfect house for us.  I have imagined it and we have been looking for months at homes in Boise online.  

Now when I say, "perfect house for us", I don't mean perfect like the world means perfect.  I mean that God will find us a house that has the special little things that mean the most to me - perhaps some bushes or flowers that are already growing that are lovely or maybe I will discover that there is a family of squirrels nesting - hopefully nowhere in or on the house!  He knows the nooks and crannies I like, what would constitute a favorite corner or view.  The house might be older and it might need some painting here and there, but as long as there is a back yard, even a small one, I will be happy. I can't wait to see what He has for us.  

The last five years or so have been difficult, sometimes we felt trapped, too tired to continue the hamster wheel of full time jobs in a busy city.  They have been tough years, but throughout He has always blessed us through friends, nature - oh what a back yard I have had here in Florida - and we have never lacked for anything, even though we have grumbled from time to time. 














I haven't written on this blog on a regular basis in forever - and that is another thing I want to do.  I'd like to quilt, crochet, knit, write, photograph anything and everything, decorate my new home bit by bit as we can afford......and take the time to dive into the Bible more than I have in the past.  

And Boise?  It is 100% opposite to Florida, both in location (you can't get much farther apart in the same country than from the tip of Florida to Boise, Idaho) and in climate.  I'm SO looking forward to Autumn again, and even a bit excited about snow.  I'm not as enthusiastic about that, though, because I lived with long winters until I was 23 and I never cared for the dreariness or the dead tree look.  Not to mention I have NEVER driven in snow.  I'm hoping that, unlike last winter, Boise has its' usual mild minimal snow winter coming up.  


















Most of all, I'm excited about what is ahead, what God has for us, the changes, the scenery, the discoveries, the mountains......I have a melancholy streak so I know there will be culture/climate shock, homesickness for Florida (a place I hated when I first moved here 38 years ago) and longing for the familiarity of old ways.

I'm going to take you along as we make this change in our lives.