Settled

A month ago, I wouldn’t have believed how settled and content I would be by this time. Our home is looking like we have lived here forever. The pictures are hung and the closets, full. After Christmas, Jack built me some beautiful shelves in the guest bedroom for all my scrapbooking and jewelry making supplies and Jack’s drawing and carpentry books. We now have a comfy place to play and create! (When we don’t have guests.) We are slowly working on clearing out the third bedroom – all the boxes that didn’t have a home – ended up in there. This will be our prayer and mediation room, also home for all our rocks, crystals and the library.

This past weekend, Jack and I worked to clear the floor in our garage. We have storage up in the attic so we moved a lot of “stuff” up there. We kept all the boxes from our most recent move – in anticipation of the next move to our land – and they are nicely tucked away as well. Yesterday, I actually parked our car in the garage! If you were one of the lucky ones and saw our garage in Eden Prairie before we moved, you would understand my excitement!

For now, all my lawn ornaments, tools and new garden dreams are packed in tubs and boxes along one side of the garage. Because of weather and Jack being on call (no cell phone service) we have only been out to our land once since we arrived in Arkansas. (We haven’t been to the crystal mine at all!) Our goal is to clear the underbrush on our land by ourselves and keep as many of the trees as possible – safe – while we build our house. If the covenant for the land allows, we will put up a shed and move the garden treasures out there right away. I am also hoping to start a garden on our land right away this spring. But first, we will have to figure out where the house is going to go!

Our house here in Benton is flanked by vacant lots on both sides. I recently learned that the builder creating this development went out of business last fall, due to bankruptcy. Most of the vacant lots and three unfinished houses are tied up in the bankruptcy proceedings. Can you believe, for $125,000 you could own a brand new three bedroom home with a 2 car garage (1,800 square feet) down here! If we weren't thinking of building in the next year, we would certainly consider it!

This leads us to believe that the two lots on either side of us will not be built on anytime soon! What I see are two huge gardens with flowers on one side and vegetables on the other. And if I stick close to the property line, even if a house went in, I would most likely be able to harvest my crop by fall! One of the neighbors has done a nice job of dropping grass clippings (compost) on the lot so I will just need to bring in a little black dirt to amend the soil!

Settled. It feels good. It feels like home. And it’s just the beginning.