Sweet Home Alabama

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It is finally time for an official move report.  I posted on facebook a couple of weeks ago about our Wild Goose Chase.  We have chased the Wild Goose all the way to Birmingham, Alabama (the city of Helena to be exact), and we now sport “Sweet Home Alabama” tags on our vehicles.  It has been a wild ride, to be sure, and one that has been full of surprises–some good (like the blues band at the Mississippi Welcome Center and the lightning bugs sparkling at night) and some bad (like the UHaul’s inability to navigate the hill in our driveway and the a/c fan motor in our house that blew out, resulting in a visit from the fire department our first Monday morning here.)

Back to the South

Birmingham is a beautiful place, and the people have been warm and welcoming.  It feels strangely home to both Bill and me, despite the fact that neither of us have ever lived in the state of Alabama.  We both claim the deep south as home (I–Lousiana, and he–South Carolina), and we keep finding subtle yet definite signs that we are back “home”.  Things like fireflies, tomatoes grown by every neighbor, smocked dresses on little girls, barbecue chicken, front porches, flowers by the thousands, summer rain showers, trees towering above the rooftops, and beauty at every turn all join together to give us the distinct feeling of coming home.  Between our new house, which is much bigger than our old one, and the general Southern charm, we feel like we are on a perpetual vacation.

One of the first things we did, after unloading 2 moving truck loads up the hill and into the 2-story-on-a-basement home, was to purchase 2 white rocking chairs from Cracker Barrel so that we could fully enjoy our new Southern lifestyle.  No more folding out camping chairs in the driveway to watch the kids ride bikes in the baking sun.  No siree.  Now we watch them from our rockers on our porch up the hill, thank ya Lord.  And when all the fixer-upper projects are done, Bill will be making me a new swing for the other end of the porch, just like the one he built that we left for the new owners in Altus.  I look forward to completing the front porch atmosphere with hanging ferns and big pots of flowers.  Then I will truly think I died and went to heaven.

Our New Home

The home we found is quite a story of God’s provision.  Back in April I had taken an exploratory trip to Helena to verify our sense of God’s calling that we were to move this location.  I house-hunted with my mom after visiting the schools and meeting with principals, and I was hard-pressed to come up with the “right” home that suited all of our needs yet still stayed within our desired price range.  We put an offer in on a big dream-home-to-be that was unfinished, figuring we would finish it ourselves, as long as we could get it low enough.  We didn’t get it.  Someone bid higher.  Then, a week later, we put in a contract on a home a little smaller than our Altus house that was a beautiful home in a good neighborhood, even though it was a bit small.  T-H-R-E-E days before the closing, two crazy random things happened with the appraisal and survey, and we opted not to buy the home.  That left us with about 5 weeks to find a home, get a contract on the home, secure the mortgage, and close on it before our scheduled move date.  All from over 800 miles away.

So Bill set out for the second house-hunting journey, with a truckload of our belongings to put in a storage unit while he was at it.  While he was on the way, I began to pray, in a way that I had not before, truly calling out to God to open up His storehouse and provide for us a house that met our basic needs without requiring us to rent a storage unit or give up all of the things we love to do and have been gifted with.  Remember, we made this move at His divine direction, so we felt that He would surely provide what we need to accomplish this plan.

First of all, we plan to both work from home.  So we need an office space big enough for the both of us.  Second of all, we cook several meals a week, so we need a kitchen big enough to do more than just turn around in.  Third of all, we have a lot of stuff, which is because we do a lot of stuff, and we needed a place to keep it and do it.  Sewing, crafting, woodworking, welding, photography, you name it.  Skills require tools, tools require space, and we were both willing to give it all up to go where God leads.  But really?  Is that what He wanted for us?  “If that’s what You want, that’s what we’ll do.  But pleeeeze let us continue these gifts you have given us in this new place of service.  You own the cattle on a thousand hills, so you must surely have a house that will suit us and that we can afford.  And like, today…” This was part of my prayer.

Apparently God was listening.  Perhaps He had been waiting ALL ALONG for me to really start believing that He had a house pre-selected for us and to just flat out ask for it.  I didn’t just ask for the “right house”.  I spelled it out in a 35-point list of the features that I believed our house required to meet our needs.  As audacious as that sounds, there weren’t luxury items in those 35 things, like granite countertops or grandiose light fixtures.  The list was really pretty basic, with things like: a pantry; a dining room; a laundry room; a fourth bedroom or office; a workshop or basement etc.  I added a few extras like the front porch, fresh paint, and great neighbors, but I didn’t go overboard.  And I have to tell you, this house I am sitting in, complete with 33 things from that list, came on the market the DAY Bill traveled to Helena to look for houses.  It was a foreclosure, so it had the space we really needed all packed in to the budget we had allotted.  I still have to pinch myself to find out if it’s for real.

Not only did God provide for us this great house, He put it right in the middle of tons of sweet of neighbors, in the school district we wanted, and with freshly-painted trim, doors, walls, new carpet and hardwood floors on the main.  Now, we have had plenty of work to do to bring the rest of the house up to par, but the space is here, and the house is darling and perfectly situated on the top of a hill with a mountainous view.

Project People

I distinctly remember writing one of my very first blog articles, some eight years ago, about the fact that I am not a Project Person.  Well, folks, I wasn’t then, but after 11 years of being married to Bill McKelvey, I have to suck it up and claim myself as a project person.  It took me a long time to admit it, but I have completely become what I thought I would never be.  (Never say never…)  So, this house is perfect for us project people.  Some of Bill’s projects thus far have included: replacing the condensate pump, running a gas line to the dryer, rebuilding several toilets, removing the broken storm door, servicing air conditioners, replacing the fan motor on an a/c, and installing a gazillion blinds.  My projects?  Scrubbing tile, cleaning windows, painting inside stinky cabinets (one of those not-so-nice surprises), and of course unpacking 5,000 boxes.  There’s a whole lot of overspray left over from the painting crew, so we have some elbow grease yet to expend in places we wouldn’t have realized.  And several appliance installations await, since the appliances were complete bombs.

Needless to say, it’s been a big-time challenge to move into a house needing so much work, but we have felt so very grateful to have this house to work on, that we have enjoyed most every minute of it.

Looking Forward

We visited a big, fancy church today.  We didn’t realize that’s what it was–we just sort of took a stab at where to visit.  It turned out to be wonderfully welcoming, and the people took us right in and helped every member of our family get connected right off the bat.  It is very odd to answer the questions of what brought us to Birmingham, seeing as how we don’t yet really know, other than that God led us here and we like it.  The pastor’s sermon had three main points–God is Good, God is Great, and God is Gracious.  And the statement I took home was that God will give us the grace to do the next right thing that He has called us to do.

God called us to move to Alabama.  It has been a moment by moment faith journey.  Uncomfortable? Yes.  Uncertain? Absolutely.  Scary?  A little.  But God is good.  And He has the power to work His grace throughout our lives.  That’s all I know at this moment. The next right thing for me to do is to go to bed.  And the next right thing after that, besides take care of my family, is to paint some stinky cabinets.  And sooner or later, He will reveal the next right thing for us to do, that will hopefully have a paycheck attached to it.  Until then, we have only to trust.

Confessions of a Housewife

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I have recently discovered that I am not a good housekeeper.  That fact saddens me, because I am passionate about having a clean house.  And I am still a bit in denial about my discovery.  See, until this week or so, I mistakenly attributed my lack of good housekeeping to having young children making a mess in every room every day.  The past five years or so have seen me juggling kids at home with lots of hobbies and a pretty busy work-at-home job.  In fact, at one point, I actually worked three part-time jobs in the midst of the chaos of raising little ones.  So I always thought that the reason the house stayed a mess was because I was too busy to take care of it.

When my younger child went to kindergarten this year, I celebrated, because I knew it would mean the beginning of having an eternally clean house.  I would have time every single day to pick up messes, which would be fewer in number to begin with, and to do enough light cleaning each day to never have to do any heavy-duty cleaning.  That worked really well for a week or two.  I got the house really clean and fresh, and I was real proud of my efforts.  It felt really good to walk through a perfectly tidy house and smell a nice candle burning.  But I soon realized that I had to do it like, every single day to enjoy the cleanliness.  The picking up, freshening bathroom counters, emptying the dishwasher, etc., absolutely required daily maintenance.  And that maintenance really cut into my work time and hobby time.

Slowly. Quickly I found myself shortening my cleaning routines in order to get to the computer more quickly.  The work was just bombarding me.  I couldn’t give up an extra hour or 30 minutes or whatever.  Then I found myself skipping my cleaning routines every now and then to get the work morning going even more quickly.  Then I got sick for a week or two and did very little good on any front.  And now I’m well, and my work is nearly caught up, and I’m heading into craft mode (YAY!  I’ve been waiting for this for two months!!), and I’m looking around at a messy house.  And I’m thinking, how did this happen?

Well, for starters, we did steam clean ALL the carpet in the house this month.  And we painted the studio and master bedroom, and made new curtains and rearranged furniture and bought new bedding.  But now I’m left with boxes of stuff we removed from these rooms, never to go back in, and I have to sort through them and DEAL with them.  And I haven’t decided yet exactly what to hang on the walls and where.  And I now have a massive watercolor painting to tackle to take center stage in the bedroom.  And a few more sewing projects to round out the makeovers.

And I want to sew and craft with a vengeance, but now I’m heading into another website setup this week, a Halloween costume to complete, and a messy house once again.  And I’m realizing, that yes, my house is messy because I am a little busy, but really, it’s mostly messy because I’d rather sit at the computer or sewing machine than fold clothes or mop the kitchen.  And that’s my choice.  I don’t like having a {marginally} messy house.  But it’s so much more FUN than just keeping house all day.  (or an hour a day.)

And to top things off, I’m seriously considering doing one of two things: 1) Opening a studio in town to make websites as a real job kind of thing, with lots of clients and daily office hours; OR 2) Sewing and crafting my heart out and blogging all about it, complete with tutorials, downloads, and all the bells and whistles of a crafty blog.  One of those will be a little more lucrative than the other.  You can take a guess at which one.  And I would LOVE either.  But one has a bit more of the fun element to offer.  And I could still carry on my work-at-home ways.  And I could still have the time to become a better housekeeper.  You know, when things get slow.

Power Hour

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While I hadn’t planned on dieting my way into 2009, I did include better housekeeping in my list of New Year’s goals.  I think what I scratched on the scrap paper by my computer was, “Clean Something Every Day.” That scratch paper is as far as I have gotten in recording my desired improvements for the year.  Like I said yesterday, I’m still fine-tuning these goals so that when I do finally make my list, it will be most accurate and lasting.

When I wrote “clean”, I really meant “deep clean”.  Right after Christmas I got this really big spurt of energy and desired to clean my whole house cleaner than I got it when we moved in.  Bill was on page with that, and we spent a whole day of our break cleaning.  I spent most of the day in the bathroom with Q-tips and other various cleaning supplies.  My bathroom is cleaner than it’s ever been.  Every surface got a thorough washing, including the walls, cabinetry, baseboards, floors, light fixtures…everything except the ceiling, which has that ugly popcorn stuff on it.  I immediately decided it was time to go room to room and do the same thing until my house sparkles.

I seldom have enough time to devote several hours in one day to cleaning a room.  That’s where I got the bright idea to “deep-clean” something every day.  We’re not talking light cleaning here.  We’re talking vacuuming base boards, scrubbing grime out of hard to reach places, cleaning things that only a Q-tip or toothbrush can accomplish.  In the beginning of this quest, I did manage to clean two ceiling fans and their fixtures, the back French doors, and the huge dining window, inside and out.  That’s a step.  BUT.  I have not been able to bring myself to such efforts every day.  I’m actually wondering if I ever will get to the next room with my tiny tools.

And that’s where the New Year’s Goals list refinement comes in.  If I had already made my official list, I would have already spoiled my resolutions.  Instead, I’ve found a better way to accomplish the greater goal of having a cleaner house.  First of all, it’s always a bad idea to determine to do any one thing every day.  You’re setting yourself up for failure, and I realize that.  Honestly, I don’t even like to aim for a certain number of times per week.  Then I’m constantly having to scold myself for falling down on the job.  The idea with making resolutions is to improve your efforts in life in some way, so that each year you are better than the year before.  I often aim for doing something every day so that I feel more committed to the task.  It seldom works.

When thinking about getting my house cleaner, I started thinking back to Fly Lady.  I used to subscribe to Fly Lady way back when, and I found her techniques very helpful.  I’ve still maintained some of them just because I like them, like keeping the kitchen sink sparkling at all times, but I don’t remember all the details for her plan.  Quite frankly, I don’t even want to look at her site, because I don’t want to force myself into adopting another plan of some sort, regardless of how good it is.  I do seem to remember her having a Power Hour, though.  I think it was a daily thing, but I’m not sure.  In fact, I don’t even remember what she suggested you DO during Power Hour.

Monday morning I started my own Power Hour with my own rules and such.  I had already spent some time over the weekend picking up junk around the house and getting the kids’ room somewhat organized again.  I also started with the house being relatively clean.  I determined to have Power Hour first thing every morning after dropping Will off for school.  I do the same sorts of things as always, except that now I am focused about it and try to get it all done in one hour.  Do you know, I actually enjoy my Power Hour?  I start in the kitchen and empty the dishwasher, refill it with breakfast dishes, and put away everything that is out of place in the kitchen.  I also clean all the countertops.  (I do this several times a day anyway.) Then I make my way through the house picking up every random thing I see and putting it where it belongs.  When I get to the back, I make all the beds and put the bedrooms back in order.  Then I stop at the hamper and sort whatever laundry is in there and get a load going.  I finish in the bathroom by doing my hair and makeup, if I haven’t already done them, and then hitting the sink, counter, and mirror with some Windex.  The first day it took me the whole hour to do all of this, and I didn’t even have to do my makeup and hair.  The second day, my house was in such good condition already, it only took me 30 minutes.  I still devote an hour though.  So if I have time left over, I do some cleaning chore, like vacuuming or whatnot.  And the catch is, I do all of this as fast, yet thoroughly, as possible.

Having Power Hour has done three things for me.  First of all, it has gotten my house cleaner.  Second of all, it has made me feel like I’m exercising.  Moving around the house non-stop for an hour may not be grueling exercise, but it’s enough for me to think I’m doing something heart-healthy anyway.  Third of all, having such a nice-looking house has inspired and motivated me to keep it that way.  I find myself picking up more throughout the day as it becomes messy and spending less time sitting around pouting about how messy my house is.  I didn’t really set out to do Power Hour, per se.  It just sort of came upon me.  This is Day 3, and so far I am not thinking that it’s going to fizzle just yet.  This just might be one goal I can reach.  And at some point, I’ll probably end up hittin’ the Q-tips during Power Hour.

Our 2008 Tree

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I’ve always admired people who have a Christmas tree in every room.  I personally find it far too difficult and time-consuming to put up more than one tree, although I have been known to put up maybe one big tree and a couple of small ones.  After all, we don’t usually finish our tree until the day or two before Christmas.  We start early enough–don’t be mistaken.  The day after Thanksgiving, I’m usually banging my head on the attic rafters while the rest of the world risks being trampled to death in public places.  Bill drags out the Christmas decor (less and less each year, at my request), and we get the pre-lit tree put up and re-lit.  But we don’t always put the ornaments on it just yet.

This tradition started about three years ago when Hunter was just a wee one.  With a two-year-old and a vomiting baby, I just couldn’t bear the thought of decorating the tree with fancy ornaments and then roping it off with a baby gate, or, worse, leaving it out in the open and spending every waking minute scolding curious fingers.  And with Will being such a project-lover (where did he get that from?), I thought it would be a good idea if we spent our Christmas season at the table making indestructable Christmas tree ornaments.  Well, some of them are fairly destructable, but it that happens, we just plunk them in the trash can!  He absolutely loved the season of perpetual projects, and our tree became a source of great pride and joy for both of us.  When Christmas finally arrived, we could stand back and look at all of our handiwork, knowing we had done it all together.  It was wonderful, and Will had free reign over decorating the tree and touching it afterwards.

The next year, we actually downsized and put up only a 4 1/2 foot tree on top of the console table to keep Hunter’s mischievous little self out of it.  We did a mixture of the glass ornaments that Will adores and our handy dandy homemade ornaments.  Then in 2007, we went back to the big tree and filled it with all of the ornaments we had made two years prior, and the kids developed the neat little game of UNdecorating and REdecorating the tree.  All day, every day.  It was cool at first.  It gave them something to do together besides argue.  But then it just became one more mess for me to manage.  We decided to let that tradition fade right along with the construction paper chain.

So we come down to this year.  Will is in school, and man–that takes it out of us.  For a couple of minutes I even thought about leaving the big tree in the attic again.  Since we traveled to my parents for Thanksgiving (yes, 20 hours one way), we went ahead and got the tree up before turkey day and let it sit there dressed with nothing but lights for a couple of weeks.  I thought it was beautiful that way.  One day…

When we got home, I was faced with the big decision.  Do we put the glass ornaments and shoo the kids away all month? or try to salvage the handmade ones?  By this time, those original handmade ornaments weren’t looking too adorable any more.  We went for a happy medium, reusing the best of the old ones and making a bunch more new ones.  And what fun memories we’ve made in the process!  It started with an idea for a felt mitten garland I found in the Land of Nod catalog.  I bought a truckload of felt while on a fabric shopping trip an hour away, and one night I sat up until the wee hours cutting out twenty-something brightly-colored mitten shapes and coordinating stripes and shapes to decorate them with.  Then the kids and I spent Veteran’s Day gluing them together and then gluing buttons all over them.  I sewed on ribbon hangers and let them hang them all over the tree.

The only problem was that Will really likes the glitz and glamour.  Felt just doesn’t sparkle enough for him.  So I picked up a cheap box of shatterproof silver balls, half of them solid and half of them glittery, and together we tied red and green grosgrain ribbon on them for hangers.  Even after adding the bright red celophane lollipops we made in ‘05, the tree was still looking a bit bare.  So we took the plunge and started on a paper chain that took us all the way until yesterday to complete.  The whole family has been in on the process, and on any given day of the week, you might have found two or more of us sitting around sharing double-sided tape and strips of brightly-colored cardstock.  It was great fun.  For me and the kids anyway. 

Now our 2008 tree is completely finished, and I must say, it is our cutest one yet.  With all of the bright pinks and oranges, yellows and blues mixed with traditional red and lime green, it has a flavor all it’s own.  The best part about it is that it’s chock-full of memories from the precious little hands that made it.  I cry every other time I look at it, because I’m already sad about the gaping hole that will be left one day when the little hands have grown big and there’s noone here to cut and glue with me.  I know that raising young children is only for a season, and despite the hardships and challenges, what a joyful season it is.  I thank God every day for choosing to give me this joyous season of motherhood.  May our little felt mittens be a symbol of our praise as we lift our hearts and hands to worship the King of Kings this Christmas season.