Packing

Since the time we began preparing to move to England four years ago, packing has been a constant theme in my life.  But not just packing for a vacation or short trip.  Packing for me has involved making lots of decisions all at once about every single item in my house.  I've never read The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, but I've heard about it, and I feel like I've been through it except for me the categories have been:  give away, sell, store, or pack.  And having to make so many decisions like that in a short amount of time takes a toll on my brain's mental capacity.  Decision-making is not my strong suit.

The first time I went through this process I didn't think it was so bad.  I felt kind of glad for it.  I thought, "Everyone should do this once in their life."  It seemed like a good exercise in letting go of things, holding material possessions loosely.  And it was.  We arrived in England with eight suitcases:  clothes, toys, a few books, my good silverware, notebooks, homeschooling supplies, and snacks.  

When we moved into Capstick Cottage and unpacked our suitcases, the shelves felt bare, the new items I'd bought at IKEA unfamiliar, not really mine.  I learned firsthand what a character in Jan Karon's To Be Where You Are thought about the things that made up her life:  "How could people let go of their old things, when each told a part of their story?  Old things were a literature, a narrative."  In leaving behind most of my things, I felt a little un-moored from my life.  I no longer used the dishes bought for me by the women who surrounded me in my church as I grew up.  I no longer pulled the covers up over my head at night bought on a trip to Target with one of my first friends in Tuscaloosa.  I was no longer surrounded by the books from my childhood, old and dear friends.  Everything was new in my life, both outside the walls of my home and within.

Now, living where we did in England is the best place to live when you're in need of new possessions, pictures and plates and books to turn a house into a home.  Charity shops abound there.  And slowly my walls and bookshelves didn't look so bare anymore.  And with our last move that brought us to France and the smallest place we've ever lived as a family of four, we're surrounded by the new things that make up the newer chapters of our story:  books collected in Whitby and York, curtains bought at Wal-Mart on a trip home and carried across the Atlantic.  

Storage space is limited here so this week we're sorting again.  What do we want to give away?  What do we want to keep but can take back and store at our parents' houses?  We're really thankful our parents have opened up their homes to our possessions we didn't want to part with forever.  Maybe one day we'll part with some of those things, too, but for now, the favorite chair left at my mom's house tells a part of the narrative I don't want to part with yet, the chapter where an engaged 22-year-old me used my paycheck from Wal-Mart to purchase furniture for the home I looked forward to sharing with my soon-to-be husband.  Sometimes our possessions are like the stone Samuel laid called Ebenezer, "Thus far the LORD has helped us."  They call our minds back to times and places, provisions and graces.  And of course, "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens...a time to plant and a time to uproot...a time to keep and a time to throw away..."  It comforts my heart tremendously to know there is a time for everything.

And now it's time to start school and keep packing.

Perfect Timing

When I was in high school our church youth choir took a musical on tour that included choreography to go along with all the songs.  As I sat here thinking about God's perfect timing and provision over the past few weeks I found the words from one of the songs popping into my head.  And 19 years later I could still stand up and perform the moves, too.

"He's got perfect timing, He's never a moment too late.

He's got perfect timing no matter how long you must wait.

You think your life is on hold, but God is still in control.

And while you're biding your time, keep his promise in mind,

and be faithful to know who you are!" 

Shout-out to all my Arab FBC youth group peeps.  

But truly God's timing has been incredibly perfect this week!  We needed to move out of Gerald's apartment the last week in June, and the guest house we're moving to was emptied of furniture and a sink installed, along with plumbing for a washing machine just before that.  The very week the guest house was empty a team of college students from Missouri were scheduled to be in Paris ready to complete a service project for our church.  When K.J. contacted the moving company storing our belongings in England they said they could deliver the first week in July, just after the mission team left.  Great is his faithfulness in all these details.  

And how could we thank the team from Hannibal LaGrange University enough!  I now know more people from Missouri than I ever have before, and they were all such a joy to meet.  

If you follow me on Instagram you've already seen a few before and afters, but I thought I'd share the progress made here.

This is the biggest bedroom of two, which the kids will share.  I took this picture on our first visit to the house.

Our hostess's sons cleaned out furniture and packed away books.  K.J. and a friend pulled up the carpet one day, and the team sanded, stained, and varnished the wood floor, as well as cleaned, dusted, and touched up paint on the trim.  This week it looks like this, and it's just gorgeous.

I can't take my eyes off those floors.  It feels appropriate to thank the grand organizer of all this work again for providing all the plans and tools and materials.  Nicky, you are amazing!  This is the room that will soon be filled with Legos and school books.  

This room was being used as a guest room but is going to be our living room.  Furniture was cleared out, and carpet was removed, and look what we discovered under the carpet!

It's such fun tile, isn't it?  

The walls had a texture similar to stucco, but it was a lot pointier.  The team manually sanded it down making it a little less dangerous and a little easier to paint.

The light isn't good in this last picture, but we painted the walls and the trim white, and we'll probably spend the next month watching Netflix while we scrape old glue and such off the tile.  This room gets really good light when you open the shutters, and it will be our living room and most likely dining room, too.

The kitchen needed the most work, mostly because it didn't really exist as a kitchen!  The walls were covered with a fabric you can still see in the picture below.  K.J. and Ryan (who helped rip up the carpet) took it all down, and we scraped off two layers of wallpaper, plastered, and painted.  It was a great transformation!  

Day two, and things were looking better...

By the end of Day 3 it was looking much more like a kitchen!  The built-in cupboards got a fresh coat of paint as well as a little pop of color.

We plan to buy a stove to go to the left of the cabinets, and there is a refrigerator to the left of that space.  I forgot to take a picture of it.  Another kind provision from the Lord was buying a fridge, washer, dryer, and microwave from one British family moving back to the U.K.  It was a bargain and we got it all in one place.

We got word today that the moving company will be arriving at 9 a.m. tomorrow morning, so the next pictures will be boxes everywhere.  Woo-hoo!!