Homeward Bound

This boy is on his way home. Late Friday night we got a text message from our son that he was a couple hours from getting on the plane. There are no words to really describe how happy we all are. Except for 2 weeks mid tour, he's been gone for nearly a year now. It's been a very rough deployment in the moutains in the eastern part of Afghanistan on the border of  Pakistan. We don't any us talk about it much. We've just been looking to that day when we hear that he'll be home safe and sound.

The other emotion I feel deeply is relief. His last mission was brutal. They lost 6 soldiers and had 15 medevaced out with injuries. He's a medic and I know how this effects him deep in the core of his being. But I also know how strong he is and that time heals when you have the strength to face your memories.

Sometimes, I feel shame at my happiness. My son is coming home. Other sons and daughters are not. I know this is a normal feeling. I know other mother's who have felt it. The feeling will pass.  

I feel enormous pride in this son of mine. He's chosen a path that I would not have chosen for him. But it is his path and he has walked it with pride doing a job that not many would do. He's done it well. He's good medic and a good soldier.

I feel blessed.

Mostly, I feel this almost overwhelming love.

Home Sweet Home

This is it. The new house. We got word this week that our offer was accepted. I fell in love with this house the moment I walked up the front walk. On the left there is a dog wood blooming and in front of the house is a red bud tree. My absolute favourite trees because they are among the first signs that spring is here.  It was like they were welcoming us home.

This is the newest house we'll have ever lived in. She was built in 1939 and is on the historic regester in a street of houses all in a historic district.  She started life as a parsonage and is pretty good sized with 4 bedrooms. I rather like that the cultural significance of the district is that it was built as a middle class housing alternative. Most of the homes in this street were built in the 1920's and 1930's and they are all different from each other. Some rather grand and others more modest, like ours.

Let me show you around. The front door opens into a small foyer with an original light fixture overhead. You can see the fourth bedroom at the back. The rest are upstairs. I'm not sure how well the dogs will like the stairs but I love having the bedrooms upstairs. The carpet on the stairs is going. It is ugly, worn out, and just too hard to clean. Those shelves you see in the fourth bedroom are going too. Have pry bar, will wreck.

At last, another working fireplace in the living room. I've missed the fireplace in our Melbourne house. We spent so many cold winter nights gathered around the open fire. It's nice to think that we'll be able to that again.

Yes, those are powder blue bench tops in the kitchen. They have got to go. But for now we have made a promise to each other that there will be no renovation for a year. Except for those shelves in the bedroom. They have to go right now because they are in the way of anything we might put in that room.

We are serial renovators and we are tired. We'll live with the house for a while. Get to know her a little better and let her tell us what she needs. I know that sounds weird but I do think that houses can speak to you if you open up to listening.

This is probably my favourite part of the house. The studio! I walked into this room and said, 'this is mine.' It's a great huge back porch that's been enclosed and had heating and cooling added to it. There are windows on three sides. So much light. The carpet will go. We have no idea what's under there but carpet just isn't going to work for me.

I'm not sure how I will deal with the distraction of the view from the studio. This is the back garden. It's so green out there. If you've ever been to West Texas, you'll know just how distracting all that green might be. It's calling to me. Come plant flowers here. Why not some tomatoes here?

Have a great weekend! I'll be dreaming of the new studio while I start to pack up the old one.

BTW

The last time I posted a Bead Table Wednesday, oh so long ago, I showed you that bronze bead in the center of this bangle. Maybe it wasn't a BTW but it may well have been the last time you saw anything from my studio.  In fact today was the first time I've actually seen my studio in weeks. Each day this week I've gotten up full of energy to get in there and do something. Each day another more immediate need related to the whole moving, renting the house, other stuff has pushed me off course.  So that bangle up there is still waiting for me to finish the patina on the wire. Tomorrow, maybe tomorrow.

Sadly, this is the actual state of my bead table. It's a tiny portion of it. The rest is worse. The bangle is sitting there in a little tray of to do later things. Tomorrow. Absolutely nothing can interfere tomorrow. Right?

Thanks so much for all of your well wishes about the upcoming move. And especially, a big thanks about the old Bob dog. Yesterday, he actually hopped into the car in a very spritely way so that he could go visit his good friend Dianne at the vet's office. He loves the vet and all of those many new meds he's on seem to be making a difference.

2 countries, 5 cities, 9 houses

 That's the number of  moves Peter and I have made over the last 24 years. It's a lot. It seems like such a short time. And, we are about to do it again. While I was away last month, Peter accepted a position at High Point University. So it's off to North Carolina in June.

So if you were wondering just where I had disapeared to, let me give you a little recap of the last couple of weeks.

Painted 2 bedrooms
Painted front door
Caulked crown molding in 3 rooms
Regrouted the tile in one bathroom
Cleared the garage
Spruced up the back yard
Had the exterior trim repaired and painted
Packed books
Put house under management with a real estate company
Cleaned, and cleaned, and cleaned again

Did zero studio work and that makes me a little cranky. But in fact I am a little too exhausted to be very cranky.

Oh, and we made a house hunting trip to North Carolina. Offer is in on one and now I am holding my breath waiting to see what happens.

And I've spent a little time feeling sad. My old boy Bob has just been diagnosed with congestive heart failure and pretty advanced arthritis in his spine. He's been spending a lot of time on the deck watching spring unfold in the back garden. But all in all, he's doing pretty well for an 11 year old. He still loves snuggles and ear scratches and he still chases his ball. He just does it all a little more slowly these days.

Looking Up

Thank you all for your support and words of comfort. The story is not mine to tell but all is well. I've just come back from nearly 3 weeks with my daughter in law and grand daughter. We spent two days packing, two days travelling, and another two days unpacking in the big move to Ft Campbell.

It was my absolute pleasure and delight to see the world through the eyes of a 3 year old. Lying on your back looking up through an oak tree with the promise of spring in its green leaf buds takes on a whole new meaning when you do that with a toddler. Life is good. Life holds magic.

Being 3 years old is serious business when you get out the side walk chalk. There is no thought of colouring outside the lines. You just make your mark. You do it with no preconceived notion of how it is supposed to be.

Kicking a ball is an experience of wild abandon. Your whole body is involved, your arms pin wheel, you jump, you fly!

Going down the twisty slide is sometimes best in the arms of your mother. Life is absolutely packed with newness and beauty. I hope I can hold onto this. Because being three is magic.

We've got the 'girls' settled into their new home. All that's missing now is Daddy. He should be home from Afghanistan in a month. Me? I feel so priviliged to be part of this lovely family. I miss them so much and it has only been a little more than a day since I left.

I'm slowly getting back into the swing of things here at home. Many ideas, many changes of our own on the horizon.

Thank you all for being there! I'll be catching up with you over the next couple of days.

Sometimes the best thing for your heart is a break

Sometimes our hearts can only accomodate so much and we need to focus on the things that are most important for our emotional and spiritual health. Our family is going through something of a crisis right now. Things that will work out in time, things will be good when we sail through these rough seas. For me that means taking time away from this blog for a couple of weeks while I hold onto the people I love the most in this world.

We've circled ourselves in love, this small family of mine. We will be all right. We just don't know how things will unfold. So for now, the most important thing for me is to focus all of my heart on my family.

Thank you all for being with me on this blog. I do so hope you will join me again when I am back.

Kindness and hugs

BTW - A nearly clean slate!

Heather Powers of Humble Beads, created this wonderful idea of showing what's on your bead table on Wednesdays.  These are bronze pieces I just pulled out of the kiln late last night. They've been tumbled and are patiently waiting for me to come in and put patina and other goodness on them to make them all shiny and pretty.

Often late to the party, this is my first time posting my bead table. But I have a very good excuse. Until Sunday night I couldn't actually see my bead table because it was shockingly buried in piles of things that the chaos creator in me refused to acknowledge as an unsightly disgraceful mess.

I spent much of Saturday and all day Sunday sorting, organizing, cleaning and generally grumbling to myself that I should do this more often. Like clean up after myself every day. Look at that would you. Vast expanses of useable space! A virtual paradise of tidiness. It's a clean slate and I vow to keep it this way. I've even picked up after myself 2 days in a row. Mum would be so proud.

This is the piece that came out of the kiln that I am most pleased about. (Never mind the carbon buried under my thumb nail) It's a bead that did not collapse. Yeah! Now if I could just get the shot from the tumbler out of it so it's more of bead than a rattle, life would be nearly complete.

Happy Wednesday!

What's on your bead table?