Don't pass up a "sign"

The question was asked "Would you ever consider living in the best kept secret in Southern Indiana"?  "Oh, I don't know...we do have some new found family there...maybe if the opportunity presents itself in the future." Yeah, in the future.

A drive down a country road on a Sunday evening, after visiting the patriarch of the new found family, an old Victorian farmhouse almost literally jumped out onto the road waving its fresh " for sale " sign in front of the car. First glance...oh my..should we turn around? Oh, I don't want to be tempted. Turn around anyway. Looks empty...well don't go up to the window, this is the country and someone could be inside.

Curiosity was even more peaked after checking it out on the internet. WHAT?.. this price can't possibly be right? Lunch time on Monday the call was made to the realtor, even though it said sale pending. She confirmed it was a pending sale, but knew it wouldn't go through, but, she said, if it would, we'll find another house for you. I said," Well, we're not really looking but can you let us know if it falls through? We won't be retiring for another few years....but we really want it. By the way, no one was murdered in it, were they..because of the cheap price?" "No, she  chuckled, and you can verify that with your cousins down here. It's a foreclosure."

That was June 28, 2015. By August 14, 2015 it was ours. Houses pick their owners..you don't pick them, she said.

 A few things to take care of..new furnace, well pressure tank and new water heater and lots of help from the cousins with the long neglected acre of landscaping. Other than that, dusting and polishing and it was move in ready! Fresh air, bean and cornfields surrounding us and the clip clop of the Amish horses and carts traveling up and down the roads all around us.

Wonderful way to spend the weekends....no tv, no internet, just the sunrises and sunsets, planting and harvesting and the company of each other. Doesn't get better than this! Yeah, we'll retire sooner..never had a plan...plans were made for us. 

A Tiny Tree Christmas

My Summer Reading List Wish

I can't remember last year's summer.  The winter took on toll on my memory...selective memory is not what I would call it...just too much winter that snowed out the warm remembrances.  This summer it is cool...cooler than it has been since 1883, before my grandparents were even born...so the weatherman recounts.  I should be walking during my lunch breaks, but I miss reading.  A few summers ago I had lots of time off...not by my wishes, but I did fill those long hours with reading everything I could find.  This year, guilty of not taking my healthful walks, I have decided to exercise my brain with classic books and tales from children's literature.  I found scads of books adapted for children of reading and understanding age at a department store in the dollar section.  Perfect luncheon reading at an affordable price.  I didn't realize until I delved into two of the books that I either hadn't really read them as a child, although they were on the shelf, or that I did not really read them completely through.  What insight these authors had of the social psyche, the proper way to show kindness and consideration of friendship versus anger and greed and jealousy.  Very inspiring to me at my age and oh so impressive to young people.  I do hope young people still read books...good books, books that make them think and understand the world. Not the hyped media world.
 I will keep these books for my granddaughter so that she will read them and be impressed on being a kind, thoughtful, intelligent person.  This is my Summer Reading Wish.  

Today is such a pleasant day to sit in the swing outside and read and take a nap and feed my squirrels who are scampering all about. The sunlight is filtering through the overcast sky and I enjoy feeding my little furry friends. They usually take the peanut out of my hand but since I wanted to nap, I put a pile of peanuts on the ground for them. I dozed and had a wonderful dream of being in another country..somewhere in the world...and sitting down to dine with great companions and an interpreter, whom I don't know in life but I did in the dream and just as the dream was really getting good, I was awakened by a squirrel jumping on my lap! I guess the pile of peanuts ran out.

uts ran out.

Summer is here.  I think I can finally take my gloves and ear muffs out of my bag that I carry every day now.  It was touch and go for awhile, here in Mid Indiana.  Just a couple Mondays ago it got cold again. Cold to me is 60 degrees.  I have noticed lots of songs on the radio about Summer the past two days..new songs...strolling songs.  That must signify people are ready for summer if they are putting songs about summer on new music albums.  Summer inspires me to just sit in the swing outside and read the weekend away.  I have a habit of re-reading all my favorite books.  I might introduce a new book to my mind but I love my book-repeat the best because I get the same warm, fuzzy feelings over and over again.  I love sitting outside in my swing and being entertained by my furry friends.  I'll nap a bit and I'll find that my squirrels will also lie in the branches of the tree across from me and nap a little too. Sometimes I read aloud to them.  They seem to enjoy it.

  What a summer comfort.

Time Traveller

Time Traveller

I am a time voyager...I travel almost every day, researching family lines. The past..why do I search? Perhaps it holds truths to the present and future. I wonder about the people that ate off the antique plates and stirred with the spoons that are stored in my cupboards ~I wonder about the lips that have touched the glasses and cups that I use every day~ I strain to listen, hoping to catch a faint ghostly uttering of what was discussed over the mashed potatoes and gravy boat so long ago. I wonder if the creak I hear in this old chair is the same creak my great grandmother heard under her long, black skirt or if she found the tick tock of her old kitchen mantel clock as soothing as I do. I wonder about how it felt to live in that big old farmhouse when it was first built and I realize that nothing in these old trunks smelled musty when they were newly tucked away. It makes me long for the past~ to briefly be in the presence of my ancestors~just for a little while to get the feel of their lives. Did they ever wonder about me? I feel I know them~I stare at their photos, I lie awake at night and imagine them moving about in their daily lives. I search through old photos and hope that I will perhaps someday have a revelation about the identity of the nameless faces that have been kept boxed for over 100 years. Many long hours are spent endlessly researching with cousins and newly found friends as we passionately seek the secrets of our family ties..some things we find we just keep to ourselves...too complicated to tell the others~too hurtful to tell some~relationships too overwhelmingly complex to share in a short email with relatives that just don't have the time to take it all in. And then there are some stories that are just truly myths, but have been so believed for so long that we will never have the heart to dispel. Yes, I travel to the past in my mind.

I was just in the kitchen...preparing pork chops and surprised myself by saying outloud.."I don't want to buy any more presents" and then I felt guilty.. I want to give when I want to give, not just because it's expected of me or if I leave someone out...I feel selfish and lazy. It is often said that it is ONE day, it should be a celebration of Christ's birth, but it starts up in October and doesn't end till the New Year... this hubbub madness of gift giving.  I want to enjoy the sleepiness of the winter like nature does, folding into itself and enjoying an inner calm and nesting in to do meaningful reading and researching genealogy...things that are more difficult when intertwined with spring and summer. I want to enjoy my grown children in their homes and savor their hospitality and listen to their experiences that I haven't gotten to enjoy for so many years.  I want to give them gifts or shop in out of the way places with them on wintry days and then go back to their houses and enjoy a warm meal together.  I want to feel the coziness much more than stride through the throngs of people madly rushing and complaining about how busy and tired they are because they are driven to outdo another Christmas past.