Home

Just read a lovely description of the Barn House, and as I sit here on day five of the flu, I am trying to remember to appreciate our home. I slept fitfully last night as I heard the wind literally whipping the icy snow across the expanse of the back yards on our block. It sounded ominous, and a few bangs shook me from sleep...likely sticks carried by the winds and slammed into an exterior wall. Yet as I listened I was wrapped in a layer of sheet, Hudson Bay wool blanket and quilt, still warm and blessed.

At one point I stood at the bedroom window that overlooks the woods, and as I contemplated the moonlit bleak midwinter wind storm, a small rabbit flew across our yard from the woods, right into our garden gate. It was truly a mad dash -- 'quick as a bunny' holds new meaning. Between the coyotes in the woods and the wind whipping over the flat expanse of yard, this bunny wisely chose not to meander!

Making my way to the living room windows, I hoped to see what shelter our little visitor had found. 60 degrees ago (in 7 hours we went from 47 degrees to negative 10) I had filled the flat screen of the bird feeder, and sure enough, the bunny was scavenging for the fallen seed now frozen to the ground. So what is it about a mother's heart that feels for every living thing?! I am so pathetically predictable. Within minutes, flu-filled-me opened the kitchen patio door, took a few steps onto the tundra, and tossed her some fresh carrots. Having done what I could to be hospitable, I hopped quickly back to my nest of blankets.

This morning, amid the nose prints in the snow (yes, she foraged with her little snout) there's still one frozen carrot. Today must be too frigid for even the pesky rats with bushy tails squirrels to be out, and so that one carrot treasure remains. Perhaps my doe will be back!

I'm so blessed to have a warm home. This home. In the seven months we've lived here I've fallen more in love with this place, and become more sure it's exactly where God planted us. And yet we've had the disappointing homeowner discoveries that come with a 31 year old house. Each season has shown us new headaches. Sigh...this house ain't perfect either! And somehow five days of the flu has reinforced the "things I see from the couch that need doing" more than anything else.

Reading this morning about how Rachel Anne has accepted her Barn House's quirks has helped to refocus my perspective. I need to appreciate the positives, not the least of which is living on a parkway. There's nothing but acres of woodland preserve behind us, even though we live just five minutes from Starbucks. We're on this odd finger of a street that points south and ends in our cul de sac, allowing us city access and wooded privacy. The private vista is truly a balm to my soul.

So today I will try to calm the perfectionist within. I'll soak in the sun that floods through our living room's wall of south facing windows even on this, the coldest of mornings. I'll spend five minutes here and there wiping and freshening as I venture off my sick bed, taking back my rightful spot OFF the couch. I'll remind myself of the home's many lovely features, and I'll list the to do's, both small and large.

Thank you Rachel Anne, for sharing about your acceptance of life as it is, and of your delightful, quirky, not perfect home. I guess I'm a Company Girl too. I need a friend to point out the blessings to me, and to throw me some carrots on this cold, still-sick morning.