STUFF

STUFF:
It was everywhere!!! My dad certainly had it all in check when he noted all the JUNK we had gathered up and instead of complaining about it, just commented, "Wow. You guys are really blessed, aren't you?"

Uh.... yeah. We are blessed. Our whole front porch was covered with STUFF and the house was still busting at the seams with more! We had a moving sale and that helped considerably. But, when we looked around after it was over, we couldn't believe how much more there was to find a home!
















This was the last view that I saw of the house on Black Cherry Lane before we pulled out of the drive way. The Penske truck was full, from the front to the back and from the top to the bottom. My brother, Mike, took a few days off and brought his dump Sterling and a trailer, too. My other sister, Cathy, and my dad and his friend, Deane, came up and helped box stuff up. We definitely appreciate their help with getting all of our STUFF in tow to bring down to the land of giant mosquitoes.


I just love catching my family in the act of working. This is my brother. I thought it funny that we had so many board games that he had to use a handtruck to get them to the truck! Hmmmmm..... STUFF? Yeah, we got some.
















I am pretty sad about one thing: my piano. It's sitting in storage right now. I love playing it and am really missing playing with Exitup at church. Plus, the kids, especially KT, like to sit and piddle with it. Hopefully it won't be long and we can get it back out. My piano is not considered "STUFF". It is a must-have.
Well, after "having been there, done that", I have come to the conclusion that there is a fine art to the tedious chore of moving. The last time we moved, I don't remember having so much STUFF. However, we were moving from a singlewide into a 3800 square foot house. Now we are in a house 1/3 the size of that house and I guess we had somehow just accumulated a bunch of needless paraphernalia. We are considering a "little move" (is that even possible) from this house to one on White Lake with more space. I know that I would enjoy it once we got there, but the thoughts of picking up all our junk one more time (albeit it's not near as much as what we've handled moving from the mountains) just makes me sigh.....



I must admit, looking at some of these photos this morning has made me a little homesick. These are pics from our house in the mountains on Black Cherry Lane. We shared many wonderful times there with both family and friends. But, since my mother went Home in 2005, a realization has come over me: the memories are not in the physical things that cause you to remember, they are in your heart. So, I have begun taking pictures like a mad woman (as if I didn't before!) and I'm trying not to keep a bunch of STUFF that I know I'll never use. Anyway, I'm glad I took a few photos before we began taking everything apart to put in a box. Yes, I would like to have the space associated with our mountain home down here..... Yes, I do miss it.



However, I have already noticed a change in our family atmosphere after only 2 weeks. We are already drawing closer together. I guess that comes from not having too much space to spread out in. And yeah, it's a good thing.......

















The boys had quite a nice room. Both enjoy Spiderman a lot, and Joseph took all the cool Spiderman wallies off the wall before we left. I thought he would take them with him, but he decided to give them to his cousin, Chase (one of his big buddies in the mountains).




Needless to say, most of their toys have either been sold, given away, or boxed up. There is just not enough room in this little house for lots of STUFF.

Although our house was not directly ON Glade Valley Road, this is the main road that you use to get to our old house. Katie snapped this picture just as we were pulling out with the moving van. Yeah, there were a few tears and a whole lot of silence in the van as we left that day two weeks ago, but it has already proven to be what we know we are supposed to do. God has already shown Himself faithful in our new life here and I wouldn't change our decision if I could. ETown is a neat place to live and I can't wait to see how He plans on using us here.

In the meantime, we are learning to live without so much STUFF. And actually, I'm making it just fine. As a matter of fact, I kind of like it.......

To be continued.......