Things I’ve Learned About Myself

Things I’ve learned about myself since April of this year. Let me backtrack for just a minute . . .

This homestead journey began a while ago with a little bitty plan that quickly morphed into what we have today. And within the last two months I have learned that I am capable of a great many things. In retrospect, some of these things I’ve done before simply because my husband is a traveling man but hey, I’m taking credit for the knowing and the doing.

We are just one week out from getting our house in Georgia on the market so these things are still pretty fresh in my mind. Why is this a big deal? Because in the process of getting the house ready to go on the market my hubby had to go to work at least 3 days a week out of 3 different weeks. Therefore the “doing” landed on me and our oldest son Isaiah (thank God he is 17 and built like a sturdy brick house).

So in the last three months here are a few things I’ve learned and/or done:

• Drywall mudding
• Drywall patching
• Drywall sanding
• Painted walls
• Taped for painting
• House wall painting
• House ceiling painting
• House trim painting (all of it – window, door, floorboards)
• Cleaned/Trashed out house
• Helped load trailer with trash
• Went to county dump transfer station and helped throw trash/junk out
• Found more drywall holes, repaired
• Touched up wall paint
• House porch painting
• Laying floor tile
• Scrapping mud off of said tiles
• Washing off said tiles
• Mixing tile grout (finding just the right texture)
• Found more drywall holes, repaired
• Touched up wall, again
• Putting in tile grout
• Cleaning tile grout
• Caulking tile
• Caulking trim
• Cleaned/Trashed out house, again
• Helped load trailer with trash, again
• Went to county dump transfer station and helped throw trash/junk out, again
• Scrubbed ceiling fan blades
• Replaced ceiling fan blades
• Replaced light bulbs
• Replaced light fixture globes
• Installed smoke detectors (the hardwired kind)
• Replaced a toilet seat
• Helped install a stair handrail
• Learned that a pumice stone will remove hard water stains from toilets
• Found more drywall issues, repaired
• Touched up paint, again
• Cleaned/Trashed out house, again
• Helped load trailer with trash, again
• Went to county dump transfer station and helped throw trash/junk out, again (my Lord, who knew we had so much stuff!)
• Removing and Replacing all outlet covers
• Bought screws for replacing outlet covers (I honestly didn’t know you could JUST buy little screws for outlet covers!)
• Vacuumed new carpet
• Bought sanded caulk that is for tiles
• Painted all of the kick plates for the front stairs
• Cleaned windows inside and outside
• Planted flowers
• Carried gigantic bags of mulch and top soil
• Threw mulch
• Picked weeds
• Threw top soil
• Threw grass seed
• Gathered downed tree branches and moved them to the back of our yard
• Laid paver stones for back walkway
• Cleaned/Trashed out house, again
• Helped load trailer with trash, again
• Went to county dump transfer station and helped throw trash/junk out, again (seriously!)
• Helped with wooden fence board replacements
• Helped with installation of new fence gates
• Helped with back patio stair repairs
• Helped with the moving of our washer and dryer, refrigerators, living room furniture
• Packed an entire house (2,300 sq feet) in 4 weeks (kids did their rooms, hubby did his office area and closet)
• Picked up lunch for myself, hubby, kiddos, and others almost EVERYDAY for a month
• Had some weird requests for my subdivision neighbors – needed an iron to use on hubby’s work shirt
• Shopped at Home Depot ALONE and INTENTIONALLY more than 5 times
• Cleaned my house so well that the place looks brand new even after almost 13 years
• Cleaned/Trashed out house and hubby’s garage, again, for the final time
• Helped load trailer with trash, again, for the final time
• Went to county dump transfer station and helped throw trash/junk out, again (Thank God for the LAST time!)
• Moved my entire family into a 31 foot 5th wheel trailer
• Traveled back and forth (1 hour and 15 minutes one way) between the land and the GA house almost everyday
• Learned how to dump the grey tank and the black tank on the trailer
• Found rat droppings and rat urine in the 5th wheel trailer under my kitchen sink and DIDN’T freak out completely (cleaned up said mess, laid traps, and have yet to see anything else. Thank the good Lord above!)
• Learning to live on limited internet service
• Lived without electricity already from a really bad storm here in Alabama for 54 hours
• Learned how to get our generator started after running out of gas
• Fixed the well water pump when said electricity went out
• Lost (and found) our dogs at the land because they went for an unscheduled and unsupervised walk
• Prayed more since I’ve been living here because we had to drive back and forth the the house in GA so many times.
• Learned that my kids do better if Mama is around more often than not
• Learned that I will be content to NEVER eat out for a very long time (so sick of fast food!)
• Learned that even though it is time consuming, home cooked meals simply taste better
• I learned that no matter how hard I try, life is all laid out as God has planned, and I might as well let Him be in charge, it’s too stressful otherwise.

This list is still small considering ALL of the things that I did, saw, learned, and completed in the last 90 days.

Listen, if you are planning on moving ANY TIME soon, heed this piece of advice. Throw out stuff as you go, don’t keep it. Seriously. This means clothing too. You simply don’t need all of the things. We now live with less and only run over to the big house or the spare shipping container if we absolutely need something we don’t already have in the trailer.

So, this is just a peek at what life has been like these last few months. As soon as we get the house in GA sold, then the work will begin on our shipping container house. Which is partially done but needs way more before it would be considered “move-in ready”.

Praying the Lord finds favor with us and allows the house in GA to move quickly to the right person. And that hubby and I will be listening for His voice and wisdom as we wait.

In His Grace,

Callie