The Dead Squirrel And Another Vintage House.

                                "For there is a time and a way for everything..."   ... Ecclesiastes 8:6


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So on Friday evening I stepped outside the front door, glanced at the street and saw a dead squirrel. Darn. He probably fell from a tree. 

Now, I'm not a huge fan of squirrels, myself, but Neighbor Sally is (she feeds them) and her heart would be broken to glimpse the little guy.

Mentioning this fact to Tom (and how no way would I stand for a dead squirrel being thrown into our garbage can), he suggested the local 7-11 trash receptacle which I considered a brilliant idea. 

He took care of it and you know? Just two minutes after Tom drove away, Sally and her family pulled up at that same street spot to unload groceries. Wow. I thanked God for nudging my sweet husband with perfect timing and thus saving Sally from heart break. 

A simple evening miracle, I'm thinking.



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God's timing-- it's always perfect.


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Then on Saturday I (again) totally lost my heart to an estate sale house.

Now, they're asking only $69,000 and from the outside it looked sad:

But on the inside it looked like this (from a random photo online):

... only more untouched-vintage-like. The kitchen cabinets sat more at this end and the eat-in area had cooler windows on two sides. Oh! And the pantry closet--yellow walls with little apple-green shelves curved at the walls' corners, even. There was also a formal dining room.

The upstairs' railing resembled this (but had another set of rails):

... with a linen closet like this:

 The three bedrooms resembled this:

(One had a huge walk-in closet, like a small sitting room, actually.)

The bathroom was like this:

And ol' Debra walked through that house like this:

Oh. My. Goodness! 

Days later, my heart still hasn't even slipped back into place.

Yet the house has four huge deal breakers going against it. Four! (Usually houses I love have one, perhaps two.) 

So life goes on here at Hobbit Cottage where I need to more creatively seek ways to make its rooms do that catapult-you-back-in-Time thing that I love so much.

You know, while still remaining contented like this:

"When we’re discontent, it dishonors God. We’re so focused on what we want that we take for granted what we have. Being content doesn’t mean we don’t want change, we just settle where we are, or give up on our dreams. It means we’re in trusting God’s timing."  ... Joel Osteen

Oh dear. May I always be grateful for what I already have.

Amen.

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And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”   ...Luke 12:15

"I once read an essay about a woman who spent an entire day simply looking at what she had, really seeing all the things she'd put in her house. I was as guilty as anyone else of buying books I never read, of rushing through days without ever looking up, of taking for granted things for which I should give thanks every day. Who appreciated their good health until they lost it? Who said grace? Who read to their children before bed without one eye on the clock, despairing of all they had to do before they themselves could sleep? Who engaged cashiers in grocery stores in conversations? Everyone seemed in a blind hurry, and there was no relief in sight."   

   ... From The Year of Pleasures by Elizabeth Berg

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My weekend yard sale book finds:

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It's lilac time!