Hodge Podge

I am so content right now.

My Love is in the other room, strumming his guitar and singing. I'm so grateful to be married to him...just because he is him.

And I...well, I am sitting in the living room. In the almost complete dark. Doing mostly nothing. And I love it.

My house is really close to being spotless. I'll have to run the vacuum over the carpet tomorrow morning, but that's become a daily necessity, what with having three dogs and the house on the market.

I worked my behind off today. I cleaned from something like 9:30am to 2:30pm. I ran one quick errand in the middle of that, to pick up flowers, 3M strips, and Mop-n-Glo. The house looks and smells amazing. If only it would stay that way. On its own.

Anyway, I'm planning on starting a new blog tomorrow. I won't be abandoning this one - just also having another blog - one that specifically focuses on my art. All of my life's happenings, updates, home projects, etc. will remain here. And I'll probably link back and forth between this one and the art blog...but I'm excited about starting it.

I need to get the ball rolling on my art stuff. I currently have a "wait list" of paintings. Five of them are paintings of Jesus, one is a floral painting for the guidance office at the school I used to work at, and I still need to schedule a time to complete the nursery I helped my friends with. I'm really excited about it all...and I have a lot more ideas for other projects, but I'm not permitting myself to start those until I complete these. So, I'm going to sit down with my planner tomorrow, and literally make art appointments...with myself.

I've been fairly stressed about finances lately. Let's face it, I've been stressed about finances my whole life...largely without reason...but sort of because that's the way I was raised. So, I'm hoping to not only start to truly invest in my life's passion, but also to make a little money on the side with it...we'll see how that goes. But, my idea is that I'll post something...not really sure what...but have at least one art project every other week. Hopefully more than that, but no less than one every two weeks. I'm hoping that will get my creative juices pumping, will land me with some opportunities, and will really just be fun!

Anyway, I'm just excited.

Things have been pretty rough lately, and I'm impressed by the amount of comfort I've gotten from having a clean house and a new plan.

Also, a small thing but a huge comfort was that we got a call from someone wanting to see the house yesterday.
Unfortunately, I had to turn them down...they were driving around in the area, and wanted to swing by pretty immediately, and I had just gotten my house back from having company, five days spent (3 adults, 1 child, and 3 dogs) almost entirely inside watching The Office while coping with colds, and a week and a half of family crisis time. There was no way I could have it ready in 10 minutes or less.
"So, how is that comforting?" you might be thinking.
It was comforting because, as far as house showings go...even though we haven't been doing this very long (this will be our fourth week having the house on the market), our experience has been that people want to see the house on Fridays or Saturdays. I was so disappointed on the 10th when nobody had called...and even further still when nobody called to schedule appointments for the 11th. But that's because I was completely unprepared for what was to follow: the death of my step-father-in-law. From that Friday to yesterday (our first full day without company or meetings, etc.), we had no phone calls at all about the house. Then, when it was the first time that we might feasibly have been available to show the house, I got a call. Granted, it didn't work out; but I couldn't help but feel like it was God reminding me that He is in control, and indeed had been providing me with exactly what I needed when I needed it, so that I would be able to be with and support my family during this hard time. I think that's pretty amazing.

That's all for now - when I've got my art blog up and running, I'll post a link to it.