We have exchanged contracts this afternoon and completion is agreed. Such good news. No going back now!
It’s been a funny day, full of all sorts of emotions including joy and laughter but also tears and kicking and screaming (and that’s just me haha), we’ve started soaking the fruit for a Christmas cake (my first one I’ve ever made).
Good old Mary Berry. J is very interested in it. He likes cooking and baking.
I’ve also been looking into simpler ways of cleaning the house and clothes, washing up, shampoo etc. As in using household products like vinegar, lemon juice and bicarbonate. Also, traditional soap flakes and Epsom salts for various things. I’m not that genned up yet but I will be. It really interests me. One reason is that we will have a septic tank which we want to look after (which is new to us), but also, I seem to be getting more allergy prone with an itchy mouth and nose quite frequently, so want to go back to basics. I’m terrible when dust is disturbed, so have to damp dust and need to do it a bit more frequently! I also want to try to reduce the amount of plastics we use and live more frugally.
Chris finishes work tomorrow, then we’re out for a meal with our church community group. Then Chris’s eldest is coming for the weekend, which we are looking forward to. I’ve spoken to my eldest today, who is still in LA at the moment and it was lovely. Bittersweet in some ways because when she gets back we will have gone, but we’re not that far away and her dad and my family still live locally.
onwards and upwards!
Everything seems to be working out at exactly the right times. #inGodwetrust
Gods promises never fail and one promise is that he will never leave us nor forsake us. (Deuteronomy 31:6 and Hebrews 13:5). That is why I trust Him with what we do and where we go. God is in charge and wherever we go we trust ourselves to Him.
where to begin?! Get to the point I suppose. Well we are completing on the seventh of December on our house and hopefully moving straight to Ireland.
We’ve signed the contracts on both houses and arranged a removals firm for two days before completion (it can take between 7 and 28 days to get your stuff!) this is because there are usually multiple house moves on the same lorry and they travel around dropping each persons belongings off in turn. We will know more about how long it is likely to be nearer to the time.
So we will have to take a few things with us, like air beds, travel cot, bedding, thankfully we are taking the trailer which has most of our camping stuff in it, so we will have some cutlery, plates etc and the camping cooker if necessary. Oh yes, and warm clothes.
We are moving (in December) to a cottage on a field that thankfully has running water (but no hot unless the fire is running) and Chris needs to check that out before we use it. It currently has no shower or bath, no cooker, no kitchen really haha, wooden framed glass windows, damp…! But it does have a roof and walls and 2 fires and 3 radiators (providing the back boiler is ok), a toilet and sink and a Belfast sink in the kitchen. It should be a real first for us! Camping in December! We are really looking forward to it.
We need to book the ferry now, and then carry on boxing up and letting whoever we need to know we’re moving. I have a long list… I do like lists though, you can scroll a line through what you’ve done – very satisfying!
So we have today accepted an offer on our home. It’s a cash offer too so it could potentially go through quite quickly providing no major problems pop up along the way..REALLY hoping this. Please may there be nothing major…
Mixed emotions…
Excited for the future and our journey and what God has in store and also know it’s time to move on. But this has also been my home for the past 13 years, the first 8 were just me and my daughter doing life together. It was our safe place, we’d moved around quite a few different houses and this was the one Tasha said she didn’t want to leave. When I first started nursing, I used to do a week of nights once a month and so she had to virtually live somewhere else for a week every month and she started to hate it. She wanted some stability I think. So we moved here when she was ten and I went on the district rather than doing hospital nursing. It seems so long ago, but it’s not really. So much has changed in that time. I made so many mistakes, we had some rough times but we also had some lovely times. I really love my daughter, she lives in London now and I am very proud of her. She cares about justice, she always has, since being a little girl. She’s incredibly talented and vulnerable and raw.
I was saved in this house, when I was 34, ten years ago. So I was healed from alcoholism and smoking here, amongst other things, by Jesus.
Tasha grew up here, she worked hard and worried me by going out on midnight walks when she was an older teenager. I confused Tasha here by being saved, she got good marks despite having pink hair (and me being saved 😁) and went to Uni in London to study Art, a month before Chris and I got married. She did amazingly well at uni and is now doing her masters.
I was in terrible debt here, debt which got paid off thanks to CAP. CAP do amazing work. The debt was paid off about a month or so before getting married. That was a prayer answered, we did not want to go into marriage in debt and we didn’t.
Chris and I met whilst I was here and got married, we didn’t move in together until after we were married. That is a miracle in itself given our backgrounds. God changes us so much and so much for the better. He makes us new.
We had a miscarriage here, a miscarriage I didn’t understand, I felt in full faith for God to restore the beating heart in my womb, for it to show up on the second scan a week after losing the baby. But he didn’t. But he did heal me, heal my womb and give us more babies.
I gave up my nursing here, I gave it up to look after my babies, Because being there with them and for them is really important to me, especially after doing my nurse training whilst Tasha was little, I later felt like her childhood was far too rushed – got to get here, got to get there. But I also gave it up because although I loved actual nursing, I was sick of the rubbish associated with it and burnt out. I didn’t want to go back but am now starting to feel almost ready… Not quite though… It’s a while before Ira goes to school.
I gave birth to my first boy at home by accident because I didn’t get to the hospital in time. We didn’t even get out of the front door. It was great and very very special. We got to stay at home. (I say by accident, I originally wanted a home birth and was persuaded otherwise, so thanks God for giving us what we had asked for 🙂 )
I gave birth to my second boy here, in a planned home birth. Not one the midwives were keen on because of my age and because they thought he was a big baby. It was fast and he was born well but I worried the neighbours because i was taken into hospital in an ambulance for monitoring because of blood loss. It was very exciting for me – I think I was high on hormones.
We got an allotment here, which was a God thing… I asked God what I should do and He said get an allotment, we got our chickens here – which I have loved.
So!! You get the picture… A lot of stuff has happened, much much more than I’ve put here…God has done absolutely loads of good stuff in my/our lives. Rubbish has also happened but that is not of God. I have screamed at Him here, cried with Him, begged Him for help here, laughed, worshipped, got rid of demons here. Came to life here!!!! Learnt from Him (or not) here.
But it is time to leave. It’s time for us to bless this place and move on. Memories intact. And all our family will always have a place with us wherever we live. That includes George, Chris’ eldest son as well as Tash. Love you Tash.
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sorry/not sorry. Love these pictures. Byeeeeeeeeee for now.
I feel like I need to talk about Chris. ” an ode to Chris” ❤️
I haven’t always been and am often not what I would call a good wife, it’s been a steep learning curve on how to share my life, how to give rather than take, what it means to love and be with someone and it’s one I’m nowhere near skilled at yet. But you know what, this is for keeps, we made a promise to each other and to God when we got married and I think if we always act from this perspective then in the long run all will be well.
I’m not always good at showing respect, I’m impatient, I expect my needs met rather than looking to what my role should be and how to love others well. And I think God is often prompting me in a kind and gentle manner saying “listen” “watch” “don’t react quite so quickly”, and I think He Says “first and foremost you are mine”, “look at me first”. I love psalm 27:8 – you have said, “Seek my face.”My heart says to you, “Your face, LORD, do I seek.” And proverbs 3:5-6 “trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and He will make straight your paths”.
We are two imperfect people attempting to do life together permanently. Because that’s the way it should be. And it’s only through Gods love and mercy and the forgiveness we have through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross that we can do this and keep forgiving and loving because of the love and forgiveness we have known through Jesus. It may not always look like that. Or feel like that. But that is how it is. Gods grace is awesome.
Chris is gentle and kind, he is hard working and thorough. He is a loving dad and has a wicked sense of humour. He is practical and can make things and fix things in a way I really don’t understand. Whatever he undertakes he is wholehearted about it. He loves God and sometimes battles with self doubt. (He also loves rc planes and fpv) He is Chris, he is awesome, he is precious and he is loved.
When God talks about love he says if there is any excellence, look at that. I so often don’t, I so often focus on bad stuff, but that’s not Gods way and I think He is a slowly coaching me through this. I love that He gets us completely and loves us exactly how and where we are. He also loves us so much that He doesn’t just leave us there.
Good old Mary Berry. J is very interested in it. He likes cooking and baking.
where to begin?! Get to the point I suppose. Well we are completing on the seventh of December on our house and hopefully moving straight to Ireland.
I feel like I need to talk about Chris. ” an ode to Chris” ❤️
The Shepherds Adventure 