A Chatty Little Hello From the New Cottage

 

Hi everyone. I'm trying something different. My computer is still not set up. Therefore, I have not yet been able to write a blog post. So, I thought I would see if I could do this on my telephone. So far, it is writing down what I say. I notice, however, that the print is really large. I don't know if I can fix that or not.

We lived at our last house for nearly 10 years. It was a great blessing. However, I do find that we accumulated far more things than I realized. We have been busy just sorting and deep cleaning. You can't imagine how dirty a house can get when you have been recovering from a major illness for two years. It's scary. Living in the country, I think we grew dust in our house.

I've truly been enjoying central air and the laundry room on the main floor in our new home. I'm trying to find places for the things that we have brought here. The garage is still half full of boxes. I have found that we have more dishes than we can probably use in a long time. I have more books then I can probably read in a year, even if I do nothing else! We had one garage sale yesterday at the old house. We will probably have another garage sale in a couple of months at the new house.

We've met some of the neighbors. It's been nice that when we're outside, some of them have said hello to us first. I know you find this hard to believe, but I'm usually the first person to say hello to people that I don't know. We live in what I call a small town. There are, I don't know, fourteen or fifteen thousand people here. But we used to live in Topeka, which at the time had 150 thousand residents. And we also lived in Oklahoma City with who knows how many residents. So this town we live in now seems little to me. My apologies to those of you who live in real little towns. Anyhow, it's been a long time since I've had people greet me first. My thought is if I want small-town friendly, then I have to be the initiator of it. I also feel like I am an ambassador for Jesus. I like to spread the love of Jesus wherever I can. It's just nice to live now in a place where it feels like a neighborhood. I feel like God sent us here, and I think we'll be happy here.

Anyhow, I just wanted to drop in and say hello, and let you all know that I'm still here. I just don't have my computer set up yet, and I haven't been able to write. Now that I know this works, you may get a few more little chatty posts just like this one. I can certainly talk faster than I can write.

Thank you so much for keeping us in your prayers.

It is my hope that I'll be back to writing soon. I value the friendships that I have made here on the blog. And I thank you for joining me in this life, even if it is the miles.



God bless you all!

Laura of the new Harvest Lane Cottage

We Bought a House!

Hello everyone,
 Thank you so much for being patient with me lately. My husband's knee surgery was a great success. He is already walking around without a cane. His leg still hurts, but he's improving steadily.

 The other big news is that we bought a house... in town!  We had been looking outside of town on and off for a few months. We finally decided to quit looking, because Lowell was about to have his surgery, and we knew the timing was bad.

 God had other ideas. ~smile~ One morning, about six or seven weeks ago, our realtor sent Lowell a text—at 6;00 a.m. He told me, look at these pictures. Since I'd been up until 2:00 a.m. writing, I said, "No." About twenty minutes later, he said, "Get dressed. We're going to go look at this house at 7:15 a.m.!" Ugh!

  As I was brushing my teeth, the thought crossed my mind that this was the house. Mind you, we had looked at a lot of houses. I believe it was a God thought.

  We met the realtor, and the very first thing I noticed was the tulip tree in the front yard in full bloom. Just the previous day, my Amy (Hands Made to Love) told me that she wanted a tulip tree someday. That brought my second thought that this was the place.

  We looked around inside, and it was very nice. Sensible nice. Not over-the-top fancy nor run-down looking. The original hardwood floors had been recently refinished. The walls had been painted a blue-grey—not my color, but it all looks fresh and nice. The kitchen was very nice, too. There are lots of cabinets in the kitchen, in the utility room, in the main bathroom (there are 2!), and in the garage workroom. I think we may finally have the chance for everything to have a place and everything in its place! There are three bedrooms (we raised our kids in a 2 bedroom house), and two bathrooms. Oh the luxury! Our girls are already decorating their bedrooms.

  I got ahead of myself. As we were looking, the realtor and Lowell asked me what I thought. I couldn't find anything that looked like a problem to me. That surprised them. I have had reservations about every house we've looked at. Even the price seemed fine.

 Lowell went outside and noticed the lady across the street driving in. She said hi first. Gasp! ~smile~ Lowell went over to talk to her. I followed. I found that she was quite friendly, a Christian, and she knew a bit about the neighbors and neighborhood. She and I stood there and talked a bit, then suddenly, I remembered I had the realtor waiting for me at the house. Did I mention that I'm friendly?

  As I walked through the house, I had a sense that this neighborhood was our assignment. That we were being sent there. That was my third God thought. I called my son who is familiar with the area, he said that it is one of the safest and best neighborhoods in town. That was important to me since we haven't lived in town in many years.

  Believe it or not, we were at the house an hour and a half. We made an offer before 9 a.m.  OH, did I mention that it had been on the market less than 12 hours?

  Well, we closed last Friday. We've been trying to prepare to move. We took over a trailer full of things on Sunday. Monday morning I woke up at the old house and realized that the food was here and the pots, pans, toaster, everything like that are at the new house waiting in the garage to be unpacked!

  So anyway, this is why I've not been writing. There's been so much sorting and cleaning, and packing to be done in addition to regular life. We're only moving about six miles away, but things still have to be moved safely. We hope to finish moving the furniture and anything that cannot go in the car this weekend. After living here almost ten years, there's a lot to do!

  You may not hear a lot from me over the next couple of weeks, but I hope that by mid-June I will be back to writing regularly. Thank you again for your patience. You've been wonderfully faithful. God bless you all!

Laura
a bit unnerved by the chaos!

Insomnia and Answers

Hello all.  I'm up in the middle of the night with insomnia. I was awakened at 1:00 a.m., and I lay in bed tossing and turning for quite awhile. I finally decided to check in on the blog. I found that my daughter, Amy of  Hands Made to Love, nominated me for the Awesome Blogger tag. Thank you Amy. 

♥♥♥♥♥

RULES:
Thank the person/blogger who nominated you.
Tag your post with #awesome blogger award
Answer all the questions given to you
Nominate at least 5 bloggers and inform them of their nominations
Give them 10 new questions to answer

Okay! So, here are Amy's questions and my answers. However, I'm going to let it stop here rather than make more nominations. There are just too many of you who write wonderful blogs.

♥♥♥♥♥

What is your passion?

  This one is easy. Loving God and loving others.

Do you like chai tea latte?

  Yes. It's my favorite coffee shop drink.

What state do you live in?

  Southern Missouri

What are 7 countries you want to visit?

  I'd like to visit many states in the United States.

  Israel

  Canada

  Scotland

  Belgium

  I can't really think of others. I'd be content to stay in the United States. I would    like to go to the Grand Caymans and some of the Carribean Islands.

  

What is one of your favorite Bible verses? 

  It's actually a passage from Philippians.

4 Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!  5 Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand.  6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 8 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.  8 Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.  

What is one of your favorite flowers?

  Oh wow, that's a hard choice. Right now I'm loving the fragrant peonies. 

Do you like outside or inside better?

  Hard choice. I love outside if the weather is nice. I'm a wimp in the heat. However, I tend to spend most of my time indoors.

Do you like country or town better? 

  Country hands down. We are, however, moving into a small town that we've lived just outside for years.

Do you like icecream?

  Yes. In fact, it's one of my favorites if it's Blue Bell.

What are 5 words that you think describe you?

  Christian, wife, mother, friendly, kind

Now, may the Lord Jesus Christ fill you with joy, peace, trust and hope as you trust in Him. Thank you Holy Spirit!

Be blessed y'all!

Laura

P.S. If you'd like to play this tag game, just consider yourself nominated, and answer the questions above. Be sure to let me know, too.

Spring Sunshine and Beauty and a New Beginning

My birthday fell on Mother's Day this year.

54!

What happened? 

When did it happen?

The last couple of years have been so 

focused on the cancer fight and recovery,

I barely noticed growing older.

We close on a home of our own on Friday.

Spring is here with all its fresh sunshine and beauty.

It just feels like a new start for my Lowell and me.

I'm looking forward to settling into

our little house in town. We already

have met a nice Christian family across the street,

and a couple from our church live down at the corner. 

This move is a good thing.

The Secret Revealed

Hello everyone!

I can now reveal the secret why my internet is going to be hit or miss. We are having it disconnected, because we are going to move to a new home.

We've lived here at the cottage for nearly ten years, but it's time to move into what we expect to be our forever home. I'll share some photos after we close in a couple of weeks. 

When I began using the internet on a regular basis, I was Laura of Harvest Lane Farm. We lived on 27 acres near the Missouri Kansas border in Southern Missouri. We then moved to town to a little bungalow in Kansas. I chose to keep Laura of Harvest Lane and called it Harvest Lane Cottage. When we moved to Missouri a few years later, I kept the name Harvest Lane Cottage when I began blogging in 2007.  After a move to the country, I still kept the name. Even though we are now moving for what I hope is the last time, I will probably keep the name. It just makes it easier for blogging's sake. If I change my mind, y'all will be the first to know.

I'm rather excited about the move. It's a modest home, but it has 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. That will be wonderful. We won't have to do a lot of work when we move in. We can just pick and choose our projects. That's wonderful!

Well, by the time you read this, most likely my internet will be turned off. I don't have a laptop, but I do have a Kindle Fire. I probably won't post for a bit, but I will be able to read comments when I can get to wi-fi. 

I'll catch up with y'all near the end of May if not earlier.

Happy May!

Laura

P.S. I'll be 54 on the 12th! 

As a breast cancer survivor,

every birthday is reason to celebrate!