sweet compulsion

There was a special on the Tupperware modular mates sets this month that was too good to ignore.  It took very little convincing to get mum to agree that yes, we did need to maximise the space in our pantry and yes, it did seem a good offer.

Well it arrived today! And after finishing a particularly gruelling typing job, I rewarded myself by reordering the pantry. I know, to most people, this would not be a reward. But it pleases me so greatly to see everything all neat and boxed up like that.

 

Ahh. Much more space. Plus I cleared out a whole other set of drawers that had pasta and rice in it. Order! The illusion of control! Four different kinds of flour and four different kinds of sugar!

I love it.

Waves scarf

Not much craft has been happening lately, but I finished the waves scarf. I absolutely loved this pattern, very easy but not boring, and good to do while doing other things. And after blocking it's turned out beautifully! I just want to wear it around the house, but it's summer and a bit warm and not at all scarf weather. So it will have to wait.

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[box] Yarn: Noro Silk Garden Sock - Blue black purple (S272)

Yarn Pattern: Nancy's Waves Scarf[/box]

detritus

As I go through the boxes in the garage of stuff I had carefully stored there for the past four and a half years, and lugged around with me from rental place to rental place for years before that, I wonder...why?

It's kind of a grim process, sifting through the material remnants of my life and finding I don't want to keep any of it.

If I ever become a famous author, I'm sure future archivists will weep at the thought of all the juvenilia I've just thrown in the recycling, but I can't even bear to re-read it. Out it goes.

I open a box of CDs. CDs! (will the current generation have less stuff to cart around because more of it is digitally stored, I wonder?) Each album reminds me of a time or a person...many of them I don't even care to recall, and yet I have carried these CDs with me. I don't want them anymore but I don't want to get rid of them...and yet if someone came and took them all away, I would be none the less for it.

Boxes of scripts from university plays. T-shirts and programmes from those shows. My old year 12 shirt, signed and scribbled and defaced by my classmates.

Much of it is in the bin. Some stuff will go to Vinnies. Some will be spread out on our driveway on Saturday at our garage sale, hoping to find another home.

And none of it will be coming with us.

My real home

Since we set about all this house buying stuff I've been thinking about milestones in life, or things that you do or don't get, or achieve, in life. I once was part of a writing group with a girl who was determined to publish a book before she was 20 because she had been reading articles lauding the next up and coming writers under 20 - unsurprisingly, with that as her motivation, rather than wanting to tell a good story, she didn't get very far.

Sometimes we feel that we've missed out on this or that because of what the world tells us we should have achieved by a certain time. Whether it's relationships or career or house buying or having kids or whatever, we all too easily judge ourselves by the world's yardsticks and what other people think rather than what God thinks.

Rod preached an excellent sermon yesterday on Luke 17-18 and it reminded me that being ready for the day Jesus returns should be my only priority. That doesn't mean sitting around and twiddling my thumbs while I wait, but it means that thinking about and striving for God's kingdom are the things that matter, and pleasing and glorifying God are the goals of my life. It's a perspective that is easy to lose, but one I really want to keep, for it to be my default, not something I have to keep struggling to get back. Rod ended by saying the way we do this, the way we persevere is to always pray and not lose heart (Luke 18:1). It's easy to lose heart and perspective if we try to go it alone.

No matter what does or doesn't happen in my life, I know where I'm heading. Bring on the day.

home

It's been an insane week. Mum and I have bought a house.

[caption id="attachment_610" align="aligncenter" width="486" caption="Our new home"][/caption]

My wonderfully generous father and his wife told me mid last year they wanted to help me and my brother buy property so we weren't paying rent anymore. They proposed we find something big enough for me, Nick and mum to live together. It was a somewhat daunting proposition. I was only earning a minimum through my graphic design business while juggling almost full time study. Much as I love my brother, I didn't really think we'd be able to live together. Much as he loves me, my brother didn't want to live anywhere I was looking, and only wanted the inner city. We certainly couldn't afford anything there that would be big enough for the three of us.

I had a few half-hearted looks at things that were way out of our price range and felt quite defeated by the whole thing. I still didn't (and don't) have a steady job, so what bank would give me a mortgage? I kept praying about it, knowing that God would provide somewhere if he wanted this to happen.

We decided that Nick would look for his own place, and mum and I would look for something together. Dad suggested mum and I get a joint loan, which immediately made the whole prospect more viable for me, as she has a steady income and it would mean that she was getting an asset too.

We have friends who live in the St George region (Bexley, Wolli Creek, Bardwell Park). It seemed a world away to me, just because I'm not familiar with the area, but it really isn't any further away than the inner west or even other parts of the Eastern suburbs. So I started looking there, and almost immediately found a semi in South Hurstville that was at an unbelievable price. I realised it was on a very busy main road, next to a petrol station. I didn't hope for much, but the pictures looked nice, so I went to see it.

And now we're buying it. I never, ever, ever thought I would be in this position. When I thought about the future, it never included me owning property. Ever.

[caption id="attachment_609" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="A prettyish sort of wilderness - I hope to build a writing studio here one day"][/caption]

We prayed hard throughout the whole process, for wisdom and patience and trust. We can certainly see God's providence in this! It was just so unbelievably smooth. There were no other people looking at it when I went to see it, because the weather had been bad and people weren't really out and about, so we had no competition for it. We offered less than the asking price and got it. The bank approved our loan with no problems. Even tiny things have had excellent timing like the scheduled council clean up is around the time we move, and our rent is due to increase in April (after we move out).

[caption id="attachment_608" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="The back room"][/caption]

I know my security does not lie in worldly things, and that bricks and mortar can be taken away from you as easily as anything else. But I also know that God lovingly and lavishly provides, in his own way, in his own time. How could I ever doubt him? I pray that somehow God will be glorified by us living there, that we will use this house well for ministry, and that mum and I will thrive living there.