“You can see my fire is still doing great.”
He looked at me sympathetically. “I wasn’t going to say anything.”
I am no mountain woman. One of my greatest accomplishments in life is that of keeping the fire going until my husband gets home every day.
Yes. We have a heat pump.
Yes. We use it sometimes.
But for some reason, we like fire. Maybe it’s the caveman in Ethan, or the Indian blood running deep under my pale white skin. It could also be that we’re both pretty cheap and hate spending money. In any case; we heat with a wood stove.
But like I said; I aint no mountain woman. I’m pretty flexible, and I’ll try just about anything, but given the choice, I’ll take tea rooms and shopping over gutting a deer anytime. Somehow, though, life has a way of taking you places you didn’t expect to go. This morning, I woke up a redneck.
It’s really a long story, how I came to this realization, but the fact is pretty bold faced. We meet all the qualifications. (Minus the racist thing...)
- THE WOODSTOVE. Already mentioned.
- THE DUAL PURPOSE KITCHEN. Ours is also a deer stand and coyote annihilation station.
- THE SCRAP PILE. It has accidentally grown to momentous proportions and (TEMPORARILY) sprawls out from behind the shed that’s supposed to hide it from view… I finally understand how those huge hillsides of rusty lawnmowers come exist. Hey - we’re all just waiting for the metal prices to go back up.
- WE EAT ROAD KILL. It’s true. Not a typical habit of ours, but still true. Actually, my husband just happened to be at the right place at the right time to witness a deer’s introduction to big trucks pulling large boats. The driver was all too happy to hand over a pesky nuisance to the camo-clad hunter who was just walking out of the woods. Pretty tasty, I must say…although I wouldn’t go so far as to pick up dead opossums off the curb, or anything…
- LIVING FAR FROM CIVILIZATION. The GPS always dumps out-of-towners at the end of somebody else’s long driveway. It’s like the back roads are too confusing. It just gives up. (Not gonna lie…it took me forever to figure out how to get from my house to the nearest town after we got married. Much longer than you would expect.)
- VISITS FROM THE NEIGHBORS. It was around 1:00ish in the morning and I was trying to enjoy what little sleep a large pregnant woman can manage to attain. With no warning, the closet began to explode. It sounded like something other-worldly was doing it’s best to unleash itself into our bedroom. Having had many such nightmares as a child, I rolled over and ignored it. Being a little more sensible, Ethan got up to investigate. The sound, as it turns out, was coming from just outside the window, not the closet. Using his cell phone (we do have those, actually) as a flashlight, he ripped open the curtains and we saw… two very large black eyes peering out of a masked face. A raccoon had been chased into the bushes next to our house (as evidenced by the throaty barking of a dog somewhere out in the yard.) He had jumped from the bush to the screen of our window and was thumping and scratching there for dear life. Thank heavens the window was closed…
Reflecting on all this, over an afternoon cup of coffee, the warm realization creeps over me that I wouldn’t have it any other way. This here is home - with beans and cornbread and biscuits and gravy, and road kill and the breeze from our open kitchen windows. (How weird is that?! It’s December.) It’s fun to just relax and see what plans God has for you.
I remember wondering what I was supposed to do after I graduated. I was praying hard, but no direction seemed to come except one: Trust. So I did; and He took me on an adventure more wonderful and rewarding than anything I could have planned out myself. It was hard to wait when people expected a “driven” and “goal-oriented” answer. I wanted to give one - but I knew His plans were more important than mine. I could have barged ahead, taken my free college classes and made a little kingdom of my own. But why? So people would applaud? It’s not about building any kingdom but His. I’m so glad I waited until He told me what step to take, even though it felt like wasting my time. It’s worth it to know He’s with me...all the way out here in Shingle Hollow, North Carolina.
6 comments:
you are living my dream life girl!!! I not even joking just add a little farming to your list and you've got my dream life:)
Ahhhh! What a lovely path you tread. My path is also God-directed but different from yours. I longed for a life such as yours. But God led me to a cozy little house beside a very busy highway on the edge of a small town. My husband loves people and so our home is always the hub of some goings on. The candles are lit and supper is served as the wind howls around the corners of our abode. I never know what to expect but I’m living life to the fullest with the man of my dreams on the path as God leads and I’m loving the journey!
~Mama
Anna, Such a funny post. I have the WORST time with fires and in this house I am so glad that we have a gas fireplace that I can just flip a switch to if I'm freezing to death (yes, it is possible to freeze here in Arizona! haha)and if there's no one around to start me a fire - since we too have a wood burning stove.
The growth of junk piles? I totally can relate. When we get enough "junk" to recycle is when a run to the recycler happens. It's an unsightly mess out back, I tell you.
Did you have your baby? We want a post!
It gives me such relief to hear that somebody as respectable as yourself should also deal with such issues 😂
I have everything poised to post in February! The blog will be up and running again shortly, I promise 😄
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