I haven’t done the weekend coffee share in a long time. Actually I haven’t participated in any challenges for a long time, but it feels like things are shifting and the time is right to start in with the challenges again. IF WE WERE HAVING COFFEE TODAY, we would be sitting on my front porch at the Vicarage where I have drunk most of my coffee this week.

I would tell you that the renovation project at The Vicarage is moving forward. Our loan was conditionally approved this week and the design team came out to see the house together and put together a more concrete estimate of what this is going to cost us. So we are waiting with bated breath. Meanwhile I am continuing to clean and prune and prepare the Vicarage for the work that lies ahead. We of course are going to need to empty the…

5:20 A.M. get up walk dogs.

6:20 A.M. Pray and prepare for the big day

7:20 A.M. Get mom her breakfast and medications/ Make coffee for household/ Vacuum/ move clothes drying racks/ make beds/ sweep kitchen/ clean bathrooms/ move broken pallets from stone porch to burning pile/ Gather trash for dump run/ light candles to fragrance house (I love fragrance)

9:30 A.M. Meet with contractors and sub contractors to begin getting Nitty Gritty Reality framework into place. Here is where the dream begins to take on earthly shape and all the warts and pimples begin to show. I think this stage of a project is the part that needs the most faith.

DREAMS ARE GREAT

AND WHILE JOURNEYS CAN BE BOTH DAUNTING AND EXHAUSTING THE ACTUAL GOING BUILDS MOMENTUM.

BUT THIS SPACE…

The bank sent us the Mortgage loan commitment today! Yay!

Brenda and I signed it and sent it back!Yay!

So the Vicarage project has taken another step forward.

Friday we are meeting with the whole design team including…

Plumber

Electrician

Siding installer and vendor rep

Painter

Mason

Finish Carpenter

We’ve been asked to make some choices on styles of kitchen that will match the new footprint. I like this one.

We’ve also been asked to think about siding or painting. A lot depends on price but if we side I think I want something like this.

Or this…

Do you like shake siding or straight siding?

Today two things happened to me in prayer. As I sat for my afternoon devotions on the porch (which generally last at least an hour) I was listening to my meditation music, and around the corner of the steps came a gopher.

He was as surprised to see me as I was to see him.

“Hello!” I said….and he was off like a shot.

It makes me happy that nature lives at my front door.

The second event happened around 6:30 P.M. as I was having my evening devotions. I was listening to the book of 1 Corinthians on my phone. The birds and the squirrels were gathered at the feeder eating supper.

Eight or ten doves and several squirrels and a chipmunk were happily munching at the birdseed. Then, they were off like a shot. The rodents…

It feels like I have used this title before…maybe I have but if so its worth repeating. I live my life by inches not by miles.

The older I get the more I realize that life, to be truly tasted and enjoyed needs to be taken in small bites.

There is a temptation to lose the beauty of the single flower because I am trying to conquer the whole forest.

When I give into that temptation, and start to think about the miles I have to go before I sleep for the night, instead of the inch I have left to walk before I can rest for a minute, I find myself getting filled with stress and striving. In that negative mindspace I find myself constantly disappointed by my own inability to meet my self imposed demands and by the world which falls so short…

I have to say, this has been an amazing summer! So much has begun! So much is happening! Life is a constant! And that means much is changing….because…..

We heard back from the bank. Brenda and I have more signing to do, but we are closer to the beginning of The Great Vicarage Project!

Meanwhile the gardens continue to mark the passing of this summer season.

As I sat to pray on the front porch this afternoon I heard the crickets for the first time, the sure sign that we are moving from Midsummer to late summer.

Midsummer brings a certain little girl’s birthday.

It is so nice having the kids living near us now. The birthday party this weekend will be at their new apartment which is five minutes away. One big change their nearness has brought is Sunday Dinners after church.

I haven’t tried anything fancy yet…

Last week in my post IN THE WAITING, I said that I was waiting to hear back from the loan company about what they needed for paperwork from us beyond the application.

I had most of the usual things put together in a packet just waiting for the right e-mail to send it all to. The info came on Friday night and I sent it off on Monday.

Mpre waiting….

But it’s not like there has been nothing to do in the mean time. This new job is very different from my other work in ministry as an assistant.

There’s a lot more praying needed (and that’s saying something).

There’s a lot more strategic planning.

There are a lot more…

I called the bank today because we were supposed to get an e-mail confirming the submission of our HELOC application. We did not. Our banker, Deb, is checking on things, and I am in the waiting space.

Not that there is nothing to do in the waiting. Life doesn’t wait for the waiting spaces and even in them there are deadlines to be met as we continue to walk by faith toward our upcoming renovation. Besides the day to day stuff, we have a lot of projects to do before the renovation itself begins. I still have to chop out the rest of the bushes around the stone porch. I am leaving the hundred year old antique hydrangea though. It’s so beautiful and if we can help it I really don’t want to lose it.

Our forest garden is so beautiful this year….and the fragrance! I wish I could bottle…

The last few days have flown by in a flurry of activity. The rains that have come up the East Coast have kept me from doing much outside. But the world here is very green lush and cool, so I will not complain about it at all.

All the paperwork for the Home Equity Line Of Credit is filed now and we signed the Project Development Document with the contractors. So things are rolling along.

The project is tentatively slated to begin Sept. 1st and will go on for 12-16 weeks depending on what the contractors find as they begin working on this old house.

In the mean time we have a boatload of trimming and chopping and throwing away to do before the project begins. My brush pile is about to grow.

Today was mowing day at the Vicarage. I love the smell of the forest garden when it is freshly mowed. There is one place where the mix of Bishops weed, wild carrot and goldenrod mixes to smell like cilantro. In one corner of the yard, the mown clover smells a little bit like what I imagine Heaven must smell like. When I mow the catywhompus garden the chives and oregano start to smell a little bit like the North End in Boston. Fragrance in a garden is probably more important to me than the look of it.

If I am being authentic, transparent and vulnerable, I have to admit that I enjoy sitting and gazing out at the forest garden almost more than anything else in the world. I love to breathe in the fragrance and listen to the animals chirp and twitter. I especially love in that symphony of…