Lynn's Latest Blogs

I must admit I'm still in a celebratory mood even five weeks after I moved back to Buffalo and in with my parents.  Being back "home" feels so good!  Being enveloped back into all that's familiar is like putting a warm afghan 'round your shoulders, sipping tea from your favorite mug, watching It's A Wonderful Life, while the tree lights twinkle and snowflakes fall lightly outside the window.  What could be better?

Taking a trip to Vidler's 5 & 10 in East Aurora, NY, is such an experience.  It's chock full of all that's warm and fuzzy.  It's a friendly place where everyone is helpful, kind, and eager to serve.  And it stocks the darndest things!  So for a vintage-lover like me, I was delighted to find cute oilcloth fabric, Old World Christmas ornaments, Sugar Daddy suckers, and the best made-in-America dish cloths a girl could ever want.  I also bought tyvek envelopes for mailing items to my etsy customers and a plain cotton handkerchief because my son's nose was running.  They stock it all from greeting cards to cookie cutters to fresh popcorn to lamp oil to socks.  It's a treasure trove for thrifty shoppers like me.  And as I reflect on all that I'm thankful for, I must include the simple pleasures of life and that includes a playful shopping trip to Vidler's 5 & 10 with my daughter.  It's so good to be home again. 

For as long as I can remember, Monday has been laundry day.  Me?  I'm not that disciplined, but my mother?  Like a well-oiled machine, Monday morning begins with the gathering up of dirty clothes, the stripping of the beds, hanging the sheets on the line, and then putting those fresh, crisp linens back where they belong for everyone's enjoyment.  Fresh, line-dried sheets are a luxury many may never have experienced.  I'm so glad my mom was an environmentalist before it was chic. 

I recently discovered bags of long-forgotten clothespins languishing in a dark basement.  The laundry bag containing the hardwood pegs was a 1940's treasure, too cute to leave behind, but too dingy to really use.  I'm going to deconstruct it and make a new one from my ever-growing stash of vintage fabrics. 

Mom voiced a very strong opinion regarding clothespins when I showed her my newly-acquired collection.  "I hate the ones with the springs," she said said.  "I only use the plain ones."  After over fifty years of line-drying her laundry, she should know. 

It's funny how something so simple - so ordinary - can evoke the sweetest memories.  So as I search for my cozy cottage, my next home where I hope to be for a very long time, you can bet it'll have a yard large enough to string a clothesline and no Home Owner's Association regulations to tell me not to.  Ah, the freedom of country living.  I didn't realize how much I missed it! 

Indian Summer is upon us in all its glory and it is with great joy that I look outside the window of my mom's sewing room - my temporary "home sweet home" until I buy my dream cottage in the Village of Williamsville, NY - and see the stiff breeze scatter the leaves across the street, to the dismay of those who faithfully raked so diligently this past weekend.  Everyone was raking and romping outside this weekend and taking full advantage of the warm weather, knowing full well that Old Man Winter is lurking 'round the corner.

My transition from Raleigh to the suburbs of Buffalo has been smooth, though an adjustment, to be sure.  I locked the door on my 2,300 sf. house in the south and moved into a 10' x 13' room in my parent's '60s ranch.  Pretty much everything I own is crammed into a storage unit - actually two units since it wouldn't all fit into one!  I've traded my luxurious queen-sized bed for a twin, and my clothes are stuffed in plastic bins in the basement.  But you won't hear me complaining.  No sir.  For there's nothing sweeter than being enveloped into the arms of family, knowing no condemnation or hearing no "I-told-you-so" rhetoric, but instead just blending back into the rhythm of life like I'd never been away. 

Though my southern season only lasted sixteen months, they were months filled with fun, faith, and sweet fellowship with dear friends who have become like family.  And family is forever, especially when God is at the center of our lives and His promise of heaven awaits.  He blends the familiar with the unfamiliar and the old with the new.  He adds color and drama and quirky and bland and always, consistently, faithfully beings forth that which is useful in fulfilling His goal in our lives - that of creating within us more of Him.  I know I am forever changed as a result of my southern season.

So for now I've melded into life with Mom and Dad after being out of the nest for twenty-nine years.  I guess at heart I'm still a "young chick" so until I find a cozy nest of my own, this little blue sewing room, adorned with Mom's favorite things, will be a place to perch, pray, and prepare for what God has for me next.  I'm looking forward to His provision.

For about five months now there's been a FOR SALE sign on my front lawn.  I'm a firm believer in the perfection of God's timing and more and more I'm understanding that it's best to rest and let Him do His thing.  When He moves, He moves!  What a thrill it is to be the recipient of His favor, faithfulness, and love.  He brought me a buyer for my home and as we were negotiating the sale, He brought another one!  Both parties "loved the house" and were hopeful it would soon be theirs.  Amazingly (because things are amazing when God is involved), the second offer came in Friday afternoon and I was able to sell the house for a price that I was comfortable with.  It is sold!  Praise God!

Because Kelly and I have only been in this house fourteen months, I decided to do a For Sale By Owner, though I did pay to get into the MLS system.  It was a great decision, though I realize it's not the way to go for everyone.  And negotiating was hard!  Frankly, I was almost physically sick late Friday night after hours of emails back and forth between myself and the buyer's agent.  Around 11 pm, I went downstairs, looked around at all the beautiful features ... the ivory-colored cabinets, the bird's nest cabinet pulls, the friendly screened-in porch, the gleaming hardwood floors ... and I relinquished it all to the Lord.  "All this is Yours, Lord, not mine," I prayed.  "You've provided so faithfully and I know You'll continue to do so.  May Your will be done.  I submit to Your authority in my life."

The next morning, shortly after I got up, the phone rang and it was the buyer's agent.  "We've come up with some more money," she said.  "We'd like to raise our offer."  Was I surprised?  Yes and no.  Having walked with the Lord some thirty-five years, I understand that He's more interested in our attitude and state-of-heart, than He is our pocketbook.  I understand that His love knows no bounds and that He delights in delighting us.  He says in Psalm 81:10, "Open wide your mouth and I will fill it."  I was truly delighted by the phone call and it was sweet confirmation to me that He was leading me home to the bosom of my family because the increase in their offer brought it to the exact number the Lord had been whispering to my heart as a fair price to sell at considering the current depressed economy.  I gratefully accepted their new offer and said I'd contact the other agent to say the house was sold.  Amen!

So this Sunday morning finds me rejoicing.  Though major changes are afoot, I am confident He's in the process of restoring my family, healing past hurts, and drawing us all closer to Him as He continues to lead the way.  There is no One I'd rather follow.





 

Got me some goodies at Guardian Angel today.  It's one of my two favorite thrift stores in Raleigh.  They donate their profits to Alzheimer's research.  It's always busy and I often find interesting kitsch to either brighten my life or the lives of one of my lucky customers.  Today I bought some fabric, a sweet Pyrex sugar bowl, a like-new chopper that I'm giving to Kelly for her apartment, and a vintage dictionary that's in bad shape and that'll be sacrificed for scrapbooking embellishments.