Stories

       

         We had friends over last night for our monthly "Music Night" where folks with instruments bring them, folks that sing bring their voices and anyone else can bring their ears and listen.  We do a potluck dinner as most friends work till dinner time and we want to make sure they don't have to gobble down fast food before our fun evening.  We tend to get a little chatty and start singing later than planned but everyone has a grand time.

     

           I was telling a few stories to friends about changes in our home through the years including Craig convincing us it would be a great idea to raise the house 4 feet and turn the crawl space into a full basement.  He bribed me with an art studio that would be 12' by 24'.  Though I drooled over that possibility I still have no recollection of saying yes.  It turned out to be a larger project that we planned as the house fell a couple times, once it pivoted when it fell and one corner was 21 inches from where it belonged.  We had a house raising company raise the house and Craig managed to lay all the block in 30 days.  It all turned out great in the end but the stories along the way seem endless and quite humorous now.

     

          Needless to say, as I regaled the various stories a friend suggested I write a book about everything we've been through.  Maybe someday - who knows.  All I can think of for a title is "With love from Skeelhaven," which is of course the name of my doll business, too.  I wish I had saved all the emails that went out to friends telling them about events daily.  Should I decide to write this book someday I'll have to count on my failing memory and the memories of the rest of the family.  But it sure could be a fun project!

           I'm still packing my studio.  It feels like it will take forever.  I have church friends who have volunteered to help with the move, but I have to get it packed first.  I never realized just how much stuff I have!  When I moved to the new room in the basement, same size as the one before but with the patio doors to allow sun in for a bit of cheer, I purged a bunch of stuff, such as  dolls I was embarrassed to claim I made, though I still have the very first, which is a leprechaun playing his fiddle (maybe this move will help turn up his long lost bow!)  

         I had all three bedrooms planned out in my head for how furniture would get arranged with all my drawers and cabinets, shelves of creating books, more shelves for tools, paint brushes, and drawing supplies, my life size mannequin, and all the other stuff.  Where in the world did I get all this stuff?  

         Anywhoo, yesterday Shawn, my soon to be 30 year old baby announced he would like to move home and go to college.  Though I'm thrilled beyond belief that he would finally return from Chicago where he went to follow a girl years 5 ago I realize I have to give up one of those bedrooms, and of course it should be the largest, since it is adjacent to the bathroom and what the hey, he deserves the best.  So now I get to rearrange the furniture in my head and get things planned.  I will have the living room for the daily use tools, tables for classes, sewing machines and what not, but still need somewhere for everything else.  And there is A LOT of everything else!  I guess Dear Shawn will have to help me move things room to room and unpack if he wants his own room upstairs and not the dark guest bedroom in the basement where he will start out until I am organized. Meanwhile, I am back to the drawing board for room arrangements.  Sigh.  Never a dull moment at Skeelhaven.