From Nest to Nest ... ❤

Hello, and Happy Wednesday, my friends! We've one more day till Thanksgiving and it will be a busy one for me - but I wanted to pop in while I had a moment and share this lovely nest post from Amy. It is full of her sweet, homey blessings, and this is a perfect day to reflect on our own - I hope you enjoy!

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Dawn, thank you so much for another opportunity to blog on your blog... since mine is wholly neglected. This is an especially helpful and timely assignment (to find ourselves a nest and to feather it for the season) as I was truly just planning to write out some thoughts to myself about our big old house. I do believe that this giant abode came to us as a gift from our Heavenly Father, it's quite a story how it all happened. And yet, it's big! It's cold! It needs so many repairs! The size of our house is rather inefficient, and I know families with far more children who have much smaller houses, and I can't help but wonder, what are we doing here? And so I wanted to write out our house story and try to look at the bigger picture, try to recapture God's vision for our family at this time and in this house. I thought that it would also help with my feelings of being overwhelmed, if I could maybe grasp at God's purposes.

And so this assignment from you was just the impetus for me to get started. Just yesterday I noticed the gorgeous warm sun streaming through the window over the couch where I often sit, and I knew I had to photograph it. Here are two photos of my regular sitting spots (the third being the kitchen table) with the blessings I was suddenly able to realize. I hope you don't mind my sharing the blessings as the way to explain my "nests." Hopefully someone else will be uplifted by reading this, too, which really is the main reason I visit the blogs of other women!

 

The first photo shows our living room couch, which I sit in often during the day to read stories with our youngest, or at night to do something quiet. It's nowhere near the TV, for which I am very thankful! My night activities (if I get any at all) would mostly include reading a book, knitting, perhaps writing a letter or working things out for myself on paper, or very rarely some internet browsing on my laptop. There are usually some lap blankets there as well but our two-year-old has gotten into a hoarding habit and he has those someplace else in his "tool pile." 

 

 

When I look at this photo, I see:

 

- The southern exposure picture window, which lets in sun for most of the day;

- The radiator that my husband lovingly salvaged when we redid the heating system a few years ago - we didn't want to use modern (boring) heaters in this beautiful old home. And this radiator works wonders!

- The bookshelf full of quality picture books, many of which we've been reading for 19 years now. It also houses plenty of saint biographies and homeschool overflow, and puzzles!

- My "end table," again a quality toy which we received as a gift when our oldest was turning one year. We added the second box of Duplos a few years ago. It's just right to be a modular surface. :)

- The mug, which my oldest daughter gave me for last Christmas, full of hot tea, which was soon to be replaced by a paper cup full of decaf Starbucks - thanks to my thoughtful husband! As much as decaf is a disappointment, Starbucks seems to do an acceptable - sometimes even tasty - version.

- Under the couch, the electric keyboard which has kept all five children entertained easily and quietly at different points over the years, and inherited from my eccentric great aunt.

 

The second photo shows the rocking chair next to another bookcase, which really used to be my husband's "nest" and sometimes still is, though I've been sneaking into it during the days when I think I have a few minutes - often when the kids are engaged in the kitchen with a snack. :)

 

 

In this photo I see these blessings:

 

-The old rocker from my own childhood, which is just the perfect fit for my husband's frame. He loves that chair and I can see him in it for many more decades.

-The CD player that my husband bought for me to replace our old one, so that I could keep using physical copies of music when he and our older children were going completely digital. I didn't feel that I had good access that way - and now, my youngest stands in that chair listening to his "nap music" for many tracks at a time.

- Attached is the radio receiver, which allows me to absorb quality Catholic programming at any hour of the day! What a blessing that has been, so edifying! 

- My knitting, which I've been able to start up again now that our littlest is becoming (slightly) more independent. (He's hanging on me right now, singing an impatient song...) Though it seems like I'm never accomplishing anything, the minute or two I spend on a single row accumulates into a full-sized heirloom product. 

- The stacks of books: my husband's home brew books mingling with my Bible and classics. Like the knitting, a minute or two stolen away for reading a few sentences does build up over time, and I managed, in those stolen moments, to read a 400+ page biography!

 

Not shown in the photo is another great blessing, another nest, in our living room: the fireplace! We restored it when we moved in, and fit it with an insert, and we've had 8 winters of kids piled up on the floor in front of it with their favorite books. It was also the favored spot for our oldest daughter to do her homework once she was in the public high school. Seeing that fireplace yesterday and remembering all the hours she sat sitting there, maybe reading some Shakespeare for her own enjoyment, has excited me for her return home to us this weekend!

 

May you have a splendid feast with your family, and may all your readers be reminded of God's goodness to us in all the small things.

 

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Amy, thank you so much for welcoming us into your nests - they are lovely! And thank you for sharing your thoughts, I especially love what you say here:

 

"And so I wanted to write out our house story and try to look at the bigger picture, try to recapture God's vision for our family at this time and in this house."

I am of a similar mind when I consider my own home. Our move here 2 1/2 years ago happened in such a crazy flurry of quick decisions - we literally went from planning a remodel of our old home - because we truly loved it there and couldn't imagine moving - to very suddenly deciding to move, then bidding on the third house we saw a week later, and then closing on said house two months later! In a way I felt like we were on auto-pilot, following a plan that we had resisted initially, to reality suddenly making perfect sense. I was so resistant to the moving idea, but woke one morning feeling at complete peace and with an urge to find a more suitable place. I knew this was God helping me make the decision I hadn't been able to make on my own - and giving me deep peace over it. Sometimes I wonder how it all happened in that way! Two months after that morning epiphany we were settled into this new house  - HOME now - and we did it all with a newborn in tow! Anyhoo, I didn't meant to go on like that, only to say that your idea resonated with me ... I want to sit down and write out that whole experience and remember how we came to live in our forever home in a unique and memorable way.

 

But to get back to your post, I love how you interpreted this "assignment." By looking at your nest and seeing the blessings therein ... and what a great lesson for all of us! How does our nest bless us (nourish us), and how can we use it to bless/nourish others? I LOVE this. I will have to ponder this idea a bit - my own new assignment! :)

 

My friends, please drop a note for Amy if you have questions or comments ... and how about you take a look around your own nest today and see all the things there that bless you? The comforts, the joys, the reminders of all the dear people in your life. I hope maybe tonight, on this eve of Thanksgiving, that will give you some peace and perhaps inspiration as well. There is always room for more gratitude in our hearts!

 

Well, everyone, I must be going, but my sincere thanks to Amy for sharing her nest with us, and to all of you for stopping by. I will be offline for a bit while we celebrate the great holiday tomorrow, but you know I will be back here again very soon!

 

❤