It's Time

Have y'all forgotten that we're moving to Seattle in July? I have. It seemed so far away in time and space that it just wasn't real. I've also learned about myself, that I can decrease my naturally high level of stress by categorizing things in my mind and sticking a date on them for when it is time to start worrying about that particular gorilla. The "Selling our House and Finding a Home is Seattle" category had a date of January 1. So, I'd been able to forget, sort of, until now.

Now, I've been scouring the internet, pestering every friend of a friend who lives over there, and emailing pictures and prices to my husband day and night. I just started and already he gets a glazed-over expression every time the word "house" comes to my lips--knowing that a long list of pros and cons is about to spill out of my mouth.

You see, I love houses. I think my love has multiplied because in almost every old book I read (and you all know there are a lot of them :)), the homes are characters unto themselves. They are such a part of the family and life and heart of the characters, that you cannot separate them. Somehow, I've started to feel this way too. Have you ever noticed that when I post about my house, I refer to her as a her. It's because she most certainly is a lady. At times cantankerous, occasionally in need of correction, but always a sturdy and loving accomplice to our lives.

Can you sense how hard it's going to be for me to pick a new place to live? Especially when you factor in that the cost of living in Seattle seems to be around double what it is here in Birmingham? I started searching in our current price range and found that we would be living in, what looked like, government housing :).

And another thing...a thing I hesitate to share with you...a thing I've been pondering in my heart. Oh well, I'll just admit it. I've made it my goal to finish my book while we're in Seattle. I feel like God has sort of carved out this time and place for just that goal. Both the girls will be in "school" for at least a few hours a couple of days a week. Jeremiah is probably going to be working a lot. Then there is Seattle itself--rainy, and full of good coffee and old book shops...whenever I picture us living there, I see myself sitting at a desk, with a hot cup of coffee warming my hands, gazing out a rain-splashed window at the city and ocean and mountain peaks in the distance, with my book growing steadily day by day in front of me.

I hope you all remind me of this next year, when I'm living the same 'ol hectic life, just in another town :) But seriously, if I'm going to write that book, I've got to find just the right little hovel to love us all for that year. I know she's out there waiting...she may even be a he this time...you never know!

If there's anyone out there with any Seattle suggestions, I'd be ever so thankful.

**I took all those pictures on our last trip to Seattle, which I wrote about, if you care to read, here and here. I talk about why we're moving there, here and here, in case you're new around here :)