Westbrook Cottage

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

A Little Bit of Me

Westbrook Cottage feels a tiny bit more like home as I find my own little treasures when unpacking boxes. I also unpacked our winter clothes and hung them in our closets but I found a few minutes to put my kitchen counter in order.

Saturday, October 17, 2015

Second Saturday Westbrook Cottage

Sorting through the boxes, trying to locate the everyday items of life - that sums up the last week. But we start to manage a more normal looking existence and make our nests to create our "home". I love this place; it is completely charming and adorable; however, it does not feel like "home" to me yet.

Tomorrow we will have our first celebration dinner in this new place. We have invited all the fine folks who moved us while we were gone. But how can you really show your gratitude for something so monumental, so giving, so serving, so kind? I am humbled by their gift and I do not have the words to express myself.

We are going to plant a memorial tree - I don't know if things like that are done but we will plant a tree to remember the kindness shown to us by these people. It is a river birch and should grow quite quickly here in "Cornfield County", Ohio. Sometimes when we really sit in the quiet of the evening and look out on our yard, seeing that tree blowing in the light breezes, I want to be reminded that there are people who gave of themselves to help me; that I am that kind of blessed. And I want to thank the LORD and ask Him to bless each of them.

My husband has said he felt at "home" when we first visited this place. I believe that this little gal feels right at home, too:

Daisy Feels Right at Home

Youngest Helper

Frost on the Pumpkin

Saturday, October 10, 2015

First Saturday Westbrook Cottage

I live in a small town in the middle of "Cornfield County", Ohio. This past week I was moved from a 4,000 sq ft house I like to refer to as a French chateau to a 1,200 sq ft home I will call a French country cottage. My youngest son, who is 27, said, "Mom, you're not French." Ugh, like that matters.

I say that "I was moved" because my son and his wife gathered a crew of very willing folks and moved my husband and me while he and I were stuck at the Cleveland Clinic. We are in the middle of a colon cancer battle but blessed beyond measure; not even worthy of all the good things God has done in our lives. Grateful. And blessed.

Although we have downsized we have most definitely upgraded. Our little cottage was built in 1956 and is a sturdy brick ranch with character and dignity. Our French chateau was built in 2001 and although large, does not have the same quality of craftsmanship. But I will miss that place. Our family was happy there.

Right now my husband takes R&R beside the wood-burning fireplace. How much I have missed the smoky, crackling, live fire as compared to our remote controlled gas fireplaces in the chateau. Our 4.5 pound, 10 year old Chihuahua appreciates the warmth on this hardly chilly October afternoon.

Our youngest son managed a crew of people who tore out all the carpet and then sanded down the wood floors. His wife handled the moving company and moved our kitchen with her female relatives so that all I had to do was start cooking. Everything was moved in, fire in the fireplace, and rocking chair just waiting for us.

We have one silver maple in the front yard of a busy little corner in this small town. The picture window in the living room frames a maple tree lined street and some of the older homes clustered around a four way stop. This town only has three traffic lights; when the ducks cross the street, traffic stops both ways. Kids still ride their bikes to school and neighbors stop right in your front yard to say hello while out on their evening walks.

I love this place.

Here is the task of making Westbrook Cottage into a French country cottage; even if I haven't a drop of French blood in my ancestral line. Hmph.