Rain, packing Christmas, sick, house news

Saturday was a rain day. It rained off and on through most of the day, but we had a lot of inside work to get done, so the time was not going to be wasted. I took a long time feeding in the morning, knowing the rain was coming. It gave Mama and Victoria a chance to stay in their pajamas a bit longer. Plus, on Saturday, I like to get everything set up for Sunday morning when we typically do not have a lot of extra time to feed and water. Mama and I need to take the time this evening to clean out the coops. They are in desperate need of a cleaning but the rain held us off over the weekend.

The morning inside gave us time to finish the coffee bar. There are still shelves to add to house mugs and framing of the metal art we put on the wall behind the coffee bar, but it is a functioning part of the house now. Mama and Victoria generally have more time to get their coffee made than I do, but I am making it work. It does help having the larger pot when the three of us drink coffee any given morning. When we have coffee drinking guests, it will be put to good use. For now, it offers us a place to house all the many coffee mugs we have in one cabinet. It will be a blessing to have all those in one place – out of the way.

Somewhere along the line, Mama got the idea to put our dining room table in the spot where the marble topped tall table was sitting. I had to agree that it would work better for her as a craft table than the round marble table. So, we planned the move, but to get that done, we had to pack up the Christmas tree. Since we were doing that, we packed away all the Christmas decorations. That took some time even though Mama did not have out as many decorations as she had available. It did require getting a half dozen totes from the well house to the living room between rain showers. But once that was done, we worked on pulling all the ornaments off the tree, unstringing the lights and packing the tree away for the year. All told, the operation took us about two hours as Mama carefully re-boxed the figurines and ornaments and I took all the batteries out of the Jingle Pals. Lord willing, we will see all of them again next year. (I imagine that either today, or after the 1^st that we will do the same at work.)  

Once everything was out of the way, we cleaned off both tables and made the move. Now, the taller marble-topped table and chairs sit in the dining room and the dining room table and its chairs sit by the sliding glass door. It does not look too out of place there. It will definitely give Mama a larger, more comfortable place to work on her projects and even though the wooden table is larger than the marble topped one, it seems to have opened up that space to be of greater use to Mama – especially when the girls are over at our house working on Diamond Dot projects. At the same time, the marble topped table fits the dining area better than the larger table did but with almost as much functionality. We will adapt.

Sunday morning both Mama and Victoria were feeling a little nauseas as we got ready for church. We all went to church but during Sunday School, the nausea hit me and it was bad enough that I felt like I should go home. We did not have the Chinese girls because all of them were sick. I spent the day in and out of the bathroom. Resting in the recliner between bathroom runs with my stomach gurgling loudly. I am some better today. Hopefully, I will have immediate access to a bathroom when needed. Mama and Victoria never did feel as unwell as I did, but none of us ate much all day.

On Friday I got a text from our realtor in Lawton telling me that the tile for the Aberdeen property was being picked up and would be laid this week. I responded by asking how soon our Dover property would be ready to be put on the market. His response was January 10. I hope that is true. If it is, that would be an answer to prayer. We have not discussed a market price, but originally, the listing price of 120k was mentioned. Whether or not that is still a possibility is undecided and undiscussed. I do know that any price over 100k will be a good price for us. We have limited our profits by borrowing against the houses, but only to the amount of about 15k per house. Not too bad all told. Once we have these two houses sold, Mama and I will be able to operate largely with our own cash. Whether or not that is the best way to do things in todays financial market remains to be seen, but that is the path forward we are planning. Complete ownership with cash on hand is prudent. Not always the fastest way to grow a business, but far more secure. It will allow us to borrow only when that is the best alternative, rather than out of necessity.

Patience.