I am not going to lie: the last several weeks have been super heavy. Things have peaked with plumbing issues, keeping the ducks safe and healthy, waiting on the closing date of a property we may or may not accrue, along with trying to coordinate our move away from Indiana. When someone talks about the walls closing in, I think I can finally relate. In the middle of it all, of the stress, anxiety, and worry, I keep finding rays of light to remind us of the good things in life.
We broke down the tipi last weekend and it is all ready to move home to the city. We were hoping to be able to move it to a new place and get the canvas all aired out, but we are not there yet, and don’t even know if we will be there, so it is all coming home to the city. Initially, we were pretty disappointed because we had hoped to only have to move the tipi once, but the universe has other plans.
One of my two amazing brothers and my amazing sister came out to help us take her down. It was so awesome to see the tipi in its bare state again with all of her bones exposed to the air. Surprisingly, it was actually pretty easy. Four people and two hours was about all we needed to get it all broken down and prepped for the move. We celebrated by having lunch at Jack’s Place on the way home. They make homemade carrot cake and peanut butter pie (which we snagged the last piece of).
We weighed our options between driving a truck ourself versus paying movers and we ended up settling on Two Men and a Truck, ordered a 26 footer, and called it a day. Let me tell you, it was worth it. Let’s look at a quick list of why:
- Successfully pull up the steep, precarious driveway, without getting stuck in a ditch at the bottom, and get out without incident.
- Pick up and move the picnic table
- Move the cast iron wood stove
- Successfully pull up our steep hill, park and unload said items above, and drive out of the neighborhood without hitting any cars.
- Moving tipi poles alone, in order for us to get a smaller truck would have cost between 500-700 dollars.
The poles look pretty cozy in their new spot, and the things we moved into the city don’t feel at all overwhelming in terms of volume. The backyard shed is pretty full at the moment, and we have a very large pile of tipi canvass in our basement/family room, but it is ok. We have turned the page, officially. The sick feeling that I have had in my stomach for the last year, everytime we went there, is gone. That feeling would start towards the end of the ride to get there, until we unloaded everything and were settled at our spot, by the tipi. Whatever the origin of that feeling was, it does not matter. It was not serving a purpose to enrich our lives so it needed to end. And it feels so good.
Homework: Look at how full your glass is and enjoy it!
Now that we officially do not have to go back to Indiana, and have everything we own all in one place again, we are going to lean into the moment and regroup. Although we still have a lead on a house, we don’t know if we will be getting it. Instead of worrying about that unknown, we will focus on the home we have and enrich our life here as much as possible. We already have a list of projects we want to tackle, we have seeds growing for the spring, and are loving the extra time with the pets.
Here is a quick list of our Northern Kentucky projects:
- Build privacy fence along one side of the backyard.
- Redo kitchen sink and install a door between the bedroom and kitchen (contractor please!)
- Pour a concrete pad for the basement bathtub.
- Redo the basement bathroom area.
- Epoxy the basement floor
- Redo basement lighting
- Tiny-house-ify the shed in the backyard?
Being back in one place feels right at the moment. In light of the whole mission of our lives to simplify and spend more time together, I think we are actually on to something! Yes, we are still excited about the prospect of the new property and have a ton of ideas about how to fit that into our mission. But this time in limbo has given us time to reset and refocus what we really want. The cabin was amazing, but once done with it, we would still be in the same place we are at now. We would not have an alternate source of income, except maybe Airbnb in the tipi, which never felt right anyhow in light of the situation with the other family living there.
That time spent was not a waste. We needed it to learn the skills that we will use in this next phase of life. We grew closer because of it all. Now we reset and keep pushing forward. We are counting our blessings. Yes, we have had a bit of disappointment in the last year or so. The true source of the “let-downs” is not failure. The only real reason we have had disappointment is because we took chances. If you never take any chances, you cannot fail and cannot be let down. We tried. And we will try again!
We are simplifying. We are Making Time for Tipi. Our glass is half full of lemonade and it tastes so good.
Making Time for Tipi 