Tiny Guest

We had our first overnight guest this week!  Sweetest little guy.  He had a great big dinosaur pillow pet his momma brought for his mattress, 3 blankets, a pillow, 3 backpacks, shoes, boots and of course a sippy cup but our house still did not feel a bit crowded!  

I wondered what it would be like having a toddler in a tiny house.  They are ALWAYS on the move and I wasn't quite sure how things would go with the space restraint.  

I found out:

• Running from one end of a tiny house to the other is just as entertaining to a 2 year old as running around any house.  
• Coloring took all of 5 min but taking the caps of all the markers now that was something fun to do, even in a tiny house ;)
• The sliding pocket door was wonderful for endless games of "Hello!" "Goodbye!" "Hello!" "Goodbye!"
• Light switches, cupboards, drawers, fridges and freezers are just as fascinating in a tiny house as they are anywhere.

My son was even able to make a pretty great fort for the kids to play in.  

Although, our little friend wasn't quite as interested in reading the Dinosaur Encyclopedia inside the tent as my son was!

We had a great visit with our little friend and hope that he can come back soon...but NO this fun little visit did not encourage us to consider doing foster care again...we rather enjoy being "auntie" and "uncle" and then sending the little guy home with momma :D

Rainy Day Fun

With a creative 8 year old there is no end to the fun you can have in a tiny house.  

This was his quickly designed fort for this afternoon's battle:

He built k-nex-spiral-throwing-things and we spent our time throwing them at each other.  

This game was great once I realized that he was going to hide in his fort until I threw something.  I got laundry and dishes done while I "waited him out" ;)  

Despite some sprinkling rain in the morning and early evening, today was another beautiful sunny and dry day.  My hubby was able to spend some time attacking the mud mess outside our backdoor (the only door we use right now).

It looks MUCH better and hopefully will continue to keep the area nicer when the rains come again!

My daughter spent most of her day outside playing with her new chicks and riding her bike and my son cleaned his room, played with his ducklings outside, rode his bike and helped with some of the mud clean up.

We also had the chance to meet up with some friends and spent most of the afternoon at the park enjoying their company.

It's been a good day.

Tiny Chicks, Tiny Ducklings and Tiny Barn

I am so happy we could get chicks and ducklings again this year!  

This little one is my daughter's chick.  She also got a black sex-link but it was in the brooder when I was doing my photo shoot ;)

I held off on getting the chicks and ducklings till I had my tiny "barn" built.  

I have this negative tendency to just jump into projects before we're adequately prepared...like the time I got chicks but had NO WHERE to house them and we had a huge group of people coming over for dinner...but this time I forced myself to wait until I had my tiny barn built.  

I have "big plans" for this little tiny project too: tiny chicken run off the front, nesting box off the back, a small side door, some cute red tile roofing and some varnish or stain.  

As it was I could barely get this built with all the rain.  I would literally cut some boards, drill a hole, move all the power tools inside while it poured, then move everything back outside, rinse and repeat :D

I don't have any pictures of the inside yet; right now, the chicks and ducklings are in a rubbermaid-tub-brooder and I have an extension cord from our house to the back of this little house for the heat lamp.

The mud is glaringly obvious in this picture...ew!  Just in case you're wondering this is what the ground next to the steps and stones out my backdoor also looks like...ew, ew, ew!!  We're gradually added more stepping stones as the muddy area expands but I am so thankful for these few days of sunshine to dry out the ground!

Also, super thankful for this ADORABLE sight today!  They follow him everywhere!  

He is working on trying to train them to come when he calls ;)

Hehe, in this one he is telling the baby to stand still for the picture...

....baby listened and learned!! 

"Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow."

James 1:17

The Mess is Why

My not-so-glamorous future seating area....

But, the mess is why.

The mess is why we are building a tiny house. 

One of several reasons, but a determining factor when deciding to build a tiny house.  As usual, I couldn't see everything very well ahead of time so I didn't SEE the mess or CONSIDER the mess when I cast my vote.  Nevertheless, I did take into consideration the therapeutic effects woodworking has on my husband.  I know he has an emotionally draining job which requires de-stressing at the end of the day.  I considered the impact working with wood, while pleasing his wife and providing a home for is family, would have on his emotional health.  

An entire family can be impacted by the emotional health of the husband.  Wives, when God said, "I will make him a helper suitable for him", He did not specify how we would be a helper.  Thankfully, we were given more directions later on: "Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord"; "But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything."  Many translations use the word submit in place of subject.  The definitions are very similar: submit - "to defer to or consent to abide by the opinion or authority of another" and subject - "to bring (someone or something) under (one's control or rule)" (Merriam-Webster online).  By speaking directly to wives, the writer is telling wives to subject themselves instead of being subjected by someone else.

When we subject ourselves to our husbands, we should be taking into consideration the impact our actions have on their mental, physical, spiritual and emotional health.  Some days, when my husband walks in the door after work, I can barely muster up a grimace to welcome him home.  I want to high-tail it out the door and not come back for a very long time.  I have had to train myself to smile (to the best of my abilities), put my rants on the back-burner (so hard on those really bad ones!), ask my husband how his day was and really listen.  

I'm listening to show I care but I am also listening for his needs.  Does he need me to just look and listen?  Does he need some quiet time?  Does he need to eat?  Does he need to do a therapeutic activity?

Listening, watching, considering and subjecting myself to my husband led me to the conclusion that building a tiny house would be a therapeutic activity.  

This therapeutic activity creates quite a mess.

If building the tiny house wasn't therapeutic, we wouldn't be doing it.

The mess is why.

I praise God for my husband's desire to also follow God's command and love his wife.  His love leads him to consider my health and with God's mercy we muddle through our bad days and praise God for good days.

Good days like the days my husband cleans up the mess...his love is why.

Friends and Encouragment

I was blessed last Thursday by two of my dear friends from up north coming to visit me.

These ladies were my cheerleaders, my confidants, my supporters, my co-workers and above all my friends.  Sometimes we don't realize the support we have until we don't have it anymore.  This was me.  I knew I would miss my friends and relatives but I did not realize how refreshing and rejuvenating the outpouring of the showers of their blessing were to me.

It takes awhile in a new place to establish trust and connection with people you've just met.  God has blessed me with new friends here, and I have supportive family in the area, but there's just something about being with friends who know your story and still stand by you to support and bless.

I am filled up with thankfulness for the blessing Kathy and Sonia have been and are to me.  I know that God is doing a great thing; He restores our soul and leads us beside the still waters.

He is faithful.

Green Grass Grows All AROUND

The grass around our tiny house is growing like crazy...except where there is mud, mud and more mud...I shouldn't get started on the mud...it's everywhere and drives me crazy...I can never seem to get anything clean...even with cement blocks down...and trying not to walk on it...no matter what there is mud, mud and more MUD!

Opps, back to the grass!

It's growing and growing so I decided to make a small pen and move a couple of my goats down here to "mow" the grass.  After all, I have natural lawnmowers why not use them??

I place the pen over an area of grass which is really trying to grow.  

These lovely natural lawnmowers then mow around the pen...figures.

What is the old saying?  "The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence?"

The funniest part about this is the pen is movable!  Even if I moved the pen so they could easily reach the grass they really want, they still try to get the grass outside the fence!  I will be moving the pen six-inches at a time because the only grass they will eat is the six inches they can reach outside the pen!

UPDATE:

Tiny Blessings

I went to the Habitat for Humanity store this morning looking for PVC pipe for a chicken/goat run I'd like to build.  

Curious, I looked to see how many windows they had.  Last summer, before even commissioning Tiny Heights to build our home, I found a lot of brand new windows at the Habitat store.  One of our deciding factors in choosing Tiny Heights to build our house was their willingness to use the windows we already had on hand. 

This morning I found ZERO brand new windows at the Habitat store.  

What a blessing to have found all those windows when we needed them!  I love all the windows in my house and I give praise to God for them!

When your washer/dryer combo stops working after you've all been gone for the weekend:

It takes a tiny bit more effort to pull out the washer/dryer combo in a tiny house to check it out and find the problem.  

Almost easier to go to the laundromat... :D

The view from my picture window: