~essentials~
Our house here along the Red River will soon begin to empty out as room by room the packing has begun. If all goes as planned, 3 weeks from today the keys will be handed over to new owners. It's been a long journey, one that began on an early September evening with a feeling that it was time to go back home. The well over 4 months' worth of time that have passed since then have been filled with a gazillion things to do in order to find ourselves even where we are today. Mike and I have worked hard, sticking together through some very challenging moments.
Happily I say this.
We made it this far!
The other day I began reading "Little House on the Prairie" to my second grade students. It tells of the journey Laura Ingalls Wilder made with her family when they left the big woods of Wisconsin for a new life on the Kansas prairie. One of my favorite parts is in that very first chapter as Laura describes how her Pa closed the shutters on their cabin's windows so it wouldn't have to see them go away. For some reason, that poignant description has always tugged at my heart. I've read that book nearly every one of my 40 plus years of being a teacher and the feeling it gives me to read that initial chapter only grows stronger.
In Laura's time, as it was with every pioneer back in those days, it was necessary to travel quite lightly. Only the essentials, items that were deemed crucial to survival, found their way into the back of those huge Conestoga wagons for the journey west. Grandmother's chifforobe might have been a family heirloom but that didn't matter. Those who foolishly chose to take things that were too heavy and cumbersome later had to pitch those very goods over the side of the wagon. It was a fact of life and one that those moving along had need to follow.
Thankfully Mike and I don't live in the pioneer times and with luck we'll be able to fit in those things we have accumulated as we pack the moving truck. The past 4 months have led us to do some serious soul searching as to what really is needed and what could well be given away to others. We have pared down the load substantially and we still have a plenty. Today the first full trailer load of things are headed out, leaving our outdoor shop and garden shed barren for the first time in forever. The rest will go in a couple of weeks more, and finally all that will remain are the memories of a life lived here for the past 4 years.
School dismisses for the 2018-2019 school year in mid-May, and when that last day is done we will say our good-byes to some very fine people. During our time in Texas we have developed friendships with folks from here in Burkburnett and Wichita Falls, as well as the first town I taught in called Petrolia. In Oklahoma, we have made friends with so many people in Altus, Randlett, and Grandfield. It's amazing to think of it but in this entire span of 4 years I have met only good people and will always remember each of them in gladness. Once Mike and I leave, we will more than likely not pass this way again. It is hard to realize that, but it is true.
I'm thankful to be going towards home in Kansas again and will be so happy to be closer to my family and friends there. Even in that gladness, there will more than likely be a tear in my eyes as I hug dear ones goodbye here along the beautiful Red River. It will be sad in its own way to leave them but yet one thing is for certain.
How sad it would have been to never have met them in the first place and shared this moment in time with them.
Many a "Mr. Renfro's Monday Morning Muffins" have been made in this kitchen. For the past two years, Mike has stood at the mixer and whipped up a batch for my second grade students to enjoy. That's just one of thousands of memories this old house has provided us. We have loved living here. This house has been a peaceful sanctuary to come home to each day and we have been grateful for that. It wasn't fancy but it was surely home.
Happily I say this.
We made it this far!
The other day I began reading "Little House on the Prairie" to my second grade students. It tells of the journey Laura Ingalls Wilder made with her family when they left the big woods of Wisconsin for a new life on the Kansas prairie. One of my favorite parts is in that very first chapter as Laura describes how her Pa closed the shutters on their cabin's windows so it wouldn't have to see them go away. For some reason, that poignant description has always tugged at my heart. I've read that book nearly every one of my 40 plus years of being a teacher and the feeling it gives me to read that initial chapter only grows stronger.
In Laura's time, as it was with every pioneer back in those days, it was necessary to travel quite lightly. Only the essentials, items that were deemed crucial to survival, found their way into the back of those huge Conestoga wagons for the journey west. Grandmother's chifforobe might have been a family heirloom but that didn't matter. Those who foolishly chose to take things that were too heavy and cumbersome later had to pitch those very goods over the side of the wagon. It was a fact of life and one that those moving along had need to follow.
Thankfully Mike and I don't live in the pioneer times and with luck we'll be able to fit in those things we have accumulated as we pack the moving truck. The past 4 months have led us to do some serious soul searching as to what really is needed and what could well be given away to others. We have pared down the load substantially and we still have a plenty. Today the first full trailer load of things are headed out, leaving our outdoor shop and garden shed barren for the first time in forever. The rest will go in a couple of weeks more, and finally all that will remain are the memories of a life lived here for the past 4 years.
School dismisses for the 2018-2019 school year in mid-May, and when that last day is done we will say our good-byes to some very fine people. During our time in Texas we have developed friendships with folks from here in Burkburnett and Wichita Falls, as well as the first town I taught in called Petrolia. In Oklahoma, we have made friends with so many people in Altus, Randlett, and Grandfield. It's amazing to think of it but in this entire span of 4 years I have met only good people and will always remember each of them in gladness. Once Mike and I leave, we will more than likely not pass this way again. It is hard to realize that, but it is true.
I'm thankful to be going towards home in Kansas again and will be so happy to be closer to my family and friends there. Even in that gladness, there will more than likely be a tear in my eyes as I hug dear ones goodbye here along the beautiful Red River. It will be sad in its own way to leave them but yet one thing is for certain.
How sad it would have been to never have met them in the first place and shared this moment in time with them.
Many a "Mr. Renfro's Monday Morning Muffins" have been made in this kitchen. For the past two years, Mike has stood at the mixer and whipped up a batch for my second grade students to enjoy. That's just one of thousands of memories this old house has provided us. We have loved living here. This house has been a peaceful sanctuary to come home to each day and we have been grateful for that. It wasn't fancy but it was surely home.
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