Scenes from NY.

Stewart, Nigel, Tabitha, Johanna, Katriel and I went up to NY so Tab could have her orthodontist appointment and we could visit with friends.  As Nan was drawing close to her closing date for her house, she planned to come back with us at this time.  Stewart and Nigel drove her car down.

It was nice to see people.
It was hard to see people.
It was hard to be so up-close-and-personal to the tail end of Nan’s moving as we had barely recovered from the strains of our own.

Nonetheless – we got through it, tears and all.

We saw some friends and got to worship at PCC.

And before you knew it, we were on our way back to SC.

(It took so long to leave town, Nan and the girls and I had to stop at a hotel in VA.)

The quest for pizza…

We are trying hard to find a good answer to our pizza dilemma. 
I miss the days of a Mark’s sheet pizza for $32.

We tried a place called Sidewall Pizza.
We had a free pizza for Stewart’s birthday, and half-off for Katriel’s half-birthday.

It was really good, but extremely expensive and not filling.

meat lovers

chicken and bleu cheese

five mushroom

It’s a mess out there

but he is making the most of the layout. 

Love my boy.

Hope I learn to love my back yard.

Ok – here is something cool.  Our back yard backs up to a cow pasture.  The cows and calves can often be seen in the trees behind our fence.  We get a good glimpse of them from some of the upstairs bedrooms.  Way cool, right?

Another soccer player–Johanna

One of the things Johanna asked God for was a place to play soccer. 
It was just one of those things – where a click leads to a connection and VOILA here we are.  About 20 minutes west of us a local church has embraced their Upward Sports Ministry.  They had such an outpouring of interest they were able to have more teams than ever before and spread practices over two nights.  She is on Monday nights with her team – Courage.  Half way through the night the director leads a devotion.  This year they are doing devotions inspired from the book of James. 

I am so grateful for God’s provision. 

School started in SC last week, we started today per our tradition of starting the first Monday after Stewart’s birthday.  Homeschooling is different here.  More on that later. 

Tiny New Friends

We have squatters.  The delight Katriel to no end.  She hasn’t caught one yet.

These were taken a week apart in different parts of the yard. 

Not going to lie – I called Nigel down to look at the first guy to make sure it wasn’t an alligator. 

Stewart is 21

First birthday in the new house fell on a Thursday.

Stewart has had birthdays camping and on cruise ships.  Now he is the first to have a South Carolina birthday.

We had a simple dinner and an amazing Oreo cheesecake on his actual birthday.

Then on Friday night we had the Hoyts join us for dinner.

Marie was at work. 

Soft Serve Sunday

There a few things the Butlers don’t do much of.

1) Slow down
2) Go out for ice cream
3) Explore local digs

So today we did all three.

We visited another church this morning.  The sermon was really strong and the youth/family pastor was so helpful and warm, but the seats were super uncomfortable and the worship was a little different than we are used to.  But it seemed authentic, so we will be praying about it.

We decided to try a soft serve place up the street from us.  Every time we drove down Main Street from Simpsonville to Fountain Inn over the last month, we could see the long line of dedicated diners.  Essentially, it’s basic soft serve with any wonderful concoction you can think of.  It’s also safe for Stewart.

I got a Tiramisu treat.

Marie got some kind of Turtle style (butterfingers?).

Katriel couldn’t finish her chocolate lovers sundae.  We teased maybe she is just a chocolate liker. 

We’ve been here a month now.  There are moments where it still feels like we are on some long, lame vacation.  Glad we are here together.

Jesus, New Paint, and Garage Progress.

Firstly, that doesn’t say Jesus.  It says Jesus – like – Hey Seuss.  Jesus is the painter and he is great.  He came out a week or so ago to give us a quote that fit our budget well.

He called Thursday to say his team would be out Friday.  Friday morning at 8AM ELEVEN men showed up and they took the house by storm.  It was epic.  They came to paint the dining room, foyer and hall, living room, stairwell, upstairs hall and upstairs family room.

We worked hard to stay out of the way.

Can you see the stilts he is wearing?

They finished the upstairs family room.  This is what was under the tarp. 

I love the color – Sea Salt.  Jesus recommended it and I wholeheartedly am grateful I listened to him.

They finished early afternoon Saturday.  John and Stewart did, too.

Progress!

John also rigged up some boards in the attic and bought some bags for clothes vs manhandling totes up the narrow attic stairs. 

Putting the pieces together.

John and Stewart continue to work on shelving for the garage.

As soon as we closed on the house, I went an got my driver’s license.  We then chipped away as the kids got theirs and John finally got his after some issues with eye doctors, etc.  Thankfully, the DMV is about a mile from our house and by being in line before it opens, we have been able to get in and out quickly.

Getting the “tags” (license plates) were a little more work as we first had to pay a registration tax on the vehicle in person up in the state office in the city.  The excursion up there allowed me to look around.  It is also worth noting even in the government buildings we were not required to wear masks.

Back to the DMV for my plates and for no extra charge, drivers are able to pick “In God We Trust” plates.

Something to smile about–A Katriel and Tabitha treat

Since we left NY, Katriel has been asking me to make a cake.  Since we got to SC, Tab has been asking me to make a cake.  They worked together and made us this delicious “Demona” cake.  Demona is a character from Disney’s television cartoon, Gargoyles.

It was so good.

The house is developing a few more open spaces.  There are just literally dozens and dozens of tote and boxes we don’t have any room for the contents.  Losing a basement has been horrible.  We easily had 1000 sq ft in the old basement, and while the upstairs family room here will accommodate much of the furnishings, nothing from the back room (including our massive exercise set up) has a new space.

John is working hard to develop some storage solutions.  They all take time, tools and money.  We had to unpack some boxes to find tools.  And building supplies cost more than usual now because of interrupted supply chains. 

So we just walk around the messes. 

We came up with a shoe solution.  (I use the term solution in the broadest sense of the word.)

The garage is still decidedly impenetrable. 

Sometimes I get tired…

We unpacked all day long.

And swam a little too.

The Box Stops Here…

I’ve comically referred to the last few weeks as Blursdays… that didn’t change just because we got into the new house.

Those days were filled with sleeping on air mattresses and lining drawers and meeting neighbors and going swimming.  And assembling the loft beds that we ordered for Marie and Tabitha.  Since Tab was going to need a new mattress anyway, she was the only one sleeping on a normal mattress.

At 8AM on Thursday, things changed…

I ran an errand and got back in time to see this:

The movers were nice.  They were also asking Hard Questions, like “Where should we put this.”
And since no one had any idea where to put things from a basement in a house without a basement, or in a house without a giant laundry room, or in a house with four bedrooms and not five… we just put stuff, you know, everywhere.

dining room – I think

kitchen

living room

another angle of the dining room

the den

the master bathroom (yup)

Tab’s job was to dig into the kitchen. The directions were to unbox as much as possible, don’t worry much about organizing.

By bedtime I had found my lamp shade, but not the lamp itself…

by close of day we did have a table and a large portion of the kitchen unpacked

tomorrow would be another day