Great Fullness

Happy post-Thanksgiving, everyone! We’re sending you the warmest of hugs and lots of love – we’re so grateful to have such wonderful family and friends in our lives. We had a lovely and delicious Thanksgiving with my sister and a couple of her friends, and now we’re working our way through the leftovers!

This seems like the perfect time to also reflect on some soulful friend times we had earlier this month, but first – let me catch you up on some current news.

It’s been two weeks already since we returned to Glenn, Michigan, which is about halfway between South Haven and Saugatuck on the West coast of Michigan. (By the way – Michigan has so much freshwater coastline that they refer to it as the “Third Coast” around here!) Top of our list of thankfulness is my sister, Iris, who is sharing her wonderful lake house with us this fall/winter and supporting this exciting adventure we’re embarking upon!

This sweet little house was recently starting to show a few cracks inside, and it was determined that one of the beams was sub-par. While we were away, a local builder started work on repairing it. We returned to find the living/dining room in this condition:

We spent a few days helping out the builder, who’s a local renaissance guy named Al Weener. In addition to his construction abilities, Al is a super-talented musician, who once upon a time was a really active performer in this area. His band was Al Weener and the Bunz!

ANYway … Al shored up that beam with some steel plates and we got the living room back together in a couple of days. Matthew and I get to finish the job by painting it, which we’ll dive into in a week or so.

Now we’re settling in here for the next couple of months, to enjoy a winter of lake-effect snow, and figure out the next chapter. We currently have two major topics of discussion: what kind of camper trailer do we want (and can afford), and how do we make some money? I think we’ll save the camper discussion for a future post – it’s still sort of an unwieldy topic.

As for income – well … Matthew got a job in the kitchen at Guardian Brewing Company in Saugatuck! We’ve stopped into this place a couple of times and really like everything they’re trying to do. They make great beer (including fantastic IPAs and a couple made from Oreo cookies)! Part of their property (which they own) includes an historic barn, which was also home to a theater for decades. They’re very arts-oriented and plan to get that stage back up and running for local performances soon. Plus the walls are lined with autographed guitars. Matthew is working his first shift as I write this!

I’m kind of sniffing around for remote-work jobs … something that I might be able to keep doing even when we pull up stakes this spring and get on the move again. If you have any ideas or suggestions, please let me know. 🙂

In the meantime, we’ve also been reflecting on the awesome road trip we took in October, and the weeks we spent in the Midwest with family and dear friends. I already posted about my Dad’s big birthday weekend and the fantastic weekend we spent in Des Moines with some of my high school friends …. here are a few more times that really filled our hearts this fall: