Changes Are Inevitable

Have you ever noticed the beauty of a cactus?

 Most of the time they are just thorny plants that are to be avoided. Then one morning you look across the pasture and see this wonderful display of color and it reminds you that a storm brought this beauty into your life.  Changes are inevitable and I have come to realize that God uses the strangest things to cause the most growth and color in my life.

Three and a half years ago God changed our circumstances.  My husband took a job in the Eagle Ford Shale oilfield. We moved to Gonzales Texas and I though we would be there until he was ready to retire. We bought a house and settled into a sweet church. But that was just one step that the good Lord had for us on this journey. At the end of March, oil prices were so low that the company my husband was working for laid off a lot of men. We got cut in the last rounds of cuts. By the end of the day he had three job offers and by the time a week had rolled around he had more than a dozen offers. He went to work for another company and we put our house up for sale the next month.

     We were blessed that we had a contract on our house in five days. They wanted to close in three weeks and we needed to move out. My husband had already moved the  5th wheel to Beeville, Texas and was at work so the majority of the packing fell to me. We made a decision to sell or give away most of what we owned because we would be living in the 5th wheel for several years. Most furniture does not store well for that long and especially the baby grand piano. After, unsuccessfully, trying to sell the piano we decided to give it to the church that we attended. Most of our furniture went to our daughter and son-in-law and we had a yard sale to get rid of the rest. Even at that we had enough stuff that we needed to rent a large UHaul to move it to Buffalo, Texas.
     Three trips later we had the house and garage empty of furniture and tools and cars. Our house closed at the end of May during the rains and floods in south Texas but we were fortunate to have moved everything the week before when the rain was lighter. The house we sold was not in the flood zone so it was high and dry at closing and everything went smoothly.

     Now we are living full time in the RV and this is what my blog will be about. We could have chosen for me to have lived in the house and him to work away from home. After 40 years of marriage we could not imagine living apart five days a week. We are better living in a small space together than living separately in a big house.

    I made some changes to the RV to make it cozy but with four slide outs it is not such a tiny living space. I have looked on Pintrest for ideas on this life style but I haven't been able to find any so I started my own blog for other women who might be looking for ideas to get them through the same experience I am going through.



    
    Right now we are parked on the yard in Beeville. Basically that means we have no internet except for the hot spot on the phones. That is the only real hardship I have come up against. We started using our cell phones as our only phone when we moved to south Texas and cut our dependency on a land line. We had a land line when we owned the house for the security system and the fax line on the printer. Here we have no security system (other than we live on the yard and we know everyone) and we no longer need the fax.
     We have not gotten a satellite system because we get plenty of TV channels on the antenna and I really don't watch that much TV to start with. I would like more internet time so we might eventually get something like Hughes Net, maybe.
      This is my first chance to take a breath and rest in a month so I have taken it easy the past couple of days. I will get in a routine soon because I like routines. I want blogging to become part of my weekly routine. My goal is to write several times a week about ways to adapt to this life style. My next post will be about my RV Washing machine and dryer... See you soon!

     I keep reminding myself that change is inevitable and I might as well view it as an adventure with a smile and a positive attitude.