brushing off the dust

Unpacking is a long process.  I want to find the "perfect" place for everything, but I only want to do it once.  So I took about a, oh, 2 week break, and did not unpack a single box.  (In my defeated perfectionist manner of not accomplishing much, of course... we actually have options for where to put things and it boggles my easily confused mind.)

Tonight, hubby decided to be my motivator.  We moved some boxes around, setting them in their target areas, and even unpacked some boxes... old boxes.

My boxes were books.  For now, the books have been added to the bookshelves at the bottom of our basement steps.  Some WILL be moved up to the guest room, because you cannot have empty book shelves in a guest room when guests will be coming for a night.  It's just fundamentally wrong.

Hubby unearthed a box of keepsakes from his childhood.  A broken toy car.  A train car.  A ceramic puppy with fabrics glued on.  His high school diploma, and a photo of him in his first work uniform. (He was such a cute kid.  No wonder our kids are so cute.) A crocheted blanket that his Mom will have to tell the story behind.  It has holes in it... I wonder if I can make a patch to sew over it on both sides, and salvage it for Bear?

In my boxes, along with some devotional books, Christian Fiction and Bibles, including my very first Childhood Bible, the duct-tape covered Bible from my teenage years, and THE Bible which held my engagement ring when Hubby proposed to me, were Laura Ingalls Wilder, Anne Shirley, Black Beauty, C.S. Lewis, Jo and the Little Women, The Scarlett Letter, and more.    One of my favorite finds was a hymn book that our friend Jodi gave me for Christmas in 2001.... no music, just the words, so it's really poetry.  It is going to be set on the piano. Tonight. I had wondered where it was, and I am thankful it was exactly where it should have been, in a box of treasured books.

I've wanted to be settled for, oh, 2 years now.  Plus some, but especially 2 years.  Being content amidst uncertain conditions of sorts is hard for me.  I am a worrier, and I wanted to know where we would settle down.

It looks like we are there.  When boxes from childhood have been "unearthed", I think it might be safe to say we've found our earthly home.