Moving, But I Love This Apartment

I'm planning to move in a few months. It is my choice - I'll be moving into a van to travel around North America and will convert the van into a little RV-like dwelling as I go. The van has a high roof so I can stand in it. I like to say it will be my bedroom with an ensuite, and the world will be my living room.

I'm sad about leaving my apartment, though. It has been a real blessing and a gift from God. I've been in this apartment since January 2015. Before this, I lived in a nearby apartment on the ground floor in another building. I was happy most of the time there, until December 2014 when the people above me were making constant noise with their stereo and I became agitated by it because I couldn't even leave the apartment to get away from it. That feeling of agitation was very unusual for me... not my normal thing!

I went to the apartment manager about it and she told me I could move into this apartment in the other building, on the third floor. I was amazed when I saw it. This is a corner-of-the-building apartment and has two windows in one of the bedrooms. There is a wonderful view in each direction.

After I moved in I realized the apartment is a gift from God... because He knew the apartment was empty and available, though all I knew at the time was that my apartment had become uninhabitable for me because of the noise upstairs. So I moved, and ended up in a much better apartment than I had before.

So now, I'm getting ready to leave, and I'm being a bit sentimental about leaving this wonderful place I've been living in for the last few years. I used to host Bible studies in here - with lots of dear friends. I've been blessed in so many ways since being here... but I'm feeling a call to go, to get on the open road and make traveling my lifestyle.

Because I'm leaving this happy place, I've decided to start now and take photographs of things in this apartment. This is my first in what I hope will be a series.

Gratitudes:

1. I'm grateful for the years I've lived in this apartment.

2. I'm grateful for my new cell phone.

3. I'm grateful for the First 5 app for communicating with other Christian women online.

Plan for the day:

1. Get ready for shopping tomorrow.

2. Watch The Dead Files

3. Study the Bible.

Currently reading:

1. People of the Book, by Geraldine Brooks

2. Jesus Calling, by Sarah Young

My writing business, snow, and my son's visit

Sometimes it is better to write a little than not to write at all. I like this blog because I feel like I can write tiny posts without it harming anything.

Some of my other blogs are there for more important purposes, and so I write articles with a minimum of 500 words, and sometimes much, much longer. The pressure to write long articles is enormous because they do better in search engine results.

Today I've set before myself the task of writing 2 articles. One is a revision of an unpublished old article on what to do if your home business gets more business than you can handle. The other - I think will be on parental rights for disabled people.

And now, a prayer:

Heavenly Father, please help me with my writing. You alone know how hard this is for me. You are the only one who watches as I stumble and fall, and you know how much failure has become the norm for me. Please help me today and every day to get my work done and to write articles that are truly useful to those who need to read them. Let me do it all for You. In the name of Your Son, Jesus Christ, Amen.

It snowed all night on Thursday/Friday this week and we're expecting a lot more snow before Christmas. In the two years since I moved to Idaho, I've never seen deep snow. I saw deeper snow when I lived in Happy Camp, in California.

It gets a lot colder here, though, and the snow freezes to the pavement, whereas in Happy Camp the roads were usually cleared right away. People here drive on frozen, icy packed snow like it was just nothing.

This is what I saw when I woke up Friday morning. This is what Northern Idaho is supposed to look like in the winter... though too often I see no snow at all. The snow here is only four inches.

When I went into my office (a bedroom in my apartment) I saw that my window was iced over. I'm trying to train myself to take photos whenever I see something awesome... because I know it won't last long. Something will change. The ice melts, or light patterns change. So I snapped a few photos right away.

Once I settled into my office chair, which is a chaise lounge with a card-table desk that goes over it, I saw this sight out that window. The roofs, covered by white, and the icy window slowly warming.

That table is for filing. The little green-topped Truvia jars are what I keep little things in - like rubber bands, buttons, paper clips, etc..

Last week I decided to sponsor a poverty-stricken child in Mexico. I wrote about it on my Prayer-Power blog: Prayer for Children Living in Poverty. I love this little girl and want so much to be a blessing to her and her family, and her town. Her name is Brisia and she's eight years old, of Mayan descent.

A few weeks ago my youngest son came by to visit. I hadn't seen him in over a year so this was a wonderful event for me. I had to walk down to the truck stop on the corner, and he came rolling in with an 18-wheeler.

We ate dinner together at the Subway in the truck stop. This is how he gets his vegetables... something only a mom would spend time thinking about, I guess.

Okay, I'm ready for another visitor. Who wants to be next?

I'd better go do some serious writing now.

Digital Camera Binocular, With Night Vision

I'm putting this link here to remind myself to buy one of these when we can afford it.

Digital Camera Binocular - Night Vision

Why would I need this?

Well, I'm looking for visual proof of strange beasts who dwell in the night.

I imagine myself hearing bumps in the night while sleeping in a van in the forest, then grabbing my night vision binoculars to look out the window, to see --

Well, I won't see a thing without the night vision.

Webshots

I just started a new photo album account at Webshots.

Webshots is a great place to get beautiful desktop wallpaper. The photography is amazing!