Friday, November 13, 2009

Girls Weekend on The Farm

Last weekend, I was blessed with the opportunity to join a few girlfriends for a weekend away at a beautiful cabin on some acreage just outside of Nashville. It was an open invitation to all the girls in our book club, but due to many scheduling conflicts, it ended up only being 4 of us in a gigantic 5 bedroom, 4 bath cabin/barn for 2 1/2 days. Complete and total bliss.

I'd had a rough couple weeks with all the pain from the dental surgery, roof leaking issues, HVAC quitting on us ect... I was stressed and was grateful to have a few days to recharge my batteries and do nothing but stay in my pajamas and read. And the best part about it, it was completely free. The cabin/barn belongs to a friend of one of the girls and they had offered it to her for the weekend.

I did take some pictures of The Farm (as it's referred to) so you can get an idea of this piece of heaven I was able to enjoy!
It was constructed as a barn and the right side is used for events, while the left side is the actual home.
This is what it looks like from inside the barn, you can see the stables on the right.


Here are some shots of the surrounding acreage and ponds.







We would take walks in the afternoon around the property to look at the creek, ponds, cows and this lovely little duck. It took me a couple days before I realized it was plastic. Awesome I know.
Here is the entrance to the cabin side of the barn. Aren't those rocking chairs just precious?

Once inside you see the great room that includes the dining table, living room, kitchen and pool table.
But my favorite aspect of the house was the breathtaking 20 ft fireplace surrounded by comfy leather chairs.
And can you believe I had this room all to myself? It was almost too quiet to sleep, but I'm not complaining! Gorgeous!
A huge thank you to my dear friend Julie for hooking us up that weekend and to the family that was so generous by sharing The Farm with us!

Wednesday, November 04, 2009

Cleaning House

Last night our church Small Group got together to discuss chapter 7 of Crazy Love by Francis Chan. If you haven't heard of it, its a great and challenging book to read. By challenging I mean, that it's pushing me to do things that aren't quite comfortable.

For example.

Do I really need all the things that I possess? I have a hard time giving up things. I wouldn't say I'm a pack rat, but I do hold onto things from the past for sentimental reasons. Doesn't everyone. I have a sucky memory, and sometimes cards or clothes helps me remember special events or moments of my life.

But then there's the fact that I despise clutter and a messy house. We don't have a huge house to begin with, and hardly any storage and the piles are starting to take over certain rooms. Ick!!! Quite frankly it freaks me out. I can easily go into a full blown panic attack when I see the mess, dust, dog-hair, boxes and crap getting out of control. I feel some simplifying coming on. I need to downsize on "stuff" and start taking it to the thrift store or just simply throwing it away. I'm not kidding y'all - getting rid of things, especially clothes, is soooo hard for me.

Maybe for further motivation, I'll show you some before & after pictures :-) Or maybe not, I get so embarrassed by the mess! We'll see.