Daring to Pursue a Dream

Folks, I’m not a big dreamer. Neither is my man. When paired together, we make …well, quite honestly…a not-so-exciting couple.

Big dreams for our future? Nope. High hopes for what the world holds? Nope. Burning ambitions to advance ourselves in such-and-such an area? Nope.

I’m not being negative or criticizing. It’s who we are.

Simple. 

And we’re (mostly) ok with that.

Thus far in our married life, we haven’t really been through any major changes. Unless you count moving from north to the south a big change. After all, you can grow a variety of fruit here, unlike the single crab apple trees of the north!

My point is, we’re simple.

Until now, we haven’t aimed high, haven’t pushed ourselves. We don’t have the ambition others seem to thrive on.

Notice I said “until now?”

Someone once told me it’s the quiet (and simple) people you have to watch out for. Suddenly, out of nowhere, BOOM! They surprise you!

This past year we have surprised ourselves!

 

Our BOOM!

It’s because of me, really. It’s my fault we’re stepping outside our box of contented simplicity. If it wasn’t for my situation and health, we wouldn’t be attempting this crazy scheme.

We all know my man is a carpenter, right? Like all carpenters, he wants to own land and home someday, and (like most carpenters) wants to build it himself to keep expenses down.

Carpenters have one particular tactic for reaching their goals, called the “buy and sell” tactic. Carpenter’s wives, go ahead and groan. I know you want to!

It’s a very common practice in the construction world! Buy, build or fix, live in the house for a year and sell. Repeat…repeat…repeat until you have the necessary money to secure the land/home you want!

Yep! That’s the way it’s supposed to happen!

That’s not the way we are attempting to make it happen.

Y’see, because of my weaker immune system, inability to deal with mold (which is a real problem in this valley) and need for good, nutritious food, we are attempting to skip over the “sell and repeat” part.

 

Our Foolish Dream

We would build with the plan to remain. Yep. Just hunkering down and making payments. No flipping the house back on the market in a year or two.

Worse yet, we are looking to buy an acreage. First time home owners. Outside of town. Back in the mountains. With space for a garden. Plans of a root cellar. Room for egg laying birds (I’ll take ducks please!) and a dairy goat or two. Perhaps meat rabbits or even hogs!

We may be foolish. But we feel like we have to try! And would regret it if we didn’t!

We have particular needs. Unique needs. And though heading in this direction may not be the wisest financial decision, we do feel that it is the wisest life decision.

So we doggedly pursue it. Fine-tuning cottage plans. Getting estimates. Calculating costs. Praying, praying and praying. Trying to walk in wisdom. Getting advice from the outside so we don’t become too ingrown with our thinking.

We may appear to be foolish. But we are willing to take that risk in light of the potential gain!

It’s not as if we are heading in totally naive! We’ve been doing our part, tracking living expenses this past year and sticking to a very tight budget. We know where our money is going and why, understand what sacrifice looks like in the vehicle, entertainment, refrigerator and clothing department.

But that…that is a post for another day! For now I ask that you would pray with us. For wisdom. Stamina. And that we wouldn’t, in the midst of all this, jeopardize the things that matter most.