Beaver:
The use of different words, or the same words having different meanings and/or triggering different thoughts for different people. "Life is what happens while we are planning." Lots of thoughts triggered by recent posts. Grade 7 history class (circa 1949): designing houses and thinking I want to live in the middle of 1000 acres; I would have to marry an artist, farmer or writer. No plan. (I hated history class!)

!967: I moved to Canada with the "plan" of buying a piece of land and building a wee cabin. Reality: I bought a used car and took my kids camping in the maritimes and Quebec for a few summers. We had fun. The plan was now a vision: someday I would live at the end of a dirt road with no amenities; I did not buy ANY electrical appliances for years.

1981: Rented a cabin on a knoll back a dirt road - no amenities - for a few years. Loved it!
1989: With the help of dear friends, was able to achieve the dream - full vision accomplished and enjoyed for 10 years.

All this I thought about this am as the sun gradually came up and brightened the west hill from top to bottom, eventually hitting the back yard. Woods all around me - not mine so I don't have to pay the taxes. This home was not a plan; this was reaching the point of realizing it was time to do something sensible - close to town, amenities, convenience... The plan was to be back here where it feels like home. Achieved.

Clearly my life has not been planned. At least not consciously. I feel a kinship to Tigger's bumbling through the 100 Acre Wood. I might have made it to Pooh's house, via a circuitous route. My plan for this house is to make it nicely, simply, livable - my way.

I spent time last night and this morning unpacking a few more things and thinking about/planning? what to do very next: take the handles off the kitchen cabinets so I can get on with the painting. I even had the first two doors open as I went about the other sorting! Closed them when it was time to leave for the Gallery! Maybe, when I get back this afternoon, I will open them again and even pick up the screwdriver and get to it.

Last night I hung a huge drape across the unfinished wall between LR and BR. Such an improvement - until we decide how to finish it. That 10 foot by 8 foot drape, innocuous cream and beige with nicely woven in pattern, was last used in 1999 at my special home. I was glad to find I had not de-cluttered my life of it. Then I arranged two small pieces of furniture and put stuff back in them - one at each end of the sofa - which is still in Quebec!

Yep. That is a plan.

The grass was white this am and I slept well under my pile of quilts and feathers! With the heating pad on medium now. The man who will be bringing another 6 face cord of wood came by at 7:30 to check where I want to put it. Not above the window level! My friend, the logger who cuts the wood, when we conferred about the delivery guy, noted, "He's a few logs short of a load!" He does a great job of delivering wood.

Glad for M's reminder to use the crock pot. Maybe I can fill mine with good stuff before I take the handles off. That means I plan to go to the store for said goodies -- scratch that. I'll do it tomorrow so I can get good veggies at the Market. Still hoping for a couple folks to get that mattress into the house! Then PLAN to paint in small pieces to keep fuming down. Maybe do a bunch on Sunday am and then go somewhere... Two hours tonight between leaving here and coming back for reception, then bed. That could be a good plan. Glad we thought of it!

Vision: getting the house to the point where I have time/energy to make pots! May that not be a fantasy!