Remember when we used to blog the old fashioned way - with a pen and paper?  Deanna found my sad, neglected little journal tonight.  It has just 3 handwritten entries.  Since it seems doomed to obscurity, I am preserving the entries here instead.  Here is the first entry, word for word.

Wednesday, November 10, 2004

Today I took a bath!

That was a momentous occasion - my first bath in this house, OUR house, the house we built - by God’s grace and providence, of course.  I washed laundry, rejoicing aloud in the use of my own laundering facilities.  The dryer doesn’t work, but who needs a dryer, when one has a deck and a sunny day?  I rejoiced aloud again as I hung out each load to dry!

Last night, all at once, we suddenly had a hot water heater, a washer, and a tub w/running hot and cold water.  What luxuries, coming to us now by 2’s and 3’s when before the milestones were separated by weeks or months.

Less than 2 weeks ago, when we moved here on October 30, we didn’t even have a toilet.  The next day we had a toilet but no running water in the house - we used a hose and a bucket to flush.  Our electricity came from 2 long extension cords running from the pole up through a hold in the floor.  Cooking was limited to the crock pot and a propane grill.  That was the sum total of our luxuries.

But we had a house, a home!  That’s a luxury in itself!

In brief:

Saturday, November 30: we move

Sunday: the toilet is set

Monday: we have running water to the toilet

Tuesday: the nights are approaching freezing, so Perry covers the gable walls with drywall

Wednesday: we have power to 1 or 2 outlets in each bedroom

Thursday: Sid delivers our fridge in his pickup.  We have a fridge!  Kaitlyn bloodies her nose when she runs full speed into the fridge in the middle of the living room.

Friday: we have pizza dip made in the crock pot, with chunks of bread.  Easy and fun.  Later Weasy, Carisa and Amanda come to visit.  Our first Friday night!  We play Shooters, Cribbage, Stratego, God Fish.  Perry crashes on the foam couch early with children piled on around him.

Saturday: Perry sends me to Lowe’s for a water heater while he troubleshoots the wiring in the bedrooms.  Of course he finds and fixes the problem.  That’s my guy!

Sunday: a real Sabbath (last Sunday the ox was in the toilet - er - ditch)

Monday: the guys work in earnest on the hot water plumbing and washer supply lines.  They hit a snag when they need parts.

Tuesday: finally, the washer, dryer, water heater, and tub faucet are all ready to test, all at once!  3 out of 4 isn’t bad.  The dryer doesn’t work but it might be an easy fix, and was disposable (and dispensible) in my mind.  No big deal.

Wednesday: Sid arrives with our couches this time.  Perry tries them out, and sinks into the dark, leathery quicksand.  He does not rise again, and here I sit writing alone.  The kids are sleeping and the only sounds are the crunch of cat food and Perry’s phone beeping politely every now and then.  I tried to wire an outlet and gave up in frustration, not sure if I finished or failed.  Oh well…maybe I’ll take a bath…

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3. The washer saga, and Thankful Thursday
4. Things to do on a cold morning
5. Thankful Thursday Thirteen: about the water incident

Filed under: memories