This Messy, Blessed Life

It’s hard to believe we’ve been here almost two months already!

In some ways, it feels like we just got here. In other ways, it feels like we’ve packed an entire lifetime of little adventures into these first few weeks.

When we arrived, everything felt new…the roads, neighborhoods, restaurants, trees, humidity, people, and even the pace of life.

And speaking of the pace of life…

It’s definitely slower here.

My husband gets so frustrated with drivers who seem to have absolutely nowhere to be, often driving 15 miles below the speed limit.

I keep reminding him…We moved here for the slower pace!

One thing we noticed right away was how friendly everyone is. We’ve been greeted with smiles and sent on our way with “Have a blessed day!” many times!

I really like that.

We’re living in a small, quiet community in a more remote area just outside of Granbury proper, near the Brazos River. We’ve met several neighbors, and one even invited us to their church. More on that soon!

There aren’t privacy fences between the houses, so apparently everyone is just forced to get to know each other…

I guess that’s one way to build community!

Our little rental has been a good place to land. It’s cute and comfortable, and I’ve slowly unpacked everything we actually need and decorated a little.

Everything else is in storage.

And honestly, I’m perfectly okay with that.

Since we’re hoping to find a house by the time our one-year lease is up, I have no desire to unpack every single thing we own. If we make it a whole year without some of those things, we may have to admit we don’t need them after all.

The house feels cute and homey now. It’s smaller than our Lubbock house, but it’s comfortable.

It just doesn’t quite feel like home.

At least not yet.

Part of that is probably because we really loved our house in Lubbock. We owned it. We made it ours, and it held years of memories. I think it’s perfectly okay to miss a house without missing the place it was in.

Because while we miss our house…

We don’t miss Lubbock.

Don’t get me wrong, We do miss some of the people there but we definitely don’t want to move back. Even if we decide not to stay in Granbury, we won’t be moving back to Lubbock. It stopped feeling like home a while back.

Granbury is beautiful, but for the first few weeks, it honestly felt like we were on an extended vacation. I kept expecting someone to tell us it was time to go home.

Except this is home.

At least for now.

There have been a few adjustments.

This is a brand-new house and it does NOT have a garbage disposal. I have never lived without one, and apparently I didn’t realize how much I depended on that little appliance!

And then there was the cockroach.

A giant cockroach.

In the middle of the night.

At least two inches long.

With WINGS.

WINGS!!

Thankfully, it was dying, so I finished him off and flushed him. But it took me about two days to recover from the trauma.

I haven’t seen another one, but every time I get up in the middle of the night, I’m looking around suspiciously.

I understand we live next to a heavily treed area. But still…

STAY IN YOUR TREES, PLEASE!

We’ve also been having fun exploring our new town. One thing we wanted to do was actually experience Granbury before immediately jumping into buying another house.

So we’ve been driving around, checking out neighborhoods, visiting open houses, and getting a feel for the area.

And let me tell you…

Granbury is spread out!

It feels so much bigger than it actually is. There are so many communities and neighborhoods, and each one has a completely different feel.

We’ve seen some beautiful homes.

Some we could afford.

Some we absolutely cannot afford.

And some we really don’t even want to afford.

We keep coming back to one particular community, though. We’ve been there several times, and every time, it just feels like home.

But we’re not rushing.

We really believe God already knows where our next house is. Maybe it will be there. Maybe it won’t. Either way, we’re learning to trust Him with both the timing and the location.

For now, we’re enjoying being renters and trying to find our place in the community.

My husband joined a local gym.

I don’t do gyms.

He also started a new job here, which I’ll share more about in another post!

But probably the best part of this whole move has been my boys.

They came over for dinner during our first week here, and afterward we just hung out and watched a movie.

Nothing fancy.

Nothing particularly special.

Just time together.

And I needed that.

A couple of weeks later, they came out again and we celebrated my youngest son’s birthday a little early. We walked around the Square for a while before deciding it was WAY too hot for that nonsense.

We had lunch, saw a movie, drove around looking at the beautiful scenery, and ended the day at home with cake and ice cream.

It was a good day.

And I keep thinking about how different this feels.

I used to get so sad when the boys left, or when we would leave Fort Worth after visiting them, because I knew it might be months before I saw them again. Between the distance, finances, and everyone’s schedules, getting together wasn’t easy.

Now they’re only about an hour away.

We can have dinner together.

Watch a movie.

Celebrate a birthday.

Or get together “just because”.

And that may be the greatest blessing of this entire move.

Having my boys closer.

Being able to have ordinary moments with them instead of waiting for holidays.

I’m so incredibly thankful for that.

Of course, our little Granbury adventure has come with plenty of uncertainty, too.

We came here with no real plan. No jobs lined up. We just knew this was where we wanted to be, and when the opportunity came, we jumped.

We accepted a full asking price offer on our Lubbock home within three days of listing it!

We drove to Granbury the following week, and the very first rental we looked at was well below budget, brand new, cute, and available immediately, so we put down a deposit and signed the lease.

We ended up closing on our house in just 21 days with no hiccups.

I can’t explain all of that any other way than….God.

We still don’t know exactly what He has planned for us.

We don’t know where we’ll eventually buy, how long we’ll stay in this little rental, where my husband’s work will take him, or what the next year will look like.

But we do know this…God brought us here.

And that’s enough for me.

I’ve spent a lot of mornings standing on our front porch, watching the sun come up over the horizon and looking around at this place that still feels a little unfamiliar.

And every time, I’m reminded what an amazing Artist God is, what an amazing Father He is.

There’s something humbling about waking up somewhere completely new and realizing…

This is exactly where God has us.

This is home for now.

Maybe it won’t be forever.

Maybe it will.

But, I don’t need to know the whole plan.

I just need to trust the One who does.

It still feels a little like a vacation.

I still miss our old house.

I’m still learning my way around.

And I’m still occasionally checking the bathroom floor for giant winged creatures!

But little by little, this place is starting to feel less unfamiliar.

And maybe that’s how home happens.

Not all at once.

But slowly.

One ordinary day at a time.