Problems, Problems, Problems. Life is filled with problems. Fortunately, there are bad problems and there are also good problems.
When Janis and I married back in 2015, we inherited one of the good ones. The good problem was that we both owned a home: hers was on Beaverfork Lake, mine was south of town near Round Mountain. The problem for us came when making the decision as to where we would live.
I wanted to live here in my home, where I had been for 20 years and had my office, recording studio and tape duplicator I use to send out radio tapes each month. On the other hand, her house was only two miles from Pickles Gap Village, and she had to go there every day. Well, now you know where we lived for the next five years until she found a buyer for the village. It was not a bad deal, even though I put a lot of miles on my car driving back and forth. God is good, and He sent us a buyer a couple of years ago and we were able to move here to my home.
After the sale we set about the task of moving furniture from a larger house to a smaller one and finding a place for everything. The first thing we did was have an 8 X 12 storage building constructed at my house. It held a lot. Then Janis began to give away as much as she could to family and charitable causes. Would you believe this lady had two pianos and two organs? She gave her baby grand piano to her daughter-in-law. They rented a U-Haul truck and took it back to Warren, Ohio, where her son Roy is the pastor of Grace Fellowship Church. We were able to move one of her pianos and an organ, along with a roll-top desk, an office desk, and her two China cabinets, here.
Well, so much for that. They say, “Home is where the heart is” and I would have lived in a cardboard box on Main Street if it meant being with her. The reason I wanted to share these things is because of the cliché we have all heard and used a million times, “There is no place like home.” We both love it here and Janis has that special touch to make things look so pretty. She has blended photographs, furniture, nick nacks and other items to make our home warm and comfortable.
One of the real advantages of living here in my home is that we live on a dead-end street with no traffic. We have the best neighbors in the world, and the one next door is a retired school administrator who now has a tree service, sells firewood, and even has a contract with Cracker Barrell. But the real plus for us is that he has built a 12-acre lake that has ducks and other waterfowl come all the time, and the lake also has lots of fish: catfish, bream, bass, crappie and many other species. He has sloped the banks and used other equipment to make the area look like a park, and our house sits on top of the hill. We actually have a better view than our neighbor who owns it. We are also adding a large deck on the back of the house. This will provide many hours of being out in nature and observing the wildlife.
It’s true, “There is just no place like home.”
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(Jim Davidson is an author, public speaker, syndicated columnist, and Founder of the Bookcase for Every Child project. Since its inception in the Log Cabin Democrat in 1995, Jim’s column has been self-syndicated in over 375 newspapers in 35 states. For a personalized copy of “Your Future Begins Today” send $20, which includes postage and handling, to Jim Davidson, 2 Bentley Drive, Conway, AR 72034.)