Lessons in Selling a Home

First off, thanks for all the diaper bag thoughts.  I've been looking through pages and pages of different materials (so many cute choices!) and thinking about how to best incorporate pockets and maybe a few other things.  I'm planning on doing a mock-up for practice and then if that works I'll buy the fabric and get going on it. :)

Now.  Selling a house is not fun.  I'm sure lots of you know this. We've done it twice before and twice before we sold within a week. (We can attribute that to impeccable timing as the St. George market was really heating up then.)  It's been about 6 weeks.  We've had some people come.  One came twice.  One submitted an offer.  Wish we could have taken it, but it was too low.  I feel like I'm on pins and needles all day everyday waiting for our agent to call with an offer, appointments, feedback or just some random bit of business that needs dealing with.  It is an all consuming venture.  It's starting to wear on both Jeff and I some.  It's boring around our house.  At least half of our stuff is packed away in storage.  If we don't faithfully attend the library at least every week/week and a half, we're in trouble.  Thankfully the fall line-up is starting.  Sadly one of our favorites has ended, leaving us only 1 network show.  USA's season is over till November which is happily only one more month.  Anyway.  Despite this report of the doom and gloom of selling a house (and we haven't even touched the market issue), there have been lots of positive things I've seen.  And here they are in no particular order:

1.  The house is always clean.  I am just now realizing how small our house is for the stuff we have.  And how we are lacking sufficient storage (or maybe just organizational skills) to manage.

2.  If the house isn't clean, it can be sparkling in about an hour.  Without extra help.  INCLUDING: mopping and vacuuming all 1924 sq ft.

3.  The kids play with their toys more.  They only have a few things left out.

4.  Lyndsi reads more.  See explanation of #3.

5.  The kids play board games together.  See #3 again.  This one has been particularly fun.  I enjoy watching them play together.

6.  I hate to harp on the cleaning thing, but MY CRAFT ROOM IS CLEAN!  It's so much more pleasant to work in there on crafts now.  Glad I thought this room through when packing up.  I was sure to leave out a few things of the different crafts I enjoy doing the most.  There are lots of things I wish I had access to, but overall, the room is delightful to work in and easy to pick up.  It makes me really look forward to having a bigger and more fully dedicated space for my hobbies.

7.  I attend the temple more regularly.  Part of this has to do with all three kids being at school at the same time for at least a few hours a week.  But, I have enjoyed going while I have this brief opportunity before the baby comes.

8.  I pray more frequently.  Honestly, I have been surprised at what a spiritual journey this has been.  I need someone to talk to that can help me not get to anxious and to plead for help and guidance.  This is something I've been working on for a long time, but am finally now getting consistent with.

9.  I am learning to follow the spirit with more exactness.  I started noticing if I had a feeling to get the house clean and vacuumed in the morning and I followed through, usually by early afternoon our agent was on the phone scheduling appointments with me.  This lesson has started overflowing into other areas and I try to work harder on following through with thoughts that come to me.

10.  I have learned to appreciate my current house more fully.  It really is a great little house.  Especially with the new carpet.  So many great things and so many hard things have happened here.  It will be hard to leave, but it's time.  I really hope a special family/couple/person gets this house.  It has been our home, our haven and our safe harbor for 5 years.  We have struggled, laughed, rejoiced and grown while here.  It will always be a very special place for us.