17 Things I Learned From Our Summer Living in a Cabin

This year our summer was much, much different than normal. Our house sold in April and we didn't have a permanent home yet, so our only option was to find a month-to-month rental that would allow us the flexibility to stay there until we found a home. It wasn't the plan I had for our summer. It wasn't the path I wanted to take. When we first put our home on the market, I kinda (foolishly) expected that we wouldn't sell our home until God brought us the right home to move to.

But God had a different plan. His plan included us living by faith for our summer. And that plan included us living in a cabin for 3 months, 1 week and 3 days to be exact.

It started out rough. And it ended rough.

Yes, the cabin was a roof over our heads, and for that we were thankful. But it wasn't our first option.

Yes, we had some good times there. Great memories. And we did things as a family that we would have never done if we didn't live there.

Even though we had many trials over the summer, I know God's plan for our summer was perfectly designed. As I sit here in our permanent home that God has given us, I realize just how much "cabin life" taught me. I realize just how thankful my summer in a cabin has made me. I learned things that I would have never learned in a more comfortable environment. I have become a person who has learned to thank God for every blessing in our lives...even the little things.

So, here are 17 of the many, many things I learned this summer:

1) I can live without most of the "stuff" I have.
We only brought a few suitcases to the cabin. We didn't have 99% of our kitchen stuff with us. I lived with the very, very basic things all summer. The same handful of outfits...the same few pairs of shoes. And do you know what? I survived! In fact I didn't even miss most of that stuff.

2) I own way too much stuff.
It's crazy unpacking a storage unit after more than 3 months. I saw things I forgot we even owned. I unpacked boxes of things that I realized I don't even need anymore. Living with just a few things all summer made me realize how many unneeded things I truly have.

3) I VERY much appreciate having a washer and dryer.
I am completely thankful every time I do laundry and I simply have to carry the basket of dirty clothes to my laundry room. I don't have to lug it across an entire hotel complex to the washer/dryer set they have on every floor. I don't have to pay extra to do laundry. I don't have to pray no one else is using the washer and dryer. I never was this thankful for my washer and dryer. Going without one for most the summer really made me realize how much I am thankful to have one in my home.

4) Cooking/Baking defines me more than I ever realized.
Try to cook a meal for your family with one working burner on the stove....AND without a working oven. Try going 3 months like this. Yeah. I missed baking sooooo much. I missed the ease of making meals with ample counter space and with working appliances. I will never look at my stove/oven the same way. I am thankful every single time I cook or bake anything!

5) I appreciate the permanency of having a dresser and closet.
Living out of several suitcases for 3 months is not fun. You lose things so easily. It's hard to not have places to hang up clothes so they aren't wrinkled. My closet and dresser are a source of thankfulness. I love that I can find my clothes without rummaging through a suitcase. I love that I have the permanency of not using suitcases on a daily basis!

6) I am a better worship leader when I actually have a keyboard in my home.
Boy, that was challenging to get music ready and plan worship when the nearest keyboard I had access to was 20 minutes away. I wasn't able to play music just to unwind at the end of the day. I wasn't able to just sit down and plunk out a new song when I heard it. I am so thankful for the ease of having a keyboard just a few rooms away from me!

7) I sleep much better at night when I don't have neighbors partying all night.
When you live in a cabin that's part of a vacation area, you are constantly confronted with people who are on vacation. And they don't care about sleep. Or noise. Or the fact the people next to them might not be on vacation and may have to get up at 6 in the morning for work. I am so thankful to be out of that environment and in a place where people are respectful of their neighbors.

8) I am very thankful for bathroom counter space.
I understand that pedestal sinks look kinda neat. But when that's your only bathroom sink for getting ready in the morning.....GRRRR!!! I can't count how many times things fell off the sink and crashed to the floor. I am so thankful for a normal bathroom that has more counter space!

9) I can survive without cable and internet.
3 months without cable tv. 3 months without internet in the house. And we survived! We didn't even miss our regular shows that much. Life became more about spending time together and going out and doing things. TV sure consumes you more than you ever realize!

10) Guaranteed parking gives me so much peace.
Let's just say that I spent many days coming home to find that our reserved parking spots were taken by vacationers. Now let's clarify this to say that the spots were directly in front of our cabin. Their spots were even labeled!!! I don't enjoy knocking on doors to ask people to move their vehicles. I am thankful to have a driveway that we know will be available to park in!

11) I am much happier living in Tomah.
Don't get me wrong, the surrounding towns are really nice too! But when you pastor a church in Tomah, it's SOOOO much easier to live in that same community! I missed being so close to our church. I missed not being able to see my husband on his lunch breaks. I am thankful to be back in Tomah, minutes away from our church.

12) I am not a "gas stove" type of girl.
This one doesn't need much explanation. I am more of a "set fire to a towel on accident" type of girl when I use a gas stove. Electric stoves are MUCH safer for me.

13) I sleep and get through life better without the sound of 3 dogs above me.
Noises in the cabin seemed to be magnified. The 3 dogs living above us often sounded like a herd of elephants. It's enough to pull you out of the deepest of sleep. I am so very thankful to not have neighbors above us.

14) Scooby has an aversion to wood floors.
Let's just say he had several "incidents" this summer involving sliding and falling since he couldn't get the same footing he was use to from carpet. Maybe this summer was practice for him since our new house has some wood floors. He is much more dainty on the wood floors now that he has learned the hard way!

15) I really like peanut butter ice cream.
We're not talking chocolate ice cream with peanut butter cups. I'm talking actual peanut butter ice cream. The gas station by our cabin had an AWESOME peanut butter ice cream that I became addicted to! I do miss having that so close to me...well....that's actually a good thing we don't live so close anymore, if you know what I mean!

16) Home is really where you make it....and where your family is.
Even though the cabin didn't "feel" like home, we made it our home for the summer. We settled in and accepted the path God had us on. We trusted Him through the hard times. We followed Him through the uncertainty. And while we were in the cabin, we made it our "home". We tried to laugh at the unexpected hard things. We tried to keep our faith in God. I wasn't the best at all this as I did struggle often. But that's where my family helped me through. We helped each other through this test of our faith.

17) SOOOOOOO much peace comes from having permanency.
I can't even begin to describe to you the weight that was lifted from us when our offer on our new home was accepted. Then another weight was lifted each time we signed papers or got further in our loan/closing process. And the moment we were at the bank and had the keys in our hand. Wow. I can't even begin to describe to you the weight we felt lifted. I couldn't even make it to our front door without tears streaming down my cheeks. We entered our house and both dissolved into tears of joy. There's something about going through a trial/test of our faith...and then seeing God's plan come to fruition! Our summer of trials was ALL worth it!

I learned to appreciate my home. I am so thankful for the things I would have taken for granted before. Without this summer, I wouldn't look at my home the same. Or my stove. Or my counter space. Or my driveway. The list goes on and on.

I cannot stop thanking God for our house. Each day that I wake up here, the first thoughts I have are how thankful I am to be waking up in our home. Several times during the day, I simply look around our house and thank God for His blessings. Every night as I shut off the lights around the house, I thank God for giving us a permanent home and for being so faithful to us.

God has given me such a peace and such a love for the home He gave us. I am beyond grateful for it. And I am beyond grateful for the path He took us on to get here. I see everything now in a whole new light. I am beyond thankful!!!

Good Things Come to Those Who Wait on God

When God prompted us to sell our house and move to a smaller house, I fully anticipated that we would know where we were moving to BEFORE we sold our house. I expected it. I mean, how could we sell our beloved home of almost 7 years without having a place to move to? In my mind, it just wouldn’t happen unless we had a for sure home to move into.

But that’s not how God works. He doesn’t always go by our plan…or our expectations. Sometimes He prompts us to stick our foot outside the boat and take a leap of faith. Sometimes His plan is entirely different than our plan.

And that’s exactly what happened! Our beloved home sold in April…..might I add, BEFORE we had a permanent house lined up. Can I tell you how scary that was? The unknown was terrifying. Where would we live? Would we find a house we liked as much? Were we doing the right thing stepping into the unknown? My fears had come true.

As we embarked on the journey of selling our house and packing up our stuff, I tried to keep a positive attitude as I knew deep down inside that God was behind all this. But can I tell you how difficult it was to pack up everything we owned and pack it into a storage unit? When would we get our stuff back? When would we have a permanent house?

We were walking down a road without being able to see the end. We were blindly following God’s voice and taking huge leaps of faith.

Now, before all this happened, I considered myself to have a lot of faith in God. I knew I trusted Him with everything. But this situation forced me to put all of that to the test. I had to trust God more than I had in a long time. I had to get out of the safety net and take many, many steps of faith.

After our storage unit was filled, we packed our few leftover belongings and shuttled them over to the cabin where we would spend the next phase of our journey. (Now that….that experience is meant for a blog of it’s own…..oh my!) Can I tell you how scared I was as I spent our last night in our house….our warm, inviting house…the house that held so many memories???? I was terrified! What would our future hold? And even though I knew God orchestrated everything, I still held onto that sliver of fear as I wondered if we did the right thing.

The next day we cleaned out every nook and cranny of our home and packed up a very worried dog and headed out to the cabin. That fear was still there….threatening to take over the faith that I had mustered up to get through this experience.

Did you know that having faith in God isn’t always easy? Sometimes we have to force ourselves to hang on to our Jesus and we fight the thoughts of fear that threaten to overwhelm us. I can’t tell you I did a wonderful job having faith through this journey. I had days where I broke down in sobs wanting more than anything to have a place of our own again. I had days where I didn’t think I would make it through. The unknown was so very hard. The waiting was difficult. I prayed and prayed that God would come through.

Even through my days of struggling, God was there. He gave me the strength to overcome the challenges we were faced with in our cabin experience. Even though I felt like I hit rock bottom at times, I know I came out of that experience a stronger person in God. I was forced to spend a summer practicing faith. I didn’t just say I had faith in God…..I had to walk it every single day.

While we expected our “temporary” house to be just a few weeks stay, it turned out to be over 3 months. Three months of finding a whole new level of trust in my God. Three months of leaning on God every single day.

I know “home” is where you make it. Home can be where your family is and it can even be a smelly old cabin. And I know some of you think it’s crazy I struggled so much just being in a temporary house. But you know, I struggled feeling like I was at “home” those three months. I didn’t feel like myself. I felt like part of me was missing. My place of comfort was gone. My place of rest was gone. I was in limbo. And that made it really hard to wait.

But God. But God was there. But my God is faithful. But my God rescued me!

My God opened some doors that were previously shut. My God made a way down a path that wasn’t suppose to happen. My God did what I consider a miracle to give me a home that I love even more than our beloved house of 7 years. My God knew if I just waited, He would come through on His promise. He knew that each and every day spent in the cabin would make me just that much MORE thankful for our new home.

I look back now and know that every step of the way was orchestrated by my God. Why did I ever fear? Why did my faith waver? Why did I ever doubt in His faithfulness?
No, it certainly didn’t happen in my timing. But what would I have learned if I was simply handed the thing I desired? I would have never gotten out of the boat. I wouldn’t have had a summer of an extreme faith journey. I wouldn’t have seen the hand of God work out every detail in perfect timing.

Sometimes God works in ways we don’t understand. Sometimes hard things happen. Sometimes things look like they just might fall apart on us. But those moments are the times when we learn the most about God….and about just how strong our faith is in Him. I realized this summer that my faith wasn’t at the level it needed to be. Maybe that’s why we waited so long for our house….maybe God was teaching me to lean on Him even more!

When God is leading you through the unknown...a waiting time, remember that God is near and He hasn’t forsaken you. It’s time to put on those running shoes and take a step out of the boat. Run to God…run fast towards His promises!!!