Sketch With Me — gratitude

The past two days have been sketching days for the Facebook group, Sketch With Me, and this month’s theme is gratitude. While I had planned on sketching on Saturday, we ended up looking at a country property that our daughter and son-in-law considered purchasing. They are wishing to move away from Houston’s suburbs to a small acreage in the country . . . and they are specifically looking for a place with an in-law house, hoping that we will join them.

We both dearly love our log cabin here, north of Brenham, as well as our church family and this area. We also love the many improvements we have made here in the past 5 years, including a woodshop, a new carport, a remodeled bathroom in more of a rustic style, and real stone tile floors. Getting rid of the 2 previous ugly carports and the small building that blocked the cabin’s view made it much more attractive as well.

I am grateful for the time we have been able to live in this place and for all the Lord has worked out in our lives since coming here, including bringing Bill safely through the years of chronic pain and an unexpected second bypass surgery.

But we do not trust the current situation with our community water well. Those in charge of its upkeep have refused to listen to sound reasoning . . . or the fact that the state does in fact have the right to demand that wells be brought up to state code or they can be forced to be shut down. There are 30 some homes depending on the well system and we have a lack of confidence in the board members doing the right thing. Bill tried serving on the board for a time but they would not listen to his vast knowledge and experience in these matters.

Yesterday, instead of regular sketching, I scribbled the above in my sketchbook as we checked out the in-law cottage on the 7 1/4 acre property we were looking at. After much thought and discussion, all four of us agreed that the acreage is a bit more than we need and the larger ranch house is not special enough to move our kids to buy this early in their search. But we had a great day together anyway, which is another thing I’m grateful for!