{"id":1818,"date":"2021-09-27T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-27T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/touchofcharacter.com\/?p=1818"},"modified":"2021-09-26T21:28:43","modified_gmt":"2021-09-27T01:28:43","slug":"1818","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/touchofcharacter.com\/?p=1818","title":{"rendered":"No Frogs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Day 51 (March 26, 2019)<\/p>\n

Hey Big Man,<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 As Mathew McConaughey might say, \u201cAlright, alright, alright.\u201d Lord, now we are talking. We saw more houses today, and what a difference one day makes. Yesterday, the houses were (uh how should I say this) unique at best. I mean, one even had naked figures, in PG-13 positions, carved into the door frames. Don\u2019t get me wrong, the art history buff in me appreciated the old-world characteristics, but if the \u201cwhoas\u201d heard throughout the house were any indication, I do not believe this type of unique craftsmanship was hitting the style preferences of this particular audience. On the other hand, today\u2019s houses\u2014completely devoid of naked carvings\u2014were a much better fit.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The houses were more traditional and set back into more mature neighborhoods. Honestly, Lord, I felt so good looking at homes today. I think it was because the neighborhoods we were in felt a lot like \u201cThe Estates\u201d (the housing community our current family home is located). Ha, \u201cThe Estates\u201d makes the housing community sound so grand, and like \u201cla de da, let me look down my nose at you.\u201d But you know, it isn\u2019t that type of community at all.\u00a0 It is a community nestled back into the countryside filled with hardworking\u2014roll up your sleeves and get work done\u2014kind of people; a community with so many cul-de-sacs great for families and perfect for trick or treating; and a community with one little country store in the middle where you can walk to get a coke and ice cream bar on your way to the neighborhood pool. That is what the housing communities we saw today felt more like\u2014they felt well-kept and neighborly.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And, Lord, us girls were completely drawn to the brick traditionals in each neighborhood. We were especially drawn to two homes today. One was a two-story red brick traditional and the other was a two-story white brick traditional. Each were nestled towards the end of a cul-de-sac; each had a lower-level master for my parents; each had updated kitchens; and each were beautiful. But, I will say, the white brick traditional stole our breath the moment we walked in the door. (It was the only one we asked to see twice today.) You know what it was, Lord? It was the gorgeous sunroom that just knocked our socks off. It had floor to ceiling glass windows, intricate white moldings, exposed brick walls, and access to a wide multi-level deck in the backyard. It was, honestly, spectacular. When I saw that sunroom, I immediately went up to my mom and told her I could see a Christmas tree in the corner and our family sitting alongside it opening up gifts on Christmas morning. It was truly the first house we had walked through that I could more than just see my family living there, but actually envision them making it home<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 There were a couple catches though. An offer had already been made by another prospective buyer, and the cost of the home definitely pushed the budget. The seller offered to give my family the night to think it all over before they accepted the other offer. So, we shall see what my parents decide. No matter what their decision is, I am just so happy that today was such a positive home search experience. It really shines hope, within my thoughts, when it comes to this whole entire move. Oh, and speaking of thoughts (brainy things), even though it was still hard to walk through houses today, I did not have any meltdowns, and I was able to work through my fears in a calmer fashion. Honestly, I think it helped that we saw less homes today. Plus, one of the houses accounted for two of the visits, so there were less occasions for me to be surprised, or overwhelmed, by my OCD fears because there were fewer unfamiliar spaces.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lord, today was just a great day, and I am so encouraged on so many levels, but especially when it comes to my family finding a new family home. Ha, I think it helped that none of the homes were overly \u201cunique\u201d today. Like my mom said, when we got back to our friend\u2019s house, \u201cThere weren\u2019t any frogs today!\u201d (Meaning, she did not feel like we saw any odd houses today, just homes I would assume even a prince wouldn\u2019t mind kicking off his shoes and staying awhile in.) And, Lord, that is so night and day compared to yesterday\u2019s experience. So, thank you for the difference in days and for the kind of hope that a frog-less kind of day produces.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Always,<\/p>\n

Your Daughter Kaitlan<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

P.S. Lord, can I ask you to help anyone going through a big life change, especially one that might be a tad difficult, because when something huge is going on it truly can feel like you (we) are living day to day? And, Lord, the days can be so drastically different from each other. Some days are filled with a bit too much \u201cuniqueness\u201d and that can set our anxiety off, making us feel like nothing in our world is ever going to feel the same or fit right again. During those type of days, it can be hard to picture the change bringing any sort of good or normalcy. So, Lord, I ask that you help each one of us persevere through those tough days because, as I experienced today, no two days are the same, and tomorrow could bring such positivity. It could be a new day where things start to fit a bit squarer\u2014a day with \u201cno frogs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Thank you for reading! If you are new, this is a chronological blog series. It is best read in order. CLICK HERE<\/a> for the intro.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Mathew McConaughey might say, \u201cAlright, alright, alright.\u201d Lord, now we are talking. We saw more houses today, and what a difference one day makes…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1817,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trichotillomania-timeline"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/touchofcharacter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/day051.jpg?fit=750%2C730&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/touchofcharacter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/touchofcharacter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/touchofcharacter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/touchofcharacter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/touchofcharacter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1818"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/touchofcharacter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1818\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1825,"href":"https:\/\/touchofcharacter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1818\/revisions\/1825"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/touchofcharacter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/touchofcharacter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/touchofcharacter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/touchofcharacter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}