Oh my.  This beautiful {Seeking Grace} Prayer Journal arrived in my mailbox the other day to visit the tire house for a few days.

I’ve been admiring it ever since.

The words that Jenn is whispering on these pages make you put your hand to your chest – to your heart.

We’ve got a little look book over at Gadanke so you can flip through the pages yourself.  It’s a beautiful testament to the power of journaling with prompts, and I am so thankful to Jenn for being a Gadanke journaler and for offering us this peek into her faith journey.

Have a peaceful weekend, everyone.

This is my grandfather:

Our family lost him to a 10-year battle with Alzheimer’s.  I was working for my Senator in Washington DC when I got the call.  I was a junior in college.

His death was really hard on me.

My grandfather and I were not close.  We lived in the same town, but he’d raised ten kids.  I guess you could say he was kind of burned out on being around kids by the time I came along!  As a kid, I could see that my grandfather had great relationships with my adult cousins.  But when I became adult-ish, it was too late.  He had become a shell of himself, completely there in body but not at all in mind.

After he passed away, I would journal and journal, trying to remember something awesome about me and my grandpa that I could hang onto. I’m flipping through one of those old journals right now.  Here’s a peek at one entry:

July 26, 2004

My grandpa didn’t remember me.  We got reintroduced every Saturday morning at 7:00 a.m at some little cafe in town like the Hanging Five.  He nodded his head and smiled, and I shared random pieces of my life and moved on.  He got blueberry pancakes and coffee; I ordered biscuits and gravy with hot chocolate.  It was always the same.  But that can’t be.  There just has to be something more.

Today, I still don’t have any of the memories with my grandfather that I crave no matter how much I’ve reflected, looked through photos, or journaled.

But I have something else.

My grandfather enjoyed writing little entries about his life.

Because of his journaling, I know that he was a pilot too!

I know that his favorite place on earth was my dad’s favorite place and my favorite place, too – 10,000 feet (3,048 meters) above sea level.

Because of his writing, I know what he felt about a childhood of ranching and riding a horse to school.

There are so many little things I have learned.  But the very best thing of all has been the opportunity to see my grandfather as a passionate, brave person through his words.  I couldn’t get that from my interactions with him.  I got that because my grandfather wrote down his stories.

Are you writing yours?  ;)

I hate hunting for airline tickets.  But I think I’d hate going to Europe by boat even more.

So I thought I’d offer some tips on airline ticket hunting.  We’ve found amazing deals.  We’ve also paid more than we wish to remember to get back and forth between the US and Germany.  I hope this helps make your trip comfortable no matter how much you end up spending.

(jetlagged in London last June – our airline was on strike)

1. Flying abroad costs more around Christmas time and from late May to early October.

I think you know why.  That’s when the weather is fantastic or Christmas markets abound.  But truthfully, if we were going to be tourists in Germany, we’d go in April. The weather is usually beautiful, and the tourism isn’t overwhelming.

2.  Avoid New York City.

I’m not sure why, but the experiences we have had at Newark are always awful.  The employees (from customs agents to the FAA and gate agents) always seem so miserable.  Maybe it’s the New York culture compared to what we’re used to in the west.  Maybe it’s that the airport security systems didn’t actually fit in the structure.  Maybe employees are overworked or uncomfortable.  I really don’t know.  But I will pay more to fly into any other city.

3.  Try to get the fewest legs possible.

That’s for comfort’s sanity as you get tireder and tireder.  If it costs a little more to have fewer legs, we think it’s worth it, especially if you’re flying to a new country for the first time.

(same jetlagged day in London. being pilots, we watch planes take off for “fun”.  and then we take pictures to show other pilots… or put on Making This Home!)

4.  Get a full night’s sleep before you leave.

Don’t take the first flight out; don’t get up at some crazy early hour to head to the airport.  We’ve found that our bodies adapt best when we get a full rest.  We don’t catch as many colds.  We adjust to the new time faster.  And yes, we’ve tinkered with this constantly!

The worst would be getting up to leave Europe early.  It’s pretty common to have to get up at 4 or 5 in the morning to catch an early flight.  What time is that in the US where you’re headed?  8:00 at night?

5.  If you travel often, try to just fly with one airline whenever possible.

This is our current plan – building up and using frequent flier miles, using companion tickets… Our airline of choice?  It’s German.  Luftansa has never lost our bags, never lost stuff from inside our bags, never gone on strike, or never really messed up our schedules.

This strategy is our key for affording tickets.

Once we had tickets with United; our international flight was actually on Luftansa.  Somehow, United didn’t get the information to Luftansa for our return flight.  It was after a funeral, and we were so exhausted.  The woman we were checking in with at Luftansa didn’t know our situation.  Yet she actually bumped us up to first class on our flight from Frankfurt to Denver.

I feel like that describes our Luftansa experiences perfectly.

Oh and just an fyi – they’re the only airline that serves free alcohol inflight.

(after nine months abroad, this man at our last layover in June symbolized everything I was coming home to. I wanted to hug him; instead I took a picture.)

6.  You can’t avoid jetlag no matter what anyone tells you.

Jetlag happens because of the body being at high altitudes.  There are very strict aviation laws about this, which is why cabins are pressurized.   (It’s also why little airplanes like the ones we fly cannot be above certain altitudes.  We can only be at other altitudes for a small length of time.)  By pressurizing the cabin where you sit, the airplane can create a feeling of an altitude much lower than where you are in the sky.  But it doesn’t go all the way down to the types of altitudes where we live.

So you can’t avoid jetlag, but you can do things to make the transition overseas more comfortable.  Drink lots of water, eat, exercise or move your body, and REST.

(in Berlin ages ago with an empty cart and no luggage.  Huh.)

7.  Bring noise canceling headphones if you travel a lot.

They’re worth their weight in gold when you want to watch movies or sleep.  It’s already uncomfortable enough to sleep in airplanes, right?

Are there any tips you can offer?  Any questions you might have?

Yesterday morning started like so many mornings.

Klomp-klomp etta klomp-komp.  Klomp-klomp etta klomp-komp.

We have deer on the roof again.  Yes!  I jump from the computer, and my chair almost falls to the floor.  ”Martin!” I shout.  ”Santa is coming!”

He grumbles a little; he’s still trying to sleep.

“Santa, Martin!  Santa.”

Klomp-klomp etta klomp-komp.  Klomp-klomp etta klomp-komp.

There are at least four deer on the roof now.

Martin smiles one of those not-awake-grins and reminds me, “First off, they’re mule deer, not reindeer.  You know that.  And second, it’s Easter.”

Then he’s back asleep.  The deer discover there is no food growing on the roof.  (Okay – nothing is really growing here yet.)  So they wander off, too.

I sit back at my desk and wonder, “Why aren’t I celebrating these things?”

How often do we document the little moments worth celebrating?

At the tire house, I decided it wasn’t enough.  So yesterday morning, I started writing in {Love Where We Live}, the home minibook from Gadanke.  It’s time to celebrate life in a tire house because as weird as it is, IT’S HOME.

I picked this journal:

Then I went outside, spooked the deer, and started snapping photos for my journal.

Here’s a piece of art on the exterior of the house.  I always wonder:  how did they pick this exact tire to display here?

You’ve seen the front door and taken the tire house tour.  But I’ve never shown you the back door.  The UPS man knows this door well.  He’s always bringing me journal supplies that I can’t get from the little shops in town.

And that’s it!  The rest of the house is buried in the back of a little hill.  The deer just wander on up like the tire house is just a little part of nature.

And what do you know.  There’s a contest out there for the 2011 Redneck Yard of the Year in blog land.  (And a reality check.) I think it’s supposed to be for gardening and grass, but I’m pretty sure you’d chip your shovel on the frozen ground around here.  And that rare little patch of green grass on the last picture?  Well that’s what the deer were nibbling until I waltzed outside in my down coat to take pictures.

What a weird house!  :)

On Saturday night, I don’t think I’ll sleep a wink.  Patta-patta-pattpapapapaptptaptpatpapt. That’s the sound of a (EASTER!) bunny on the roof.

Sometimes I forget how much it costs to live in most cities.  Take New York City for example.  A reader named Anita directed me to this woman lives in a 90 square foot (8.36 square meter) apartment. She pays $700 a month:

(on youtube)

All I could think as I heard her story was, “She doesn’t know about Berlin.”

I guess she probably doesn’t know how cheap it is to live in a house made out of tires in rural America, too.  hehe.

It’s much easier to make the numbers balance when you’re starting your own business (like Gadanke) when the cost of living is low.  We could not afford to live in New York City.  In fact, we probably pay less to live in two places than most renters pay to live in one place.  I want to tell you this because:

the number one reason we give up on dreams is we think they’ll cost too much.

But I don’t think that’s true.  If you really, really want something deep in your heart, you might be able to find a way to make it work. I think that’s what the woman in that video discovered about her dreams… even if they’re not our dreams.

That’s why I thought I’d start a mini series that’ll run every so often.  It’s all about finding ways to save money to make your dreams come true.

I thought we’d dive into things like finding international airline tickets, affording a place in Europe, shopping (and avoiding the temptation), going DIY, and some other surprise topics.  If you have a topic, let me know.  We’ve got some great guests lined up, too!

For now – what do you think of that 90 square foot space?  Could you do it?  Would you? And at what price?

Life gets complicated when our to-do lists get too long.  Of course, that list is guaranteed to get longer and longer when we leave projects half finished.

Finish what you start.  That’s the mantra around here.

Have you ever seen a half-painted house?  They’re everywhere around here.  Why didn’t the person who started the job just finish?  Now the house just looks awkward.  The brushes are missing.  The paint has dried up.  It’s been years.

The problems with leaving projects half done are:

1. You always feel anxious about the project – how it looks, how you’re going to get it finished, when so-and-so is finally going to finish, how you’ve failed…
2. You forget about the project – but you’re still uptight and stressed without actually knowing the reason.  (hello living in a house while you’re remodeling it!)
3. The people around you feel anxiety, too.
4. Or you tuck it away.  You don’t even notice. You just keep tucking away more and more half-finished projects.  Then it takes you twice as long to clean up.  Or someone has to come clean up the problem for you.

(Itemizing unfinished/needed repairs at the tire house)

Why is it SO HARD to finish what we start?

My brother wrote:

If you’re anything like me, then you always have a couple of projects open. It always seems like I am opening more projects than I am closing. In fact it is quite daunting when look at this ever growing mountain of work you are creating for yourself.

The big problem with having to many projects open at one time is that you are always feeling behind.  The reason you feel that way is because it is true!

I know how hard it is to finish stuff.  The BIG stuff.  The little stuff.

I can come up with quick excuses as to why I didn’t finish something. You too?  The excuses are really good, aren’t they?  The phone rang.  Your arm got tired from painting.  You had to go to this other task.  You got restless.

You cannot live a simple life when you make it a habit of never finishing what you start.

Why are we making excuses, only to turn around and feel overwhelmed by our to-do lists?

(finishing cupboard doors for our Berlin kitchen)

I know why my brother and I keep thinking of starting new things: they’re new.  New is fun.  It’s exciting.  Our society keeps marketing that old is boring.

So how about a little challenge?  This week, make old fun.  haha!  How do you suppose we can pull that off?  Here’s the dare.  I’m just focusing on the little things.  Oh but the little things can add up when you start looking at your entire house.

So try one of these little things:

1. Pull out some of those unused, random foods in the pantry. You know – the weird ones.  Incorporate them into a meal.  After all, they probably made it to your house with great intentions for a new recipe, or you only used half in the new recipe, right?
2. Grab an old craft project that you started. Start working on it, repurpose it, or get rid of it this week.
3. Start reading a book that you’ve always meant to read. Pick up a book that you always meant to finish.  Or donate it to the library.
4. Donate old contact lenses and glasses. Do you actually think you might need them?  Probably not.
5. Patch old nail holes in your walls. Sand and paint over them.
6. Clean out a filing cabinet. Scan papers.  Shred them.  Or organize them.
7. Recycle old cds.
8. Fix something in your yard that’s been broken all winter long.
9. How about something HUGE that’s just not getting finished? Can you take little steps toward it?

Oh – and here are some little tricks for putting all of your attention on a task:

• Don’t move onto the next thing until you’re finished.
• Or if you do need to step away, set a timer.  When it goes off, return to the task you were working on.

So what do you say?  Shall we all go finish a little something we started?  Just think – there’s a group of us here at Making This Home all undertaking a few finishes, too.  What’ll you pick?

(first image source)