Our rather unique situation *Miss Thelma's dish cloth pattern added*

Had to photograph this for posterity. Look at this cute old ironing board! I put one of Baby F's cars on it to give you an idea of size. These old 1800s floors! A little something I picked up on our cross country move (maybe it was in Iowa?). Seemed the perfect way to call the kids in for meals. We have a rather unique situation with this rental house - we not only get the house and land but all of the belongings of the owner. You see the woman that owned it - Miss Thelma  - passed away just 3 months shy of her 100th birthday. She left the house to her son who is now renting it to us. She lived in this house ever since the day she got married.  I feel like we are living with history here. What an honor! I can only imagine all the stories she would have to tell if she was still here. The stories the neighbors tell us about her make me wish I could've met her. I feel like we would have been kindred spirits.

Living here with all of her belongings has its benefits, for sure. As you might remember about 90% of our belongings are in storage (with 99% of of furniture) so having a couch to sit on and a table to eat at feels like a luxury after not having such things for a year in Oregon. Sure, they aren't my style but they work for us and that is really all that matters at this point. We are beyond grateful. Miss Thelma loved to bake and cook so the girls and I have been having so much fun finding all the cookie cutters and baking tools to use. She hand embroidered all of her linens which are like pieces of art that we get to use in our daily life. We found a drawer full of her hand knit dishcloths. You can literally feel the love and work she put into making this house a home for her family. Each day here is like a treasure hunt for us here. We never know what we will find.

That said, there are also drawbacks to our situation. Like anyone who survived the Great Depression, Miss Thelma has saved every.little.thing for she never knew when she might need it. Well, that means that every cupboard, every closet and every drawer are filled beyond capacity leaving little to no room for the few things we have. A good example of this are the spices and sprinkles I found in her cupboard from the 1940s! There is so much furniture that every wall is crammed. This clutters my brain at times making it hard for me to think straight (I need more of a minimalist style with things clear, open and clean to be able to function properly). We have been making it work though, shuffling things around to make room. Just don't try to open an of the closets if you stop by, okay?

I hope Miss Thelma approves and is happy to have her home filled with a loving family and children's laughter once again.

p.s. I couldn't do a post without some chick pics. They have already grown so much!

p.p.s. - For those of you that asked ...

Miss Thelma's dishcloth pattern: 
needles size 9 or 10 
cast on 4 sts. knit first row. row 2 - k2 yo k2 row 3 k2 yo knit to end of row repeat row 3 until you have 44 stitches now decrease: k1 k2tog yo k2tog knit to end knit the decrease row until you have 8 stitches left k2tog 4 times leaving 4 stitches. knit 1 row and bind off 

YO - yarn over 
K2 - knit two 
K2tog - knit two together

Our rather unique situation *Miss Thelma's dish cloth pattern added*