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A Few Too Many

When you put three households together you quickly figure out where everyone has spent their money. We have a dozen bikes, this is more than the amount of people residing in our home. It’s also about 11 more than get used.  We have 3 jeeps, 2 sedans and a Subaru in the driveway, and yes, they all get used regularly. We have 2 TVs in the storage room since every room that could possibly contain a television has one.

We did realize that the kitchen is one of all of our favorite places. We have 4 food processors, 3 blenders, 4 crock pots and more spices than Trader Joe’s. In fact, we tossed out 1/2 of the spices and still have too many. 

Not only do we have the supplies and equipment to prepare mega meals, we have enough dishes, glasses and silverware to set a table for 50 with complete place settings.  

If you are having difficulty envisioning this, here’s some images…

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Prickly Pear

Just in case we decide to open a meat market, we’re set with carving utensils…

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Spices anyone?

Prickly Pear spaces

Best of all we have our very own greenhouse, minus the house. There are citrus, avocado, and almond trees, succulents, and starter plants for our garden. In the multitude of citrus trees there isn’t one lime tree on the lot. This clearly means we aren’t done, who doesn’t need limes?

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Best of all, a few years back Jeff and I took all the grandkids to a local store to buy baby succulents to be planted in the “Neenee Garden”. Each succulent has been cared for and some have grown so large they required a house of their own. The rest of the collection have been cohabitating in this, now over-grown, planter. The “Neenee Garden” is coming soon.

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The Walk | Prickly Pear

Our hacienda is one long ranch style house. At some point the owner turned a two car garage into more living space which makes it feel extra long. We do a lot of walking in here because if you want to talk to someone on the other end of the house, you either call them or walk over to them.  Amelia and I were making that walk the other afternoon. We started at their end of the house cause a new diaper was required. As we made the trip back down the hallway I was amused by the story that was being written at that moment.  From the next room, Sage, her friend Ethan and Raun were putting together Sage’s new furniture. The music was playing something I had never heard and couldn’t really understand but they were enjoying it.

The walk at Prickly Pear

A few steps further we found Emery hanging out with her favorite friends in all the world – the Pokemans – who have their own special form of music.

Outside of her door, Sir Winston was finishing up a peanut butter jar.

As we passed through the kitchen, Liam was busy making desert for dinner. And just past the kitchen, Jeff and Austyn were singing songs from The Greatest Showman and The Waitress.  Amelia and I enter our living room and saw Uncle Brian trimming the pepper tree. Then we stood in the bay window and watched for mom to come up the hill in her purple jeep and made our own music. The walk from one end of the house to the other is a walk I now take intentionally and every time I get more excited about the life stories that are being written.

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The Right Wrong Number

I’ve heard it said that waiting for something to happen is sometimes more about how long we feel is necessary rather how long it really takes. I was pondering this idea one morning as I walked through our neighborhood. 

What if we don’t have to wait two years for our hacienda? What if it could happen sooner than 2020? Am I prolonging it because I think two years is somehow required?

And then the fear of the unknown, loan approvals, inspections, closing costs, and leases overtook me, so I turned it off and admired a beautify palm tree, the blue sky and the white ocean waves. 

A few days later I sat on the sofa deeply engulfed in a project when the phone rang. I glanced down and saw it was a local number and felt the need to answer. 

“Hello, this is Jeannie.”  (long pause – callers always mistake me for a recorded message.)

“Oh, hello,” the voice replied. “My name is Lauri, I’m a local realtor and I’m calling to see if you have considered selling your home?”

“No, I’m sorry, we are currently renters.”

“Well, have you considered buying…”

Lauri continued to tell me about the current market and how she could assist us in finding a new home. Her voice faded in the background as two other conversations began playing in my head. Sometimes we stand in the way because we have predetermined our own timeline and Lady you have the wrong number!

Then the phone went quiet and I realized Lauri had finished and it was time for me to say something. Get out of the way – maybe this could lead somewhere – go ahead and tell her about the Hacienda dream – Really? You want a realtor calling you every other day to check up on you….it’s way too soon…

“Well actually,” I heard myself say, “we have a plan, but we are really early in it and we won’t be ready for two years…” I told Lauri of our hacienda dream, how it would be three families and we all needed separate living space. How we really hadn’t even begun looking…cause, did I mention, we were still two years away.

“Let’s just get some information and I’ll start sending you listings and if anything looks interesting, you can call me.” So we did and she took the info about pricing, size, bedrooms etc. 

“And your last name is Hardy?” she continued.

I laughed and said, “No, that not my last name.” At that moment I think we both realized that this may have been the strangest conversation of the day. Wrong address. Wrong last name and a Chicago phone number – what a were the odds?

Fast forward four weeks and I’m shaking Lauri’s hand for the first time as we are stand outside a big blue ranch house on top a hill with a view to die for. One week later six of us are signing paperwork in the kitchen of that house and putting in an offer on a dream.

Maybe we do stand in the way of wonderful things happening to us. 

Maybe time is only defined by us, not the universe.

Maybe we’ve been waiting for things to happen and we really don’t have to.

Maybe wrong numbers are really right numbers and miss-information is exactly the information  needed. 

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For more information about the author check out: www.jeanniebruenning.com

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Prickly Pears

I’ve been saying it for years, Someday, we’re going to have a hacienda…lots of rooms and California style outside living spaces where we can live, dream and create. 

My great excitement was usually met with blank stares, wrinkled noses and a few rolled eyes. You see, my loving family are more of the dream busters type than the dream makers.

In 2018 I changed my approach. Someday we’re going to have a little ranch where we can all live in separate houses (this is very important to dream busters, they don’t like co-habitating). We’ll have a goat, chickens, a cow and we can develop the land….

To my delight and amazement the eyes stopped rolling and I actually got a few nods. One of those dream busters said, “This is the first time it sounds interesting.”

I’m not sure what it was, the goat or cow or chickens, but we all began to talk about our new dream.  We said things like; 

  • Just 2 miles in that direction where it’s a little warmer in the summer. 
  • Maybe not a cow, it would be hard to eat old Bessey after raising her. 
  • We can have lots of gardens… 
  • 2 years, in 2020 we’ll all be ready…two years…

Something magical happens when a group of people start believing in a dream. When they start seeing an idea as a possibility, their worlds begin to shift.

It’s the end of January of 2019 and less than two short weeks ago we made an appointment to see the first property that looked like it may have potential. A large ugly blue ranch home on 2.9 acres sitting on top of a hill just 2 miles in that direction. 

Tomorrow is February 1st, the day our loan will be approved, notices will be given, packing will begin and this family of dream busters will prepare to begin a new adventure of creating our very own California Hacienda. 

Hidden amongst the overgrowth of scrubs and weeds that cover the hillside on our new property is a large cluster of the cactus with giant rubbery leaves that appear to be stuck together making each a unique shape. This intriguing cactus is called Prickly Pear. 

What a great name! The sweetness of a pear combined with the prickliness of a cactus. What a great description for a group of individuals beginning a new adventure that will undoubtedly stick us together in unique ways.

So here we go, three separate families endeavoring to make a new way of life on top of a hill… just 2 miles in that direction!! 

For more infö on the author, check out www.jeanniebruenning.com

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The Oven Night | Prickly Pear

We seem to be having a lot of these breathless adventures…

Do you remember that night after we moved into the hacienda when we were all out doing things separately and suddenly our phones began to beep because Brian and Austyn found a new oven that was a floor model and had been marked down from $1400 to $850 and they were asking if we all wanted to go in on it and 60 text messages later we all decided it was a good idea so Brian said he could fit it in the Subaru and when he went to check out was told that the floor model had been marked down to $499 back in November but no one had changed the sign so it had been sitting on the Costco sales floor for four months waiting for us – us the people who just moved into a big blue house on the hill and are trying something called generational living and we love it so far except for the smell of what we believe was a rotting carcass in the kitchen and had been unable to locate it but now we were forced to pull the old oven out and when we did found lots of grease and dirt but no creature which didn’t stop Jeff and Austyn from putting on gloves and bleaching every surface that could reach including the nob to the exhaust fan and when the new oven was put in place we were all amazed that it had two ovens, a top and bottom, and came with a big orange warning sign that the oven could tip over if a baby were to crawl into it but we knew if a baby were to crawl into the over there would be greater danger than it tipping over – and now the kitchen smelled like bleach and a rotting carcass so we pulled the refrigerator out because it was leaning backwards and there it was, a small four legged critter lying lifeless which we removed and used more bleach and then felt the need to use this opportunity to remove the magnetic knife holder from the wall which was being held up with six inch screws and a bolts on the other end which wasn’t the reason the refrigerator leaned backwards but non the less seemed odd –  once the carcass was removed and the refrigerator was replaced we celebrated because our refrigerator didn’t lean any longer and the kitchen didn’t smell like rotting carcass and best of all, Brian looked up our oven on his phone and it retailed for $1700 which we had just purchased for $499 and best, best of all…it’s blue inside…that was a great night!!  

 

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The Annoyance Jar | Prickly Pear

jeannie bruenning During one of our countless discussions while deciding if we could really live together, our daughter-in-law suggested that we have an Annoyance Jar. 

“Annoyance Jar?” Jeff said, “that sounds great! We’ll make a lot of money!!’

Annoyance Jar? I thought, that’s not going to work. I’ll be broke!!  It’s not that I’m really annoying, I just live with someone who is easily annoyed and we may have successful raised one kid to be as well. 

I hate this idea, it’s never going to work. This is only going to give the annoyed the right to be more annoying…

“No,” Megan clarified, “you don’t put money in if you annoy someone, that wouldn’t work.” Megan is very endearing when telling us that we may be wrong. “You put money in if you allow someone to annoy you.”

Jeff was silent and I began to laugh. That would be perfect! I thought. We are going to make a ton of money!!

I told our friends about the Annoyance Jar during dinner that night. They had the same first response we had but after more explanation, the idea sunk in. During the rest of the evening we all pointed out moments we would have to pay into the jar because someone in the restaurant was annoying us, and these weren’t even people we knew.

We don’t actually have an Annoyance Jar, but I’ve thought a lot about it. Closing on a house creates anxiety for two people, having six adults required to sign off on every detail is mind boggling. Moving is stressful, moving three households in the same week boarders on insane. 

There have been plenty of opportunity to get up-set, to allow someone else’s actions to frustrate and annoy. There are also the same amount of opportunity to decide not to allow annoyance to be the reaction. It really is that simple.