{"id":2145,"date":"2017-01-11T19:52:49","date_gmt":"2017-01-12T02:52:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mikebellah.com\/wordpress\/?p=2145"},"modified":"2019-01-23T07:11:57","modified_gmt":"2019-01-23T14:11:57","slug":"joy-sustained-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/?p=2145","title":{"rendered":"Joy Sustained Us"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>It\u2019s the best decision I\u2019ve ever made.<\/p>\n

Building a home on this little tributary canyon of the Palo Duro.<\/p>\n

Because building a house, like going back to school or starting an encore career, is a vote for the future. Everything you do (from foundation work to framing to trim carpentry) anticipates a better tomorrow.<\/p>\n

So building has been a hopeful metaphor. What first seemed impossible became possible, then probable, doable and, finally, done. It\u2019s given hope for other retirement goals.<\/p>\n

But while hope is a strong thing, it\u2019s not what sustained us this year. The word is joy\u2014hand-clapping, jumping-up-and-down joy. Sounds childish, huh?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s felt childish. Since late August when we secretly slipped into our almost-finished home, we\u2019ve felt like children on Christmas morning.<\/p>\n

There were new presents to unwrap every day: visiting with friends on the front porch, chasing grandkids down steep hills, a different room\/area to enjoy (you gotta see this fireplace) or all the opportunities to create (we\u2019ve only begun landscaping\u2014I\u2019m planning a mountain stream in time for summer).<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll be honest. Dave Ramsey would not be happy\u2014building a new home at this time in our life was not the wisest business decision I\u2019ve made. But I know this: My greatest stress has become my greatest joy.<\/p>\n

And, in Ramsey\u2019s words, that\u2019s better than I deserve.<\/p>\n

Here are some pics: house pics<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s the best decision I\u2019ve ever made. Building a home on this little tributary canyon of the Palo Duro. Because building a house, like going back to school or starting an encore career, is a vote for the future. Everything you do (from foundation work to framing to trim carpentry) anticipates a better tomorrow. So […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2145"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2145\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2290,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2145\/revisions\/2290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}