“Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take but by the moments that take our breath away.” – Maya Angelou

Friday, up to our eyeballs in boxes and runs to Goodwill and zooming to the dump and back and everything else that comes with beginning the overwhelming job of breaking up house, it occurred to me that our entire family is currently on the move.

Andrew, Alicia and Mr. T. landed in Kraków, Poland, not sure exactly where they will be living or when the crate carrying all their personal household goods will arrive. In Orlando, Naomi, Craig and the children are in the middle of packing up home in preparation for a July move into the new house they are building in Winter Garden.

And over here in Wake Forest, Rebekah and I are repeating exactly what we did last summer when we packed up my parents’ house next door. Now it’s our place and there seems to be considerably more stuff!

Artifacts and Stories:

Then we keep uncovering artifacts that cause us to stop and look. I took a few photographs to share and I believe you will agree that some of it is fascinating.

First, the image of a young man with his two sisters (above). It is my grandfather Fred Maul with my great-aunts Ivy and Louis – taken around 1919 when grandpa was 25 years old!

The next photograph is of an entry in grandpa’s journal at the beginning of 1921. What makes it notable is that it’s the day he went in to business with his father, and “F.W. Maul & Son” was born. “Commenced today in business with dad…” my grandfather’s distinctive hand reads.

The enterprise ran almost 60 years until 1979, when grandpa and my dad were finally bought out after a hostile takeover.

Next, from circa 1936, my favorite photo of my dad, David.

Finally, just to show how random the discoveries are when we’re going through piles of folders and papers, I love this very expressive school art project by our son Andrew when he was a teen. It’s from a pair of self portraits and I am so glad we still have them.

Rebekah and I are doing our best to get things organized and packed, but this is a hard task. There will be no garage at our new home, and little to no attic storage. So decisions are having to be made.

I have to admit that I am this close to renting a dumpster, waving goodbye and saying sayonara to at least half of our stuff!

In the meantime, I plan to share some of the more interesting finds as they surface. There really are some cool stories here.

Peace and blessings, always – DEREK