I began the last post (called “3 Years Later!”) by telling you about Steve’s work at the fire station, the losses he’s had there, followed by him assisting medically in the church shooting down the road from our house.  He’s been asking God for a few years to help him know when to retire, and to point him into a different career for this next part of his life, in addition to his bird taxidermy business. This post will show you how God has been answering that prayer for him and guiding the way all along, and we’re just catching up to realize what’s been going.  So, this post is the continuation of the previous one.

Just after the November 5, 2017 church shooting of Sutherland Springs, our church in La Vernia asked if we’d be willing to cater their staff Christmas dinner. It was going to be a 5-course, Downton Abbey-style dinner, indoors, for roughly 25-30 people. I just needed more silverware; I had everything else (believe it or not).

I went thrift shopping to find some. One place had a glass display case full of antique copper, brass, silver-plate… and a complete box of antique silverware.  It was perfect, but I had to buy the entire case of other things in order to have it; things weren’t sold individually. I hesitated to spend so much money just a few weeks before Christmas, but I thought I’d attempt to sell the other things I didn’t need. Here are a few of the pics I advertised with:

Surprisingly, even though I kept a bunch of the silver-plated items for myself, I sold everything else within the week! I even made a little extra money over what I spent. The timing was perfect. (Thank you God!)

I did it again, out of sheer fun and curiosity. And, once again, I sold it all with profit. (Remember this for later.)

Fully reimbursed, and with new silverware in-hand, we catered the church staff Christmas dinner on December 16, 2017. We moved our living room furniture out onto our log home side porch, out of sight, and brought in tables and chairs, and did our thing…

A week later we celebrated Christmas Eve (2017) with my family, Scandinavian style.  It’s always celebrated on Christmas Eve night, and always by candlelight.  I LOVE it.  Then we have Christmas Day with Steve’s family.

All of the pictures on my long hutch with candles in the dining room are my grandparents, great-grandparents, and great-great-grandparents who came from Sweden and Norway who passed down this Christmas tradition and the food we always eat…I love tradition.

Right after Christmas of 2017 we tried selling a few antiques again. Looking for them was so much fun, and making a little extra money connecting an object of history to its new owner was so rewarding!

It was the only hobby I had.  Some people shop, others play sports etc….I was buying and selling antiques. Whatever profit I made, I reinvested into buying more.

To my absolute joy, I was buying legitimate 1700s-1940’s antiques! I LOVED them! The only problem was that my “hobby” grew so rapidly, it soon became a small business.

Ordinarily that wouldn’t be a bad thing. It’s the American Dream, right?  But in my case I was nervous that it may have been distracting me from my primary calling…

I confess; I’ve been keeping a very large secret from you (and feel sorta bad about it). Just when you think you know a person…WHAM….they blindside you with some unknown information; but, the time has come for me to share this, I think.

In the same way that God made it clear to Steve and me that we were supposed to buy this land and build the McGuire House and log house [blog post: “Welcome to Cottonwood Creek”], He also made it very clear to me in ~2004/5 that I had a book to write. It’s about what the various world religions and philosophies (including atheism/Darwinism) believe compared to the Bible and Jesus, how each got started in the first place, all about their leaders’ lives, and what “Believe” actually means in the Bible.

I won’t go into detail right now of “how” He gave me this assignment (because the story is long), but I assure you...it was an obvious instruction rather than an ongoing idea in my own mind.  It certainly wasn’t my personal desire or goal to write such a book. I’m not a writer, and never ever dreamed of being one (though you’d never know it from my 1000-page posts in this blog). And, I certainly never wanted to learn the world religions.  The whole notion of writing such a book was 100% off my radar, and *undesirable to me.

I’m keenly aware of how many other books there are on the market explaining the various religions. This is one logical reason why I was personally stumped and bewildered as to “why” He’d give me a job that had already been done by many others.  But, when I asked Him about it, the words that came back to my mind and heart were, “The more the better.” It made sense, so I proceeded.

After extensive prayer over it, hoping I was incorrect, God answered me in profoundly obvious ways that I really did have a book to write. So I proceeded to do the research and started writing it.  He didn’t want me to just be familiar with the teachings of the other religions and philosophies (and atheism/Darwinism, etc); I couldn’t merely jot down a few quick summaries about them.  He wanted me to fully understand them as well as those who practice them, and be able to teach them, comparing them to the words of the Bible. So, I did.

The God-given assignment to write the book began just months, or a year before we moved to La Vernia from San Antonio.  Reese was barely a toddler. I was writing it while in the midst of building our previous house (featured in the blog post called: “Butterfly Fly Away”). In that post you’ll see pictures of the travel trailer we lived in while building that house. I would sit at the dining table of the trailer typing away on the days Steve was at the fire station (which seems so long ago now).

I spent about 7-8 (veeeery long) years throwing myself full-on, almost every day, like a full-time job into studying the religions. I learned from those who practice them, as well as university philosophy professors, books, websites, you name it.  It took me 1.5 years  just to learn Hinduism from Hindus and their Vedas and other ancient texts…for example.  I’ve read the Quran 3 times and learned Islam from Muslims and ex-Jihadists.  I learned Buddhism from Buddhist monks and the Tripitaka/Pali Canon…. and I learned the rest of the philosophies and religions from their top sources. Wicca, Scientology, Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witness, Islam, Darwinism and every atheist idea about how the universe came to exist, all the archaeological evidence that has been found, and so much more. Learning all of this and writing into one consolidated book has been my *unpaid full time career since Reese was a baby. 

I was often up studying until 4am for years, when the house was quiet. I did this while also raising my girls, homeschooling them, building our other home, and doing the things pictured and mentioned in the “Butterfly Fly Away” post.

When I finished learning each religion and philosophy and wrote a chapter for each one, I asked several of “my teachers” [ex-Buddhist monks, ex-Hindu priests, ex-Jihadist muslims, etc] to please read them to see if I learned those faith systems correctly; if anyone would know, it would be people who made a living teaching them! They each said I got it all correct, or told me the few suggestions I needed to tweak. They all contacted me back saying I learned their religion/philosophy correctly. 

After I completed each religion and philosophy (but not the book in general), we started building the McGuire House [a guest house on our 11 acres, detailed in the first few blog posts], and I started writing this blog. So, as you read the first few posts of this blog, I had just completed learning all the religions and was taking a brief 5-month break from writing the book.  It was a relief to me!  Building gave me a much-needed break from studying and writing such intense material.

Ever since we finished the McGuire House and most of our log house [also detailed in previous posts], I returned to the book.  I’ve dedicated the vast majority of my daily life all years to finishing it. 

I told my husband Steve that it feels so strange to be with family, friends, or even strangers, and not mention what I do with 3/4 of my daily life.  It’s just simply not a topic that I can introduce without it turning into major (and potentially uncomfortable) discussion.  So in the interest of spending enjoyable and relaxing time with loved ones, I simply don’t bring up the book – even though it’s what I do on every single car drive, and at home most of the day every day. I figured that people can just read it when it’s done, if they want.  If no one ever reads it, that’s perfectly fine with me; I’ll stick it in a drawer and move on with my life. I’ll know that I fulfilled an assignment God gave me, and I’ll simply move on to the next assignment.

Perhaps some people think I’m crazy.  I know some will say that “God” doesn’t exist…that He doesn’t communicate…and that being “told to” write the book was all in my imagination, or was self-inflicted. Considering I’ve spent so many years thoroughly studying atheism and have heard all the debate points from atheists, and know the testimonies of countless ex-atheist scientists all over the world who now believe in Jesus and know Him personally as I do, I just ignore those mocking comments. I know better. 

There’s absolutely zero question in my mind that Almighty Creator God exists…but I admit that I used to question many times if He indeed told me to write this book.  In fact, I quit writing it three different times, months apart from each other, while living at our old house, because it was SO hard to learn such challenging content.

No one knew that I had quit writing, because I didn’t anticipate doing it; each time I made the conscious decision to close up my computer and never return to the book again was spontaneous.  Steve didn’t even know.  But – the first time this happened, I closed my computer to quit, I decided to check my mailbox. There was a card, freshly delivered, waiting in my mailbox.  It had to be mailed 1-2 days prior…showing me that He omnisciently knew my future decision and hedged me off. It was from a friend telling me “God wants me to tell you not to quit writing the book.” 

Coincidence?  No.

Weeks later I quit again. I closed my computer telling Him I’d no longer do it. I was officially done and didn’t care what letter He had waiting in the mailbox this time.  I then got up to eat lunch, and sat back down to check my email.  A friend had just written to me, while I was eating, telling me that she had been in Bible study all morning and the words flowing through her mind the whole time were “Tell Gretchen not to quit the book.”  So, she emailed me upon getting home. She, of course, had no idea that I had just quit the book minutes before, while she was driving home from the Bible study.  In other words, God had been filling her head with those words before I had closed my computer!  He was, again, steps before me.

The third time I quit, I closed my computer (or maybe I slammed it?) and the phone rang.  The timing was on-point.  It was my mother-in-law.  She used to own a quilt shop in San Antonio.  When I answered the phone she told me a customer had just left her shop, and something strange happened.  She hadn’t seen this woman in a long time.  They started chatting the minute she walked into the shop. Somehow my book came up, which my mother-in-law never talked about with customers (or anyone).  The woman asked what the book was about.  After my mother-in-law told her, the woman stepped away for just a minute, and came back with a piece of paper with a woman’s name on it and a phone number.  She told my mother-in-law to give it to me, even though she didn’t know me. Then she left!

My mother-in-law said it was so strange…the customer didn’t shop or even look around!  She was a regular customer who hadn’t been there in months or longer…but didn’t buy anything or even attempt to.  It was as though she had come solely to chat with Dixie and give her that number to pass along to me.  So, I called the woman on the paper.  Turns out, she was told by God to write a book, too, years before. She wasn’t a writer either.  She told me if God told me to write a book, then I better finish it.

Seriously….what are the odds?

That’s not a coincidence. And, it means that once again, like the letter being mailed 2 days before, and like my friend hearing God telling her to tell me not to quit, hours before I actually quit, this woman had the “idea” to go to the quilt shop that morning…when there was obviously nothing she needed to shop for… or else she would have shopped!  She loaded into the car and drove all the way there…before I had closed my computer.  She chatted with my mother-in-law before I closed my computer.  She wrote down the telephone number before I had closed my computer.  As my mother-in-law watched her leave and headed over to the phone, I then closed my computer and told God, “No more!”  (Ring-ring!)

Here I am years later – on the 11 acres He told us to buy and build on. While building the McGuire House (from free wood), He put ideas in our minds that it would be used to house traveling speakers and praise bands – and that’s precisely how it has been used, without our advertising.  And He put in Steve’s mind visuals of tents and campers all over the property – and months after finishing it, our church asked if we could host their annual father-son campout on our land. We have hosted 3 out here – all written about in this blog.

He then told us to build the Scandivian, but it took several years to learn what that kind of architecture was like, while also working and having so many other responsibilities.

Then, 6 months after inspiring us to build the Scandinavian, He had us host a Christmas party for our church, and now I “stumbled” into antiques selling hobby that was rapidly becoming a small business. – while writing on such an intensive book.

I couldn’t imagine that God wanted me to prioritize selling antiques over writing the book, after stopping my quitting three times. The antiques were taking up hours out of each of my days, to find them and learn the histories. But it sure felt natural, and doors were opening left and right, sales were coming in, and I hit no obstacles along the way….but his letter, email, and phone call to me were clear obstacles to my quitting the book.

Confused, I asked Him to please make it very clear to me if HE placed this new antiques venture into my life, or was it something I simply stumbled into that was taking me away from the book and needed to stop?  Was selling antiques a temptation that I was falling into?  

I love antiques. Selling them was fun for me. It was also a form of earning some extra money.  I don’t get paid to research or write the book, which has been a full-time job since 2004.  I’ve only done it out love for and obedience to Him. Our only income has been Steve’s fire fighting and birds. So, receiving a small income through antiques was unexpected, new, and fun to me…but not if it got in the way of doing what He created and called me to do.

I knew He could let me know what course of action to take with this seemingly growing new business, as well.  I continued on with antiques while waiting to hear His response, with the faith that if He didn’t want me doing it, He’d simply prevent sales from occurring, because I asked Him to.

I received my answer a few weeks later….

Our church unexpectedly asked me if we’d house another speaker. We’ve housed many speakers over the past years. Most of them have a full time job other than speaking. One was a traveling comedian; two were traveling magicians; one had an online furniture business, etc. Usually we know about their coming months in advance, but I only had a couple weeks notice for this one (which was totally fine…the timing was clearly God’s.) The McGuire House was available, so we said yes.

As we chatted with the new speaker, and got to know each other, he told me that he’s an ANTIQUE DEALER! Can you believe that?? It was NOT a “coincidence”….

I told the speaker what had been happening since Christmas with selling. I told him all about my book, how we got out here, and how the McGuire House and log house was built (everything in this blog). I told him I had been praying, asking God to make it clear if He placed this new gig into my life, or if I needed to end it.

The speaker shook his head and told me not to end it. He said God would use antiques to bless us and others. He said God would use antiques to cause others to find us, to hear our story about Him. Through antiques, people would learn that He’s real and communicates.

According to him, the antiques business was an added blessing…not a wayward path.  The Bible agrees: “Take delight in the Lord [which I do; He’s my best friend.], and He will give you the desires of your heart.” Psalm 37:4.  So, trusting that God spoke to me through him, I proceeded. If I was wrong, He could easily prevent my sales.

Since the speaker left, I can’t tell you how many profound stories we’ve already had with customers. He’s guided very specific people to us to hear about Him through their simple interest in an old object of history. We’ve also made many fantastic, new relationships/friendships, as well. I can’t imagine our lives without these new friendships (and you know who you are 💌). The blessings have literally spilled over. And, you won’t believe what He’s done with antiques since then…

I started selling the first things in December 2017 (the Christmas dinner), and had been selling for a couple months by the time the speaker came.  By April 2018, 4 months later, we grew so much that Steve suggested we add a room onto his bird studio to use as my at-home shop.  We ended up using half of the wood from the farmhouse we tore down (blog post: “Our Next Project”), and a repurposed cedar privacy fence that we picked up for free.

We still have this same amount of wood leftover to use for the Scandinavian timber frame bed-n-breakfast (another update!).

I advertised each antique on Facebook with a link to our blog. That’s how any customer knew we existed. We had customers coming out daily, and we usually ended up chatting.  Many have become lasting friends now.  My antique shop grew.

In fact, I outgrew it within months! … all while working on the book every day. 

It rapidly became too challenging for me to meet with customers out here while also concentrating on finishing the book.

Right about that time, a local antique mall in Seguin (Blue Hills Antique Mall) had a space come available (God’s perfect timing), so we moved a lot of it in there instead. They don’t want vendors to work there, so it worked out perfectly for me and writing.

We started out in this small room. Some of my things went in here, while my home-shop was still packed full.

After the first month, the antique mall owner offered us an additional room…and continued to offer another room…month after month, as they came available.  We were most definitely NOT asking for additional rooms!

Expanding made me very nervous every single time. Assuming it was God offering each new room to us as an added blessing, we filled them.  Before we knew it, we were in five whole rooms! I never asked for or requested one single one of them.  They were each offered to us, in spite of the other vendors having spaces in the same building. The owner told us she liked what we sold, and liked working with us. 

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We finally emptied out our home-shop, taking it all to the antique mall, freeing up my days to work solely on the book and to take care of my mother through her surgeries, as well as the other things you’ve seen pictures of in the previous post.  The home-shop became my writing studio – my office.

We continued like that for nearly a year.  While finding antiques to re-fill each room, I was also writing every day, and juggling all of the other things I’ve told you about – the speakers, bands, visitors, campouts, youth functions, Bible studies, catered meals, the Downton Tea and Mad Hatter for my family…everything pictured in the post “3 Years Later!”.

To say my/our life has been chaos is a mild understatement.  But, a very very very blessed and wonderful chaos. Even though I sometimes feel very overwhelmed or stressed trying to keep all of the balls in the air, I wouldn’t change or stop any of it.

I began the previous post by telling you about Steve’s desire and inner-gut feeling that God was nudging him to retire from the fire department, particularly after the firemen funerals. He’s often wondered what he’d replace firefighting with, besides more birds….

This antiques business seems to be one thing God has provided, and I informed you about the “Scandinavian Timber Frame” bed and breakfast two posts ago (the “Our Next Project” post). Even though God brought it to our attention 3-4 years ago, it wasn’t the right timing to start building it yet…until now.

It took us a few years to study and learn about Scandinavian construction, and timberframe construction, and we realized that it was officially time to start building the Scandinavian; it just felt to both of us that God was filling our heads with it, and nudging us in that direction, finally.  One God-wink that we were on His path for us was when a good friend of ours contacted us, telling us that he had found us 150-year old, totally handmade barn timbers from Quebec, Canada!  You can’t build an 1800’s-inspired timber frame structure without 1800’s timbers!  And we certainly didn’t have time to look for them.

As usual, God brought it all TO US, in order for for HIS plan for the “Scandinavian Timber Frame” bnb to be fulfilled. The timbers were officially dropped off onto Cottonwood Creek, through almost no effort of our own. GAME ON!!

Back in the 1700’s and 1800’s, in early America, the pioneers up north were immigrants from Europe and Scandinavia. They brought with them their “mortise and tenon” method of construction.  They cut down the trees on their land with hand tools, since no electricity or chainsaws existed.  And using hand tools they shaped each tree into these squared off beams.  They then chiseled “mortise” pockets into them for their hand-shaped “tenon”-end to fit into.  After all, nails weren’t long enough to fit through 2 of these timbers. So, one beam would literally fit into another, and then the pioneers hand-whittled oak pegs and drove them through the two beams to hold them together.

Today, those barns are 150-250 years old, and are falling down.  The Amish and Mennonites know the local farmers and carefully dismantle the barns and the antique wood is being repurposed in modern houses as visible rafters, headers, furniture, and much more. We used some of the beams to erect our Scandinavian, instead of 2×4’s.

I’ve taken close-up pictures of the hand-work done on these beams by people who chopped down the trees, squared them off with hand-tools, and created each notch and ax mark to build their barn.  The craftsmanship amazes us.  Even the round dowels were handmade.  Steve loves the wood…

To honor the time it took to create these beams, Steve carried on their intended use. He built the whole Scandinavian structure using only mortise and tenon method…0 nails.

The overall aesthetic and decor of our Scandinavian is modeled 100% after the early 1800’s homes from Sweden and Norway, honoring my family’s heritage. The site is on our same 11-acres as the McGuire House.  Construction pictures and videos can be seen on our Instagram: @OurCottonwoodCreek.

Here’s Steve on the spot where the Scandinavian timber frame God inspired us to build will be…

[*update as of March 2024 – the Scandinavian has been finished for several years. Pictures of it can be found on http://www.CottonwoodCreekBNB.com.  As it turns out, during the 3 years of learning Scandinavian timber frame construction methods, and selling antiques along the way, I was also pulling aside authentic Scandinavian 1700s and 1800s furniture and decorations from my estate sales and auctions – that I attended to fill my 5 antique rooms at the antique mall. So, furnishing the God-planned 1800’s inspired Scandinavian Cottage ended up being FREE. Covid hit, and we emptied our 5 rooms at the antique mall, but will now have our own antique store, built from our antique barn beams, like the Scandinavian is constructed from. My ailing sister has been living in our McGuire House for 2 years. After completing the Scandinavian timber frame, we sold our leftover beams on Facebook, and it quickly became a full-time business for us.  Apparently, God was nudging Steve to retire from SAFD early, because it was His timing for Steve to trade in his bunker gear for a full-time career in providing antique beams to builders and home owners, and building console tables and other items for their homes.  Our business is called Pioneer Wood Company; we are on Facebook and instagram, and our website is http://www.PioneerWoodCompany.com.  We’re about to open a public wood showroom/sales office, and antique shop on the main highway in La Vernia – breaking ground next week [March 18, 2024] – seven years after starting the Scandinavian and selling antiques.  I’ve been diagnosed with Periodic Paralysis or MS, and have more testing to undergo; Reiley is about to graduate with an Astronomy degree, and both girls are full-time employed with Pioneer. And I’ve been working on the book all this time, on every delivery and car drive, and am anticipating finishing it this year.  It has been the most intensive project of my life – like pulling apart an enormous cobweb and lining up each strand in order. God is real. God is good. Every single thing in this blog was guided by Him. God loves you.]