Back Online

I've been borrowing sketchy internet service, visiting my parent's house, and/or spending a few extra minutes at the local Starbucks to reply to emails for almost a month.  While I adore my iphone, it isn't the most efficient when wanting to read blogs, write blogs, or send mass emails; not to mention the internet shopping I need to do since we are a week away from beginning the new school year and I still haven't purchased all of our schoolbooks.

My husband is brilliant when it comes to practical thinking, but would be perfectly content if the world rid itself of all things techy. :)  So, much to my surprise, he came up with the idea of using my iphone as a hotspot to be able to blog.  

The heavens parted and the angels sang.

Actually, the heavens did part and we watched a majestic display yesterday at the pool as the thunder clouds rolled in.  I think God's favorite color must be blue.  Every creature on earth gets to enjoy that color.  Deep, I know.  ;)

On Saturday I had a little teeny road trip ALONE to Hobby Lobby.  I was on a mission to find knobs for our new house.  There were so many to choose from!

 I was able to get all of our kitchen knobs and pulls as well as the knobs for the kids' bathrooms... at 50% off!!!  Woot woot!  (None are pictured above, but see what I mean about the cuteness abounding?!)

This was in my fortune cookie this week.  Not that I get a fortune cookie every week.

How about that?!  What a great perspective on life!

This little guy has been hanging out at our pool this summer.  My kids say he's blowing bubble gum when he does this.  Actually, it's a mating call.

 Guess it's working...

yeah.  That awkward moment when National Geographic interrupts pool time fun and provides tons of questions from my 8 year old son.  Fabulous.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

 My mom is one of the greatest gifts in my life.  She is beautiful inside and out.  She loves the Lord.

She's my world travel buddy...

She adores my kids...

She's still madly in love with my dad...

She knows how to have a good time...

Yep, I want to be like her when I grow up!

I love you, Mom!!!

The Intentional Summer

We only have 18 times to create summer memories for our children.  15 if you're counting the ones they will remember.  What do you want your kids to remember?  I hope mine will remember lazy days by the pool, cookouts with friends and family, trips to the beach, and quiet afternoons filled with adventures found within the pages of a good book.  

As with most seasons of life, if I am not intentional, summers will slip by without warning.  I am realizing that we're on the short side of the timeline with my oldest.  In 5 summers, we will be packing her up for college.  Suddenly being intentional becomes imperative.

Intentionally relaxed.

Intentionally enjoying the season.

Intentionally making the most of a carefree day.

Intentionally creating memories filled with laughter, rolled in summer goodness.

 Our summer looks a little different this year because amid the pool fun and watermelon seeds we are weaving the new house decisions.  Visits to the cabinet shop and faucet choices are thrown in the mix.  I am having to find balance between the necessary and the intentional.  :)

 What is your favorite summer activity?

Where Are You Staying While You Build Your House?

I feel as though I've answered this question a million times.  But the fact that it has been such an incredible God thing keeps me smiling each time I share it!

When we first began thinking about building a new home, one of the biggest obstacles was finding affordable housing for the few months between selling our current home and finishing the next one.  This is the third home we've built and the previous two temporary housing details were worked out perfectly.  When we built our first home, my husband and I were working full time, so we lived with my parents.  It worked out well because we would all leave early in the morning and enjoy dinner together (usually homemade by my mom who happens to be a wonderful cook.)  Spoiled rotten. :)
With our second build, we were able to sell and then rent back our house from the buyers.

This time, the Lord provided again!  Now that we have 5 people in our family, we knew living with someone else would be too much togetherness.  My husband has an amazing aunt and uncle that contacted us when we first put our house on the market.  They live about a mile from our house and offered for us to live in their house while we build.  They happen to have a gorgeous mountain house and offered to move there while we live in their house here.  Am I confusing you yet?  ;)

Basically the only things we had to move into their home were our clothes, necessities, and school stuff.  Everything else is in storage.  Isn't that amazing?  No sorting through boxes and trying to figure out which pots and pans I would need for our temporary digs.  It's a furnished house and we are loving every minute!

My girls are learning togetherness as they share a room.  I think it's great!  They will appreciate their new rooms - and space- even more.  The home sits deep in the woods of a cute little neighborhood and we love the quiet setting.  We even have some unusual neighbors:

Yes, it's an albino deer and she hangs out with the other deer that live in our yard.
God is good!

Gifts of Change

 Last week was a monumental life changer for us.  We packed all of our earthly belongings and moved into temporary housing.  Saying goodbye has always been hard for me.  When I was a little girl, my family moved several times; and each time was hard for this sentimental girl.  So many memories are wrapped within the walls of the places we call home.  Over the course of the last week I had time to say goodbye to each room of my home as I cleaned every square inch  and prepared for the new owners.  As I cleaned, I prayed for the new family that would live life here and gave thanks for the treasure trove of memories that took place there.  Bittersweet indeed.

On Thursday morning, we awoke in our new temporary home to a wonderful gift.

 Nothing says "welcome to the neighborhood" like homemade cinnamon yeast rolls waiting on the front porch.  It was such a precious gift and another reassurance that we are doing the right thing.

We have fervently prayed over the new homeowners since they will be neighbors to my parents.  I  specifically prayed for a sweet family.  On the day of the closing, it was such a joy to get to meet the family and realize that my prayers had been answered.  To start their journey off right in their new home, I left this little gift on the counter:

 Inside the card I wrote:
May each new SEASON in your new home be filled with love and happiness

Within the basked I packed a spring candle,  fall pumpkin butter, a summer plant and beach ball and a winter slush puppie snack.  By the way, a wintery gift was hard to find on a 105 heat index day, hence the slush puppie  ;)
It was such a fun little gift to put together.  I hope it makes their move to a new city and home a welcome change.

Packin' Up!

If you are reading this, you deserve a gold star for loyalty.  I apologize for the inconsistency of my posts.  In case you missed it, we sold our house and we are in the midst of packing up 10.5 years of memories and 145,983 boxes. ;)

More than anything else in my yard, I'm going to miss this bush the most.  It started as a small 1/2 gallon hydrangea plant as a Mother's day gift several years ago.  It currently stands about 4 feet tall and 6 feet across.  That's even after I hacked it down to sticks this fall!  The blooms are a gorgeous blue (no, I didn't do anything to the acidity of my soil to turn it blue) and make a wonderful indoor bouquet. A friend recommended a rood grower to start my own bush from this one.  I hope it works. What a special, tangible memory to take to our new home!

I took this photo last week.  This week my bonus room looks more like the epicenter of a large bomb.  I'm tackling it tomorrow.  A precious friend is bringing us dinner, so I can focus on getting the job done.  Today I packed my son's room.  Wow.  Little boy toys sure do have lots of little pieces!

I'm enjoying a new summer Bible study.  Living Free by Beth Moore is proving to be the perfect study for this stage in my life.  Tonight I dropped my daughter off at her summer bible study and headed over to a quiet corner at the coffee shop to enjoy some time in the Word.  After listening to the extremely loud pair of women planning their next Women's Club event, I realized that the guy next to me had the right idea: earphones.

 Nevertheless, it was a wonderful break from the chaos/boxes/packing.  Digging into the Scriptures always puts life into perspective.

We have moved 90% of our stuff.  Over the weekend we moved the bunnies and the rest of the chickens to the farm.  The bunny hutches were moved by the 5 of us.  Every muscle in my poor body can attest.  We needed some machine muscle to move the coop.  It's halfway painted to match the rest of the buildings at the farm.  That was my one request: all the buildings painted the same color for continuity.  Okay, I have more "requests" but that was one of my first.  ;)

Chiggers have found their way into our family again, so while I was searching the drugstore for anti-itch cream, I ran across these:

Ummm.... yeah.  The Thin Mint is dark chocolate, so it won my "test taste" but they both merit the Girl Scout cookie status.  I'll volunteer to go to the drugstore anytime!

School's Out!

Hello Lovelies!  I'm feeling list-y today.

 1. It's been a gorgeous few weeks here in NC.  Cooler than normal temps have been abounding.  

2. As you can imagine, life has shifted into full throttle around here.  We are still a "go" for the closing of our home for June 29th.  We have begun packing and taking things to storage.  
I love a good purge, and no better time than now!

3. I decided to take advantage of the cool weather and clean out the attic yesterday.  I cranked up the music and got busy....   until I heard a noise behind the boxes which meant I wasn't alone.  Clearly I didn't stick around to introduce myself.  My sweet man will be rescuing his princess finishing the job tonight.

4. I officially became the parent of a TEEN this week.  I do believe I found another wrinkle yesterday morning.  Loreal Preference hair color 7G, we are becoming frequent friends.
Actually, this teen thing is pretty great!  I believe if you can make it through the hormonal-emotional-awkward-preteen stage, it gets easier.  We celebrated with a fun group of girls that my daughter has known since she was itty bitty.  I love watching them grow into beautiful (inside and out) young women.

5. My husband's family has generously provided two places for us to store our belongings while we build our next home.  Since it will take 3-4 months, we are saving so much by not having to rent storage units.  We took another load to storage last night and my favorite mexican restaurant is conveniently on the way home.

 Spicy chicken tacos with tons of cilantro make me a very happy girl.

6. With wild abandon I left my bed unmade for the first time in 11 months today.  I felt like such a rebel!

7. Speaking of firsts, my younger daughter went to the beach with a friend for the first time this week.  She's our homebody, so this was a big deal for her.  Not wanting my other two offspring to feel left out, I made a surprise stop by Krispy Kreme today.  I took one bite and realized that I have left my southern roots and no longer crave the KK.  I'm a Daylight Donuts girl.  How about you?

8. Since I didn't have a (whole) donut, I used a gift card and wasted calories by my preferred method:

9. With our skinny budget (yeah, doncha love how I go from "calories" to "skinny") I haven't really done much shopping over the past year.  I found this shirt at Old Navy last week.  Loved it so much I went back and bought another color.  I love the nautical/stripe styles that are popular this summer.

10. My house is in total chaos right now, and yet, my spirit is at peace.   My marriage is stronger than it has ever been.  We've had to learn to depend on each other more this year than ever before; but  we're finally okay with that.  We've had to grow up a lot in the past few months.  After all, we have a teen now! ;)