This tiny office space is just great, as is this work space. Oh how I love shelving. And I love seeing what people do with tiny corners of their houses.

Okay, this bathroom is nice. I love all the light, but was it really that bad to begin with? Come on over when you’re ready to tackle a REAL makeover, people. There is a claw foot tub out back and a pedestal sink in my garage, both just begging to be restored and installed….

And this house tour will make you smile, especially if you like old things and vintage decor. There’s quite a lot going on, but the kids’ rooms are especially sweet.

Here are a few “befores” of our new place. And while we’ve already done a little bit of painting, creative ideas for older farmhouses are welcome! My brother in law took all of these the morning of the move and I’m so glad he did! The whole day ended up being such a blur for me. I was too busy being sick, laying on a rug in the floor of my empty old house, which you can see in the first picture (bottom left corner).

We have 2 living rooms downstairs. The one with the mantle and heater is sort of morphing into a music room/library type of thing for now. It has since been painted, as have the second living room and the school room.

The second one, pictured here, is where a lot of our “living” happens: games, movies, reading, lounging, napping, Lego, drawing, laundry folding, etc.

Kitchen.

School room. The stripes are gone. It’s blue now. Ahhhh.

Steps, leading upstairs. I have so many ideas for this. It will be hard to pick one!

The only downstairs rooms not pictured are the laundry and bathroom. They were already piled up with boxes and things. Not much to see there.

….some years are for roots and foundations.   Those are the years that you have new babies or you move or start new jobs or your house burns down.  Those years are hard to measure in terms of resolution progress.  But they’re no less important.  In fact, the rooting years are probably the most important of all.   But they’re usually the ones that you’re glad to have behind you. –Edie Wadsworth

So many big things have happened/are happening and it’s sometimes hard to wrap my head around it all and figure out exactly what I’m supposed to be doing. While I am extremely grateful for all that is happening, and all the ways we have been blessed, I’m also a little shell shocked.  So I’m plugging along, waiting for our series of big changes to be completed, resolved to keep doing what needs to be done in the moment.

I do know that my family can always benefit from more love and affection from me. Believe it or not, sometimes it’s hard to give. Sometimes it’s exhausting to answer every question, sympathize with every boo boo and be patient with every spill or potty accident. So, more love? Yes.

How about more contentment? Nancy challenged me with this one. She’s good. Although, if I’m still being honest, and I think I am…this is one area that I seem to have a constant struggle. It may not be the same issue every time, but it originates with contentment, or lack thereof.

Our contentment does not lie in our circumstances, for if it did, we would only be able to be content when everything is going exactly as we like, which isn’t very often. Contentment is found in Christ, who will never leave us or forsake us. Contentment is found in submitting to God’s purposes and plans in our lives, even (or especially) when we don’t understand. Contentment is a way of exercising our faith. –Nancy Wilson

As if that wasn’t enough on the subject, Amy also posted a great quote from Sally Clarkson on the same thing. Good stuff.

These may seem like piddly goals or vague ambitions, but I see so many specific ways I can implement these two things this year. I think doing so will benefit my whole family. “If Mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.” So, it’s sort of up to me (with His help, of course).

Look at this beautiful ornament I saw on Pinterest via Etsy. Here is a link to the shop where you can find it.

I’m also thankful for all the little fun things I’m finding to spruce the place up that aren’t costing me much at all. (Buying a house has kind of limited the decorating budget for a while.) It’s amazing what you can find in the garage of an old house!  Here are the school room curtains, that were making me so happy last week. In a previous life, they were just a flat twin sheet that I picked up at Goodwill for pittance. They need to be pressed, but are still giving us privacy in a much prettier way than the garbage bags were. And the school table? Also minimal cost involved and this was retrieved from the garage.

I totally ignored this lamp for quite a while because well, it’s not exactly my taste and I thought it was an oil lamp for an undisclosed period of time. (That is until I looked at it.) And how practical are oil lamps unless you are having a power outage, hmm? Anyway, when I realized it was an actual lamp that you plug in, I cleaned it up and had the kids fill up the inside with all sorts of things that represent us at this stage in life: army men, screws, yarn, crayons, dollhouse odds and ends, Lego blocks…etc. Then I had the kids put their mark on the lamp shade with watercolors and poof! A lamp for our school room now sits proudly on display.

I’m not sure if it’s the time of year or all these little improvements, but we are finally really moving with our schoolwork and finding a rhythm at home, which feels absolutely wonderful. So there’s another thing I’m truly thankful for. I hope you are enjoying the fall season and finding things all around you for which to be grateful. I’ll check back in shortly but for now, I have a rhythm to get into this morning! There are hungry kids who are anxious to start their schoolwork. I really shouldn’t keep them waiting…

I remembered that I was inspired to write a poem when my first girlie was born. (And not again since then!) I remembered the peace that came over me when I watched her sleep. Have you ever watched a newborn sleep? They run the gamut of emotions: huge smiles, then looks of worry. And they make all sorts of strange shapes with their lips. It’s just a fun way to pass a little time. That is, before you pass out from lack of sleep yourself. Still, the experience is definitely worth your time.

Glimpses of a mystery dream will flit across her face,
Pleasures, fears we’ll never know, and waking will erase.
Smiles that melt my heart; who are those smiles for?
I wonder what she’s thinking and when I will know more,
About this little one in front of me who sleeps,
So restlessly, peacefully, beautifully.

She cannot tell us what’s inside because she cannot speak.
But every day we spend with her we get a tiny peak,
Into her world of little care and far less complication.
Our job seems huge and so we pray with fear and trepidation,
That we will teach her important things,
Like love, wisdom and Truth.

Yes, I think our house needs one more baby in it. This crazy crew needs another member. And I am finally looking forward.

See, I like to read, but don’t really consider myself “well-read.” I don’t know much about poetry, although I like to listen to it. And music…I either like it or I don’t, but please don’t ask me to expand on that any further. So you can see why heading into a weekend where all these things are the focus can be rather intimidating to a person whose main focus these days is diapers, potty training, 1st grade math and keeping chaos at bay. Still, I took away so much and have a heart that is full. All my fears were unfounded and my misgivings melted away within minutes of arriving. I’m pretty sure they were gone completely the moment Andy Osenga laughed wholeheartedly when I referred to him as “Dr. Spaceman.” (If you don’t know about his spaceship project, well, just go on over and check it out. And there really is a spaceship. I saw it with my own two eyes!)

There were so many moments I will treasure and take with me…so many thoughts that will continue to inspire, but since I’m not the writer in the family, bullet points are all you’ll get from me for now. After all, before I’m even done writing this, someone will have peed in the floor, spilled a drink, called China or be desperately seeking my help in finding a matching sock. (Heck, any old sock will do at this point!)

So here goes:

• Finally meeting a friend in person and finding out she was just as cool and just as much of a kindred spirit as I had imagined.
• Square Peg show–phenomenal, all of it. So excited for Jill Phillips to make her new album.
• Meeting new friends! (Dawn, AshleyE, Kristen, Laura, Laura B, Breann, Lindi, Kate, Evie and her mom/dad, Aaron, Deb, Tom, Dave, Leanne, Tricia, Travis, the Boggs’, Janna, Jonathan and Lou Alice, Jen, Heather, Mike, so many more that I wish I’d had more time to connect with…)
• Beautiful and unexpected gifts.
• Singing kids’ songs in a room full of grown-ups, who were unabashedly doing the hand motions.
• The Children’s Lit. talk and being inspired to provide an environment of wonder for my kids through story/words. Jennifer Trafton of Mount Majestic fame spoke so beautifully about teaching our kids about joy and hope and to see that war/death, etc. are but “stains on the floor of a giant ballroom.” There is a bigger story. Holy cow. Not the first or last time that tears welled up in me this weekend. (Oh, and my husband’s pee pee jokes. He provided the laughing kind of tears. He’s good for that.)
• Seeing husby with “his people.”
• Jason Gray–”There’s No Thief Like Fear,” among other great songs. Booyah! You said it, homey.
• THE FOOOOOD. Evie Coates, you sure know how to win over a pregnant lady…and about 140 other people. She’s a gifted artist in the kitchen as well as out. It was all so good, but my favorites were the Panzanella (yes, I just Googled the spelling of that), Salmon/Apple Salad, Shrimp w/ Orzo, the breakfast of cheeses (“I’m just crackers about cheese!” from Wallace and Gromit–tee hee), breads, spreads, yogurt and yummy granola, Focaccia w/ goat cheese, and the Israeli couscous. YUM.
• The Poetry Talk. Need I say more? Well done, Sam and Andrew!
• Sally Lloyd-Jones‘ wonderful (seriously–full. of. wonder.) presentation. Building churches with books…more tears.
• Sunday morning at Church of the Redeemer, a beautiful time of worship.
• Knowing my kids were being well taken care of.
• Realizing, upon coming home that I am surrounded right here at home by many inspirational and creative people–my closest friends and family. I’m so thankful, because I’m coming to understand that not everyone has that.
• Watching/listening to my kidlets enjoy the new Slugs and Bugs stuff, which is where the title of this post comes from, in case you think I’m just a weirdo who really thinks she’s a robot. (I know I give that impression.)

So, there you have it. I’m sure that this experience will continue to change me. I know I will think of a bunch more highlights over the next few weeks and months, but for now I’m going to continue to process and enjoy what happened over those four blessed days.

We won’t officially start our school year until after the hubs and I come back from Hutchmoot, but I can’t avoid getting lost in Ann’s posts and the resources she links to. The goal in our home really is to have an atmosphere of learning all the time. But that certainly requires me to avoid procrastinating. The more I mother these little ones, the more I find out how selfish I am. But by God’s grace, I will progress to be less so, because they are such beautiful gifts to be treasured. Well worth my time and energy.

I loved reading all about vintage sheets, from a new-to-me decorating blog called Farm Fresh Decor. Also, making one of these cute scrappy necklaces from Cakies is on my to do list. Quick and easy projects are all that are on my radar presently.

Oh, and check out the newest use I found for a magic eraser! My son’s filthy shoes were instantly restored to cleanliness…

Bright and shiny camo-goodness.

So that’s the deal around these parts. I’m alive and well, but these big life changes make it difficult to maintain my typical blogging prowess.  I love hearing from you lovely readers though, so don’t be strangers!

*****

Two days before we moved, I was so so sick. Couldn’t even move or the yucks would get complete control. Feeling awfully sorry for myself…

I sit, sick and tired. Literally sick, and very very tired. I feel sad that I can’t take my kids to the pool or story hour or small group this week and that I can’t do my work around here. If I can just be still, I can keep the nausea at bay. I wonder if everyone in my family is suffering because I am temporarily immobile…

Meanwhile, the kids are laughing hysterically in the next room because they’ve made up a game that involves jumping on the couch. Then it’s quiet and I rouse myself to take a peek. I need to make sure all is well. What do I see? A big pile of blankets with the younger two listening to big sister read them a story.

Husband comes home with good eats and everyone is content but me, it seems. I need some perspective.

Why can’t I let these unrealistic expectations go? Why can’t I just rest and let everything be? Granted, there are still squabbles to be dealt with and diapers to change and mouths to feed and a MOVE to be made, but it will all get done. One day at a time.

Thankfulness is in my heart, but not in my mind yet. There’s still a struggle going on there. I cry for no reason, but it feels good and then I claim His grace once again and acknowledge His goodness to us. It’s a daily occurrence.

Friends from all over the place, that I’ve known at different times in my life have encouraged me and I see His mercy in that. Even as I write this, an email that says “I prayed for you today.” floats into my box to bless my heart.

*****

For those of you who are wondering, the past few weeks have been extremely full. We truly felt all of the prayers that you, our friends, were praying on our behalf. The day of our move was hot and exhausting, but all the help we received made things move right along and we accomplished everything we needed to and more. I was not nearly as sick as I had been, even the day before, and I am starting to have more days when I actually feel pretty good.  And I’ll take “pretty good” anytime–believe me.

It’s the only home our children have ever known and I’d like to do something to make a memory of  this place that has been our haven. Do any of you have any creative ideas for a photo we could take or memento we could make to mark this big change for our family?

We have loved this house, this land, this cozy refuge from life’s storms. We’re excited about the future, but a teeny bit sad to say good-bye. What would you do to keep a little memory of your house?

Our anniversary always falls very  near Father’s Day, so I can’t help but reflect on what a great dad my kids have been blessed with. Loving them the way he does is just one of the many ways that he loves me.

I’m putting this picture up because it’s one of my favorites and because our son is really hoping for snow on Father’s Day so he and his daddy can wear their matching coats and hats. (Hate to disappoint him…)

My dear, it is such a joy to share a life with you. I’m happy about Eleven, because it’s one more, one better.