Where I've Been, Part 1

Well hello there.

I suppose I ought to tell why this space has been pretty quiet over the majority of the past year or more. Pretty quiet- there is that scrolling feed of pics over there showing little bits of our life through Facebook & Instagram. Only because of that has this space not been almost completely silent and neglected for so many months.

I’ll tell why. 

I started out planning to tell a condensed version, but even “condensed” I’m going to need to break it into more than one post. It is a story after all.

I- my husband and I & our children along with us-have been running after a dream.

I’m sure I’m not the only one who does this- tends to run hard after one thing at a time. Balance always has been a struggle. I latch onto one thing and want to pour everything into it, give it my all, not satisfied until…hmmmm, well until I’ve got it just about “perfect.” Perfection though is elusive and I end up just having to say “ok, it’s done. For now.” This happens over and over in my life and this past year and a half has been no exception.

The dream, an aspect or stepping stone of our overall dream for our life, that we've been chasing was our move. We have moved to “the country”. I’d call it semi-rural.

Driveway in springtime

The question of where to live, where we want to raise our children, has long been one of intentional thought and struggle for us. I could go off on quite a tangent here about that, so I had better save that for another time and just say that we want our children to experience a little “country” life. To wake up and see so much of God’s handiwork just outside their windows. To notice the things The Creator made and be observers of those things. To have a great big playground of God’s world just outside our front door and to be drawn to that world. 

Rain boots: essentials in the semi-rural with children

There are other reasons we wanted this place. Big dreams. Eventually we want to get a dog, a horse, chickens and the biggest- build an aquaponics garden. The garden dream started in my husband’s heart and it includes much more than our family and stretches even beyond the borders of our own country.

So we put our house on the market and waited. Waited a long time. Only it wasn't just the sitting around kind of waiting, not like being in a dr. office or an airport. No, it was the we still have a life kind of waiting. The homeschooling with five children ages 9 or 10 and under kind of waiting. The we still have a church, job, family, friends, etc. kind of waiting. 

Normal life kind of waiting...

Part 2 of "Where I've Been"