Hurry up and Move! Part 4

Part 4 of Where I’ve Been

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Our “new” home (we were leaving our new construction home for something decidedly not new)  was turning out to be much more work than we had anticipated. Typical eh? From popcorn ceilings to old carpet it was all getting an overhaul. 

We had approximately a month to pack, renovate and move.

(Starting to feel stressed again and all this happened months ago. Breathe, just breathe and write…)

It didn’t help that we were heading into July and that meant hot. Hot air. Sweating and stress. 

Josh worked on the “new” house, I worked at the “old” one, packing. Packing while caring for our five, keeping them fed & such and trying to keep enough clothes clean for everyone. 

I thought I had done a pretty good job packing here and there but I quickly realized that there was a long way to go. The big stuff wasn’t a problem. The main furniture we took with us was a couch, table & chairs, some shelves, a desk and the bunkbeds. Other than the refrigerator and ping-pong table from the garage, pretty much everything else was “small” stuff. 

That “small stuff” just about did me in.

Looking, Part 3

Part 3 of "Where I’ve Been"

We struggled for a while about whether to put an offer on the place or not. But we had looked at so many other properties and nothing else in our target price range seemed to have what this place had. We eventually put in an offer…

which was rejected.

It was a relief in a way because we took that as God’s answer and started looking again.

Looked and prayed.

And kept coming back to the property on the hill.

Waiting, Part 2

Part 2 of "Where I've Been"

Part 1

I get a bit of a shudder inside honestly thinking back over the market months (almost a year's worth). Those were tough, tough months. I was reminded over and over of my desperate need of Jesus in those months, shown how very much I still need to grow, stretched almost beyond what I thought I was really capable of at times. 

I didn’t try to keep the house show-ready 24 hours of every day. I did try to keep it at the point where I could get it show ready in a few hours or less. What would happen though is however long I had to get ready for a showing, that’s how long it took me to get ready. Anywhere from 15 minutes to 24 hours, somehow it seemed to take right up to the last minute to get all the things put away, the kid's toilet clean and all the dishes in the dishwasher (or in a laundry basket hidden in the garage) and rush everyone out the door. I never quite had it “perfect.”

Dishes in the laundry basket to hide in the garage,
cleaning supplies, paint for touch-ups and -of course-
coffee. 

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