Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Sane?

We have a new piece of lawn decor...



Yep, our house is on the market...again...  This will be the third time we've attempted to sell a house.  The first time we were hugely successful.  The 2nd... not so much. We're hoping and praying that this time goes smoother.


So yes, we're moving.  No overseas aspirations this time.  Nothing Earth shattering.  Nothing my mom will be distraught over the thought of. (love you Mom!)  Several months ago we purchased a plot of land from Jonathan's grandma.  The land is part of the property where Jonathan's dad grew up.  His grandma and Uncle's family live right there as well.  They will be our only real close neighbors.  Luckily, we all like each other (so far, right? :-D)  Ohlen is super excited and is insisting that our new house is going to be blue.  Noah has no clue, but I have a feeling that living next to his great Uncle that will give into his requests for "Brrm Brrm Ride (brrm brrm = tractor) will be fine with him.

How do I feel about it all?  I'm excited.  I love my house, the land, and our neighbors.  But change like this doesn't scare me anymore.  God is with me where ever on this planet we live.  And as long as my family is coming along - that's home to me.  I'm excited about having more trees around, and building a tree house with the kids.  I'm excited about picking out colors and things for the new place.  I'm excited about saving more money, because we are downsizing.  I have to admit, when Jonathan first mentioned putting in a manufactured home, I was very skeptical.  But, the more we researched, the more we really fell in love with the idea.  The one we are looking at will have about the same square footage as our house now.  The outside walls will actually be thicker.  AND they include a new appliance package with the house, and can I just tell you how exciting that is.  (such a nerd)  Plus - Jonathan will be closer to work.  We will be closer to church.  And we will be closer to family.  We'll have to learn the balance there, you know? But I think we'll get it.  There is so much I can learn from the women that will be living steps from my front door, about life and about other things like canning, gardening, and other various things of that nature.  And I hope I will be able to bless them in return as well.  And hope that my children don't drive them all insane.

Ok, so this is getting long, feel free to skim right over. :)

As for the question of sanity.  As most of you very well know, I am currently 32 weeks pregnant.  If we sell tomorrow, we would be moving into our new place in about a month and a half (there abouts)  That's about two weeks before I am due...  Allow me to remind you that  Noah came 3 weeks early.   If the house sells in a month...  that will be terribly interesting.  We sell in 2 - 3 months, we'll be trying to pick new house things with a newborn.  Sell in 3+ months we will be showing the house with a newborn, attempting to keep the house all cleaned up with a newborn, toddler, and preschooler.  Pray for us - pray hard. :-D  But really, we've been here before.  We moved into this house when Ohlen was about a month old.  We had to paint all the walls and stain all the woodwork.  None of that this time (THANK goodness)  I am wiser in the ways of babies this time, and in the ways of keeping myself sane and healthy, so I know my limits.  I am well prepared for months of box living if we have to.  I'm prepared to allow others to come in and help and put my things away, even if they might go places that I wouldn't first choice.  I'm prepared to allow Jonathan to organize the kitchen if I am too busy dealing with a newborn.  I will have plenty of time to reorganize things later.

This insanity also is what had me up at 6am Monday morning finishing the touch up painting. And then cleaning  and staging the entire house for pictures.  It was quite the morning.  Needless to say, I did not do much the rest of the day, and decided to take today off, for the most part, too.  I did some wonderful outside reading while the kids played outside.  It was pretty glorious.



So that is the excitement of our house at the moment.  We would appreciate prayers as we forge ahead.  And if you know anyone in the market for a house..... :-D

Thursday, April 14, 2011

A conversation with Noah




Noah - sitting at the table after his nap - eating a banana: Ohl? ... Ohl?
Me: Ohlen? He's outside.
Noah: Side?  pause  Bike?
Me: Yep

I love how my boys care about each other.  They keep track of each other.

And Noah's vocabulary is starting to sky rocket - much like Ohlen's right around this time.

:)

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Spring!

First - today is so much better than yesterday.  Thanks to an amazing partner and my little boys I got some encouragement, laughter, and just a lift up out the hole I was starting to dig myself.  The sunshine today helps too. :)

Just a little evidence that spring is here - and there will be wonderful colors showing up around here soon.  And the grass is starting to turn that wonderful shade of green.

 

 

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Milestones of sorts

Two milestones of sorts this week.

Less than 10 weeks to go until this little girl comes.  (I can say that pretty confidently as they usually say they won't let me go past my due date.)  It always seems like a big deal when the week count goes down to a single digit.  (Today is actually 9 weeks and 5 days, counts right?)  If she is like Noah, though, I could only have about 6 and 1/2 weeks.  At this moment that sounds a whole lot better than 10.  I'm starting to feel really off balance and clumsy, not to mention all the weight gain and dwelling on the task of losing it.  I have good days and bad days about that whole issue.  Let's just say today is not a good day.  One of those days when you want to just go to bed to get the day over with.  The frustrating part is that it has nothing to do with anyone else, it's all self inflicted craziness.  BUT - even as I sit here I can feel this little girl moving all around and it does give me a sense of confidence and determination to be a good role model for her. (and the boys too)  Plus, I want to be able to be active with them.  I want to live a long and healthy life with my amazing husband.  I just know I have a long road ahead - and one that I'm going to have to be going down my whole life.  I'm not one that will be able to lose it all, and then slack off - because it will all come back. It is going to take a complete life style makeover that will have to stick - and that is daunting, and days like this it seems to come crashing down on me.  I know I need to lean on God for this.  I sometimes forget, He cares about this stuff too.  And I think He wants me to be all healthy too.

Ok, on to something more fun.  Another milestone here at our house.

Ohlen has ditched the training wheels!!!

I try very hard to not be the boastful, bragging parent.  But I have to tell this story.  And know that he does not get his balance, determination, fearlessness from me.  He is about 95% his daddy.  :)

So, Saturday afternoon Ohlen decides he wants to try to take his training wheels off.  I thought this was more of a daddy job - especially when mommy is 30 weeks pregnant - but Ohlen was pretty determined.  So out we went.  I took the training wheels off and headed to the grass.  It was a little mushy from some rain, so it wasn't going too well.  I was trying to hold onto the back, but it was hard for him to pedal on the grass - and I was having a bit of trouble with the whole bending and running.  So I told Ohlen we should wait until daddy gets home.  He again insisted that he try on the gravel drive.  So we go over and I try one time to hold on to the bike, definitely not working.  So Ohlen says he will do it by himself.  So he takes his bike to the very end of the drive - and rides it to the garage!  I couldn't help myself -I was just laughing.  Have you ever just had to laugh out of pure joy?  The happiness is so great it just bubbles out?  He was too - laughing the whole way.  And that was the end of my intervention.  From there on, he was riding.  Sure he has taken some falls and spills - but, yeah, so proud of my little boy.

Now the pictures - I hadn't even thought to take my camera out right away - but this was just a little later.  I so should have forced him to do a posed big smile picture.  Maybe I can get one of him swinging a hammer at his training wheels - or throwing them in the trash. :)  He would probably like that.






Had to throw in a random Noah picture.  He can't reach the pedals on his tricycle yet, poor guy, he just needs to shoot up a little more. :)

Friday, April 1, 2011

Cousins!

My brother's family (I love saying that!) was up to visit last weekend.  The cousins got to meet for the first time.  It was so much fun!!