Moving

Well, it's official, and a couple of you guessed it ... WE ARE MOVING!

First let me give you a tad bit of history. Five years ago we achieved our "dream" of building a big, nice home in one of the posh neighborhoods. Around here, most everyone strives for that. It's a constant search for bigger and better. When you meet someone new, you almost always ask, "Where do you live?" And the answer either elicits an "oh" or an "Ohhhhhh!" Yeah, it's disgusting. And we bought right into it.

The warning signs were there EARLY ON that we should not build this house and move. And we have suffered consequences ever since. We have often said that we think our subdivision is on cursed ground. Nobody out here is happy. It's been a crappy place to live.

Couple that with some stick-it-to-you child support incidents from both ends of the spectrum and an economy that's in the toilet. Thankfully Rick has an excellent job, and we haven't sufferered like many have. But in this unstable world, that's always subject to change, isn't it?

We have desired for the last three years to sink this ship and move to higher ground. We have actually tried to make a move a couple of different times and it just didn't work out. The timing was obviously not right. God had his best in store for us instead of the good we thought we wanted.

A couple of weekends ago I went to Missouri to see my newly born niece. I came home with a house. That sounds simplistic, but that really is the way it happened.

My mom showed me a listing for a house a block away from theirs. It was listed for $17 a square foot. Did you read that right? No, it's not a typo. I called Rick and he said, "Let's do it." A couple of days later we learned that the house already had a contract on it. But, the stage was set, so we looked to see if there was anything else available. Guess what ... we found another great deal.

Kind of looks like a camp cabin now, but there are changes in store.

After some minor negotiations, we entered into a contract on the house this past week. The house has good bones, but needs TONS of work. In fact, we can't move in without completely repainting everything and redoing all of the floors. After that, it's livable, but will still require months of work. But, it's exciting!

The house was built in 1918. It's 6 years away from being 100 years old! It's walking or bike-riding distance away from my parents' house, and really anything we want to do. I'll get to regularly visit my grandma in the nursing home. I'll get to see my new niece every week instead of every few months. My sister and I can continue building our friendship. The kids can go to the lake whenever they want.

But more important than that ... Rick and I and the kids can concentrate on a simple life of just being together. We can ride our bikes to the Dairy Queen. We can go to the park. We can spend time together instead of all of our time mowing the yard or cleaning the house. The kids can go up to grandma's so we can have a night alone. We can join a bowling league together (they do that in small towns). We can immerse ourselves in small town community. We can just reconnect in ways that we have missed in the rat race of our recent life.

I will still homeschool Eli and Brynne. It's a lifestyle that we love and I don't want to change it. Dawson, however, has decided that he would like to go back to public school. I am all for it, if he is willing to put in the hard work. I think it's kind of cool that he will be going to the same high school that I did.

This will be an extreme period of transition for us with lots of adjustments. Please be praying for us.

With us starting school, working on the house, and moving, I don't know how much I will be able to blog. I hope to continue with regular posts, especially with updates to the house. So bear with us as we start this new chapter of our life.