Moving

Remember I said we had a lot going on... like a series of posts worth? Well, here's the next installment:

We're moving.

I am so excited about this move for so many reasons:

1) We'll be able to save so we can build a house. We can't save much while we're under our current mortgage payment of this house. Last year when taxes were reassessed, our monthly payment went up by $125 a month!!! OUCH.

2) We want to build out in the country near family. Jeff's parents have a rental house just a few miles from their house and the "country". The rental house has recently been updated and they've offered to let us live there for little rent so we can save.

3) We're tired of all the stuff in our house. We'll be downsizing a good bit and I'm excited about that! No more sunroom for all the toys. We're going to have to figure something out. (ie. chunk some toys and the clutter that isn't important to us!!! woo hoo!) One part about the downsizing I'm not excited about is that we'll all be sharing one bathroom.

But the kitchen is LARGER!!! (Kitchen pictured is prior to renovations)

4) Renting a house will give us the opportunity to see what it will be like living near family without the obligation of staying near family if it doesn't work out. (Just being realistic here...)

5) With Jeff traveling so much, I think it will be nice to have family around to help.

6) We'll have our own storm shelter. In case you didn't know, north Alabama is tornado country. We've been known to wake the boys in the middle of the night to climb in the bathroom closet.

That door is over 100 pounds... it was all I could do to open & close it! Whew...

7) This one really has nothing to do with our move, but when I walked up into the storage shed attic, I was met by the past. I would LOVE to go through the stuff that is up there... just to look. I've always wanted to find treasures from the past in the attic! :)

8) The yard is bigger! However, there is a hault on putting a fence up around the rental house. It sits in the "Y" of a road. There is a street on all sides but one. We wanted to enclosed the house with a fence, but the ordinance says the fence has to be 15' (yes, feet!) from the road. My inlaws are preparing a plan to bring before the city coucil to ask for a variance since the house is in a less than normal location.

Here are the sides of the house:

And the "front" yard:

And the "back" - the fenced in property behind Nathan belongs to Jeff's uncle and he said we could use that property as long as we keep it mowed. Can you say "ball field" or "family garden"?! *grin*

It sure would be nice to enclose the whole property! (fingers crossed!)

With all the pros to moving, there are some cons.

1) The biggest one is leaving our church family. We love our congregation. Our plans are to travel the 30 minutes to worship without current congregation on Sunday mornings while attending a more local congregation on Sunday and Wednesday nights. Being split between two congregations is going to be rough, but we really want to continue to work with our current congregation.

2) The other con is that Jeff will be further from work. His office is about 10 minutes from our house and he comes home for lunch a lot. That won't be happening after the move and I'm sad about that.

3) And living closer to the country means further from a city which means further from our doctors. There will be less access to large grocery stores (which I need in order to find our dairy free supplies) and the like, as well. I think I can work around that, though. :)

So... on top of all the all-outta-wackness going on with me, we're preparing for a move. With Jeff traveling, I am just slowly packing up the garage and taking one load at a time in the Tahoe to the rental house. I don't know when the move will be official, when we're putting our house on the market, or anything else regarding the move for that matter...

... except that we are moving and I'm happy about it, even though it is stressful. :)

Sounds

Record all the sounds you hear in the course of one hour.

1:16 PM - 2:16 PM (nap time!)

Hum of the dishwasher

TV (Days of Our Lives)

typing

my shoes walking across the hard wood floor

crunch of a cookie

ding on the washing machine

opening/closing the washing machine/dryer doors

static cling

squeak in the office chair

bird chirping outside

Witt waking from a nap

Pitter-patter of Witt's bare feet

Not too much going on during nap time. I watch DOOL and finish laundry and dishes and check in on Facebook. It wasn't too long ago that naptime lasted 2 1/2 - 3 hours... now we're down to 1 1/4 for Witt and 2 hours for Nathan. I enjoy this *mostly* quiet time of the day, but sometimes miss the longer naptimes!

Important Things

Laurel is one of my favorite friends.

We met when we were pregnant with our first boys. We were pregnant together with our second boys and when I told her I was *surprise* pregnant with Witt, she turned up pregnant about three weeks later. (She is currently pregnant with their fourth son, but I just couldn't join in this go-round!) We've often said we were leading parallel lives.

She's light years ahead of me on positive thinking and simplicity, though. (Other things as well, but that's where I want to focus today.) Her blog just oozes simplicity and focusing on the positive. Honestly, sometimes I have a hard time reading her blog because what she writes about is what I want for my life and yet I feel so far from it sometimes.

Then she wrote this and it was all put into perspective for me. Her blog is about the things she wants to remember... the positive things she wants to meditate on.

Philippians 4:8

⁸ Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.

She is using her blog to remember the LOVELY things.

I use my blog pretty much as a journal - the ups and downs of every day life. Her life has ups and downs, too, but that's not what she's recording. Then there was my Ah-Ha moment: "She's NOT perfect!" (I know Laurel is probably laughing right now as she reads this!)

Her post got me thinking about choosing to focus on that which is lovely, pure, and of good report. I've been thinking of incorporating into my blog somehow because I, too, want to be sure to remember the simple, pleasurable things.

Lucky for me, she's starting some sort of series on Exercises of Awareness. I think I'm going to play along, so here goes...


List your 10 most important things (not including animals or people).

In no particular order:

1. Home

2. Nutritious and delicious food

3. Educating the mind

4. Peaceful mornings

5. Rest

6. Prayer

7. Lunch dates

8. Laughter

9. My Role as wife and mother

10. Truth / God's word


This was so much harder than I was expecting it to be. All of my important things include people in some way. I don't have attachments to many things. Nonetheless, this was a very interesting exercise to focus on what is important to me.

How about you, what are your 10 most important things?