An Update

I'd like to start this post by stating the obvious—that the ideals from my post titled Change didn't all come to fruition.

I know that fact should probably bother me, but I feel like how things went between then and now happened just as they were supposed to. I'm still off Facebook (haven't visited once) and it's been good. Aside from staying off Facebook, I also gave myself a break from feeling pressured to reach the communication goals I had originally set (phone, email, snail mail.) Other than Thank You notes and the occasional chatty email not much else happened. No snail mail communications were sent out. I also took an unannounced blog break even though I was all motivated back when I wrote the Change post and said I was going to post more.  Things changed, a lot was happening and life got exciting, and busy and it was for the best.

In the post, I had included an excerpt from a past journal entry, which went like this: 

I've come to the conclusion that there's no better way to change one's life than to just change it.  

It's time to figure out what is important in life and just take a leap of faith for those things. Not only to just reach towards them, but to reach out with confidence, grab them and make them part of my life. To make them part of who I am. 

I'm still working on that.  What's most important in life?  Faith, my Husband, my kids, my family and friendships.  Those are the things that come to mind first.  I have a long way to go when it comes to Faith.  The Lord is so deserving of more than I give Him.  At the same time he has so much grace and love for me.  How incredible!  When it comes to serving my husband and children—being a helpmeet and a homemaker and a mother is really all I've ever wanted to do.  It makes me happy!

 

 In February we sold our house in Birch Bay—it was so exciting!  Life was a whirlwind for a couple of days during packing and cleaning.  The Mr. was working a lot of overtime which meant we'd have to pack the truck and do the (uugh) major cleaning on the same day the keys would be handed over to the new owners.  So (Best Decision EVER) we paid a local moving company to pack our rental truck for us and then parked it in front of a neighbors house while we lived in a hotel for several days.  We honestly didn't know what was going to come next.  Either we'd close on a new home that week or we'd have to find a last minute rental (and that wasn't looking like it would be easy.)  We had found a home we were simply smitten with but we didn't know if it would work out.  We made them a crazy offer on the home, which included a hefty price drop, required an answer by dinner time that day, and an explanation to the sales guy that it was our best offer. Amazingly, they accepted it! We rushed things as fast as possible and we couldn't believe it when we had the keys in our hands. It was one of our most difficult weeks ever, what with the stress of the unknown, and seemingly endless paperwork and phone calls... but the result is that we're living in our dream home.  We are so incredibly thankful.

 Self timer photo from the day we got the keys.

 

 

In February Little Brother turned two and in May, Little Mr. turned four.  How I ever became the mother of a two year old and a four year old, I have no clue.  It has happened in a blink and I'm feeling utterly unequipped and overwhelmed, but even more I'm feeling thankful and grateful and content and happy!  These children are ours to raise for the Lord and it is such an honor.

Taking turns blowing out candles at their joint birthday party.

 

Among the mundane grocery trips, hair cuts, errands and chores, we've also hosted guests, visited the the Tulip Festival, thrown a massive birthday party (42 people), explored many of our local State and city parks, spent a weekend in Winthrop, WA., helped celebrate a family member's 25th wedding anniversary, become amazed by our backyard wildlife, sold our Ford Ranger, bought a used Nissan Leaf, spent a day at the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle and an impromptu night in downtown and The Mr. had a birthday.  How's that for an all inclusive update?  With that, I leave you with this video of a fun moment shortly after we got the keys to our home... it was such a happy day!