Odds & Ends: mid-summer edition

16 years ago on this same night Amy and I walked into this house as Mr. and Mrs. ———- with our Ford Thunderbird and Beretta GT. Tonight we walk away with four children, our Ford Windstar and Dodge Grand Caravan and many wonderful memories and turn this home over to another sweet couple. A bittersweet day but I am so thankful to God for blessing my life with Amy. I look forward to our new memories in our new home and I am so thankful to share them with my beautiful Amy.

This month, and the weeks before it, have been full of more work and chaos and tears than I ever imagined.  I don’t think I really understood what it meant to move before we embarked on this journey.  After all, when we moved into our first home, we had practically nothing, and we’ve accumulated a considerable bit more than nothing since.   In addition to the difficulty of moving has been the disruption of routine, and we’re still working on getting that back.  God’s blessing has been on our family in countless ways, though, a few of which are

• childcare!  Nana kept all four children daily for several weeks so that we could work without hindrance or worry.  Not only did she keep the kids, she also put us up at her home for quite a while, washing our laundry and cooking our meals, while our new home was being worked on.
• help!  My daddy has almost singlehandedly painted the entire main living area of our home, which is about 2000 square feet.  Steady Eddie and I helped a little, and my uncle also helped on several of the rooms.  Daddy, Steady Eddie, and my brother-in-law also cut, hung, and painted crown moulding in every room except the kitchen, dining room, my office, and the boys’ room.  My mother came daily for a couple of weeks and helped with the unpacking.  In addition to this, we had the help of friends.

Now that we’ve been here, I am beginning to see what a huge blessing the house itself is and will be in the future.  We had to do quite a bit of work to it (with more still to do), so it was hard to see this through all the work and angst.  Now that we’re more settled and have actually begun to hang things on the walls (and most of the books are shelved), I can see it.

• It’s about twice as big as our first home.  On the ground floor we have about 2000 square feet, about the same as our first home.  However, our new-to-us home has a full, finished basement, which is a little less than 2000 square feet.
• The basement is a huge blessing.  This is where our school room/rec room; the girls’ Lego, sewing, and art hideout; our library; a good bit of storage; the laundry room; and a full bathroom are located.  Another blessing in this is that now we have a place to hide out from severe weather in.  Considering the fact that we live in a very tornado-prone area (and we had an EF-1 tornado hit within blocks of our other house last year, plus a couple touched down near our new home last week), this is a pretty big deal.
• We have a huge, light, airy kitchen and dining room.  They are open to each other and just feel so spacious.
• Our living room is big, and one of its walls is composed almost entirely of floor-to-ceiling windows.  For someone who loves natural light, this is a big blessing.
• We live in a super quiet neighborhood.  It’s a big neighborhood, but at night you’d almost never know you were surrounded by lots of houses instead of just. . . crickets.
• We have a large backyard.
• We have a two-car carport, and as of this afternoon, it’s actually junk-free enough for both cars to be parked in it.  🙂
• We have three bathrooms, which is great for a family of six.

I could go on, but I won’t.  I hope this doesn’t come off as boasting or bragging.  What I’m really trying to do is thank God for his blessings and have something to remind myself when the 4000 square feet feel more like a curse than a blessing.  😉