365Project.2015 | Week 4

It's a bit hard for me to believe it's still January. In fact, we still have another week left in January! I successfully got more pictures of the older kids this week, but I'm way over the 7-10 pictures I usually go for. Ah well. There is a lot of life being lived here these days. 

Day 18. Our sweetie ♥

Day 19. It was "Crazy Hat" day at Bible club this week. When Mommy made the final decision that we were not going to go the store to get supplies, the kids got resourceful and came up with some creative head gear. :)

 Day 20. Most mornings start about like this ...

Then she gets a little more focused ...

Then she melts ...

Then she sleeps ...

And on this beautiful day, while Abby slept, the rest of us enjoyed a picnic lunch. :)

Day 21. Beautiful weather continued, and the boys enjoyed riding their bikes while Hannah was at piano lessons ...

Matthew's determined to ride just as well as his older brother!

 Awww, we love you, Toby!

The older kids have been such a help with various aspects of preparing for our move ... this afternoon Peter helped putty the myriad of nail holes in the trim that Daddy recently installed.

Day 22. Cozy way to start the day ...

Matthew thoroughly enjoyed Caps for Sale, the theme book for this week of K4. And as typical for our chatter box, he's talking while coloring. :) He has recently discovered the joy of gracious adults at church who will carry on a conversation with him. :) For those who have patiently listened and conversed with him, thank you. He counts you as dear friends and prays for you.

Mommy's late night endeavors included multi-tasking with freezer meal prep and an encouraging online homeschool seminar.

Day 23. It's been amazing to watch Peter develop his engineering abilities with Legos. With the help of two additional "linear actuators" purchased with Christmas money from Great Grandma and Grandpa, he's converted his claw crane kit into a motorized digger with technical features comparable to those on a much larger kit. Without instructions.

Miss Abby's bottom two teeth poked through!

And the awesome Miss Beth watched the older kids at her place so that Mommy and Daddy could get a jump-start on Phase 1 packing. SO. HELPFUL. (!!!)

Day 24. Packing continues. Grandpa is coming down with a trailer next weekend so that we can get extra "stuff" out of the way for staging purposes. Our goal is to fill 'er up!

A friend from church blessed us with an entire van full of boxes. The large one at the left on the back of the van was completely stuffed with paper and other packing materials. What a wonderful gift!!

My kitchen feels so amazing!!! :) I love organizing and purging. :) I do. This is the easy part of moving, relatively speaking ...

And three cheers for Hannah-bug!!! This young lady packed up all of the extra stuff in her room all by herself--and she did a great job of purging along the way as well! So proud of her!

Our days are very full right now. Homeschool and "normal" life (laundry!!!!) continue in the midst of packing and painting and and assessors and trim work and other preparations for sale. Thanks for your prayers. Grandpa comes with a trailer next weekend, and we're working towards a mid-February date for house photos. 

365Project.2015 | Week 3

Please excuse a rather Abby-centric post, but we were all delighted with our little girl who discovered the joys of her exersaucer this week. She also began averaging three hours rather than two between feedings, and that was simply ... amazing. :) We love you, Abby-girl, but Mommy most definitely does not mind an extended feeding schedule. :)

Day 12. Let the exersaucer be explored! 

Oh. Yes. Teeth. She's also cutting teeth. Not overly bothersome during the day. Rather disruptive at night. ;)

Big brother is a pretty cool guy!

Day 13. So. Many. Things. To. Explore!!!!

And look at me sit up!

Or topple ... :) She's oh so close, but is still only stable for about 15-30 seconds. :)

Day 14. Still exploring ... 

"Mommy, do we really need to take pictures? I have things to learn!"

 All tuckered out. ♥

And while our little lady explored, this young man designed a whole crew of "jumpers" similar to those on Planes Fire & Rescue. :) Love to see his imagination at work! (For what it's worth, he also has plans to build a spaceship and is already booking passengers ...)

Day 15. "You are My Sunshine" is one of my favorite sleepy songs to sing for Abby, so I was delighted to unpack her nine-month clothes and find this cute outfit with one of the lines from that song printed on the front: "You Make Me Happy." ♥ We had fun investigating Great Grandma's scarf this morning ...

Day 16. I love to see these two together! Their mutual delight in one another thrills this Mommy's heart. ♥

Day 17. The Lord blessed with beautiful!!! weather this weekend! So warm and sunny, in fact, that we were able to get the last four interior doors spray painted! (Not that I took a picture of the process or anything ... not even when I was outside taking pictures of items to post on Craig's List. Ah well.) However, my hubby took this picture of bonfire beginnings ... we figured it would be better to simply make the jumble of logs from an old tree go away rather than leaving them for potential buyers to wonder about. :) Matthew watched it for a bit ... Peter spent most of the afternoon splitting logs to keep the fire fed. :)

And so continues life. Moving or not, little ones are still growing and playing and squabbling and learning and loving and ... living. ♥ For this we are thankful. 

For those who have asked, we have chosen a Realtor and are working with him towards a March 1 listing date. Paperwork has commenced, and an assessor and a stager are coming out this week. We're expecting a move date of early May. 

365Project.2015 | Weeks 1–2

Welcome to 2015!

Whether it's personality or practicality, I definitely tend towards "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." With regards to my blog, the 365Project style works really well for me. To top it off, a few days ago this article reminded me once again of why the "ordinary" days matter. So, by God's grace, we will press forward with similar format for the upcoming year. And as indicated in my last post, the upcoming year holds some significant changes for our family. 

The Lord has been working in some amazing ways in recent weeks, and is very clearly leading our family to join Jenny's parents in the family business. To say we are excited would be an understatement. :) It's something that has been out there as a possibility for about three years, but it has been absolutely amazing and humbling to watch Him so clearly confirm His will and the timing of now for this move. It will be incredibly hard to say good bye to our church family--they truly have been our family for the last 15+ years. However, we trust the Lord's grace for even that, and we're excited to see what He has ahead for us. We anticipate moving no later than May, but, depending on when our home sells, it may be sooner. We covet your prayers as we prepare to sell our home and work through all of the details involved in moving a household of six over 800 miles. 

And now, join us on the whirlwind with which we began 2015. :) I expressed to a friend this evening that I felt as though I had lived about a month and a half of "life" in the first week of the year!

Day 1. A few last minute cuddles with Grandpa before they left for home. ♥  

Day 2. Ah. Our table is back in its place, ... and it's beautiful!! Chris did an amazing job refinishing it! It's so silky smooth, and I can get it clean now. (The old finish had deteriorated, so it perpetually felt "sticky.")

We're also enjoying a new game--Forbidden Island. It's a cooperative game which lends itself really well to younger players since everyone can talk about strategy and moves.

Day 3. We enjoyed a wonderful evening of fellowship with dear friends who were excited with us to see the Lord's leading. They also offered to stay with our older children for a few days (!!!) so that we could make a really. fast. trip. to see a home that looked perfect for our family without having to drag our whole crew through both halves of a 14+ hour car trip. Let me say once again that the Lord has blessed us with a.m.a.z.i.n.g. friends here. ♥

Day 4. The Lord blessed and allowed us to fly rather than drive ... we were on a plane headed to NY less than 18 hours after purchasing tickets.

Abby-girl is definitely of the opinion that flying is the way to travel ... cuddling with Mommy or Daddy the entire time? Why, yes, that'll work, thank you very much. :)

Day 5. Happy girl hanging out at G&G's ♥

Day 6. And less than 36 hours after landing, we were heading back home. Pshew. Most definitely a whirlwind. But, it was a very profitable whirlwind. We were able to see what we needed to see, and as of tonight, the Lord has blessed in allowing our purchase offer to be accepted on our new home. (!!!)

Yep. Flying is the. way. to. travel. :)

Day 7. And then it was back to school! :) It's nice when coloring is a legitimate school activity. ;)

Abby was oh so happy to be back with her big sister! ♥

Day 8. "NY, here we come!" Matthew came upstairs this morning packed and ready for our move. He had Blackie and his Planes DVD. What else could you possibly need? :) It took most of the day to help him realize that "We are moving to NY" doesn't mean today. Soon enough, though, it will.

Big brother snuggles are pretty good, too!

Day 9. I love little people's "people" figures. ♥

And I'm also thankful for an art curriculum which is teaching my children what I simply don't have the skills to teach! Shading with colored pencils was on the docket for this particular lesson.

Day 10. Field trip! We all enjoyed learning more about ocean life.

Sea anemones ...

Sting rays ...

And pythons (which have nothing to do with oceans, but anyways ...)

Day 11. Watching these two say goodbye is going to be one of the hardest. things. ever. So thankful for Hannah's dear friend Faith-Ann! And so thankful for modern technology which will hopefully allow them to stay connected more easily. (And our new home has a guest room, so visits will definitely be in order!!)

Today they had fun baking cupcakes with a recipe from Hannah's new cookbook. :)

Truly we are rejoicing, even in the midst of some teary moments. ♥