Wow. So much has happened in the last month. The Lord has been good. So good. He has sustained us and given us strength and grace through some very intense days. Our home went on the market at the beginning of March. We had 16 showings in 11 days. 16 showings in 11 days. Such a simple sentence. Not such a simple reality. :) Add sickness to the mix and it made life rather interesting to say the least. :) However, by His grace, we were under contract in 12 days! Thankful. So thankful.
And now, for pictures. I'll admit that I almost decided to just cut my losses and skip this last month of pictures, but as scattered as the pictures were, I didn't want to lose what we captured from this month of craziness, so here we go. So much went uncaptured--when you're juggling homeschool, house showings, four kids, and a dog, your camera is the last thing on your mind. :)
Day 53. Abby loves her siblings, and blesses them with some of her biggest smiles! :)
Day 54. It's a happy thing when baby chicks show up on the trip to buy dog food. :)
And we are ready for pictures. 85 items. DONE.
Day 55. Yep. Snow. Beautiful snow, but snow nonetheless. :) Never would have thought that the photos taken to sell our SC home would have snow. We were so pleased with the pictures though! They came out beautifully! Honestly, I looked at some of those pictures and thought, "Wow. Is that really our house?!?" :)
Day 56. I heard Matthew complaining that he was "stuck." I didn't think too much of it ... kinda figured that "stuck" meant, "It's taking more effort than I care to expend to remove myself from this situation." But then it became apparent that "stuck" really meant "stuck." And ten minutes later Mommy was starting to consider how best to take the chair apart without a) hurting my son and b) permanently damaging the chair. Thankfully some creative positioning allowed us to get him out without pulling out the saw!
Hannah and Peter have enjoyed multiple games of Settlers of Catan this last month ... it became apparent when we joined them for a family game though that they were using a slightly modified rule set. ;)
Day 57. A snowman for Grandma! :)
Day 58. Abby-girl loves tags, and this taggy owl was a definite hit!
Day 59. One of our last big workdays ... finishing up some rock work ...
Burning off extra logs ...
And cleaning the awning ... So thankful for our big helpers!!
Day 60. Happy 7 months, Abby-girl!! We love you, Sweet Pea!!
Day 61. It's official! So exciting and scary all at the same time!
Day 62. The day when a headband, some pipe cleaners, and foam turn Mommy into a hero. :)
Day 63. First showing! And so it begins! Mommy and her crew had quite a lot of adventures over the next week or so. :) Some of the novelty wore off by the end ... ;)
Day 64. Still trying to get some school done ...
Day 65. The kids decided that sitting on the couch was the safest place to be while Mommy raced around making sure everything was ready to go for a showing ... ;)
Day 66. Daddy was not feeling well, but he was a trooper and hung in there for our showings on Saturday. With some back to back showings we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and go hiking. I'm pretty sure that Peter is at least part mountain goat. ;)
And without a late Saturday showing, we definitely wouldn't have enjoyed PJ day at Bruster's! :)
Day 67. Matthew kept himself busy while we hung out at church during a Sunday afternoon showing ...
Day 68. Ah. No Monday showings. It was good to have a break! And this little lady was glad to get some floor time!
Peter also enjoyed learning about pie graphs with a much bigger pool of people ... thank you, Facebook friends! :)
Day 69. Two more showings, so we visited a special but more distant park with our friends who had never been there before! :)
Day 70. This is what the grocery cart looks like when you're buying food for 23 freezer meals and a week of camping. :) We had no showings on Wednesday or Thursday of this week, so I went shopping on Wednesday and prepped meals in between other stuff on Thursday. I certainly wouldn't have won any contests for speed, but it was all done by bedtime. :)
Day 71. Of course, happy distractions like this one were part of my excuse!! Too. cute. for. words!!
Day 72. We used our showings on Friday to run errands ... specifically to prep for Miss Beth's birthday. :) Fun times! "Balloons, flowers, pictures, and cake" were the plan for the day. :)
And Mommy and Daddy enjoyed a much needed respite. ♥
Loved my cuppa! ♥
Day 73. More showings, but we also got an offer ... a
good offer ... on our home!!!! So. Excited!!!!
Day 74. Abby's enjoying the sunshine and Mommy and Daddy are rejoicing to be under contract!!!!! Eeeee!!!!
Day 75. And then we were off! It has amazed me over and over and over and over again how the Lord has orchestrated His perfect timing in every aspect of preparing for our move. When we made plans for our camping trip, we certainly didn't know what His timing would be for an offer on our home. But, it definitely made it easier to relax and enjoy our time away when we were able to leave behind a signed contract. ♥
Kinda glad we didn't see the sign about
not feeding the deer until a day later ... :)
Day 76. We returned to Hunting Island for our camping adventures. Why? #1 reason was so that Matthew could climb the light house. Yep. Hunting Island was the destination for our very first camping trip when Matthew was just three and he was too short to climb it. He has remembered that and talked about returning so that he could climb it ever since. SO thankful he was tall enough this time!! He cleared it by about 1/4 inch!
We dragged our favorite camping partners down with us. ;) SO glad we were able enjoy the island together with them! It was a really last minute trip, so again, it was neat to see the Lord's hand in allowing our husbands' work schedules and the camp sites to coordinate to facilitate the trip!
On our last visit, I stayed on the ground with Matthew, but this time around I climbed the light house while Chris watched Abby. And I quickly realized that I appreciate such things much more from the ground. After making it to the top, I was quite happy to go back down to take over Abby duty and let my hubby enjoy the view. Starting to discover that heights are giving me trouble ...
Let's see ... here's 60% of our combined crews ... we're missing our friends' oldest three and our youngest ...
This first full day was the warmest and sunniest of the week, so it made for some fun times at the beach. :)
♥
Day 77. Yay for sunrise on the beach!! ♥
I ended up spending a good bit of the day back in the camper with two feverish girls, so I was especially thankful for the morning on the beach! :) Gladly though, the rest of the crew was able to do some exploring and took pictures for me. :)
Day 78. And what's a week of camping without a day of rain? :) So glad for board games!
And thankful that the girls were both feeling a bit better ... at least with Tylenol on board. ;)
We took the divide and conquer approach. Yes. One Peter is approximately equivalent to six other children. ;)
Day 79. My favorite part of our first trip was biking on the beach, and I am
so thankful that the weather cleared up sufficiently to allow us to do it again!! We had an infant bike seat and helmet for Abby, but after trying it around camp, I decided that I felt much safer with her in the Moby. I love my Moby.
So thankful for this man. ♥
My camping friend!! I have learned so much from her about camping, child raising, and life in general. :) (We've already started brainstorming about potential "meet in the middle" camping locations for after we move ...)
What a trooper! He was the littlest, but he hung in there for the entire nine mile ride! Thankfully Daddy was coordinated enough to be able to give him some pushes along the way ... :)
And what's camping without a campfire and s'mores? :)
Many thanks to my friend for remembering to take a picture.
Especially since we did it every. single. night.
Not that I took even one picture ...
Day 80. And then it was time to come home. I must admit that this was a very happy sign to come home to. :)
And if you made it to the end of this post, thanks. :)
I know it was a long one.
Thanks for sticking with me. :)
