Monday, April 27, 2009

Easter Pictures









Here are a few Easter pictures. Last year (11-07), we moved the Thursday before Thanksgiving, and this year we moved the Thursday before Easter. Hopefully this is not a new trend!!!




SOLD!

We now officially have a contract on our Alabama house! Having experienced a closing falling through the day it was supposed to happen, we know better than to count our equity before it is in our account, but we are excited to have a buyer. God is so good!

Sunday, April 19, 2009

First Impressions

We have had a great first impression of our new town. In fact, we have joked that almost everyone we have met has been "scary nice". I feel like we are in an X Files episode! It is a bessing to feel so welcomed!

We were able to go to the park with five or six other homeschooling families on Wednesday, and it was a blessing to meet some other moms. The children also really enjoyed playing with some other children. I am praying that we will make some good friends.

We have visited at a church several times, and we have enjoyed it. It is really hard to visit around to different churches with the children! We have come up with a plan. Mark is going to visit other churches on Wednesday nights to get a feel for if it is a place we would like to take the whole family to visit. We may end up staying where we have been visiting. I am still praying about it.

I have been praying that God would prepare a place for us here in our new town. He has been so faithful. I am excited to see how He answers my prayer.

Settling In

I am trying to get back in the blogging saddle! We have lived in our new house for eleven days now, and I have been very busy. I have not spent much time on the computer. There has been lots to do, and our Internet connection is s-l-o-w (I guess that is one of the downsides of living in "the country")!

My parents came the first four days we were here, and that was a huge help. We unpacked the kitchen, kids' rooms, bathrooms and living room. Dad also got started on our flower beds. There was no landscaping, other than weeds and a little grass (we can not put down weed and feed, because there would not be much left!), so it was good to get started. Mark's mom came a couple of days after my parents left, and she has been a blessing. She has spent lots of time holding Eli and doing laundry. If it weren't for her, I would have a mountain of laundry!

A contractor came out to look at the attic space where Isaac and Eli's room will be. Hopefully, we will get that done in the next few months. Right now, Isaac is sleeping in the playroom and Eli is in the guest room. I also had a fence man come out to look at our back yard. We are going to fence in a small space at the back of the house. Someday, we may fence more of the back yard if we decide to get some type of animal.

I still have lots to do, but I am happy with what we have accomplished. I feel a sense of urgency because I have learned that we are good at projects the first couple of months after we move into a new house, and then we stop seeing what needs to be done.

Here is my To Do list:
Outside:
--Plant plants in the front flower beds -- We have put down 85 bags of top soil and 30 bags of mulch so far. I need to buy plants and get them in the ground! I have lots of other yard work to do, but I want to get the plants in first.
-- Square foot garden -- I bought the materials to build my new garden boxes. I hope to get my sweet husband to build them sometime this week. I would like to get our veggies planted by the end of next week.

Inside:
-- Organize the guest room closet.
-- Better organize the playroom
-- Work on the homeschool closet (Mark has to put shelves in before I can do this one)
-- Hang more of our pictures throughout the house
-- Organize my pantry (eventually I will use part of another closet for extra pantry space)
-- Organize my closet
-- Organize the coat closet and buy some type of small bookshelf to put in it to hold videos and games.
-- I am sure there is much more, but my brain is tired!