a home that will house a lot of growth

This house has been labeled "The Blue House."

A year and a half ago, right after Bubby was born, my brother told me about this place. I knew about it. I'd seen it several times since it's on the way to his house. He said our parents were hoping to buy it. My heart lept. I wanted it to be for us. I wanted to live there.

Not because it's a beautiful house. It's not. It's just a manufactured home. But, the land. The location. And just something... something I can't explain.

And then they bought it. And it had to sit some more due to procedure.

But now they own it. And we're moving in! It's a dream come true. A huge blessing from my parents. And God.

They bought it on a tax sale. It sits on six acres. It was forclosed on several years ago and has not been lived in since. There are some cosmetic things (holes in the walls, doorknobs needed, etc.) that we'll get to after we unpack. As far as we can tell, it's fully functional. Since it's a manufactured home, everything about it is really cheap. The walls, the floor, the doors. Not ideal, but I love the layout!

Let me show you this house I'm all excited about. The one that will be our home, at least for another long while. A home that will house a lot of growth.

These pictures will be the before pictures. Once we're in, I post pictures of our stuff every where. It will be scary. But then I'll show the progress, hopefully week by week. I'll need this as motivation.

Since these pictures:
- We have cleaned and vacuumed
- My brother and hubby put in a wood stove (with a tile floor underneath) in the living room. (Thank you so much Justin!)
- My dad installed a dishwasher, stove, and refrigerator (Thanks Dad!)

Here it is!!!

As you walk in the front door...

... turn around and see the front door.

Kitchen

Kitchen with hallway to bedrooms on the right.

Laundry room. (With a door to the back yard on the left.) There's a bit more room to it on the right.

Master bedroom, leading to master bath.

 Master Bathroom

This bathroom is ridiculously big. I had to take four pictures of it to capture all the essential parts. Not looking forward to cleaning this... haha

Toilet (which will be getting replaced soon)

Large tub. Maybe I'll finally become a bath person. :)

Sink

Shower

Walk in closet. We'll have to buy more clothes to fill this thing up! Or not.

Hallway to other 2 bedrooms and other bathroom.

Dubbed "the green room." Don't be fooled by those stars. They are camo - and they will have a short life in our home, hopefully! The kids will stay here because Sweet Girl chose it. 

Second bathroom. Toilet will also be replaced. The seat came off when I was cleaning it!

Third bedroom. This will be the guest room! :) (I'm very excited about having a guest room.)

This is the dining area.

This is the view of the living room from the dining area.

Off of the dining area, what I think will be my favorite room... "The Sun Room." This will be the office/school/craft room.

Please pray for us as we adjust to a new home!

Moving Update

Our home is naked. Except for all these pine needles on the floor. Which are not vacuumed up because we left the vacuum at the other house on accident. Oh well. Most cleaning has been dropped because, really, why bother? Word is this place will be torn down eventually. Okay, maybe I'm being lazy. Or... maybe I've just been busy. Or maybe it's both.

We packed up the Christmas things. We packed up all the frames and other decorations. Little pieces of furniture will be taken over tomorrow too. That is, if we're allowed to drive.

For those of you not in Indiana, the weather here was -12 or something today, after about a foot of snow yesterday. It will still be cold tomorrow, but hopefully more like 10 degrees. And it should in the the 30s by Friday, which is the big day.

This crazy weather has actually been a blessing. This weekend my husband was at a conference in Texas. He was supposed to come home on Sunday, but instead came back Saturday morning. With all the snow there was no church yesterday, so essentially it felt like a Monday or sort of a Saturday, and today felt like Tuesday, or another Saturday. And he has tomorrow off too. Anyway, this means lots of help with the packing and getting other things done.

By the grace of God, things are really coming together. If I had written this a couple days ago, like I was sort of planning to, I would not be saying that. Instead I'd be writing about how stressed out I am about the things that still need to be bought and figured out.  Yet, since then, we have found a used refrigerator at a good price, and maybe a table too. We've accepted the amount of money we are going to have to spend on various things that we'll just need. And I think I have permission to buy some pink Muck Boots. 'Cause I'll be walkin' in some poo before too long. :) Hello chickens!

So, here are some major differences once we move:
- no Internet (let's see, have I mentioned that at all? Oh, of course I have!)
- building fires to be warm
- We'll have a dishwasher!
- Washer and dryer will be just down the hall instead of downstairs.
- Once we're settled some, I'll be feeding the chickens and gathering eggs.
- Hubby will be leaving for work sooner and coming back later.
- House will be a wreck for a while!
- Short drive to church or parents
- Longer drive to town (but just 10 minutes)
- No trash or recycling pick up
(This list is more for me than you.)

I have been copying pictures from the web into Evernote so that I have plenty of inspiration when planning my decorating. If only I could download some patience... For now, I'm excited about all the possibilities! I hope it can stick, even if things progress slowly.

And in case you're wondering, how do I plan to keep blogging with no Internet? Well, my plan is to write posts in Word, save them on a thumb drive, go to my parents' or the library and use my tablet to upload them and post. I'll probably schedule several posts so they're spread out and consistent. That's the plan. Not a contract. ;)

And now I'm off to price check Carhartt's online. Hopefully we'll be trying things on at a store in town tomorrow to make sure we know what we like. This country girl is comin' back to her roots.

And in case you need something to make you smile, especially after seeing my dirty house... take a look at these cute kids. :)

all these things :: 2014 new year edition

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Note: I've inserted a variety of pictures from 2013 throughout this post.

I know, a little late, but I'm just now catching by breath after the marathon of the holidays. In fact, this is my third attempt today to get this post published! There's no slowing down. We move next week... Yes, in exactly a week! 

January

So, of course my head is swimming with new habits to build, projects to do, and books to read, on top of all that comes with moving. And instead of copying and pasting my lists on here for you (because, honestly, it would probably bore you), I'm just going to say how I want to improve in the areas I always share with you. Plus, share some blogging thoughts for the year as a bonus. :)

February

heart & soul :: The biggest thing I want to work on this year is being more disciplined. When I actually follow my routines and plans for the days, things are so much smoother and I'm so much calmer. Of course, I can't control things coming up, but I've learned how much I can get done in a day with diaper changes, squabble breaks up, etc built in. And if I don't get everything done, but it wasn't because I wasted time, I'm okay with that. Along with this is working on not being lazy. As in, if something needs to be done, that is quick or important, to just. do. it. (And, yes, that phrase still makes me think of Nike unfortunately!) Oh, and to do it without whining or groaning.

June

mothering :: In this area, I want to work on being more aware and alert. Even if I'm away from the computer, I find myself absorbed in whatever task I'm doing, and sometimes ignore my children for a moment (until they've said something for the 10th time!) and then get frustrated that they are now yelling and I've been interrupted. It's not that I'm totally unaware; it's just that it's hard for me to shift my whole focus quickly enough. And I think that's because I don't choose to. I just want to get what I'm working on done, and then I can focus on my kids. Nuh-uh... how often does that really happen? I want to be available, aware, and alert no matter what I'm doing.

July

home & kitchen :: I want to get proficient with sourdough, dabble in some cheese making, and do some extra meal freezing. Obviously, I'll be doing a lot of work in the home unpacking, organizing, fixing up, and decorating.

rhythm :: My hope is to further incorporate the Church Year into our lives by going to the services and talking about the feast days in the home. I'd also like to incorporate little traditions associated with them, when it's practical. ~ I want to start doing a Morning Time with both kids. This year I just did Circle Time with Mia at nap time. Now that Michael is older, he isn't so demanding for attention and might even participate some. At least he'll be hearing it. At nap time I'll do "school" with Mia for 15 or 20 minutes, just working on simple goals. I want to incorporate some art time each week or a few times a week.

August

learning & growing :: For the first time since I can remember (and maybe ever!), I have a book list. I really want to read more books this year. Since we won't have the internet (at least for the time being), I hope to make more time for real books! ~ I want to learn about gardening and start one in the spring. I plan to help my parents with maple syrup production this year, so I have some learning to do with that. Also, I want to learn about raising chickens because that might come sooner than later!

September

blogging :: There's so much I want to do on here! I'll just share a few ideas that are the most likely to happen. First, I want to preview my month for you, and then review it at the end. I have a new system of planning that I've been using for a few months, and I want to share that with you, then show you how it works for me each month. Second, I want to share with you each week the progress I make unpacking and decorating our new home. This is really more for me, than for you. I need to be able to look back and see how much I've gotten done instead of how much more I want to do. There's more beyond that, but I'm not sure how much I can handle, so I don't want to promise too much. :) I hope to do a lot of research about blogging as well as learn some writing skills.

November

looking forward to...  moving, obviously! Also coming up this year...

January: My brother and his wife will visit from Boston.
February: My in-laws and sister-in-law and family will be coming to visit.
May: We hope to go to Boston for my brother's graduation from seminary.
June: Both of my husband's sisters and their kids will come out for a visit.
July: My husband will be coaching a high school travel baseball team. They will play at tournaments for seven weekends straight. I know it might be hard, but I'm so excited about this opportunity for him! And we hope to travel with them some, which I think will be fun. :)
August: Annual Vazquez Family Vacation!

December

May God bless you all in this coming year!