We Bought A House!

So it's been awhile...

Let's just skip past the fact that I haven't written in months, and jump right in, shall we?

It's crazy to me to think that I've been blogging since I was still a newlywed, about 6.5 years ago.  At that time, we had just bought a house.  The house had 3 apartments in it.  We lived in the one on the top floor and rented out the other 2.  The situation was the perfect set-up for us as broke newlyweds.  Ha!  But in my mind, I was hoping we would only be living there for about 5 years.

3 years later, we got the opportunity to move into the first floor apartment.  Back then we had been struggling with infertility, so even though the downstairs apartment was smaller, it was prettier and much more convenient.  So we excitedly moved in, not thinking about how small it would seem once we had kids.

Then we had a baby.  While I was in grad school.  And things were fine for about a year after Scarlett was born.  But then all of a sudden it was like the walls started closing in on us.

There were toys EVERYWHERE.  Our living room was a glorified playroom.  All of our closets were packed full and there was literally no room for anything else.

Somehow the smaller our apartment seemed, the louder it seemed, too.  We lived next to a fire department, so there were sirens going off at all hours of the day and night.  And I completely appreciate the service of the firemen and paramedics!!  Don't get me wrong. It's just a very loud place to live, next to them.

Also, every Saturday at noon, they would test the tornado siren.  I can't even describe how loud that is every week.  You can hear it miles away, and yet we were yards away from it.

Also, living in the bottom apartment isn't the quietest place to be when there are hard wood floors above.

And we lived a few yards from a semi-busy road where many tractors, semi-trucks, and loud motorcycles ride.

All of that plus a toddler just did no mix.

We had begun our house-hunt in the spring of 2014.  And the Reader's Digest version of the story is that in the next 12 or 13 months, and through a series of events/circumstances that could only have been ordained by the Lord himself, we bought and are now living in what I'm pretty sure must be the perfect house for our little family.

 

It is on a quiet street.  It is further away from the road than our old house.  There are woods owned by the park on the north side, woods owned by our neighbor on the south and east sides, and one beautiful house surrounded by open fields across the road.  We went form noise everywhere to feeling pretty secluded.  It is so peaceful!  And we have a yard!  Small, but big enough for us.  It is perfect.

Here is the view out of our big picture windows in the living room:

(That's Scarlett watching the birds one day before we moved in. Ha!)

And a view of our front yard on a rainy day last week:

We are feeling SO BLESSED.  I can't even tell you how much easier my life feels since this house is actually big enough for us, and so quiet and peaceful (have I mentioned that it's peaceful? Ha!)

This past year has been such an experience.  It was so difficult getting into the swing of things at my new job, and I felt stressed and depressed a lot of the year, and took it out on my family at times.  Things just seemed so hard!  But now we have moved into the new house, and I had my last day of work for the school year on Wednesday.  And I am able to spend my entire summer with my family in this new, wonderful house.  It's just a reminder that God is here, and even when life feels so hard sometimes, there will be brighter days.  I feel like as bad as some days were last winter, they're that good plus a whole lot better this summer.  I feel like I've made it through that storm, and I fully intend to make the most of every moment now until the next one comes along!

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Thanks for sticking with me if you're still reading this even after my rare postings lately.  Now that I have some free time, I want to try to blog more often this summer.  I've gotten really into You Tube lately, and might try to do a few videos this summer as well.  I want to film a home tour sometime next week if I can get the guts to do it! Ha!