Home Decor

When Eric and I were discussing how to decorate our house, we both agreed that we would like to use scripture, and inspirational sayings, to keep our minds on God. Here is another decoration that we put up in the dining/kitchen area:

Truly, God has given us our hearts' desires...mostly in the form of our precious children!

Nature Friends

Our friendly neighborhood deer keep wandering closer and closer to our house! They really like our backyard, and especially one of our trees. It is neat to see them so close, although they always run off when Dan sees them and starts pounding on the window. Also, the girls found a caterpillar and kept it in a container to see what kind of butterfly (or moth!) it would transform into. After about 10 days of patiently waiting, a beautiful black swallowtail butterfly emerged!

Home Times

Well, this summer hasn't exactly been a time for travel and adventure, but we have been having a lot of fun at home! The kids are making good use of the space in our new house, and they spend a lot of time outside enjoying nature! They have made many, many friends in the neighborhood, and it has been a great season! I have had quite a bit of time for unpacking, organizing, and settling in. The only boxes left to go through are the boxes of toys and crafts downstairs. I am also organizing our homeschool supplies and going online to prepare our upcoming school year. Sam will start preschool this year, and he has his own hands-on program to begin his academic journey! We start again on September 6th!

Sunflowers!

Sunflowers are blooming all around our house...and we didn't even plant them! They are my favorite flower, so I take this as just another sign from God that we bought the right house! ;-)

Our New Home!

God is so good!

Just in time for the twins, we are now living in our new home that has room for all of us! It has 4 bedrooms, 1,937 square feet and was custom-built by the original owners in 1994. It is a well-maintained one-owner home that just happened to come within our price range because the owners wanted to sell fast so that they could move into their new place that they had just finished! We have been in the home for a few days now, and everything works perfectly! We can tell that the house was solidly built and will withstand many years of family-friendly living (even with 4 rambunctious boys ;-) It even came with a fort and fire pit in the backyard, and a boys' room with tractors all over the walls (Sam was thrilled)! It feels like this house was made just for us, and we are so thankful that everything worked out so well! :-)

Our Happy Home

The picture above is sunrise as seen from our huge living room window at our house! I always love being able to look out my window and see the expansive farm field and the various colors that God paints for us in the morning! This sunrise was actually more dramatic and beautiful earlier, but I didn't think about getting my camera out until most of the colors had faded away. However, it made me think of how thankful I am for my wonderful home! It was new when we bought it, and it is still so nice and just the right size for our family! We have a lot of yard space to play in, and a huge deck that we put a safety gate on so that the boys can play safely. Even though we don't have a fence around the yard, the girls are old enough to know to stay away from the street. Not that the street is a problem, because we get only a few cars a day back here in the "boonies"! We only have three neighbors close to us, and they are very nice. Our neighborhood is very nice as well, and we feel safe and happy here. This Summer, we thought about moving, but decided that it just isn't worth it. We love our home, our location, our neighborhood, and the fact that we can homeschool and live off of Eric's income without having to stretch our dollars too thin. It would take a major change in circumstances to make us move, and I have "peace like a river" when I think about staying here and enjoying life with my wonderful family!