We’ve had a busy couple of weeks!  Our yard sale was this past Saturday, and this morning our house showed for the first time.  I think we have a good handle on what to do to get ready for house showings, so I’ll share those tips with you next week. Tomorrow I’m headed out of town for a weekend with my Mom and sisters.  We haven’t done something like this in almost eight years, so we’re all pretty excited.  As much as I love my children and my husband, I’m going to thoroughly enjoy being away.  Sleep should be uninterrupted.  There will be no diapers to change, schedules to follow…

It’s official, our home is now on the market. The sign and lock have been out for almost two weeks now, but due to the MLS site being down last week, our home has officially been listed for six days. There are certainly plenty of  mixed emotions as we begin the process of saying goodbye to what has been our home for the past 3 plus years.  Just like our first home, this home has provided a place where the unexpected has changed us. We said goodbye to one precious baby shortly after moving in, and for the first time I understood the grief that so many mothers-to-be face with…

Over the past seven months I’ve slowly learned how to use my smart phone.  There’s still much to uncover, I’m still trying to add my contacts, but for right now, I’m content being able to check email on the go, see the weather forecast, make out my shopping list, check Facebook {although I’m really trying to limit that one}, and keep up with Instagram.  Most of you have probably been on Instagram forever, but I have a Windows phone, and until this fall, there wasn’t an app on the Windows phone for Instagram.  Now, we have the capability and I’m trying to learn how to better use it for photography. …

We’ve been talking a lot lately about our future.  I guess I thought that by the time I hit my 30’s, life would be figured out and the course would be set. I’m glad I was wrong. This life of not knowing has been a gift.  Living in different places, making new friends, dreaming about where me might end up next–I have learned to treasure these steps on our journey. This summer will mark six years of Bradley being in the Navy, the last three of which have been in our home in Georgia.  And as I anticipate moving again this summer, I can’t help but think back and reflect.…

We’ve lived in our home now for 3 years, as of this past Sunday, and Wednesday was the first time we experienced snow here!  That’s what happens when you live in Georgia.  The girls were so excited when they woke up in the morning and saw their little picnic table out back covered in snow.  And by covered, I mean about 3 inches.  Yes, 3 inches is an enormous amount of snow in the south, and we go out and play in it as if it is the biggest snow storm ever!

As I sit here, it’s almost the end of January, I’m typing my first blog post of 2014, and I have to tell you that this month has been one of restoration for my soul.  I’m not really sure what caused it or why it happened, but God has been moving in my heart, bringing thankfulness, joy, and contentment. The past four months were hard.  My heart hurt, I lacked joy, I cried a lot, I couldn’t think straight, and  I learned a lot about grief.  Not the kind of grief from the loss of a loved one, but grief over loss of dreams, living with an unexpected reality, and…

In the darkness of a typical night, sitting on a hillside outside the town of Bethlehem, some unsuspecting shepherds received word of God’s redemptive entrance into the world. Shepherds were ordinary folk.  They never donned royal robes or mingled with the leaders of the land.  They smelled of earth and sheepskin, not oil and perfume.  Simple people with simple jobs.  Take care of the sheep.  Protect the flocks.  Watch the lambs. Suddenly the glory of God lighted the darkness of that night.  For God had chosen to make these ordinary shepherds the first recipients of the greatest joy-filled news ever told. A baby had been born.  He was swaddled up,…

Happy December!  Happy Advent!  I love this time of year, and I especially love it through the eyes of my children.  We had a great Thanksgiving week; my husband was off from work the entire week, and we thoroughly enjoyed being at home and being together.  All of us were sick with colds and such, but that just made staying inside all the more acceptable. We decided to put up our Christmas tree on Friday night and I’m so glad we did.  In years past, I have been the lone decorator of the tree {with the exception of the lights–that’s always the man’s job}, and I missed those days of…

Today marks seven years of marriage to the love of my life.  I’ve never shared ‘our story’ here before, so I thought I’d let you in on how we met and fell in love nine years ago. I first laid eyes on my husband one year before I met him.  I was attending training at our mission headquarters in PA, preparing to head to the Middle East for one year.  I can vividly remember him walking into our training room.  He was dressed nicely in black dress pants and a deep blue button-down shirt, and extremely attractive.  His smile is what really got me. I tried to forget about him,…