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Wednesday, 25 April 2012

  • my children are NOT perfect

    We have miraculously had an awesome month in the kid department.  And I don't say "miraculously" lightly.  The girls have played incredibly well together, been obedient, gentle, and loving- to each other and to us.  Jordyn, our very intense and spirited child, has been pleasant and enjoyable.  Anna has been the best big sister a girl could ask for. 

    I have enjoyed this month with them immensely and thanked God often for the girls they are becoming.  I truly saw it as a gift He had given us in the midst of a chaotic moving month.  That's what makes this month even more incredible!  They are both slow-to-adapt to change, but somehow didn't even notice that we moved to a different house in a different environment.  Thank you, Jesus, for knowing we needed to divert our extra attention from preventing fights to moving for a bit!

    The honeymoon is over, though.  lol.

    The associate at Maurices commented on how well-behaved they were compared to other kids that come in the store this morning and I was feeling pretty good about my parenting.  And then this happened. 

    Poor Annalyn!  Jordyn has been cranky for a few days now and apparently her intensity got the best of them both this afternoon.

    It sure was nice while it lasted!

Wednesday, 04 April 2012

  • When people found out where we were moving to, they would inevitably ask, "Do you think you'll be okay living in town? It will be a big change from the country."  To which I would reply that we've lived in both places before and both have their positives and negatives.  There were things we missed about living in town, like being able to walk to a destination rather than just walking out to point x and turning around.  There are things we love about the country, like the sound of peepers on a spring night and the glint of the moonlight off the barn roof. 

    I think they were mostly referring to the noise, though.

    We've been here all of 3 days, but I think I can safely say that this isn't an issue.  Our new house is well insulated, we live on a relatively quiet street, and we lived on a busy farm before.  A few cars going past is not nearly as loud as guys peeling out in their diesel trucks or semi trucks, sprayers, combines, etc coming in at all hours of the night. lol.

    Aside from one or two things that need to be hung, we're completely unpacked and seem to be adjusting well to our new surroundings.  The girls have been sleeping great, which I am so thankful for, we were early to Anna's speech therapy today (it's a lot closer than it used to be!) and the only thing I can't find is my favorite pencil.  And, shockingly, last week actually kinda felt like a vacation since Dave took the week off of work and my mom was here to take care of the girls, so we didn't have any of our normal responsibilities.  Dave and I had tons of quality time (we even snuck in a date to a Thai Restaurant) and aside from a few tense moments here and there, our stress levels were pretty low. 

    This was a much different experience from the last time we moved when I was still working through post-partum emotions, had a newborn, and moved to a different state where I knew no one.

    And now you are probably sick of all the posts about moving, so with this final update, I'll move on to something more fun.  Like my new garden that my dad prepped for me and even planted peas in. :)  Okay, I might be the only one that finds that truly thrilling. lol.

     

     

Sunday, 25 March 2012

  • I think it is safe to say that I am an intense person.  And I don't like having things out of order.  I drink pop and coffee 10x faster than my husband.  When I moved in to my dorm rooms in college, it took me approximately 2 hours to completely unpack and put everything away- into the exact spot where the things were when I packed up to go home for the summer.

    So I'm surprising myself a bit by taking an entire week to move into our new house.  The plan is to pack and move and put away a category of things each day.  To be quite honest, I'd rather cram it all into 2 or 3 days and just get the thing over with, but somehow this seemed like the best plan. 

    I don't like the transition phase inbetween activities.  I want to go from A to B without pause, without disruption. 

    Looking back over the last month of remodelling and preparing the new house for my family, I think it is good that we had this transition phase.  The new house feels a bit like home and I think it will be easier to leave the Farm House since I'm already invested in the Cedar Mansion.  As are my kids. We've had numerous picnics over there while Mommy and Daddy have worked on things and Anna's room has been decorated for a week.  She loves it and loves going there.  She keeps asking how many days until we live there. 

    It's killing me to be patient through this transition, but it has definitely taken the edge off the change for my kids, and so I think I'm glad we're moving slowly.

    And now I'm going to go down a pop. ;) 

Monday, 27 February 2012

  • On Thursday I confessed to my friend that the thing I crave most in life is stability.  On Saturday, her husband stopped in to deliver the uncomfortable message that he wanted us to move out of the house we've been renting for the last 4 years so that his son could move in.  It was something that we always figured would happen, but it was still a shock and I couldn't finish my dinner or stop crying.  So much for stability.  (In all fairness, I think I should interject here that our landlord was willing to buy another house for us to rent.  He wasn't actually leaving us homeless.  But we live in the family farmhouse that Great Grandpa built and their son is buying into the farm and therefore gets this house.)

    It's been over a month now since that conversation.  Tonight Anna asked me if I was excited about moving and I could honestly answer yes.  In fact, I'm very excited about it!  I spent the day shopping today for window treatments, sheets, rugs, etc and I'm itching to be able to put them in the new house and start decorating it. 

    I don't know why God has chosen to bless us so extravagantly, but I give him the praise for it.  Our current landlord connected us with another family from church that recently moved and didn't have any plans for their old house. 

    Blessing 1: They are willing to rent it to us at the same rate we currently pay, which is incredibly low.
    Blessing 2: The house is beautiful, modern, and HUGE.  We'll now have a guest room, a laundry room, AND a play room.  (We currently have a room that serves as all three.)  Yet the utilities are comparable to the farmhouse.
    Blessing 3: At the outset, I made a list of all the things we need in a house, want in a house, and wish for in a house.  This house has things on my wish list!!!  The kitchen drawers have that cool automatic closing feature, there's a master bath, there's more storage than we could possibly use, the windows have honeycomb blinds, the furnace is new, we'll be able to walk to church...
    Blessing 4: There are hardwood floors throughout most of the house which will be so helpful with our allergies!
    Blessing 5: It has a 6 ft privacy fence around the yard and even though it is in town, the fenced in area is just as big as what we have fenced currently.
    Blessing 6: Anna can finally get her dog. :)

    I went from being anxious to being overjoyed in a matter of weeks.  I'm not excited about the physical act of moving our things, but as my dear friend pointed out, moving does present many organizational opportunities.  As I've mentioned before, I'm a bit of a nerd in that department and get a high off of organizing. lol. 

    The funny thing is that I've wished we could move many times in the last 2 years just to get away from the allergens here, but felt stuck because we can't afford higher rent and even a teeny 1 room apartment would cost more than our current rate because of their generosity.  God worked it all out for me!

    We weren't planning on moving so we didn't have a "moving" line in our budget, but get this- God gave us a mild winter and so we actually skipped a fill in our propane tank and have all of the money we had saved for that available for things like curtains. :)  Today I hit amazing sales and while I spent $350, I saved $300!

    I'm so so thankful and yet feel so undeserving of my Creator's lavishness.  I've hesitated to write this post because I feel a bit guilty when I hear of other friends that are also serving God and yet have to live with their parents to make ends meet.  I don't understand, but I know I must praise him for knowing what we need and providing it.  I know that every good gift comes from the Father and I humbly accept this new living arrangment as a gift from my God. 

    Perhaps I have wrongly defined stability.  It means more than a period in my life without major change.  It means putting myself in God's hands.  He is my stability.

Tuesday, 31 January 2012

  • It's a party all the time!

    It's a party every day at my house!  Anna has become quite the party planner and is always busy putting together a party for something.  Anyone need help with their next big event?  She'll organize your next party for $100!

    For the party we had last weekend for my Dad, Dave, niece and Jordyn (their birthdays are all within about a week!), Anna started decorating and planning games the instant she woke up.  She had me make party hats, we colored pictures of owls (since the cake Aunt Amy made was an owl), she tried to boss us all into playing a game she created ("Okay everybody.  Listen. EVERYBODY LISTEN. This is how you play..."), etc. 

    She organized a Christmas party the week we were home after Christmas and even conned her Aunt into hosting it and making a cake!

    Today is Dave's birthday and yesterday we even had to make a list of all that we were doing to celebrate.  :)  Here's what's on the agenda:

    1) She packed his lunch, because that's something special you do for people on their birthdays, she said: PB&J, pretzels, his favorite cereal, a candy bar, grapes, and an orange.

    2) We decorated the downstairs with streamers before he woke up this morning and hid to surprise him when he came down the steps.

    3) She painted her nails for the "party" (well, I painted her nails to be more precise). 

    4) Today we are going to make a cake and one of his favorite meals for dinner: spaghetti.

    5) She created 2 games that we are going to play after dinner. (the first is something to do with racing to put together a puzzle and I can't remember the second)

     

    Saturday is Jordyn's birthday. I'm curious to see what she'll come up with for that! :)

    I love her creativity!

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jdakin

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    • Name: Jennifer
    • Member Since: 12/20/2004

About Me

  • I love the peace of the woods on a fall day and the comfort of a mug of hot chocolate in the winter. I love the intense beauty of the sunrise and the feeling of mud between my toes. I love getting lost in a book and the sound of a canoe paddle moving through the water on a still lake.