Nest Building I

Something else that I can get excited about is our new armoire! When I am having a "rough" moment I just think of this piece of furniture waiting for me in my parents garage!

I LOVE furniture! And it loves me back. I think that I will kiss it every night before bed.

Rocking

Last week Phil came home to this:

Counting Down

I am getting really excited about my seeds! I might just start them tonight because I am way too excited to wait...

Baseball Off the Tee

Harmonica

Luke and Grandpa Fishbaugh playing the harmonica. Luke was running circles around the sofa and playing and then I got the camera out and he said "done grandma" okay

Brothers Gotta Match

I have to match these two while I still can!

Micah is Huge!

Sleeping under the blanket that Grandma Wagler made!

The Next Place

After wavering back and forth over what to do about our housing situation, I think that we finally have a winner! We made an offer on this house on Wednesday of last week and the seller accepted our offer. So we bought a house!? We explored almost any housing combination imaginable including renting a house or apartment and buying my parents house. When we visited this place we knew almost immediately that we could make it work. It is not our dream house but that is okay. It is definitely NOT a McMansion. Again that is okay too. It has great curb appeal and will meet all of our immediate needs! We are overjoyed! I don't think that the reality has really set in yet.

Introducing our next Home Sweet Home
3 bedroom 2 bathroom
Located on a culd-de-sac! Isn't it cute?

It was built in 1999 and has a fenced-in back yard. The neighborhood has two ponds that are stocked with fish. Fishing is actually encouraged which is rare. I have to admit that was a selling point for me. We met the retired neighbors across the street and they moved there because of the fishing!

We are hoping that Sanibel does not try to jump this fence. I think that it is tall enough to keep her corralled. We will see...

Even the back yard is landscaped nicely! We like this birch tree in the corner!

Two level deck

I can't wait to spend the summer on this deck! You know that I will!

Welcome to the entry

Hallway that leads to the bedrooms. Another selling point for me is that it is a ranch. No stairs! I love that the bedrooms are all together. I can put up a gate and keep everybody in one place and that includes the dog. This is a great floorplan for young kids.

Living Room. I like that I can see into the living room from the kitchen! That is a great thing about a small house. I can see and hear everything.

As much as I like red, the red wall has gotta go away. It is a small space and the red wall is visually breaking it up. The pass thru looks into the kitchen!

More of the red wall. It will be tough to cover. Another great thing about a small house is less cleaning. Cleaning is not really my thing...I would rather be out on the deck!

Fireplace! It is gas so we don't have to worry about messing with wood. Phil was so cute...he said that we will have a place to hang our Christmas stockings! The cable connection is to the right and left of the fireplace. We already purchased an armoire to house our TV and other electronics and it will live in the corner to the left of the fireplace. It is our first "real" furniture purchase in our 6 years of marriage! Very exciting. It will be delivered to my mom and dad's tomorrow.

Looking forward to evening fires in the winter!

Bright sunny window

Kitchen. All of the appliances stay. Our first project will be to tile this area with ceramic tile.

Not a lot of cabinets...I already have a few creative ideas to remedy this situation.

The tile will extend into the dining area. We have to have tile in these areas because of the sliding patio door. Dogs and boys frequenting this area could get messy.

Washer and Dryer stay!

A major selling point for me was the master bedroom, bathroom and closet. Here is the master bedroom. It is roomy!

Doors to the bath and walk-in closet.

Master closet.

Jetted garden tub!

Separate shower and tub! Very nice.

Pretty roomy I would say. Our biggest bathroom yet!

Lot's of storage in the vanity!

Micah's room and closet.

Luke's bedroom has a laminate floor

Luke having fun in his new room!

Second bathroom

This room is getting tile too. The carpet will get ruined!

The garage is even nice. That wood paneled wall is a complete pegboard! We have never had a two car garage before! So exciting.

The timing of everything has been amazingly perfect. We are going to be able to close in early May which means we can move when our lease ends in Bloomington May 15th. We will only have to move once! That is a huge blessing. We were praying that we would make the right choice on location. Phil had to sign up a few weeks ago to take the bar class in Ft. Wayne. We took a chance that we would be able to move before the class started. Luckily we found something! This afternoon we found out that the BAR class in Ft. Wayne is going to happen and it will be at Trine University! We looked it up on the map and it is only 3 miles from our new house! We had no idea but it seems that we picked the right house!

Painful Joy

I'm a mom and some days I have no idea what I am doing or HOW I got here? I honestly thought that I was ready for a challenge. No one has ever given me that as a reason for having children but I really was looking for a "challenge." A BOLD career move I guess you could say. I knew that it would be hard and that life would never be the same again...at least everybody that I talked to wanted to make sure that I was aware. "Oh, I know" I would reply. I guess that I was already moving in the right direction because moms need to be a "know-it-all" whether you are or not. "Fake it till you make it" is my life motto. Maybe that makes me seem shallow but parenting wisdom grows much deeper.

Genesis tells us of a perfect garden.
Genesis 3:16 reads: "To the woman He said, I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth , In pain you shall bring forth children..." See I knew that childbirth would be painful. Genesis is telling us the truth. Anyone that has given birth or watched the process KNOWS of the suffering that a woman in labor experiences. Temporary pain resulting in GREAT JOY!

However, I have come to realize that this verse in Genesis means much more when applied to motherhood. As mothers we experience great joy at a cost. Any mother knows the sacrifice that she makes daily from the moment of conception. Sacrifices like morning sickness, miscarriage, childbirth, 2:00 AM feedings, "tough love," bad decisions, good decisions, injuries, sickness, and it doesn't just end when your child grows-up and moves out. The list goes on and on. Moms end up carrying around a lot of unnecessary guilt. But the joy is still there.

The joy is so real that it can be painful to let go. So hard for a woman to do.

We are happy when our kids are happy and vice versa. But that should not be the guage for how good of a mom you are. The joy is still there in the grief.

Moms can do some pretty amazing things when the going gets tough. That too can be painful but the joy trumps all.

The reward is two fold. Children want to love their moms no matter if they did a halfway decent job or not. They want our hugs and kisses more than we want to give them. For me that is hard to believe.

The joy comes with the pain.

They are partners.

Close Up

Luke really wanted this photo taken...Baby Micah gets lots of photos lately...

7 Weeks

Baby Micah is 7 weeks young! He can hold his head up very well during tummy time. So strong he is! He also has rolled over already! His legs are very strong and he wants to stand up. He was weighed a few days before he was 6 weeks old and he weighed 13lbs. 11 oz. and was 22 7/8" long! He is a very big boy!

We love all of his grunts and snorts!