In Due Time

It's been awhile since I last posted. I have intended to put fingers to keys many times, but honestly there has been so much going on, I haven't had any additional time.

When I last left off, we were sanding, staining and sealing floors like crazy. We finished just in time to let the floors cure for the three days required before we had movers come and help maneuver boxes and furniture from our garages into the house.

That was a week we never want to repeat again. Rylie had to work that week at a summer camp he had signed up for in the Spring before we knew what this summer would entail. Unfortunately, it also happened when we were under the gun to get the floors finished. So, he would come home, eat dinner and then get to work with me trying to stain and seal. Fortunately, I was able to do a lot of the sealing on my own (just me and my paint brush) during the day.

We have the long hallway to finish still. I spilled sealant on the hallway, and even thought I thought I had cleaned it up, you could see it when we applied the stain. So Rylie resanded those places and we will most likely stain the hallway and seal it this week. And then we'll be done with floors...for now. (I'm trying to figure out how to break it to him that I am thinking the carpet in the living room/dining area needs to go.)

But we have time...plenty of time. And that is what I am trying to remember as the list of projects continues to grow. There are not too many things that are mission critical, but there are a lot of aesthetic changes that I would like to make. Unfortunately, you need green rectangles of paper to fund all of these changes and so I have been trying to talk myself down and give myself the freedom and permission to take things slowly...and save for for things.

I am gradually getting organized and ready to live in the house (rather than camp out). Thanks to the dynamic duo of organization, a.k.a. Suzanne and Pam, my pantry is now beautifully organized. It was such a relief to have that all in place.

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Well folks, I wrote that in August and had every intent of chronicling the process of moving and settling in....but life happened.

Or, if I'm more honest, I got really, really overwhelmed by it all.

I'm not sure how I missed the fact that moving is a HUGE undertaking when I was doing all this dreaming about expanding our territory. And moving out of a house you've had for 13 years out to the country is not for the faint of heart.

The truth is that it is the beginning of December and we literally just finished staining and sealing the hallway last week -- a mere three months after I was confident it would get done.

Why? There was (and is) always something that needs to be done.

Coupled with visits from out of town relatives, soccer season, school starting for Rylie as a teacher and us as a homeschool family and adding in birthdays and other life events, we've had something every weekend. Several somethings, actually.

Many times, it's felt like two steps forward, one step back. After getting everything in the kitchen put away at the beginning of this month, I had to pull it all out again due to a moth infestation. I won't lie. That was painful. But I was able to purge a bit more and put things back in places that worked a bit better. Silver linings abound.

Such as the two gallon freezer bags filled with shelled walnuts from our walnut tree. That was a little diversion that took several weeks of gathering, cracking, shelling, cleaning and sorting.

Also, a learning curve of not waiting too long to get the nuts into the freezer bags or you have to throw a good amount away due to mold.

As mentioned, some projects in the house (and out) have been put on hold while we have done these other things....like converting an old egg storage building (this was once a chicken farm) into a chicken house and putting five chickens in it...

...then adding in five more from my sister's family and adding a chicken run outside.

We added a dog to our family. Kira is a McNab Shepherd/Border Collie mix.

And we couldn't pass up the opportunity to add goats to the farm. Cashew and Peanut seem to love their new digs and all the yummy leaves.

We finally dug ourselves out of our three-car garage and got some organization going in there. We moved seasonal items down to the cellar. Rylie and the kids worked on pruning citrus trees and removing old fruit.

And yesterday, I made some changes in our Mud Room that will make it easier for me to do laundry and keep that room organized and tidy. Although I had hoped for a custom-built Ana White laundry basket cabinet, I saw the potential in this piece of furniture I bought for the house but haven't been able to find a home for. 

Although the chicken wire doors are super cute, they don't work with the laundry baskets. So, I figured out that they would make great wall decor.

Eventually, we are going to put in a utility sink and add a counter top across the washer and dryer for folding purposes. And I have some clothing bars coming from IKEA that will help give me additional places to hang up clothes out of the dryer (something I found to be important when doing laundry for six).

Rylie also put up the "Fintorp" from IKEA that we used for desk organization in our old house.  We are using it in the kitchen now for cooking utensils and other important cooking items, which has relieved the clutter on the stove and provided more surface space. 

This makes cooking on a stove that is across the room from the sink and counter a lot easier.

I won't lie. There have been days I've lain in bed far longer than I should have paralyzed with the realization of all the things that have needed my attention. There are still more boxes than I would like piled in the enclosed porch room (a.k.a. "Peacock Room). 

Thankfully we hosted Thanksgiving for my family at our house -- which caused a frenzy of getting everything cleaned off and moved elsewhere. It was a dream come true to set the table for all 14 of us and have plenty of room for everyone to do their thing.

The big roll of paper we bought for moving came in handy as a in impromptu tablecloth that I personalized.

The negative part of me keeps pointing out that even with boxes unpacked and places found for items, there is still work to be done patching hairline cracks in the wall (the joys of an old farmhouse) and painting to be done. There is one carpeted area that has been destroyed by moving in, kids who don't like wearing shoes outdoors and pets. That beautiful wainscoting really needs to be cleaned and polished, and on and on.

But I'm trying to let that go with the knowledge that there will always be something else that needs to be done. But I can keep working at it and enjoy how far we have come. 

We just had solar panels put on (and are waiting for the inspection so we can turn them on). And although it pains me to mar our farmhouse aesthetic, our bank account will thank us (did I mention the $650 electric bill we had our first full month here?).

Future plans also call for a horseshoe pit, a tree swing or two and perhaps even a zip line from a tree fort. There is definitely a claw foot installation requiring a slight (okay more than slight) bathroom renovation in our near future. All of it will happen in due time.

Or when it happens...like this little guy who showed up the week of Thanksgiving underneath the trampoline while the kids were bouncing. He had Parvo, but has made a full recovery and a great companion for Kira.

It may not be happening according to "The Plan" or how we think things should happen. Nonetheless, I am enjoying the happy sounds of my children jumping on the trampoline and exploring our 2.3 acres. I smile every time my 9-year-old wakes up and tears out of the house towards the chicken house with great anticipation of finding an egg or two.

And would you believe that that first egg (laid by one of my sister's chickens) was not lovingly put into the egg basket that started this entire Dream Saga Series of posts. There was too much excitement to think of such photo ops. But I did eventually see that basket hanging and felt God remind me of all that He has done to get us to where we are. And eventually it did get used for its intended purpose.

We may not be perfectly settled, but we are here. 

And that is enough.