The Three Bears' Home

      Well, we did it. Our home is now officially a vacation rental.  We had our first guests over the weekend and they loved it and said they will call again.  I think this is actually going to work.  We haven't had anything really work out for us for such a long time that I feel like I'm taking such a big risk in actually SAYING that this might really work out.  It was a whirlwind of a week getting ready though, as you see we have no other home to go to at the moment.  We relied on some neighbors of ours who were out of town and then off to my parents for the rest of the weekend.  All of our possessions either in the garage or piled crazily into the van.  It was crazy.  The most asked question of the weekend was "where is...." my reply "I have no idea, do you really really need it right now?" When we finally came home it was like we were the Three Bears, having had Goldilocks stay in our home, but in this story, she didn't break anything and didn't eat our porridge.  So that's a good ending.
     Mr. Jewels starts working on November 4th.  I'm a little anxious and nervous about finding a place to live out there and getting the kids into school, especially since I have never been there before.  I hope all of this works out well too.  This is one weird adventure we are on, but we hope the best is yet to come.

I Smell Stinky

for the past three years I have smelled of cleaning supplies and sweat. sometime in the near future I will smell of fresh flowers and freshly baked bread, mixed with a light and airy perfumed lotion.  But for now it's sweaty cleaning supplies mixed with whatever smell the deodorant has.  Stability takes a lot of work and boy have we been working really hard to have a stable life.  The job search is coming to a close, we have one solid job offer and hope to have another one sometime this week.  In the meantime my days have been filled with packing, cleaning, rearranging, dusting, painting, yard work, rental searching, furniture moving, furniture storing, trips to goodwill (for dropping off and finding stuff) and many other various home improvement chores.  Long story short, when we thought we were moving the first time, a friend of ours gave us the idea to make our home into a vacation rental and the idea intrigued me.  When we found out we weren't moving quite yet, we still went with the whole 'turn our home into a vacation rental, move our family somewhere close by, but with cheaper living expenses and see what comes of it' idea.  I don't necessarily like all the packing and cleaning and storing of stuff, but I am happy with the results so far.  So, I don't know, maybe this whole weird trying to become stable thing by moving and doing something crazy thing just might work.

 Here are just a few of the changes we made to the home.  Took out a lot of our stuff and bought an old comfy chair in really good condition for the living room.

 Changed Emeline's room into a second master suite with a queen size bed. Painted two nightstands the same color to match the vanity and found two goodwill reading lamps.

 Changed Jonathan's room to have two twin size beds.

 The master bedroom upstairs.  Cleaned it all out except for some pieces of furniture and pictures.

Rearranged Sam's room and bought a trundle bed to slide underneath his twin bed so that this room can sleep two comfortably.  Since this picture was taken, we added some items to the shelf, put up a little chalkboard door on the opposite wall and installed a headboard and footboard.

The Magic of Blocks

I really love the creativity of one of the simplest toys, blocks.  The kids will spend hours with these simple blocks.  No fancy buttons, no complicated building instructions, no batteries, no wear and tear. They get better with age and are timeless.  I enjoy each and every building and playing session they have with blocks.

 Especially when this is the view from where I sit in the living room

The August Garden

The August Garden is a late growing garden.  This is what happens when your mind has other plans at the beginning of summer, i.e., moving.  So why plant a garden so that others can reap the rewards of what I sowed? Who knew that "others" would still be me and my family.  I am grateful I reluctantly planted what I did.

 The short little holly hocks are vibrant with color

 My latest door find at a yard sale.  I love the number still on it.

 The sunflowers are just barely blooming.

 The pumpkins growing slowly on the ladder.

And I finally cleaned up the used-to-be-patio-now-turned-sand box for the kids. Who knows what next year's garden will look like.  This is what I love about gardening, it's a time for thinking and learning, pondering on life's lessons while I dig my hands in the dirt or pick the first ripe tomato. It's working with what God gave me and hoping for a tomorrow. I breathe, therefore I garden.