Saturday, October 16, 2010

The Farm


I got my camera battery back this morning. Yipee! So here it is... Our HUGE, magnificent, overwhelmingly great, beyond comprehension or words... BLESSING from above!!!!
Today we had a cleaning party... and crazy of all crazies there was a generous handful of friends that actually wanted to come to this party. But before the party began, I was the first to arrive at our humble abode this morning. As I walked around and took some photos of each room, I was overcome with a sense of gratitude. And not just gratitude for the amazing place that we are going to be able to raise our four amazing treasures in, but gratitude for the process. It's not the house itself as much as it has been the journey... The way the Lord has increased my faith, the way that He has prepared me for such a time as this.
I'm a suburbs gal. I'm used to a well manicured, comfortable, high end apartment by the beach, surrounded by neighbors on all sides, often within walking distance to all modern conveniences, kind of life.

And now here I am, moving to the country.
I saw a snake slither right up against my shoe today near our front porch. I didn't have a heart attack... but I just might have come close to having one! As we were cleaning today, my friend Kim, who grew up in Black Forest, informed me that the red stuff that another friend, Autumn, and I, were scrubbing off the window sill was in fact moth poop.... yes, good old fashioned MOTH POOP! Lovely, just lovely!!!

But the past two years of my life have brought me to a place where I can see my little world through a new set of eyes. The things that I genuinely thought were important, (like giving my kids everything they want and then some... putting my kids in a zillion activities... having a perfectly manicured home... I could go on and on) were causing me to so miss the mark. Living with Adam and Tara last year, moving across the country, financial ups and downs and uncertainties, a new baby, starting homeschool, reflecting over the past ten years of life together with my Joey when celebrating our 10 wedding anniversary... has all worked together to change me. To change what I view as important, to change the way that I lean on the Lord, to change the way that I treat my children, to change the way that I passionately pursue a life long love relationship with my Joey.
I am so excited for whatever the Lord has for us here. I don't know what it's gonna be quite yet, but I know with all my heart that it's gonna be something good.... Something God-sized good!!:)

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So here it is... our new farm house...


This is the south side of the house...

It came with this cute swing set... Reesie is thrilled!!! She's a swing-aholic!!


And a trampoline... And a tire swing...


And here are some pictures of the inside of the house....
The stairs are SUPER steep... Yes, I'm a little worried about them, but we'll just make the best of it. :)


These are the kids rooms at the top of the stairs... Their rooms are the only rooms on the second level... I love the shape of the doors and the shape of the rooms. :)

Below is a view from one side of the living room and a photo of the master bathroom.


Below, on left is the guest bathroom that Joey gutted... And on the right is the master bedroom.


This is the fourth bedroom. It's located just off the living room. It has really cute french doors that lead into it and one of the walls is covered floor to ceiling in brick from the original layout of the house... BTW our house was built in 1954... it looks to us as if it has been added onto several times from it's original state.

This is the pantry in our kitchen...

This is a view of part of the kitchen...

This is the dining room... The french doors lead out into a glorious sunroom... which I am pretty sure that it is by far my favorite room in the whole house. :)

This is the view of the living room from the opposite side... All those windows on the right lead out to the sunroom...

Here are some views from around our property... I wish my camera could really capture the beauty of these views but in truth it hardly does it any justice at all.



In the middle of our property is this giant barn... and across from the barn is a mechanics garage...

Below is a picture of how far Adam and Tara's house is from our house...

Here's the front of Adam and Tara's house...

Below are a few old buildings that we might turn into play houses for the kids... we're not quite sure yet...

And here's another view of the barn.

In my last post I mentioned that the closest grocery store was 6 miles away from our home down a looooong country road.... Here's that road...
I can't wait to post pictures of the final product... well... at lest the more finished product... It truly might take us 10 years to actually get the place looking the way we really want it to look... Joey and I have made a commitment to one another to fix things on the farm only as we can pay for them in cash... so it will most definitely be some time before it's finished! But that is truly A-OK with me. :)

Once again, I am finding myself leaving comfort for courage... and the strange thing is... I think I'm starting to like courage more than comfort.