Happy Summer

 It's what's written on our letter board. 

Happy Summer. 

Indeed.  Happy Summer!  We are happy it's summer.  2021.  I still get mixed up what year it is, truly! I think its been a couple years since I last wrote.  I really do forget.  But its so fun to look back on things we've done, faith journeys, and of course photos.  I do struggle a bit with how much to share and I think that prevents me at times from sharing my life.  It can definitely be a highlight reel, but it can also lead to unnecessary judgements. 

Last year we were just getting some landscaping done. We had to build up our yard and dirt was EVERYWHERE!  Ella had horse lessons. We tore down the old house across the yard. We went to Disney World/Land! We thought we had the Corona!  We planted some new trees.  The grass came in!  We got a puppy!  We had a nice warm spring.  We lost a cat and got a new one! We enjoyed some great dates in Minneapolis. 

Easter 2021

The old house

Our cat, Toby

Disney World, 2021

Our first pup

Dates in MPLS

Pat, our first cat.

Disney Land 2020, before you know what.

Disney Land

sunflowers from our flower garden

lots of walks and bike rides!

Produce from our lovely garden

Ella's horse lessons

We've enjoyed many fun things and experiences the last couple years. Of course this is a highlight reel and I haven't posted the hard, the ugly, and the miserable.  But all the same-- we have to experience the rain before the growth. 

Its been years..

Wow! I cant believe I'm doing this!  It's been years. 

So, why am I back?

I'm not sure that I am, but the thought came into my mind this morning as I scrolled feeds of others who share their paint colors of their new house.

There's so many decisions that go into a house. But I am so thankful that it hasn't been too overwhelming as I thought.  I mean, let's be honest here.  There have been stressful times! Years ago when we re-did our kitchen, it had seemed to be a nightmare. And that was just a kitchen!

I'll tell you some of the stressful times we had/have during the process:

• the layout.  I mean, this is the bones of the house!  Two story or one one and a half? Where will the powder room go? What about laundry? How big will the rooms be? What will the exterior look like?   Can you imagine?  So glad that part is DONE!
• Door.   This was very stressful for me.  We still don't have one! 
• Size of windows.   This is honestly a big thing. I remember us measuring my mother in laws and going through the blueprint to make each one just right.  
• Flooring & Tile.  We still are not done choosing all the flooring yet! 
• Vanities. I have logged a lot of time on Pinterest.

I would say the #1 stressful thing of the house has been the layout. I lost many hours of sleep over it. In fact, i scrolled through so many layouts that i did some minor damage to my eyeballs! (true story) 

its been so long that ive forgotten how to easily add photos.  More later!