Judah: “Mommy are we renting this house?” me: “No buddy, we bought it!” Judah: “Does that mean we get to stay here? We don’t have to move again?” me: “That’s right! We’re staying right here.” Judah: “I love our house.”

This was a weekend for Getting Things Done.  It felt amazing.  Here’s some of our progress: David finished building this raised bed in a week ago.  He put in tomato and pepper plants right away and has since added carrot, cucumber, and beet seeds.  He’s following the Square Foot Garden plan. Our babies. This is quintessential South Carolina to me: pine needles mingled with the sprouts. Always pine needles. We got our first frames hung.  My mom painted this series of Carolina birds for us and we adore them. Thanks Mom! We also hung the prints from our photo session with our friend Sara Parker this past January. These photos…

We finished the roman shades!  They are hung and the room is looking bright and homey if I may say so myself. I think paint and curtains are two of my favorite ways to personalize a space.  I feel like with each little change it’s becoming more and more ours. It feels amazing to have that huge project finished, the sewing supplies packed away.  I’m so very thankful for all the time my Mom gave to making my vision become a reality. And now, on to the next project: I have six days to whip the guest/school room into shape before the kids and I head up to Pennsylvania.  We’ll…

Here’s a peek into what we’re working on this week: #1. Roman shades My mom and I are sewing Roman shades for the living room windows.  Here’s an idea of what they’ll look like.  I’m so glad this is the route we’re going and I love our progress thus far. #2. First raised garden bed David collected all the materials and measured the area, now he’s working on leveling the space a bit before the first bed goes in.

The best part about moving and unpacking our whole kitchen on Friday night was that we had a bona fide home-cooked meal our very first night here.  I whisked my favorite Happy Herbivore stir-fry sauce and sauteed a couple heads of broccoli and a bell pepper and spooned it all over quinoa and the four of us sat down to dinner together.  With our own dishes.  In our own kitchen.  It was truly great. David and I worked hard unpacking on Saturday and I scrubbed the bathroom from top to bottom, then we shoved every extra box and pile of junk into our office/guest room and shut the door.  David…

Well friends, we’ve made it to the end of The Week I Didn’t Think I’d Survive. Seriously. I don’t know what the deal was but it was such a hard week for me. I continually reminded myself I’ve actually moved overseas, and what’s more I’ve made a second move while living overseas, both of which were about one hundred times harder than this move. But somehow that didn’t help me. I still stressed and complained all week long.  It helped for a friend to say to me, “Look, moving is just stressful. Period. Give yourself a break.” So. God is faithful. We have a lot of amazing family and friends.…

This past month I’ve loved reading about Young House Love‘s recent move in Richmond, Virginia.  These days I’m fascinated to hear how friends (or perfect strangers, apparently) chose their own house, so I decided to steal an idea from the Young House Love blog and write a post about our house hunt.  It was interesting to see how our priorities shifted as we actually saw houses and talked through pros and cons and what we really wanted. Without further ado, here are our lists and how they matched up in the end. Must Haves: — In our price range — obviously! — In the target area of our church (within a…