Getting Settled

Well....we made it!  All moved in just in time for Thanksgiving.  We had a lovely time with family and we also celebrated Levi's 10th birthday (which fell on Thanksgiving Day this year).  We are starting to settle in and enjoy "living" in our new home.

Recently I started counting the places I have lived and the number of times I have moved.  Basically I have moved 8 times in my life and lived in 6 places (4 houses and 2 apartments).  I have found that I really don't care for moving.  I am not an organized person by nature...I have misplaced things mostly due to being in a hurry, not knowing where something should go and stuffing it somewhere which I quickly forget.  Yes, I am typically the one to blame for most of my own frustrations in life.  Admitting you have a problem is the first step....and if I could ever get off the first step maybe I would find out what the second step is!

This already "feels" like home.  I can't even explain how or why....maybe because this is the place I grew up, maybe because this is the Lord's plan.  All I know is that I have never felt more "at home" than I do here.  We are far from finished with everything we have to do.  I think that will go on for a long time, but we are settling in and getting comfortable in our new/old place.

Starting to get the house decorated has been a fun adventure!  A sweet friend of mine has offered much time both shopping with me and counseling me on "defining my style".  Anyone that really knows me can attest that I am not at all a detail oriented person (see paragraph 2 on organization).  I am a big picture girl who likes what she likes.  Sometimes with no rhyme or reason at all!  In studying up a little I have discovered that I am not "eclectic" (which surprised me), I am mostly "traditional" and a little "country" in my personal decorating taste.

There were about four things that I knew I wanted to do:

I have always wanted to have a wall decorated with beautiful plates.  I love china patterns of all sorts and this gave me a chance to have a variety of plates:

I love cattle!  I love watching cattle graze and I love a freezer full of beef!  Part of the year we get to feed them, and the rest of the year they get to feed us.  I wanted to decorate with a few pictures of cattle:

I wanted to find the perfect location for my Johannes Vermeer "Milkmaid" art work.  This picture has a spiritual connection for me that was based on a Bible study that I have done.  I call this my "Lifegiver" picture:

I wanted to put some history up for display.  I had a photo of what the house looked like when my parents purchased it in the 60's and another photo of the house from the 90's.  There is a lot of history here and I wanted to make sure that we always remember where we came from:

Meanwhile life goes on.  The boys love living with their grandparents right next door.  Grandma still has a better selection of goodies in the pantry than mom does.  And Grandpa is always up for a game of Uno.  Life is good and God is great!