Birthday update and other thoughts

Can't believe my little man, my baby, is one! One and some change as of today. We are having a belated birthday party for him next weekend since Bill had to work on his actual birthday. I will definitely take the time to write some reflections on Sam and this past year too, just not sure when! All our free time this week will be filled with remodel planning and birthday party prep. Oh, and a haircut for Sam!

Things have been going so well lately, despite all the change and upheaval in my life right now. Yeah I've been a bit stressed but that's normal right? I know it sounds morbid but I keep wondering, when is the shoe gonna drop? Surely something bad will happen because we've been so blessed with good news lately. Wrong. I know. I know God doesn't work that way. Life will have its ups and downs and I can't control that - just need to take joy in the good and continue to trust God in the bad. Still, I think of all my friends and family going through tough things lately, struggling and I feel guilty. Why do we have it so easy right now? I hope she doesn't mind me sharing, but my dear Molly's recent blog post really spoke to me and I want to share it. I know this is a season and there will be some different periods of suffering in the future, because that's life on this earth. But I know God will use it, and is using it in my friends' lives right now, to draw them closer to Him and give them a deeper understanding of and relationship with Him.

Our new house in the woods

We did it! We found our house! We've been looking for about 6 weeks now, and this house was actually on our original list but we overlooked it. It's a little further out than I wanted to be, so my work commute will be longer, and we weren't sure we were up for buying a fixer. But when we finally decided to go out and take a look we were sold. The location is just so cool. It's about a half mile (up hill:) from the harbor, yet feels tucked away - there's a long drive way lined with trees and about an acre of property, lots of which is trees. The price was also too good to pass up. We got this place for $125,000 below the original asking price!. It was on the market for a year and they had already lowered the price by $100,000. I don't think there had been any other offers. We offered $25,000 below that and they still accepted! If there were ever a time to buy a house...

The yard will be a long-term project, we don't even know where to start with that, but we are planning on remodeling the kitchen and the upstairs bathrooms right away, before we move in. We've got a good friend who is a contractor who will be helping us for practically a song, and we'll have to save some other major projects for later down the road. But I am just thrilled about this place! Of course we haven't had the inspection yet, so let's hope nothing major comes up. The house WAS built the year I was born so I'm sure there will be some things that need immediate fixing. I just hope they're not large things.

I know a lot of friends and family were praying for us to find the right place, so thank you! Thank you God. I feel so blessed. Now for the pictures. And hey, if you have ANY ideas or inspiration for design, remodeling, landscaping, I am all ears. It's a little overwhelming to know where to begin.