Coming Out of a Whirlwind...

As you may have seen in my last post, my family and I recently relocated to Kentucky! This is partly why I've been absent from the blogging world for a little more than a month. In some ways it feels much longer than a month, but in other ways, I still can't believe I live in Kentucky already. This post may be more interesting to personal friends and family, but I thought I'd tell you a bit about our life for the last month. If you aren't really interested, feel free to skip this post until I can find my thread and start sewing again!

My husband and I had been praying for a new job for him for close to two years. His past job was very demanding and downright stressful for quite a few months. There were some extremely challenging and emotionally draining weeks and months there and times when our girls hardly got to see their dad. Family dinners were very rare and even going to church as a family was difficult without being disrupted by work. Needless to say, we really wanted a change in jobs. To make a long story short, we prayed fervently for almost two years about it. During that time, we learned many valuable lessons about Who God is. I have known for a very long time that God is faithful, but I grew to appreciate Him so much more during those challenging times. He loves, He forgives, He is always with me, His grace really is sufficient for every need and His timing is perfect.

Fast forward to July of this year. My husband had been putting in resumes all over the country and some even international (without my knowing!!) so when he started getting calls back from these places, I was a little nervous. He had a job offer in Maine previous to this that we had turned down. It was just way too far from 'home' and Winter hadn't exactly been nice there last year - who am I kidding?!? They still had snow on the ground in April when he received the offer. No, thank you! Then, he had an opportunity to go to Turkey. ?? Even further from home. So, we kept looking. In July, he had a few interviews all in different states. One was ruled out pretty quickly. It finally came down to the last two. One in NC, one in KY. So, we prayed more specifically and he went back for final interviews. We really didn't know which way to go. Through a series of events, we decided to choose KY. We were thrilled about it! This was an answer to a few very specific requests that we had prayed and hoped for for a long time. He accepted the job July 31st. And that's when the CRAZY began!

As soon as he accepted, he gave his two week notice at work. By August 4th, we had a realtor to help us sell our house, a moving company was lined up to give us a quote on moving our earthly belongings and I was hosting my 2nd sewing camp at my house. On the second day of sewing camp, the mover came to walk through the house during my sewing camp with 9 girls, including my own 3. That night, our realtor came to take pics of our house for the MLS. Meanwhile, I was cleaning and packing up personal belongings. August 8, my husband and I left for Kentucky to search for a temporary place to live. We had essentially one day to figure it out because he had to be back to work that Monday. On our way out of town, we sold my husband's vehicle because it wouldn't have made it to KY from SC. He had listed it on Craigslist and just a few hours later, it sold! So, we drove to this very unfamiliar city to try to find housing that we could move into 2 weeks later. We did find an apartment to lease short-term (which was harder than we anticipated!). By this time, we had also decided on a moving company and had already had a few showings on our house. We got back to SC and had to get our 'stuff' packed that we didn't want the movers to pack. We also had more important things to do like meeting up with all our friends for last-minute play dates and face-to-face chats since it would be awhile before we'd get back together. I'm SO thankful for those times. Leaving friends behind is so hard for the whole family, but being able to spend time with them was a real blessing.

On Friday, August 15th, the packers came and packed up everything that wasn't nailed down. There were boxes everywhere!! And we were still having a lot of showings on our house - sometimes even double showings!

August 17th was our last day at our beloved church. It was an emotional day for me personally, but also a very encouraging and hope-filled send off. Our sweet college class friends had a pancake breakfast and sweet time of prayer for us on our last Sunday morning together. That was a highlight of the day even though I had cried off half of my makeup by the end of it. Our pastor met us first thing when we walked into church that morning and gave us some encouraging words and a good perspective on moving and having to leave behind our church body. I knew it would be difficult to leave the church body we have grown to love so much over many years and it is still hard to be away from them. That has been the hardest part of this whole move. On Sunday night, our closest friends had a fellowship for us with homemade ice cream and some other yummy snacks and I took too many selfies with my friends and plastered them all over Instagram like only a true friend would do. It was a wonderful day. Many tears were shed over having to say goodbye, but that's what happens when God gives you the blessing of friendship. My, how blessed we are!

On Tuesday, August 19th, the movers showed up bright and early and began loading all of our earthly belongings onto a big truck. I had my doubts that it would all fit, but it did. About 7 hours later, they drove off with all of our possessions, minus those we were moving ourselves. It was kind of sad. We spent the rest of the day and night cleaning like crazy.

Wednesday morning came and we had to drive to TN (our halfway point which happens to be where my family lives), but once we got to TN, my husband had arranged to look at some cars for sale in that area. (Yes, en route to our final destination - as if there wasn't enough crazy going on!!) We did that and then got to stop at my parents' house for lunch which was worth the trip! We spent a short time there and then drove on toward my sister's house, but not before looking at a few more cars.

Thursday morning, we got up and drove to KY. It was a beautiful trip and we were able to get the keys to our apartment in the afternoon. It was a little nuts, but since our furniture and stuff wasn't getting here until Saturday, we had time to explore our new city for a couple of days.....and, again, look at cars. {Sigh.} That night, we received an offer on our house!! And by Friday morning, we had a contract. {We close this month!!!!}

Finally, Saturday came and so did our furniture. It took awhile to unload, and I felt sorry for the guys having to haul boxes and furniture up three flights of stairs. We were exhausted by day's end, but so excited to meet up with our close friends from home that were on their way home from Michigan that day. We met up with them at our local Steak N Shake for a short time (too short!!), but it was great to be able to see familiar faces again. Especially their's - we've been friends for 15+ years!

All of that took place in 3 weeks time. My husband has been on the job now for almost 3 weeks. We did finally find him a reliable vehicle and we have managed to settle in to our temporary apartment as much as we are going to. I still haven't found my silverware or my cereal bowls, but I bought some cheap replacements!

Fall has come to Northern Kentucky. Or I guess I should say Fall weather! The leaves haven't changed yet, but the weather sure is cooler. It's time for this South Carolina girl to go buy some warmer clothes!

.....and that's what we've been up to. And might be the reason I haven't blogged lately.... I'll be back soon!

Oh, and I forgot to mention one little detail....as if our lives hadn't been turned upside down enough, we decided to start homeschooling our girls for the first time this year. Something I said I'd never do. Never say never?? Yeah, lesson learned. More on that later!

The Million Dollar Question

It happened on Wednesday. The day I'd been looking forward to and dreading at the same time. For the past 4 years, my youngest daughter has spent hours with me in carlines watching her sisters head off to school and waiting for them as they would come out of school to go home with us. Well, this is the year she'd been waiting for for a looooooong time {long according to her}. The excitement kept building and building until finally Wednesday came. 

It was her turn to go to school with her sisters. I couldn't help but be excited for her, but as Hubs and I drove away from school after dropping our most prized possessions off at school, the dam of tears that had been bravely held back behind a hopeful smile sprung a leak and then rolled down this mommy's cheeks for the rest of the ride home. Even Hubs had tears welled up in his eyes at the realization that our sweet, little blonde-headed baby is now officially a big girl. It didn't help that our middle child was very teary as we left her that morning. She's just like I was at that age. A little lot homesick at the thought of being away from her parents. I'm still like that in ways. But one out of three isn't bad, right? Our oldest was excited, but a nervous wreck at the responsibility that lies ahead of her this year in 5th grade. {If only she knew that 5th grade is a piece of cake compared to what it will be later...I guess it's best that she doesn't know!}
I got home and Hubs left for work and I just stood in the living room with couch pillows and throws all out of place, a few misplaced toys/dolls and a view of the kitchen sink full of breakfast dishes. It was eerily quiet and the obvious absence of my precious family nearly made me burst into tears again. And then I realized... "I have the whole house to myself!!!!"  I literally shouted, "Woo hoo!!" out loud and then got busy taking back my house. I cleaned, did laundry, got my oil changed, got groceries, cleaned some more, went on a lunch date with my hubby {where we almost cried again because we missed our little tagalong who always went with us when the big girls were in school} and made special snack for the girls before I went to pick them up. It was the most productive day I've had in months! And the next day was even more productive. It's amazing!

But the Million Dollar Question that everyone wants to know is, "What are you going to do now that all the kids are in school?" Well, I'm going to do what I always do. I'm going to take care of my house and my people. I'll just have more time to plan and learn how to do it better {there is much room for improvement}. I'm going to keep cleaning my church once a week and attending my church as often as is possible. I'm going to work harder at building relationships with the people God puts in my path. I'm going to rebuild my etsy shop and work on building this blog. These are the things I'm passionate about. And I'm very thankful to have the opportunity to 'stay home' and fulfill the calling that God has placed on my life. My husband is a big encouragement to me and I love him for supporting me in what I believe God wants me to do with my life at this moment. I feel like I am living my dream. That is, until homework starts controlling our afternoons/evenings! That's definitely not part of the dream - that's more like a nightmare. :)

Have your kids started back to school?? What in the world do you do all day??

Thanks for stopping by!