sweetmilkandsunshine

My children awoke this morning eager to spend another day soaking in the sunshine. I was still in bed when I was greeted with, "Mama, mama! It's warm out again today! Can we have a picnic and go to the park and play outside"? My eyes opened to a smiling and eager little face. "Not today," I said sleepily, "but we can do our school work outside. And I bet we can work in a picnic on the deck, too."

Chores were done without hurry, windows were opened, and laughter filled the basement. It's amazing how a beautiful day can put everyone in a great mood.

I decided to start the school day with a little hands on learning, so we cooked up some home made granola bars for breakfast. The kids love to measure, pour, stir, and spread, so this was the yummiest of fun for them.

Juni sneaks some chocolate chips while waiting for the big kids to finish chores

baby girl is ready with the honey and a measuring cup!

Astrid volunteers to be in charge of the sweet stuff

Juni found her way into the table to smuggle more chocolate chips

pouring the honey

Ethan "exercising" and Juni giggling while they wait for the bars to cool

the finished product...yum!

The rest of the day was spent getting school work done, chasing the kitten in and out of the house, and doing laundry. Pretty exciting stuff, no? Maybe not, but I'm actually a pretty big fan of the normal day and every beautiful little thing to uncover inside it, so it was relaxing and productive and just what we needed.

With school work done and the basement cleaned up, we decided to go check on the progress of our home site. Windows down, warm air caressing our faces, and music turned up loud enough to sing along at the top of our lungs (to Adele, a current fave of the kids), we bumped down the dirt road eagerly anticipating seeing something new and exciting on our land. And we did! Where there was just dirt yesterday, there is now red clay building up the pad!

the kids joyfully running around the new dirt

the girls dance on the clay

Astrid is queen of the hill

There is nothing like a new beginning. It's a mix of work to be done, decisions to make, obstacles to overcome, and joy to be experienced.

This may just look like red dirt to you. But to us this is home. Our house isn't here yet, but our hearts are. Over a year ago we sat on this land and prayed that it would be ours. We asked God to show us if that was his plan for our family and to make it happen if it was. Unexpected things began to occur, and just a short time later we were able to purchase this property. Just minutes after we closed on it we realized that we had made a potentially devastating mistake in our financial calculations. A mistake so obvious that we were shocked that it had not been clear to us before. I left the closing literally sick to my stomach and in tears. I knew there was no way we were going to be able to make the payments. I felt stupid, and angry, and scared. Justin tried to reassure me, reminding me that all along we had believed God was leading us to this place. I began to doubt. And he told me that there must be a reason we were in this situation and we just needed to wait and see what God was going to do.

Almost one year later, this "disaster" has been one of the most clearly defined testimonies of the Lord's care and provision that our family has ever experienced. Every month we have been able to make a large payment that we honestly had no room in our budget to make. We can't even pinpoint exactly where the money came from every time, but it was always there. I love to hear my kids get excited and tell people about how the Lord provided for us when we didn't see a way to provide for ourselves.

Every day I am working to teach my kids valuable lessons about the world around them, life, love, and faith. But there are some lessons that only God can teach. My humanity and finite wisdom leaves much to be desired. I am forever grateful that he is always faithful to fill in the gaps for them.

And for me.