The Saturday 7

1. So, I think we bought a house this week . . . This is going to be long . . .

- We went to another open house on Sunday. It was a really nice ranch with 3 bedrooms and a full basement that would be an amazing play room. After the open house, we came home and talked to our parents, double checked our budget, talked it over, and decided to make an offer. By the time we called our realtor, the house had sold. *facepalm* In this market, there's no time for deliberating. You have to make impulsive offers and be ready to go immediately. That's just not my personality! I need time!

- On Wednesday, a new house came on the market that had 4 bedrooms! I was beginning to despair that we'd ever find something with 4 bedrooms that wasn't in total disrepair. But this house was beautiful. It has wood floors, an updated kitchen, and nice big bedrooms. AND it's in my ideal area! I texted Justin, "I want this house. I'm ready to make an offer sight unseen." He said we had to at least see it. So I called the realtor and got in as fast as we could that evening. We loved it as much in person as in pictures so we offered their full asking price!

- The next day, we waited anxiously all day to hear their response to our offer. Our offer specified that we wanted an answer by noon, but they were like "Nah. We're going to have some more showings and see if someone will offer us more money." At that point, I started to despair a little. I tried to prepare the kids that we might not get it. It wasn't until 8:30 that we finally got the call. The sellers countered our offer and we accepted their terms! They actually did get a higher offer, but it was an FHA loan, which is apparently a pain for sellers. Our conventional loan at a lower price was more appealing to the sellers. I'm still kind of in shock . . . and actually kind of terrified to be a responsible adult with a mortgage and utility payments again. It's been almost 6 years since we moved out of our house. I'm really nervous about the financial responsibility of home ownership.

- We're having the inspection this week, but it will probably be a couple months until we can actually move in. Because of the crazy housing market right now, closing takes 30 days, and the sellers requested 30 days after closing to move out as part of their counter-offer. Living with my parents affords us the flexibility for that, and gives me lots of time to pack up the past 6 years of our life. Oy.

- I'm surprisingly sad to be leaving my parents. Haha. Yes, I'm [almost] 33 years old and I don't want to leave my mommy and daddy. Honestly, it's for my kids' sake more than anything. They don't remember any other way of life. A couple nights ago, Lucy said, "I'm excited about the new house, but it makes me sad to think of leaving this one" and her eyes totally filled up with tears! I'm feeling the same way. We've wanted this and been working toward this for so long, but now that it's upon us, I'm a little sad! Mostly, I'm sad for Levi. He adores Grandma and Grandpa and won't remember much about living here. But, as I told Lucy, "We have to look forward to the good things about our own house instead of looking back at what we'll miss about this one." And seriously, we're moving 10 minutes away. We'll still see Grandma and Grandpa all the time.

- Part of the reason such a nice house was within our price range is because of the neighborhood's aesthetic. Right next to the house is an apple packing plant that is unsightly, and directly across the street, the view from our front window is a huge water tower. Lol. I'm painting a lovely picture, aren't I? I'm not actually going to share the address because I don't have any privacy filters and I feel like I shouldn't broadcast our location (if you really want to know, fb message me), so I'll just share a few pictures of the inside from the listing. And you'll see that even if the view isn't great, the house is!

Living room looking into dining/kitchen. The closed door is the only bedroom on the main floor.

Other view of the living room.

Dining room and front door.

Dining room looking into kitchen.

Kitchen 

The appliances are included - definitely the nicest appliances I've ever owned! (Door to the backyard.)

Main floor bedroom - Justin and I will take this one because none of our kids will sleep downstairs by themselves.

The only bathroom. :-/ 

Upstairs landing

This will be a playroom for all the toys! Woohoo!

Bedroom 1. Technically the master, but Levi is going to get this one.

Lucy chose this one because she loves the blue doors. Also, the only room in the house with carpet. 

Lena's

The backyard is fenced on 3 sides and has lots of trees and vines that make it feel very private. (That white building on the left side of the picture is the apple packing plant and you can see the legs of the water tower in the upper right.)

So now we wait, hope everything goes through without a hitch, and start dreaming about decorating! I'm actually totally intimidated by decorating. I have a few friends who are building/just moved into new houses and they're beautiful decorators. I'm not sure I can live up to that. I'm also super cheap and hate spending money on non-essentials. So it'll be a long process. The girls, of course, have already picked themes for their rooms and gained access to Pinterest to create their own vision boards. (I'm sorry, by the way, if you follow me on Pinterest. Lena went a little crazy before I realized she was literally pinning everything.) Lucy is having a Paris theme and Lena wants a gymnastics room. Levi, of course, will have a "Vroom Room." There are way too many cute ideas for him on Pinterest.

2. In non-house news . . .Lena did an apple theme for school this week. My dad actually has a functional orchard growing in our backyard, so we tromped out there on Monday to pick apples.

Apple graphing.

And of course, an apple pie! (I forgot to take a pic before I cut it.)

Enjoying the fruits of her labor.

3. Lucy finished up her unit on Mexico yesterday, so we celebrated with a fiesta!

We had tacos, nachos, queso dip, and some random Jumex mango juice I found at Aldi's. I'm not sure how authentic it is, but it says "Made in Mexico." Haha. We also made Mexican hot chocolate. 

Our beautiful decorations. 

Our Mexican craft was this "God's Eye." Lucy loved it and immediately made all of these.

4. Justin innocently asked me last night, "How's homeschooling going?" and I totally unloaded on him. Haha. (#marriage) In general it's going fine. But I've been feeling guilty that we're not doing enough. We cover our bases with math, English, and Bible every day. But sometimes for science and geography we just have to read a couple pages and there's no activity or worksheet to reinforce it. I don't think Lucy learns anything that way, but I've been too lazy to supplement myself. Sometimes I have "options paralysis." This week was Mexico and deserts for Lucy and apples for Lena. There were sooooooo many documentaries and YouTube videos and experiments and activities and free printables, I didn't even know where to begin. I've also been frustrated with how much of my time homeschooling requires. We spend all morning doing school, so I have to spend all afternoon on my other responsibilities: cleaning, cooking, grocery shopping, laundry, dishes, laundry, dishes, paying bills, lesson planning, ordering books from the library, laundry, dishes, you get the idea. When I first started thinking about homeschooling, my biggest concern was the constant presence of my children (#badmom). My friend Kelly assured me that by the time school is done, her girls are so ready to play that they run off and leave her alone. I think my girls have the opposite reaction. Because they get so much of my attention all morning with the required school stuff, they want even more attention after school is done for the fun stuff. Lena constantly wants me to play games or color or jump on the trampoline with her. She follows me around the house whining, "Why don't you ever play with me? Why are you always too busy for me?" Literally. #knifeintheheart #guiltmonger #drama. I think it boils down to needing balance and not quite finding it yet. Story of my life.

5. Last night, Justin and I had the opportunity to go to a movie premier that a friend of ours starred in! Bob is part of our core group of friends and an amazing actor. We've seen a couple movies of his before, but seeing him on the big screen never gets old. It is so surreal! Melody on Earth was funny and heart-warming and we had a great time at the premiere. It's playing at Celebration Woodland all week. You should totally check it out. ;-)

Let it be said: we knew him before he was famous!

6. My dad recently went part-time at work, so he's home 2 days a week. Monday has become "Nature Walk with Grandpa" day. He is the best. The first time, he took all 3 kids out to the backyard and had an entire narrative made up. They were flying in a plane, but the load was too heavy so he and the kids volunteered to jump out (with parachutes of course). So then, they had to forage and live off the land. He spent an hour showing them which plants were edible and talking about milkweed and monarchs and acorns and rosehip tea. This week, they drove down to the railroad tracks to see what kind of plants grow there.

I love this picture. I can just hear Levi shouting, "Wait for me, guys!" as he runs to catch up, and Lucy looking back, putting her hand out for him to grab. 

Sometimes they love each other.

The treasures they came home with: rocks, railroad ties, and deer bones!

7. A couple more pictures, because this entry isn't long enough already!

Baby Nash love (he's wearing an old shirt of Levi's! <3) 

The kids found some friends at Kohl's (after gymnastics, hence Lena's outfit)

And just in case you didn't see this on facebook . . . on Friday my dad was watching the live Kavanaugh briefing in his room. He came upstairs and made me turn on the TV because he said there was a man in the audience who looked just like him. He wasn't exaggerating.

This is my dad a couple years ago with Levi.

Do you see him in the background??? Twins!