About a year ago, I received a text message from Logan's mom.
She wanted to know about doing a six-month session for their sweet boy. Of course, I gave her the information and we set up a time to meet. Since that meeting, this boy has stolen my heart! I can't even believe that we are now to the point where we have completed his 18-month session! Isn't he handsome? 💙
0 Comments
We picked clothes first, added shoes & accessories, and then thought about any evening activities.
After our piles were made, we would transfer them to the closet and the girls would bring them out and put them into our hallway landing spot each night to prepare for the next day. One thing I liked about doing it this way is that we had the big "discussion" about specific outfits that either I didn't really agree with or they didn't really agree with on Sunday night. We compromised. And eventually, we had five full days worth of outfits and items needed ready for the week. It's awesome to have this discussion on Sunday evening, instead of throughout the week, each morning, in a panic! The system has always worked pretty well. In fact, I was kind of sad to see it go when we moved, as the farmhouse is just set up differently. And let's be honest...the girls are older now. They can handle getting up in the morning and getting dressed and ready for school in their bedrooms without much intervention from me.
I can't even believe I'm saying this. It's done. The closing papers are signed. We have a new address. The farmhouse belongs to us. Yes, we have been living here for a few weeks now. Almost all of our belongings are already moved over and put away. It has felt like "ours" for a little while already. But this long process of inspections and appraisals and repairs and painting...it is over. We bought our forever home today. And soon, we will sell our home of eleven years. It didn't happen like we thought it would. In fact, the sale of our other home isn't even complete yet. In May, when this whole process started, if we had known that we wouldn't be closing on the farmhouse until August 2nd, I would have laughed and said, "No way." If you would have said that I would have to reschedule my very first teacher meeting for the 2017-2018 school year to go sign papers, I would have said, "Not happening." But here we are. In a few days, we'll build a wall to create an official fourth bedroom. We'll add a second bathroom upstairs. We'll tear out and rebuild Mattie's closet. But not yet. For now, we'll just enjoy today. The day that the farmhouse became our home. Farmhouse, sweet farmhouse. ❤️🏡❤️ Home, sweet home.
Growing up, I collected keychains. I would grab a keychain on any family trip we took or even something that seemed interesting to me on a shopping trip. Family members even started buying me keychains and bringing them home for me when they traveled. For several years, I looked through the keychains and remembered some fun times with family. And then one day, I stopped. They just weren't that enjoyable anymore and they ended up in a big metal coffee can, where they lived until I eventually threw them all away when we moved to the home my parents live in now. At that point in life, the keychain collection just didn't MEAN anything to me. In the end of my high school years, Willow Tree angels were just coming out and I loved them. Do you know the ones I'm talking about? Beautiful, creamy-colored angels that were were replicas of Susan Lordi's hand-carved angels. My parents started getting me an angel for big life events...my 16th birthday, high school graduation, holidays. And I loved them. Each angel represented a time in life that was important and special to me. At first, I housed these angels altogether on top of my piano. Until there were too many. Then I split them up and put half on the piano and half in my Great-Great-Grandma Hannah's antique secretary that sits in our home. They were fine there, but I just felt like nobody ever really saw them. It felt like they were kind of thrown out there much like the keychain collection of yesteryear. Like when people looked at my house, at my angels, it was hard to appreciate each angel for what it was...a representation of a very specific moment in life. I had an angel from the day I became a teacher...the day I lost my grandpa...the day we found out we were expecting a baby. I had an angel that represented my relationship with my parents, Mr. Farmhouse, and each of the girls. These were reminders of monumental occasions and my most cherished relationships...and they were collecting dust instead, seemingly unloved and unappreciated. Until I began to decorate using what I call "groupings".
I'm still waiting on five pictures from the photo lab for this grouping. Can you tell where they will go? The two metal prints on the left and the larger framed print on the right are John Deere pictures. John Deere runs deep into both sides of our family history. Mr. Farmhouse and I have both lost our grandpas in the last eight years and they were both John Deere men. I have a picture of each of them with their tractors getting printed to be hung on this wall, as well as pictures of the girls in their Key overalls. (Sidenote: Having the DVDs on display like that just about makes me crazy. Still trying to find a way to hide them that won't cost a fortune.) Pictured above:
(top left, represents the stages of our life - marriage, pregnancy, baby, toddler, big girl) (top right, in my office - my praying & praising angels, my "create" sign) (bottom left, education - the two books on the left were Matthew's great-grandparents', my reading and teaching angels, and a primitive framed alphabet from my in-laws when I became a teacher) (bottom right, give thanks...Matthew & I with the girls, displayed in the gathering room) I love having all of my favorite things on display in the farmhouse. All of our reminders of our favorite memories, our favorite people, and those big moments in life that have molded us into who we are now. Decorating with groupings has helped to make this happen. ❤️🏡❤️ |
Archives
December 2023
Categories
All
|