A Long Overdue Life Update

Thirteen years ago, I wrote my first blog post. It’s been over a year since I wrote here last, so this post will probably go out into the “dear void,” (ala Kathleen Kelly), but I find myself drawn back to the ancient art of blogging anyway. If you’re reading this, thank you for being here.

There’ve been some changes…

First off, we’ve moved into our fifth house.

After fixing up our last house for eight years and falling in love with it (me more than anyone), my husband and I felt it was time to reach for our dream of owning some acreage closer to our extended family. It was a wrench for me in a lot of ways, but we said goodbye to this finally finished fixer-upper:

and hello to the next one (maybe the last one? Who can say…).

We have done a lot inside (removed a wall, put in a new kitchen, and more) and have many more hopes for renovations, but the land and the street we live on…they are already absolutely wonderful. It has been healing and life-giving to live on 5 acres off of a quiet country road surrounded by so much more nature than I have ever had around me to call my own before.

It’s a lovely place, but the whole transition had me reeling mentally and emotionally, along with life changing and kids growing and all of that…middle age is so slushy.

My location has changed, but much about life looks the same. I still homeschool my kids. It looks a little different than it did when I started blogging, for sure. My youngest is now five, the oldest sixteen, and life in this mixture of stages is sweet and challenging. I teach almost all the main school subjects at home to my 4K, 3rd grade, and 6th grade students (the 6th grader does grammar and science at a homeschool academy where all the kids go for art, P.E., and Bible once a week). My high school students do a mix of academy classes and home based classes for their high school credits. It’s so hard to believe after this year I will have a senior in high school! I can barely stand the thought.

And of course, I still read books constantly. I need a t-shirt that says, “While I breathe, I read.” The next post I am working on will be a very concise recap on what I read and enjoyed last year, and maybe a few mentions of books that fell below expectations.

Thanks for joining me on this life update, and I hope you’ll come back for some book catch up next week.

Happy reading!