Thankful Thursday

It's been a long (long) time since I've written a Thankful Thursday post. I've missed it. I have so much to be thankful for each and every day, and having this space to write down those things help me focus on them. Recalling the good things in life help make the not-so-good things more manageable. So this week I'm thankful for:

~My healthy babies. My heart broke for blogger Diana Stone when I read that her two week old son didn't pull through. If you aren't familiar with her story, the very short version is that she lost her twins early in her pregnancy last year. (Maybe 20ish weeks.) Her water broke, but she managed to keep them in longer than anyone expected. Eventually she gave birth to them, and lost them. When she got pregnant again with her son, I was thrilled for her. Then he was born, and they discovered he had a heart condition. I sobbed reading the news that he wasn't going to make it. It made me hug my own little ones extra tight.

~Our house. With Dan in the middle of extensive training, we haven't seen him much at all. When I start to get irritated about not seeing him, and the kids are cranky and whiny, and I have to do everything alone, I remind myself that it's all for a good cause. His job is the reason we have our house at all. And the alternative would be living back on the college campus, something I definitely wouldn't want to go back to.

~My 3 week nannying stint. My friend Julie asked me earlier this year to watch her 3 year old daughter for the last three weeks of the summer. I watched her for a year back when our girls were babies, and it was nice to get the opportunity to do it again. It's been a good distraction for the kids, to have something each day to look forward to and to keep busy. It takes their mind off the fact that they haven't seen their Daddy for more than a few hours over the course of two weeks.

~Our very, very limited budget. Ok this one is a stretch. Trying to spin this into a positive isn't easy. But since buying our house we've had to cut many non-essentials. I'm living on a shoe-string, and there are days when I get frustrated because the kids need fall wardrobes, our fridge is bare, and there's no money left in the monthly budget. But, I remind myself that things will get better, and this is a good lesson in being frugal. It's teaching me the difference between wants and needs, something I thought I already knew. But it turns out that a lot of our needs aren't really so necessary and it's amazing the things you can cut out and still lead a happy life.

I hope you all have a happy weekend, and remember to look for the good when times are tough. It's not always easy, but there's usually a silver lining if you look hard enough. What are you thankful for this week?

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A Little Peek Into Our New House

We have officially been in our new home for a full week now! We lucked out last weekend and had beautiful weather for moving. The sun was out, the temperature was warm, and we had many helpful friends and family to assist us.

The past week has been a whirlwind of unpacking, adjusting, setting things up and just generally settling into our new place and our new routines. 

The kids adjusted really well, although Joseph isn't sleeping great in his new room yet. The first few nights were the worst, with him refusing to go to sleep unless I rubbed his back, and then he woke 5-6 times throughout the night. Luckily he's stopped that, and will put himself to sleep again. His night wakings are down to 1 or 2, and they're quick little "I lost my paci!" wake ups. 

He also took a few days to get comfortable in his new surroundings. He was following me around and whining and refusing to let me out of his sight. Now he's thrilled to explore, discover and play with his sister. 

They especially love their new play area and our sun room. They both beg to play down here all day long. It's a great space for them to run and feel like they're outside while still being contained. (There are two windows that look into the room from the kitchen  You can see one on the left side of the picture. It's so helpful for me because they will play and entertain themselves in here while I cook!) 

Stephanie is lost in her own little world, playing in her favorite room

The playroom. The sliding glass door to the sunroom is on the left wall of this room , not visible in the picture. The kids love being able to go back and forth between the two play spaces!

Looking into the living room from the hallway. This room is my favorite! It gets sun all  day long and is so cozy. I can't wait to get the last of the boxes out of here and get things hung on the walls!

I'm thinking I should probably take some pictures of the house in the daylight to share! There is sunshine in every room all day long, except for the kitchen. I never have to turn lights on in the daytime. 

I'm excited to finally be settling in and will get back into my regular blogging routine this week! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. 

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Thankful Thursday! (On Friday...)

I've missed Thankful Thursday for the past few weeks, but I really wanted to link up this week. Yesterday got away from me so I decided to just do it today.

This week my Thankful list centers around the home buying process, which has pretty much taken over our lives lately!

Today i'm thankful for:

~A fantastic Realtor.  I LOVE the woman we've been working with. She's friendly, knowledgeable, always available for us when we need her, and she and I get along so well. I'm so happy that she's the person we have helping us navigate our first home buying experience.

~The fact that we found a house we love very quickly. The one we chose was only the third house we saw, but it's perfect for us, and everything in it is brand new. It is completely move-in condition!

~A positive home inspection. We had our inspection last week, and the only things that turned up were very minor issues.

~A repair negotiation that we are happy with. It was touch and go for awhile but we finally got the seller to agree with most of our requests.

~That our mortgage has officially been approved.

Everything has moved so fast, and I still want to write more about our home-buying process. But for now i'm thankful that everything is going smoothly and we are on track to close on the property on March 27th!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! If you have time, hop on over to Baby Gators Den to read other Thankful Thursday posts. I love to hear what others are grateful for each week.

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