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My girl was testing boundaries today.  She found at least 3 reasons to leave her room during resting time.  I just went in to tell her that rest time was over and  she could come out of her room to play and there she laid, curled in ball, sleeping so pretty, that I couldn't take my eyes off of her.

I think that every spring time since she was able to walk I have pictures of her like this.  Where she is moving so fast that no matter how quickly I click the button on my camera, I still can't catch her.  These are my favorite pictures.  I'll always know exactly what she was doing.
She was dancing.
She was spinning.
She was laughing.
I loved today.  We didn't do anything fancy.  I taught a little school, but mostly I just watched them play together.

I watched the sunshine dance through Maggie's curls while she loved her baby and told Libby that the rainbow colored rattle snake she work diligently to draw was just amazing.

 I marveled at those baby legs that aren't so baby anymore and like all mothers I know, I wondered, where has the time gone?

This past weekend I started to sift through our life that is rapidly approaching the time that it will be packed up and moved to a new life, in a new house, in a new town.  Last week the mere thought of it sent me into an intense sense of panic.  So Saturday, as I sifted, I cried.  I cried when I peered out the window and saw my Little looking for flowers.  I cried when I tried to find a preschool near our new house (we are thinking of sending Libs next year since we will have our baby with us and I think I know my limits). I cried when I thought about this house being our old house, and finally when I cried for a fourth time my husband asked me to stop doing things that made me cry.  

 So I did.  I went outside and enjoyed the afternoon and evening with my family.  My favorite thing to do.  I also decided that my pregnancy hormones are raging out of control.

 I think that this move has the potential to send me spinning.  I don't  know which way to turn next.   Should I pack, should I purge, should I save things just in case I need them one day?  I don't actually know the right answer.  Sometimes I wish we were there and settled already, and sometimes I wish we could stay here forever.

Things have actually fallen into place incredibly smooth considering how stressful moving can be. It seems like there might be a bigger reason why we are supposed to be in this new place.  I don't know what it is, but I know that God will reveal it to us in His time.  He provided the job, He is providing a buyer for our house here, and He provided a house for us there. 

  Kevin was headed out of town last week and as he left, he said to me when you get a free moment look for a house for us to rent.  I had poured over housing sites for days and I almost memorized the ones that would work for our family.  Through all of this Kev has had fleeting dreams of "wouldn't it be great if we could live near the beach and really take advantage of living close to the water again."  Sure that would be great, I even said I was willing to downsize if it meant we could be in walking distance of the beach.  I was doubting though, because the reality is that anything close to the beach is way out of our price range and any rentals I found were only available for a weekly vacation rate.

 There was this moment though, when I thought wouldn't it be cool God was planning on blessing us again, and somewhere there is a beach cottage with our name on it.  As fast as I thought it, I dismissed it.
 Can you see where this is going?  Even though I thought I had view every house in Virginia Beach that was up for rent in May, last Monday one that I had never seen before popped up in my search.  It was was blue, it looked like a cottage, it was charming.  When I looked on the map I thought "my goodness that looks close to the water.. "

It's true.  God is blessing us with a cottage near the beach.  In fact we can see the beach from the end of our road.  We can walk there.  We can walk to a local restaurant.  Our new neighbor invited us to fish off of her pier   I keep wondering if all of this is real.

 The house has some quirks, but so do we.  I think it will be a perfect match.  I'll find a way to downsize or to rearrange so that the important stuff fits.  We'll save a little corner for my sister's cradle so that Tiniest Jones will feel like we've been waiting for him all along.

We'll buy stock in Coppertone sunblock and purchase a bigger beach bag.  

 We'll hold tight to each other and pretend like this is our own little adventure.

We'll thank God everyday because we know that we are undeserving of these blessing.

I have my own big dreams of keeping this blog up on a 3 posts a week basis, but with all this lovely change in our life I feel like that dream is still a far way off.  Maybe once we are settled in at Chicks Beach, I'll post weekly beach photos or something like that.  

Until that day comes,

Grace and Peace

xoxo

Reality Check

1. My belly is getting really big really fast, along with the rest of me, which is why I have decided that there will be no more pictures of me on this blog until after the baby arrives.
Except for this one

2.  I wish I edited the trash cans out of that picture.  Something about a big, yellow trash bin that doesn't scream Easter Sunday.  Neither does rain and cold.

3.  This picture is as good as we can get...Kev smiling and me trying to get the girls to look perfect.  Despite popular belief my kids are not perfect :) they take after their mother.  Poor little dears.

Maggie looked a lot like Shirley Temple on Easter Sunday.  I really loved their dresses.  Thank you Gwen Stefani and Target.

4.  True story.  Libby used to clear the book shelf and it would infuriate me.  I don't know why.  I think that it is kind kind of cute when Maggie does it.  I don't know why.  Maybe it is because Maggie actually looks at the books and helps me clean them up.  Libby would just clear the bookshelf and look for something else to destroy.  Also true of this picture is that Maggie is wearing both of her owl shirts at the same time.  She asks to wear her owl shirts everyday.

5.  I really want her to stop growing up.  How can I stop this from happening?  I don't mean that.  Wait, I really do.  She is just so great at being little and imaginative and I don't ever want it to stop.  Her life is a fairy tale and I dread to think of the day when she realizes that sometimes life is harder than a fairy tale. I still remember the day it happened to me.  

 

6.  The temperature hasn't reach 60 this week but it has been sunny which makes for perfect play outside weather.   These pics are from last week and if you peer out of the window you can see the icy mix that drove us in doors.  Really they were soaking my kitchen, but they thought they were washing their princesses.

7.  We made Resurrection gardens last week during school hours (and during a snow day).  We used succulent plants because I thought they would be easier to keep alive.  They were a great way to give the girls some symbols to help them remember why we celebrate Easter Sunday.

 On a side note Libby wore this sparkly, rainbow horse shirt for 4 days strait before I finally wrestled her out of it to wash it.  I totally get it...rainbows, sparkles and a horse.  Does life get any better?

 8.  I love a good Easter egg hunt.  It reminds me of Steel Magnolias.  I love that movie.  I have seen it tons of times and I still cry every time when Shelby's little boy runs to his Grandma.  I would love to be Truvy's friend or to have that true southern charm like M'Lynn.

 Hey girls!  Look at Mommy!  Seriously, both of you, at the same time, smiling, just once!

 I'm pretty excited about all the candy that they ate this weekend and that there is still a ton of it left in my house.

9.  Speaking of Steel, Kev got a new job with them, except it is spelled Stihl, and it means we will be moving, again.  If you know our story, you would know that 9 years ago I moved from Mississippi to Florida, and that 8 years ago Kev moved from England to be with me in Florida, and 3 years later we left Florida for Virginia.  We have lived near Richmond for almost five years now.  Just about two years ago we became home owners in a home that I thought would be home for a long time.  This will be our 5th move in 8 years.  While I will miss this house and watching my little fairies flit through the back yard with the sunshine kissing their faces I know that it will be okay.  The reason I love this house are the people that live in it right now.

 I will love the next house because they will be there with me plus one more...but we sure will miss our friends.

Have I ever mentioned that sometimes I don't know what to do with Maggie's hair

Virginia Beach here we come!

I think that covers it all.
No sense to this post.  Its purpose was to unload all the pictures from my camera and check off "write a blog post" from my to do list...which as you know I don't actually have.
I hope you are well.  I hope that someone still reads this old neglected mish-mash.
Grace and Peace friends.
xoxo