June 23rd marked eight years that we have lived in our home. Now for some of you, that might not seem like a big deal. But for us, or at least for me, it most certainly is a big milestone. I love change. Remember just a few years ago we came very close to moving to South Carolina. We’ve flirted with the idea of moving to the cities, we’ve flirted with the idea of buying land or living on a lake. Just this past Saturday we went to an open house at a lake and a 100+ year old farmhouse. Suprisingly after touring these houses, I came back home and was just so thankful for our home that we have created. I didn’t want to move. I was content with my home.
Now, will that be the case six months from now? Who knows, I can be kind of fickle. We don’t really have a ton of projects left to do in our home. The last room we really haven’t touched yet is the mudroom/laundry room. And by next fall, we will only have two kiddos left at home. Our five bedroom home will start to be awfully big for our family. Now, we’ve considered doing foster care, opening the basement up into an airbnb, it’s already been a studio so who knows what else we will think of doing or how long we will stay!
Fall of 2013
All this to say, we’ve made a lot of the changes in our home the past 8 years and we’re reaching the end. So maybe we rest and enjoy the next season in our home. Or maybe we wait a year, sell, buy a flip house and have some fun! Maybe we buy a lake house and work on that. I don’t know what the next season will look like for us but today, we celebrate eight years!
Celebrating turning our house into a home, raising up kiddos, welcoming people visiting Mayo for medical needs, friends who need a place to stay in transition, small groups for youth and adults, neighbor kids running in and out, neighborhood gatherings, swimming gatherings, game nights, hosted friends and family for visits, book clubs, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, Baptism Celebrations, Downton Abbey parties, Birthday Parties, Goodbye Parties, New Years Eve Parties, Superbowl Parties and now our first Graduation Party.
We’ve watched countless family movies, built forts, had tons of sleepovers, played lots of games, done puzzles, pizza nights, searched for missing hamsters, watched a lot of football, built legos, played barbies and American girls, read books, hung out on the deck, swam, had fires, jumped on the trampoline, made snow forts, painted art, colored in books, ate lots of cake and baked lots of cookies. We’ve been tired, cranky, sick and had some fights. We’ve prayed, cried, laughed, danced and celebrated.
We’ve used our home well and we will continue to open the doors and say, Come on in! Welcome! Our home is your home! Because isn’t that what having a home is all about?
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