Heavenly Homemakers

When we lived in Colorado several years ago, our house had about 900 square feet. It was a nice little house and it was just fine. But as our family grew, and when we had company it got a bit crowded.

When we were making plans to move back to Nebraska, we were really hoping to find a house that was a bit bigger…mainly because we love to have company and wanted to be able to do that without having guests step on each other. Even a house twice  as big as our Colorado house would have seemed big to us. 

Out of the blue, a friend of ours called. Said he’d heard we were moving back to York. And did we know that he and his family were moving away from York? And that they had a house for sale?

Yes, we did know that they had a house for sale and had seen in the realtor’s book that it was HUGE…and that it was out of our price range.

Never mind that, he told us. He and his wife wanted US to have their house. He said with all the people we always had in and out of our house, it would be perfect for us. He told us we needed this house.

And then, without knowing what our price range was, he quoted us a figure that was EXACTLY WHAT WE WERE LOOKING FOR.

Wow. It would seem that God wanted us to have this house.

And so we agreed to buy it…site unseen. (Because we’re either crazy or we have a lot of faith…or maybe a little of both.)

The first few hours after we arrived and toured the house …I kid you not…I was dancing around like a little kid in a toy store. 

This house has over 3000 square feet of living space, plus a full (unfinished and yucky) basement for storage. There are six bedrooms. And…if you haven’t already…check out my wonderful kitchen.  There was a lot of jumping up and down going on when I first saw my kitchen. Good thing I didn’t hurt myself. I don’t have a clue how to dance.

We have a “game room” for our toys and TV…great for bunches of kids to hang out. Our living room is huge…plenty of room for lots of people. 

We really only use two of our bedrooms for our family. Our boys all prefer to sleep in the same room together. That leaves plenty of extra rooms for guests. We’ve been able to let people live with us temporarily…we have no problem saying yes to anyone driving through for the night. We LOVE having guests!

That being said, does this house have issues? Absolutely. It’s over a hundred years old. It is “full of character” which is our nice way of saying, “oh my word could Matt’s Honey Do List be any longer?”. There are a million things to fix and there always will be (because as soon as one thing gets fixed, something else decides it needs to fall apart). 

Therefore, I often have to remind myself what a blessing our big old house is. With all of it’s goofy plumbing issues and cracked walls and yadda, yadda…I sometimes forget that God hand-picked this house for our family so that we could serve Him with it.

Lately, I’ve been very strongly reminded about what a blessing our home is. For the past three months, there has hardly been a day that has gone by that we have not had guests. This house has been “grand central station” for college kids, over-night house guests, temporary live-ins, game nights and play dates with our boys’ friends. We’ve gone through more groceries (and toilet paper) than ever before.

Last night at Small Group…there were 23 children and 16 adults. It was loud…it was crazy…it was amazing.

Forgive me for this very long post…but today I am in complete awe of this gift God has given us. 

Thank you God for my wonderful, huge house that you’ve given us to use for you. (And forgive me for the times I complain about how much house there is to keep clean!)
—————————————————-

What are you grateful for this Gratituesday? Please share!!! God is so good! Write your own Gratituesday post and come link up with us here. Or, if you don’t have a blog, please leave a comment letting us know what you’re grateful for!

I just experienced one of the most wonderful, relaxing, family-time filled weekends ever!

One of my favorite parts was spending time playing games. We played many a lively round of Apples to Apples Jr. Two evenings in a row Matt, the two older boys and I played games of Settlers of Catan. 

I didn’t even win ANY of the games…and I still had a blast and was nice to everyone and all of that. (This might have had something to do with the fact the the games occurred after it was way past my bedtime and I couldn’t complete a sentence correctly, much less get super competitive.)  ;)

But my favorite, favorite part of the weekend happened on Friday.

First, we slept in…the best thing (in my opinion) to do on Black Friday. 

Then we dragged down all of our Christmas decorations.

THEN…I did something new…which might just have to become a new Christmas tradition.

I took each boy, ONE AT A TIME, out to do their Christmas shopping.

First, Elias and I went to the Dollar Store. He had his very own money. He had a plan. He bought a little gift for each of his brothers and for his Daddy.

We went home and hid his presents…I grabbed Malachi and out the door we went. His experience was a little different, since he doesn’t understand money very well yet. Plus…he tried picking out things HE liked instead of things others might like. (“Actually Buddy, I don’t think Daddy is very interested in a Yo-Gabba-Gabba toy.”)  Malachi was very proud to carry his very own shopping bag out of the store.

After I took Malachi home, Justus and I went to Wal-mart. I loved this time with Justus because I realized just how thoughtful and generous he is. He loved it and even put up with me when we had to look at a few grocery items I needed because, “That’s okay Mom. It will give us even more time for just you and me by ourselves”.

Finally, after Daddy got home, I took Asa out shopping. He had been the patient one all day long…waiting last in line for his time out with Mom. He had been the helpful, selfless babysitter all day for the other brothers while I took each boy out shopping one at a time with me. Asa’s night out with Mom was well deserved. It was a great time away with my very grown up (and almost as tall as me) kid. 

I wasn’t even tired after coming and going all afternoon and evening long. I was energized. I think the kids were too. Time alone with Mom is rare. We are SO going to do this more often.

Oh, and in case you’re worried, Daddy will take all of the boys shopping for Mommy some night soon. That’s another great tradition in and of itself. Quiet night at home for Mom. Daddy and the boys and a list at the store picking out pink things for the only one in the house who likes pink.

We finished up our weekend by getting all of our decorating done!

Hope your Thanksgiving weekend was as wonderful as mine!
————————————————————-

What are you grateful for this Gratituesday? Write about it on your blog, then come link up here. If you don’t have a blog, be sure to leave a comment letting us know what you’re grateful for!