In a Healthy Place

The past several weeks have been pretty crazy between packing and preparing to move, prepping school things, moving, then unpacking, but we are finally settling into our new home, and we couldn’t be more pleased and at peace with how things are going. 

It’s honestly hard to put into words. I will try, but my words probably won’t do it justice. 

One of the things that has been surprising is seeing just how healthy things are here and just now realizing just how unhealthy things have been for a long time in our life. I won’t go into that, really, but we are on our way to true healing as individuals and as a family. 

We are mostly unpacked which is so awesome because we are already feeling at home here. We LOVE our home. It’s quite a bit bigger than what we had before. The boys have their own rooms, we have an actual dining room, and there are two living areas. The living area in the finished basement also has room for my little gym. It’s so nice! Our dining room is also our homeschooling space, and it’s perfect. It’s so nice to have a dining room!

We started homeschooling this week, and it was a little disjointed, but we will get there. We are starting a few new things, so it’ll take some time. Also, we haven’t been homeschooling for a bit as we have been packing and moving. I’m just trying to give us all time to adjust and get into a routine. Karis is used to a strict routine every day, so it’ll take a bit for her to adjust as well. She was in public school her freshman year through this past semester and is just homeschooling her last semester of high school. We are basically just trying to finish her last few necessary credits!

The weather has been crazy! Monday it was like -14 with a “real feel” of -40. We have never experienced that before. Then we had a few days of much warmer weather. Today is pretty cold again, but we will be in the 40’s for the next 5 or so days. 40’s (with lows in the 20s) is apparently pretty normal here. We are getting used to the cold, though, and the snow is so beautiful. I love it!

I’m getting into a great workout groove and eating pretty well without much trouble these days. Most meals in the dining hall are pretty balanced with a protein, carb, and veggies/fruits + there is always a salad bar. It has been great! And we mostly have healthy foods in our home at the moment.

We did our first Instacart order last week which was pretty fun! There was a deal for $20 off of a $100 Sprouts order, plus I had a free delivery. All I had to pay was for the tip. It was worth it because it was SO cold that day. Haha.

Everything is 10-20 minutes away. I have been to Trader Joe’s twice. The second time was because they accidentally charged me for 86 bananas instead of 6. They felt so bad and refunded us with no question. It’s only 20 minutes away which is amazing because it took 20-25 minutes just to get down our dirt road in Texas. 

There are SO many good churches 10 minutes away (from what everyone keeps telling us!). This is amazing. We are excited to find a church and to start getting involved! We tried so hard to be involved in youth group when we lived in Texas, but church was an hour and twenty minutes away, so it was too hard. The kids will also be going to their first teen activity in the co-op that we just joined next week! 

It is a bit hard that the kids don’t have other teens here to hang out with, but we are so excited that there are so many opportunities right around us for them to make friends and connections. I trust that God has a plan for that. They all seem to be so happy to be here!

This is the first year in MANY that I am not depressed. I know it’s a combo of things- the treatments that I have done, the move, not working full time anymore, and having a more intimate relationship with Jesus. Our situation being so much healthier now has a profound affect on my mental health as well. We all seem to be doing pretty well! The kids have their ups and downs emotionally as they get used to things, but overall, we are all doing SO much better. 

I’m going to share some pictures now! 

This is our living room and dining room.

Our kitchen is pretty dated, but it works for now! We also created a pantry out of an old half bath that was no longer a half bath. We just added a shelf, and it was perfect!

Our bathroom is SO nice. It seems to have been updated recently. The tile work in the shower is fun, the walls are fun, and the sink/vanity/counter are amazing! We love it!

Our bedroom also has an office area. It all fits together perfectly, and we feel so cozy in there!

I don’t have picture of the kids’ rooms (I’m trying to give them some privacy with that), but I do have pictures of the basement living room and my gym!

The outside of the house is nothing amazing, but we like it! We will work on it as the weather gets a little nicer. We may eventually get chickens again as well, but it’ll take a bit to get the yard to a place that we can do that. It currently has a few feet of snow all over. Haha.

The landscape all around camp is amazing and beautiful. I have taken several walks despite the cold, and it has been worth it. There’s also a fun little coffee cabin inside the office/lobby area. SO fun!

Here are just a few other random life pictures! Homeschooling, sourdough, healthy meals, and more!

Okay! I’m gonna go watch a show with Karis then workout before I start making dinner! We are having homemade pizza!

I’m going to try to blog more soon. Things are starting to level out and we are settling in!