The Big White Farmhouse

A collection of our ordinary days, recorded every week.  At the end of the year, I’ll publish them into a keepsake to treasure.

Around here, I have been:

celebrating my brother and his girlfriend’s engagement!  So happy for them and excited to add another sister to our family.


watching the baby birds hatch in our hanging basket.  The kids had a very serious discussion about names, with the top contenders being Sam & Pippen or Bilbo & Frodo (can you tell what movie is big in our house right now?).  We finally settled on a compromise of Sam and Frodo.


cheering for D as he lost one of his top front teeth.  He is so excited to finally do the “straw trick”: keeping your mouth closed while drinking.


listening to M’s dreams for owning his own restaurant someday.  When I asked him what he would serve, he said “eggs, steaks and pork”.  So basically a Paleo eater’s dream.


packing for a week-long vacation the morning we left. Um, never again.  That was the craziest morning with lots of “Have you seen ___?” and “Wait, don’t forget to pack ____!”  Next trip, I’ll be returning to my type-A, packed three days in advance ways.


traveling 12 hours in the car.  We hit more traffic than we expected, but the kids were troopers and TJ was even better than we had hoped.  He was so funny every time we stopped: we’d take him out of his carseat to come sit up front with me and he would excitedly look all around him and then want to touch everything, like a puppy!


feeling all the feelings watching my children play at the farm, where I have so many memories.  Watching them make memories with my extended family makes my heart want to burst too.  


celebrating the new marriage of my cousin and her groom.  She was beautiful and the ceremony was perfect.  J and Sophie were in the wedding and passed out long-stem roses to the ladies as they walked down the aisle.  I was afraid they may have some stage fright, but they did great!


laughing at Sophie’s conversation with her Poppa: “You are a peach.”  “No, Poppa!  I Sophia!”


eating lobster, local strawberries, Italian sandwiches and whoopie pies.  I veered off my healthy diet big time, but so worth it.  


driving home in the middle of the night, which is a great idea to miss traffic and have sleeping babies, but hard on us adults.  We were all so sad to leave, but thankful to sleep in our own beds.


thinking about what really matters for our family.  Getting away on vacation was the perfect time to look at what’s working and what is not.  It feels like the theme of our marriage so far has been “more”: more money, more children, more house, more stuff, etc.  All wonderful, necessary things for which we are so thankful.  But as we soon embark into the next decade of our marriage, I think we’re at a great point to slow down and really enjoy all that we have.  I’m craving simplicity and ready to make the changes needed to get closer to that goal.  It’s one thing to say you want something and quite another to actually take the steps toward it.  Hoping I can match my prayers with actions.