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. 

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:


praying about our future and the decisions we may want/need to make in the next few years.  On Monday, I wrote in my planner, “What would a calm, thriving life look like?” and I’ve been slowly jotting things down all week.  Writing down everything from the big to the little.


watching TJ play by the windowsill.  It’s his favorite place in the whole house, I think.  We started calling him our puppy because of the way he excitedly stares at the neighbors outside.  


inspired by a podcast on simplifying.  I’ve been tackling the house with new determination, starting with the kids’ clothes.  We have SO much and just the sheer volume of it overwhelms me.  We’re definitely in the worse before it gets better stage, but I’m hoping to pare down to our favorites and give the rest to people who need it.  We know of one young couple in our parish (pregnant with their first) and I’d really love to pass some things along to them.  


lifting for Week Four of Livefit Trainer and feeling much more confident.  This was a repeat of last week’s exercises and I’m taking full advantage before the routine gets switched again!  It’s crazy to think that I was using 8 and 10-pound weights during Week One and I’ve already moved up to 15 and 20s.  


working hard on Big White Farmhouse and starting to see itty bitty results!  Sometimes it can be hard to put my heart and soul into something and hear crickets in return, but perseverance pays off!  We’re still not wildly successful (yet!), but everyday is a baby step closer.  (Other BWF noteables: we are now accepting Paypal as a purchasing option and we started an Instagram account!)


listening to the advice of Ginny and trying to give each child my attention when they have something to share with me.  I am guilty of trying to multitask as they speak to me and it’s a habit I’d like to break.  Trying to look in their eyes and really listen.  


stitching, but not much!  Anna and Elsa are up next (Sophie’s favorites!), so I’ve got some work to do. (linking up to Erica’s Summer Stitching Stash Blast #4!)


watching our birds and getting excited to see the little babies hatch in the next few days!  We also love watching our tiny garden grow.  Our lettuce is ready for picking, our pepper is finally starting to turn red, and we have tons of tomatoes popping up.  I’m already planning for a much bigger garden next year.

trying to embrace my wavy/curly hair.  My hair is way too long and it is way too hot to blow dry it straight everyday.  I’m thinking about trying a technique I saw on a Youtube video.  


learning new things, always.  Did you know that early American needlepoint samplers did not include the letters J and U?  I stumbled on this article and found it so interesting: “Many early samplers do not have the letters “J” and “U” in their alphabets because they were not part of the early Latin alphabet and so the letter “I” was used for “J” and the “V” for “U.” The letter “s” is often replaced with the printers “s” which looks like the modern f.”