Back to Blogging...for real this time!

I think I have started this blog about a million times in my head over the past several months.  Each "mental" blog starts out differently depending on my mood, the child I am focusing on in that minute, or memory I am anxious to record.  However in this season of life, there is little time to sit down and write the fleeting thoughts that dance around in my head.

There has been an overwhelming amount of newness in our lives lately.  We live in a new home in a new town.  We are in a new ward meeting lots of new people.  Even our business is new.  It has a new name, a new look, and by this fall a whole new identity as an actual restaurant.  Thinking back to were we started nearly four years ago, that piece alone feels almost unbelievable!  But as I am surrounded by all this newness, I am surprised at how comfortable I am with in it.  

I use to label myself as someone who hated change, as someone who didn't handle it well.  But somehow, here I am...handling it.  Maybe even handling it well...or at least not horribly.  I think it is because the most important things in my world really haven't changed at all.  Where we live is different, but the people that make it a home are still with me.  My ward may be different but the Gospel is still the same.  Honestly, I am grateful for all the change.  It feels fresh and clean.  It is a new start in a way, or at least an opportunity to reevaluate and reset.

Our three years in country feel like a crazy blur.  We had life begin and end in that home.  We created some beautiful memories and also experienced some of our greatest trials.  This move has been a gear shift, and it is just "us" once again.  I am excited for the place we are in now.  I am excited to see what the future holds, but I am also perfectly content in the moment I am in right now.  

 The kids continue to grow like weeds!  Jake will be in 5th grade next year and Jamie will be going into second.  Even though we continue to homeschool, I can still feel the change.  I came very close to tears talking a couple other moms about the end of another school year (at least for the "normal" public school kids).  We, of course, were talking about how quickly the time goes because well, it just does.  But in that moment I had such intense gratitude that the Lord prompted us to homeschool.  Because yes, it does go by heartbreaking fast (when you look back) but I have hardly missed a minute of it.  They are home with me and I am so blessed to share all of their childhoods with them.  I know I would have regretted it if I had given this precious time to anyone else.

So here are a couple of pictures of our crazy crew playing in front of our new home.  They are each other's best friends.  Scarlett is already crying about the boys attending a soccer day camp for four days next week.  She used to call them "her boys" and while she doesn't say the words out loud quite as often, I know those words are forever written on her heart.  She can't imagine her life without them...even just for a few days.  But I think she'll survive.  Anyway, i can't help but smile when i look at these pictures.  They perfectly capture the way they play together and love each other.  This is them...and this might be the greatest blessing of homeschool!