New Home

Well, I feel somewhat settled enough to actually catch up on our blog this afternoon, but I still have a twinge of guilt that I am not cleaning house or unpacking boxes. I know the latter is never ending, so I decided to stop and share a post today. Thank you to you all who have called, stopped by, babysat and prayed for us during this time of great transition. And I know two friends have asked to see pictures of our home, so here they are along with some highlights of the last month.
We finished packing our old house and we had just a few items left. Here Adam and the kids are "resting" from all their hard work.
While I was packing I found a tee-shirt I had bought while Nehemiah was a little baby. It is fun to find treasures like this and it fit him perfectly!
We sat outside on the last day and had a picnic lunch.
Then we woke up, packed our final belongings and headed out to have a special p.j. breakfast.
While we moved our kids stayed with the Lydens family and enjoyed having a sleepover at their house. A couple days later grandma Berna watched the kids while we unpacked and they played with precious Jaxson.
Sarah and Avi Joy, along with Nehemiah and Miss Beautiful all started gymnastics together. It is fun for the girls to be in the same class and we are all enjoying this season of life. (And we happen to only live one mile apart now.)
Here are their little toesies... Avi Joy's foot is on the left and Sarah is on the right. Wonder how long they will be the same size?
Here all 3 kiddos are practicing for doing handstands on their own. Nehemiah's is more like a headstand. AND I am so thrilled that Avi Joy is bearing weight on her arms, this will help in her physical delay when she falls, to be able to catch herself with her arms instead of her nose.
One of our very favorite treats of the year is heading out to the State Fair. We enjoyed the yummy food and rides. Miss Beautiful told me later, "Mom, I am so glad you told me before we came to the fair that there were going to be lots of odd people here... there are."
Every time the sisters or dad went on a ride, Nehemiah sat and cried. It was so funny. I mean, I really should not have laughed, but as soon as they were up there, he was scared for them and wanted his family with him!
Moving in and having our first dress-up day!
We all caught some type of sickness the first week we moved in. Sore throats, coughs, major mosquito bites, and more... but one of the funniest was Nehemiah's ear exploded. I am guessing it was some kind of bite, although I could not see any bite anywhere. He just had one huge Dumbo ear all day long, then the hard swollen ear went back to normal by the next day.
Little ham doing an art project in our new backyard.
I also love her morning hair. What is it about kids and precious morning hair? I wish adults could pull off this look and look cute!
Sooooo, here it is! Our new home. It was built in 1965. Four bedrooms, all upstairs, 2 & 1/2 baths and lots of storage and room to grow! It is a barn style, obviously, and I never saw myself living in a home like this, but I just love it. We adore all the huge mature trees in the neighborhood. Simply beautiful. We truly praise God for our new home.
The front yard has rose bushes that are 50 years old. Some have over 200 blooms on them when they are in season. They were transplanted from the previous home owners grandmothers home. He is a funny old guy who popped by this week to tell me to prune them. This could be annoying to some, but I was actually very grateful that he would teach me how to care for them. He actually said, "I realize that am a tough guy who likes to raise hell, but I love roses too." : ) We have a row of small plantation shutters in our living room and every morning a hot pink rose bloomed in the window. OH the little things!
Now to the other little things... Raccoons. We had to have the skunk whisperer come to remove our raccoons in our attic. He said there have been three generations of raccoons living up there! AND they have done extensive damage, like A LOT. And lucky for us it will be covered by our insurance, well 3 weeks of it will. Which is nothing compared to this damage. We learned that inspectors by law cannot put wildlife damage on inspections, so until they came no one knew that it would take about $14,000 to clean, restore, reinsulate and drywall the entire attic. We are not worried about it, but over time, this will be something to tend too.

I often wash dishes with the windows open and love the fresh air and beautiful trees.
We have taken out a row of cabinets that hung very low and was blocking the view to the dining room. We plan on putting some small hanging lights there someday.
And my original 1965 Frigidaire appliances work perfect!
The other big project that we did right when we moved in was take down a wall between two living areas. We really wanted one large living room, instead of a formal and a den.
The results are stunning and so open! We are now doing the hard part and deciding what color to paint the room. Carpet will be in the future and I cannot wait to hang some artwork in this home. I don't like clutter, but I dislike bare walls even more. I know this will make it feel more homey too.
With all this going on I have had my moments of being overwhelmed of course. Still having to cook, clean, do laundry and homeschool, seemed hard when everything needed to be unpacked and put in it's place. I am feeling more balance now and working on praying about it more. In Proverbs 31 there is a verse that talks about the woman laughing at the days to come. I do not want to be so stressed at the To Do List that I forget to have a great time in my home and add laughter to my days to come.
Blessings
The Perryman Family