Saying Hello

At the beginning of January the hubs started a new job - one we had hoped for, but didn’t expect to happen quite so soon.

Which meant we would be moving…

Finding a place around here proved to be a little overwhelming. We were surprised to find oodles of properties to choose from ~ but sometimes too many choices isn’t easier.  It was quite an adventure to find our place.

We looked at a number of places…in fact we exhausted the real estate listings for our area and after looking at all the different floor plans and locations of said properties and all the details made me dizzy and stressed me out like crazy! And then I realized that since God brought us to this job and we know He did, because we could clearly see His hand through it all, then we need not worry about finding our new home.

And you know what?

That’s exactly what he did.  He found us the most perfect home… one where our family will still feel welcome and one that we can call home when it’s just the two of us….

{photo from google earth}

Over the past several weeks, I’ve packed up our house of almost 30 years of stuff and memories and I found myself questioning all the things that I had in closets, cupboards and drawers. As I went through each room, I started with the easy stuff like duplicates, things we didn’t use or enjoy and the stuff that had no purpose.  We boxed it up and labelled it for a sweet yard sale.

But as I made my way through the rest of the house some items were harder to decide what do with.  My heart strings are strong.  How does one rid oneself of the clutter you’ve come to care about? My daughter, bless her heart ~ simply asked “Mom, what are you keeping this for?”  And as I started to defend “my reason” I realized that if I couldn’t come up with a valid one I simply had to let it go! But there were some things I just wasn’t ready to part with and you know what - that’s ok too! There aren't any rules to getting rid of stuff.

We got the keys to the house on Friday and our family and friends helped us move on Saturday.  Which means this week ~ I’ll be  busy unpacking. Don’t worry though, being the Type “A” person that I am, I already have several posts in the queue ready to go...

Take Care

Saying Good-bye

We got the keys to the new house today… eeek!

And this weekend we’re moving and saying good-bye to the farmhouse…

where the hubs grew up, we raised our three kids and created so many memories!

I am very excited, feeling a little nostalgic and completely overwhelmed with everything that’s going on… but I am looking forward to this new chapter in our lives.

Take Care

Thankful Thursdays

…and so we continue counting the things we are thankful for…

143. birthday celebrations
144. ambulances
145. dq ice cream waffle cones
146. quiet country nights
147. pinot grigio
148. roadside daffodils
149. survivor finale parties

Will you join me as we begin to be truly thankful for each day, and for each opportunity given to us, and who knows? we might just see how truly blessed we really are.

Because a thankful heart is a happy heart! 

Take Care

tasty tuesday

You know in the grocery store, in the baking aisle, how there are several shelves full of cake mixes? Red ones, yellow ones, white ones, brown ones, confetti ones, pink ones, orange ones, blue ones, wait a tic… are there blue ones? Not sure about that now that I think of it.

But, did you know that you can make cookies from these cake mixes?  Well, neither did I until I found a recipe on Pinterest.  These are probably the easiest cookies you’ll ever make! And you might be surprised just how delicious they really are.

Cake Mix Cookies

{photo & recipe website}

Ingredients:

1 cake mix {any kind}

2 eggs

1/2 cup oil

1 cup chocolate chips {optional}

Directions:

Combine cake mix, eggs, and oil in large mixing bowl, and beat well. 

Stir in chocolate chips, if using.

Drop into 1-inch mound balls on cookie sheets. 

Bake at 350°F for 8 - 11 minutes or until done.

Enjoy!

V-A-R-I-E-T-Y!!! That’s what’s so fun about these cookies! 

Take Care

Her

It's her birthday!

I've written here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here about her.

I am very thankful, blessed and honoured and the hundreds of hundreds other words I could use {yes, I know I used these words before ~ but they hold true here too} to describe just how I feel having this girl in my life!

Happy Birthday Krystle!
Love Mom

Take Care

Thankful Thursdays

…and so we continue counting the things we are thankful for…

136. holiday weekends
137. tractors
138. smirnoff coolers
139. motorcycle rides
140. thrift store finds
141. post-it notes
142. gazebos

Will you join me as we begin to be truly thankful for each day, and for each opportunity given to us, and who knows? we might just see how truly blessed we really are.

Because a thankful heart is a happy heart! 

Take Care

Book Review ~ The Stranger

While I am not a “Stranger” to reading Harlan Coben’s novels, this latest novel might have me thinking twice about talking to strangers.

From the back cover
The Stranger appears out of nowhere, perhaps in a bar, or a parking lot, or at the grocery store. His identity is unknown. His motives are unclear. His information is undeniable. Then he whispers a few words in your ear and disappears, leaving you picking up the pieces of your shattered world.

Adam Price has a lot to lose: a comfortable marriage to a beautiful woman, two wonderful sons, and all the trappings of the American Dream: a big house, a good job, a seemingly perfect life.

Then he runs into the Stranger. When he learns a devastating secret about his wife, Corinne, he confronts her, and the mirage of perfection disappears as if it never existed at all. Soon Adam finds himself tangled in something far darker than even Corinne's deception, and realizes that if he doesn't make exactly the right moves, the conspiracy he's stumbled into will not only ruin lives—it will end them.

The Stranger of the title is a secret-teller, not a killer, but his secrets can be just as deadly. The story starts when a stranger tells the main character, a lawyer with a perfect family {or so it seems} a secret that can totally change his life when it becomes known out of the blue, years later.

His unannounced visit to Adam leaves this happily-married man suddenly grasping the possibility that he had never really known his wife at all. But even more terrifying discoveries are looming just around the corner and with them, almost unheard-of danger. Soon, Adam’s wife is missing, and others who are somehow connected to The Stranger and his “co-workers” are showing up dead, and Adam is trying to hold his family together while the life he knows falls apart around him.

These people are ordinary people just like you and me living their lives until “The Stranger” lets past actions come into their present. Some of the elements of the overall conspiracy aren’t fully explained, but that doesn’t matter, since that makes the story-line all the more believable.  It grabbed me from chapter one with its vivid characters, plenty of mystery, suspense, small town life, sports politics, conspiracy, blackmail, murder, drama, thrills, chills and unexpected twists. The plot is unpredictable, a gripping story of all the characters that make you care about their struggles and their well being.   It was easy getting lost for hours in this book and not being able to put it down because you want to find out who this Stranger really is, what actually happened to Corinne, and what outcome awaits the supposed friends and colleagues of Adam’s.

I enjoyed the fact that this story was an out of the ordinary murder mystery dealing with modern technology. Definitely worth reading!  Real life doesn’t come wrapped up in a pretty box, and this page-turner is one stranger that readers will want to meet.

What would you do if someone came up to you and revealed a secret about someone close to you? To what lengths would you go to protect a secret and your family? 

Take Care