New Home: Settled in at Last

I haven’t blogged in a while. I mean to once every 1-2 months, but the past few weeks I have been postponing it out of stress/busy-ness.

We recently moved (well, 3 months ago, but it feels REALLY recent) – in November – after renting for 4.5 years, and finally we own a home in Arizona. We had hoped to wait out the price increase, but that seems like an upward slope that will never dip. But we were tired of throwing money away on renting, and longed for our own place that we could modify as we wanted. We miss that about our old house in Illinois. We had it built new in 2014, and right away we were hanging cabinets in the laundry room, installing built-ins around the fireplace, building an overhang over the back patio, landscaping and hardscaping… and all of those with our own hands! We have always loved to do hands-on projects.

Two of our kids were born in Illinois, and as many know, before the third was born, we moved to Arizona. I’m glad we made the change. Out here it is warm and sunny all the time. I don’t miss the rain or snow like many predicted we would. In fact, James and I have gotten so accustomed to the warmth, that January felt dreadful. This year was the coldest winter yet. It isn’t expected to dip into freezing temperatures in the winter here, but we had at least 2 weeks of frost in the mornings. Mid-30s to walk the girls to the bus stop at 7:30?! BRRR!

Nonetheless we love it here. We built in a new Queen Creek neighborhood that is very convenient to lots of amenities and parks. Construction is nearly complete on our street and soon all the work trucks will be gone, and we’ll be left to enjoy our new surroundings in peace! We are so happy to be settled permanently, and we plan to live here until the girls have all finished high school. Brielle and Eva have started at their new elementary school, and both have made friends and are learning well in class. They are involved in other activities too – both have done coding club and track, and Brielle also does choir and basketball, and Eva does gymnastics.

Haleigh stays home with me and has gotten used to me being so busy the past 3 months. Since moving in, we have been busy getting established at our new home, getting everything put away, buying furniture that we did without for 4.5 years, celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Year’s, hosting family for 2 weeks, traveling to celebrate our 10-year anniversary, and of course our usual family fun such as hiking and biking and getting to the parks often. I have also been busy cutting antlers and trying to plant clover seed in our backyard. The clover project was foiled by the frost, and I’m having to start over again this week. James is working to finish up his bachelor’s degree and is being kept busy at his job, so I’ve taken on the added role of cutting antlers. It seems like there is always something to claim my free time! For my “leisure time”, I go to the gym with Haleigh; sometimes I bring a book if I do the elliptical or exercise bike. I also spend time with the girls helping with their homework, building forts, reading to them, doing whatever they want to do. Like most mothers can relate, my time is claimed from morning to bedtime every single day!