Bloggy Tour of Homes

I was asked to participate in the Bloggy Tour of Homes, and it wasn’t all that hard to convince me. I feel like the biggest physical, temporal blessing that I have been given is my home. I am soothed by my surroundings constantly. It is a consistent work in progress and I enjoy that process. I have a quote hanging in my entry way (which is all planned out in my head for a big make-over) that I love—it describes my feelings more adequately than I can:


To us, our house was not insentient matter—it had a heart and a soul and eyes to see us with, and approvals and solicitudes and deep sympathies; it was of us and we were in its confidence, and lived in its grace and in the peace of its benediction. We never came home from an absence that its face did not light up and speak out its eloquent welcome—and we could not enter it unmoved.
~Mark Twain

When I was in High School, I started having this reoccurring dream. It wasn’t a long dream, by any means, just a simple scene. I was standing outside looking up at the night sky, as I have found myself doing constantly, my whole life. There was an enormous tree to my left. But the best and most memorable part of this dream is the feeling I had while I was standing there. It was one of total peace, contentment and satisfaction.

That is the dream in its entirety.

There were a few years in there that were pretty hard. Nothing seemed to be going as planned and I felt overcome at times with our trials. This dream came again, and I knew that eventually, things would be okay. I knew that I would be at peace. I knew that this was my Father’s way of comforting me.

One day I woke up in my tiny apartment and thought: What are we waiting for?!? We need to buy a house! I was a woman on a mission. I was overcome with the feeling that it was time. After looking at a good amount of houses, we walked through THE house. We loved it. We made an offer, and in the middle of the negotiations, the sellers backed out telling us that someone else had made an offer that matched their original asking price. We were devastated. But for some reason I felt peace. I kept telling the hubs, “We prayed about it, and we got an answer. I know it was our answer. I can not doubt. I don’t know how it will happen, but I feel like it’s our house, and we will live there.” We waited and waited for what seemed like an eternity, but was really only about two weeks (in which our realtor probably got sick of our moping and comparisons with THE house). Then the sellers called us and asked if we were still interested.

The night we moved in, there were boxes all over with pathways to move through from room to room. I was exhausted. The kids were finally asleep in their new bedrooms, and I was laying on the couch remarking that it already felt like home, when I decided to see what the view of the stars looked like from the back patio. I walked out the sliding glass door and turned to view the night sky filled with my constellation friends, and suddenly, I was in my dream—the huge tree to my left, the peace and contentment that all was right. I turned to see if I could see myself watching from the angle I had seen it so many times in my dream, but all my eyes showed me was the ivory siding staring back at me. I knew we were in the right place at the right time.


So, my friendly bloggers who have never seen where I live, welcome to my home.

My Front Door



No one actually uses the front door, though, so I feel like I need to show you the entrance that actually gets used:





what a difference a season or two makes...

Where the Bloggy Magic Happens




Main Living Area (where the family hangs out)







(What, didn't you want to see it at Christmastime??)

Kitchen--the Heart of the Home





My Choice

This is where I was when in my dream (enormous tree to the left that I wish you could see better), and where my family and I spend vast amounts of time.

For more bloggy tours, click here!