We are in the new house! We won’t have an Internet connection until tomorrow, so I am typing on my phone. It still feels very unreal. It doesn’t feel like our place yet. We love it, and feel so very fortunate and blessed to finally be here. More later when I can blog from my… [Continue Reading]

I’m nervous. We are supposed to close at 10 am tomorrow. Eek! I’m still waiting to hear the final dollar amount I have to bring to close, which means that there is still work being done with underwriting. I’m so ready to have all of this behind us. So very, very, very ready. I pick… [Continue Reading]

We haven’t had a home of our own since the morning of May 21st when we sold our house. We moved the furniture out much earlier than that – May 16th or 17th. I’ve lost track. It’s possible that I have the mental and emotional maturity of a baby playing peek-a-boo. Or maybe a teenager.… [Continue Reading]

This was the view in my living room on Tuesday before I walked out the door for the final time. The seven days before that moment were unexpected and frenzied, and I’m both thankful that it happened and thankful that it’s over. We got an offer on our house last Tuesday, the same day I… [Continue Reading]

I don’t have a lot of details to share yet here, and will wait to say much until papers have all been signed. But my week has taken quite a turn. Rather than keeping the house all pretty and ready to show, I’ve packed everything up inside of a big storage pod. I’m down to… [Continue Reading]

I have no idea who sings that song that I quoted in the title above, or even what decade it’s from (though I’m guessing 80s). But it’s been in my head all.the.time. lately because that’s basically the thought that’s constantly running through my head. Occasionally a bit of wisdom from John Lennon will break in,… [Continue Reading]

Life has gotten too busy lately, and too unnecessarily complicated. I took some time off of the Internet this weekend, and I just got back on. I’ve cancelled Instagram and Facebook, realizing that this new world of social sharing can get obsessive for no real reason. I have found myself telling my kids that they… [Continue Reading]

I’m very good at creating a budget in a spreadsheet program. I love to create simple little formulas and watch the money all go where it should. Where I always fail is in the actual implementation of that budget. I think I wrote about our slow climb out of debt over the past two years.… [Continue Reading]

While driving and listening to NPR this morning, I heard a story that I had to share here. It was about something called the “Ikea Effect.” The idea is that, by building a piece of Ikea furniture ourselves, we value it much more than if someone else had built it for us. Here’s the link… [Continue Reading]