Homeowners Once Again

     Yesterday was our closing for our new house, and I was overwhelmed again by how amazingly good God really is. 
     We have six girls in our new neighborhood that live within a mile of us that all homeschool like us. They were all over at out house at one time a couple of days ago, and let me tell you that 10 girls in one house can make a lot of noise...but there was so much joy on my girls' faces that I couldn't help but feel so happy with them. Growing up, I had only two girls that were my age in our neighborhood; and they moved away after a couple of years. I hated that we had no kids to play with because my brother (who is three and a half years older than me) had very little desire to play with me as soon as he reached the ripe age of 8. This probably stems from the fact that he had figured out that if he did anything questionable that I would tattle on him. My brother played the role of the family stinker, and was only primarily interested in mischief by that age. My brother regularly told me that a tattle-tailer goes to hell in an effort to get me to stop, but it didn't work. I always longed for a neighborhood that had a few girlfriends for me. My girls now have what I dreamed of as a child.
     My husband mentioned shortly after we moved in that our property  has everything that he ever dreamed of as a boy...a pond to fish in, a big barn to play in, and woods to go exploring in. Our kids are getting to experience what he dreamed of as a child too.
     It really boggles my mind when I think of how God put this all together for us when we had only a week before we had to be out of our house. He even gave us things that we didn't even know we'd want like the sauna in the basement which my hubby has found really improves his breathing at night now that it's his allergy season. I wouldn't have even thought to ask for two ovens in my kitchen, but I've longed to be able to host more family gatherings. Shortly after we moved in, my hubby and I both agreed that it'd be fun to host Thanksgiving and Christmas this year.
     Now I'm not trying to say that the house is perfect. My hubby and I agreed that when we moved in, we would be the picture of contentment. We would only fix things that weren't functional instead of things that were cosmetically unappealing. We have plenty of time for that in the next 50 years. However, my hubby quickly built a compost pile for us because that is priority for our family. After he fixed the leaking shower in our master bathroom and after it took what felt like 20 minutes to wash the soap out of our hair from the super low-flow shower head, we also agreed a new shower head was needed. However, our new fixture is silver and the knob to turn on the shower is brass colored. Normally this would have been something that would have been changed. However it is still fully functional and only aestheticly disturbing, so it is staying for now. I could also tell you about the lovely floral carpet going up our stairs that matches my mom's couch. It is still fully functional though, so it is staying along with the gorgeous plaid carpet in our girl's room. It's all just small stuff in the big picture.
    With all that said, I'm really so grateful to be a homeowner once again. What a wonderful feeling to be able to settle!