The View From Here

A few photos outside the new house. It has an incredible view and is so peaceful. The driveway itself is .6 miles so there is absolutely no traffic. In fact, at times, I kind of laugh to myself because this place is about as far away from McKinney, TX, as you can get. Who knew that our previous house would seem like a booming metropolis compared to our current residence. We're a solid 30 minutes from Camden and Rory's sports, grocery store, etc. Nashville is now about 50-60 minutes away so we've been spending a whole lot of time at home. All together. All the time.

After a few days adjusting, I think we're settling in pretty well. The house has a great open living space, but no bonus room and only 2 bedrooms so we're all enjoying alot more togetherness than we're used to. I'm trying to view it as a good opportunity to spend extra time together, to teach the kids how to work together as a family, how to compromise with each other, etc.

It's working most of the time.

We've all had ticks and chiggers; Brian sees a red fox and deer on a regular basis; we're trying to learn not to scream every time a spider runs across the floor. Country living may not speak to my heart, but it definitely does to Brian and the kids, and it certainly is peaceful out here.

View from the front porch.

To the right.

To the left.

Out back.

The trail out back  . . .

Which leads to this . . .

Which overlooks this.

The rock where Rory almost plunged to her death. Yes, there have been many talks about boundaries since that day.

Trail leading back up to the house.

Part of the driveway. It's .6 miles long!

First pictures on the front porch.

Everyone keeps asking how I'm doing . .  when we're moving to Texas . . . don't we love the new place!!, etc. The truth is that physically I am improving. Mentally, it's a bit tougher. It's hard to choose over and over not to worry about the future, to take one day at a time, to listen to the truth in our verse for the year. I'm finding myself retreating to the bathroom so I can cry in the shower more often than I'd like. Yesterday I broke down and filled the anti-anxiety prescription my doctor gave me. I find myself not even knowing what to pray for. Maybe you could pray it for me?

Randall, our Texas partner, had some unexpected contact with someone in human resources at the McKinney school district last week, and she told him that in order to be hired you really need to have some major contacts because McKinney school district gets 12,000 applications a year. TWELVE THOUSAND. I won't say that information was not more than a tad discouraging.

Yes, we have alot to be thankful for. People who have sent cards, the house, obviously. One little thing I've been meaning to share is that the day before I went into the hospital I had added the Jesus Calling app on my iPad (obviously not knowing I would be in the hospital) which meant that during those 8 hospital days I had those words of encouragement. God knew I was going to need that app, although I will admit to texting my sister the words "Sarah Young (the Jesus Calling author) can bite me." because the devotions were so particular to our situation and not always easy to read.

So while there are obvious things to be grateful for, there are also the times like yesterday morning when Rory woke up panicked because she had a dream that she couldn't find me. That morphed into her admitting that she was worried about me, and as she sobbed in my lap, I thought how there is just nothing in the world that can prepare you for this.

In the meantime, I am working very hard at "one day at a time." Yesterday we checked the first thing off our Summer 2012 list: a Dollar Tree shopping spree. Today is National Donut Day so we're having donuts for an afternoon snack.

Sidenote 1: Last year pictures on the train track was the only thing we didn't knock off our (much longer) list and it was the first thing the kids remembered this year, so pictures on train tracks it will be.

Sidenote 2: Does it seem like we eat bad food all the time? Because I'm feeling guilty at how much food shows up on the blog and you probably won't believe me when I tell you that we actually eat very healthy. A whole lot of fruits, vegetables, and almost no processed or prepared foods. In fact, a friend recently tried to talk Rory into giving her a list of junk foods to buy for us and Rory kept telling her over and over that she just wanted carrots and sugar snap peas. ;)

Sidenote 3: Prepare yourself for a barrage of blog posts that I've got scheduled. Trying to get caught up on pics, Project 365, etc.