Bluebonnets 2015!

On this Good Friday, I would love to share with my blog readers some bluebonnets photos.  This year, the bluebonnets are AMAZING!  Perhaps it is due to the increased rain we had this season as well as the most perfect weather.  The first time I saw a lush field of them outside my car window as I waited at a light, I literally lost my breath.  They were truly breathtaking.  Then, when we found the most gorgeous field last weekend, we were overwhelmed by the most lovely, fragrant floral scent as soon as we stepped out of the car!  We decided to take some photos there, because they were just too amazing not to snap pictures like crazy!

All of these gorgeous Texas wildflowers are a beautiful reminder of new life.  In fact, I have been reminded of that repeatedly lately.  We moved to a home with TONS of gorgeous live oaks all over our property.  This happens to be the season where the leaves drop on the live oaks.  And boy, do they drop.  We have had piles of them everywhere.  But, as we sweep and blow them away, we are reminded at the process that has to happen in order to give these beautiful trees new life.  They have to shed the old leaves to reveal the new beautiful canopy that they provide our home.  (It's funny, because our BSF teaching leader used the same example this week in lecture.  So, God used it there to remind me again!)  As we have moved into our new home, I feel like we are getting a fresh start.  We are further away from my oncologist's office.  I feel like moving here is part of God's way too to tell me I won't need to be going to that office as frequently as I did in the past.  So, I feel like moving here is a new beginning of my cancer-free survival.  I am SO ready for things to be more normal in that regard.  But, I had to go through a lot in order to get the new life I have today.  Of course, my life will never be the same, and my physical body has really taken a beating from the surgeries, chemotherapy and radiation and now ongoing drugs to prevent recurrence.  But, at least mentally I am going to try to move past the whole "cancer-Heather" and revert back to my identity as "Heather."  I have new things to focus on--like all the fun projects and dreams we have for our new home.   Still, it is a constant mental and spiritual battle to not dwell on the fear of the cancer returning, and whether my current treatment is the right one.  But, I love how God uses little things to remind me to trust Him and not live in fear.  ("I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid." John 14:27 NLT

Speaking of new life--this Good Friday is a reminder that Jesus had to die on the cross for our sins so WE can have new life.  And thank goodness He rose again 3 days later!  I will do a separate Easter post, so I will end here and just leave you with some bluebonnet photos. I call it "bluebonnet explosion"!

And I had to include these photos below, because I am wearing the same shirt as I was wearing 5 years ago in a photo with Luke when he was only 6 months old.  We are also both looking in the same direction-ha!  Take a look:

Luke takes up a lot more of my lap today!  Wow!

I'm Back!

Hello blogging world!  I am finally back after taking about a month off.  My schedule has been COMPLETELY full and I have barely had time to breath.  But, I have decided that this is just too important to not make time for.  God has given this to me as a gift.  And boy, I have felt like it really has been a gift to me.  I have gone back many times and read posts and been uplifted reading about the things God has brought me through.  If I hadn't documented, it may be so easy to forget.  Easy to forget those feelings and emotions attached to the circumstances.  Also, it has been a great way to look at the growth in our children--physically, emotionally and spiritually.  So, with all that said, I AM BACK!

I am planning on trying to make more regular time in my schedule for this.  I may be typing posts late at night or in the wee hours of the morning before the kids awake, but it is so worth it. 

Since I last posted, we moved!   That is the biggest reason why I have not posted in a long while.  Moving is WAY more difficult with small kiddos, people!  This is especially the case when you homeschool and literally have no time alone to complete moving-related tasks.  I didn't really understand until I was deep in it.   We got out of our routines.  Abbey's afternoon naps began dwindling down due to many house showings and errand-running.  I didn't pick up our camera much at all.   Meal planning became somewhat pointless for a while there, because we would have meals planned, but no time to prepare due to showings.  Then, the moving process made it difficult to cook meals at home.  Our homeschooling style changed drastically and our formal curriculum got put aside while I looked for moments throughout the day to teach using real life lessons.  And, I loved that so much and it just make sense for us, that I am totally changing curriculum to align with this style. Now, finally, we are getting back into our routines.  I have to add: we couldn't have done the actual move from our old house to our new without the amazing help of Drew's parents!!  They were an immense blessing and we really can't thank them enough!

Luke doing some "Art", "handwriting" and "math" homeschooling lessons during the moving process-ha!

We are absolutely loving our new house. It is beautiful to see how God orchestrates things.   It is obvious to us that he made this house, back in 1979, for our family!!!  I am going to do a separate post about all my favorite spots at our new property just to document.   But, it really couldn't be more perfect!

Drew getting to know his "country side" a little better.

We've absolutely loved exploring all the new areas at and around our property.  A new adventure awaits each day!   Luke has barely touched any of his toys also, which I think is awesome.  He is doing what I did growing up.  He is playing all day outside and coming in only to eat.  We all are spending so much more time at home and enjoying the outdoors than before.   We feel truly blessed and are so thankful to God! 

All the pictures above were taken with the only camera I had around at the time--my phone.  I also captured some more photos with our good camera below last weekend.  I mowed the lawn, which is a little over one and a half acres.  But, there was this beautiful patch of wildflowers and I just couldn't bring myself to mow it down.  The sun sets just beyond our property and we can see it each night from our kitchen table.  (It is a wonderful reminder of God's amazing beauty and creation at the end of each day).  As I was mowing, I envisioned taking photos of the kids playing in the flowers during sunset, with the gorgeous setting sun just beyond them.  So, that is what I did that evening.  Here are some of the images I captured.  We have a few that I am definitely planning on printing!

Sorry for the overload, but I was just giddy about the most perfect God-made backdrop!  I feel like these photos capture the carefree nature that a child has.  When I look back at these photos, it just makes me want to take a deep breath of fresh air as they just warm my heart and make me smile.

I love her "flower-sniffing face".

"Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate."
(Psalms 127:3-5 ESV)

Check back soon for more posts...

Snow! What is this stuff?

As I mentioned in my last post, I traveled with the kids to Oklahoma to stay with my parents last week.   When we arrived, there was still some snow on the ground (although in the process of melting) from the recent snowfall that they got.   The kids were SO excited!  As a photographer, I was pretty giddy too, as snow is one of the most beautiful scenes to photograph portraits in my opinion.

This was Abbey's first snow experience ever!   Luke's only snow experience was when he was a baby, and he didn't play in the snow then.  So really, this was a new experience for both of them.  It was so much fun to watch them both experiment with the snow and play in it.  Although it was below freezing degrees one of the days we were there, Luke still desired to be outside as much as possible.  He would come in for short breaks to warm up--it was so cute to watch him.

Of course I snapped some photos.  Here are some of the pictures I took of Abbey and Luke experiencing snow for the first time.

One of Abbey's favorite things to do was make footprints and look back at her "tracks."

Luke found a croquet mallet and was using it for many snow experiments.

Sassy little bundled up girl.

By the end of the week, the skin around her lips was pretty chapped due to her constant licking of the area.

experimenting with cups of snow

made his first snowball...someone is about to get hit with it!

Grandpa was ready to throw one back though!

snowball fight!

I love this picture!

So much fun!

more track-making by Abbey

Sorry for the overload--I love snow!

And I will finish with my favorite one...

February Updates

We have so much going on lately.   It seems I have been writing that each month, as my blog posts become less frequent.  But, it seriously is true.

Just to give you a quick idea, I actually typed this while in Broken Arrow, Ok along with the kids, while Drew was back home in Austin (we have a lot going on there, plus he is busy with work).   I took the journey with the kids Tuesday morning, after getting some difficult news about my mom's health diagnosis the day prior.  More about that in a future post.  Right now though, I felt it was necessary to post some of the exciting things going on in our family lately.

We have been considering what type of home we want to be our long term home for quite a while now.  We have considered how we could make our current home that long term home, but decided that our hearts were moving toward a home with more space for the kids to run around outdoors.  We don't like spending much time indoors (unless it is raining--which is rare here),  so the outdoor space is really most important.    We are excited to report that we will be moving in March to that perfect, long-term home.  We really do love our current home and are so thankful for it, but are looking forward to moving to our new home, which sits on a little over an acre and a half.  The location is great, and will allow for tons of fun homeschooling activities outdoors without us ever having to leave our home!   I will certainly post photos in the blog and tell you all more about it after we close and move in.

It is simply amazing how, after having gone through some difficult trials and watching God literally carry me through them, I can now totally rest at peace with things and know that "God's got this."  I can see how He clearly orchestrates things as I look back on the sequence of events.  It was clear with my entire cancer journey.  Even the story of how I found this home, which is perfect for our family, I believe is clearly God orchestrated.  You see, I was driving down a fairly major road on the way to look at a particular home I had found online and was interested in.  I felt like I saw out of the corner of my eye a for sale sign for a home way down one of the side streets.  The neighborhood looked super cool, with homes on large lots.   So, I thought that I would proceed to the home I was originally planning on driving by (which was nearby) and then come back and see what was down that street.  I drove by the home, decided it wasn't a good fit for us and then came back to the mysterious "for sale" sign.  As I approached the sign, I quickly noticed it said "sold."   I was disappointed, as I had already decided the neighborhood was beautiful and seemed just perfect.  But, I turned around in the nearby cul-de-sac and noticed a beautiful home with a "coming soon" for sale sign.  Those of you who live in the Austin area know how hot the market is--you have to see a home the day it comes on the market in order to even have a chance of getting it.  So, I called the realtor who was listed on the sign, expecting the price to be way out of our budget.  It wasn't outside of our budget, but it was quite a bit more than we wanted to pay.  It sounded just perfect in so many ways though and was going to be listed in the next day or two.  When I came home and crunched numbers, surprised at how much equity we had in our current home, I realized our payment would be exactly the same as our current one! I would have NEVER noticed that home coming on the market, since it was outside of our search price range, had I not randomly seen the "for sale" sign of the other home out of the corner of my eye while traveling down the busy road.  I don't believe that was by chance.   We got our closing document in preparation of the close next month and noticed our monthly payment is within $2 of our current one.  Isn't that crazy?

We are also in the process of our selling our current home.  We have a contract on it and are scheduled to close on it about 6 days after this one.  Again, God orchestrated the perfect amount of time for us to close and move out of our current home, into our new home.  Let me tell you though--keeping your house "show ready" while trying sell your home with a 3 and 5 year old at home all day long is a very difficult task.   Every time I leave the house, I have to make sure it looks perfect and have nothing sitting out.  We have had showings practically every single day.  I will be so happy when we are moved out.   :-)

Oh--and while all this is going on with buying a home, inspections going along with it, getting all the paperwork ready for the mortgage, etc and then also selling ours, keeping it always show ready, we are also completely remodeling a rental home that our tenants pretty much trashed.  We are trying to get it ready to lease and list on the mls this week.  Amidst all of this though, crazy enough--I do not feel stressed.  I feel like maybe I should.  But, God has continued to show me He is taking care of it all.  I have learned to just focus on the current day and tasks involved that He gives to me.  Plus, I have been reminded so frequently through the Word, sermons, prayer and BSF (bible study fellowship) that it is impossible to complain (and even get stressed) when you are focused on thankfulness. Thank you, Lord, for reminding me about this and for showing me how you are sovereign and have everything under control.

As you can see, exciting stuff is going on in our household.  I will be sure to blog about things as they progress.  :-)

Our Little Valentines

Luke wasn't keen on her pulling his face in for a smooch.

Appropriate around Valentine's Day, I somehow got the kids to let me snap some photos of them in some fun Austin locations.  I was in desperate need of a photo of our little boy who is growing up way too quickly.  This is what I captured of the kids...

He was ok with kissing her though.  Notice the plastic purse she had to bring along--love it!

We loved this blue wall!  Abbey wanted me to take a picture of her twirling in front of it.

Love this sweet little boy!  And so handsome too!

Then, the kids and I had fun near the castle art hill.  This is a fun area full of graffiti art.