Check out This Post

Anna-Jessie has a blog on which she posts on about a quarterly basis.

Check out this post. I especially like her "ad" at the top of her post.

Such fun it is to have these kids around!

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The Girl Who Cried "We're Moving!"

Just about 10 years ago to the day, we moved back to Ohio and into this house. It's a small house with a big yard, and isn't the type of house that most of our friends live in. Most of the kids' friends live in two-story houses that have great rooms, and large open kitchens, and high ceilings, and extra rooms here and there, and even sometimes two staircases. We chose this house when the kids were small, because it had a big yard and the house seemed big enough for the little ones. Actually, Greg chose and bought the house, although it was I who sent him the MLS sheet and asked him to check it out.

Over the years, we have realized that this is a pretty smallish house for 6, then 7, people. One time we thought we might try to move to a bigger house and looked at a few. Once we thought about building on. Both times we abandoned the idea in favor of staying where we are.

Recently, I had the idea again. Moving. This time, I wanted to move somewhere where I would be closer to people to "do life with." Thing is, I don't know who or where those people are, but we're still talking this general area. So, not sure where to move. We went so far this time as to consult with two realtors and tell the kids we are moving for sure. We've made several lists, taken some of the clutter out of the house, taken some stuff to Goodwill, and painted numerous rooms. But now school has started. And I've put the brakes on.

I love the idea of moving to a new house, but I also love our home. It has a few annoying quirks, but after 10 years, we're pretty attached to this place. The thing that strikes me as the best of both worlds is to go ahead and build on to this house, including addding a partial second story, with a few bedrooms up there. Downside is of course over-improving for the neighborhood.

Financially, this isn't the best time to sell a house, from what I've heard. So there's that unknown as well.

But, bottom line is, school has started. Which, as you know, means there is lots and lots of activity here every day. Even the thought of removing the needing-to-be-replaced family room carpet is a bit overwhelming as I imagine moving FOUR desks, and FOUR computers, plus the other furniture, pulling up the carpet, putting down the pergo, and then hooking everything back up. And oh yeah Greg is out of town most of the time. So, here I am, pioneer woman, to be sure, holding down the fort, but can pioneer woman ALSO replace flooring, heft furniture here and there, and still do all the stuff I regularly do? Probably. :-)

As so many things around here go, this is something that will happen if I make it happen. My lovely children are absolutely awesome, and part of being awesome children doesn't really include getting all responsible for buying and selling a house. They would all do anything I asked them do, so I know they are there to help. It just seems like the overall project is kind of on me. Greg is keen to help, but hard to do much when he is in Michigan.

I guess the real bottom line is I spoke a little early about the idea of moving. Yes, I want to spend time with a group of people I can invest in. When God shows me that we need to move to another house, then I move! For now, I want to continue to get this house into move-in condition, continue to remove stuff from the house, and keep my eyes open for the next step. I like the idea of just kind of letting the smoothness of life go along for awhile without throwing a giant wrench in the monkey works by putting myself under the incredible pressure of moving, with all the accompanying work that goes along with it.

I'll keep you posted.

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I am so proud of this boy

Eli and his friend, John, went to CVS to jump the steps today. I have been most comfortable with him skating at skate parks, but I get that every ledge and stairset is a potential skate spot. We've talked numerous times about how he should handle himself when he is skating in places where he may get asked to leave, and I am proud of how he has responded in those situations.

John is the first skater. Eli is in jeans and jumps the stairset successfully. I love watching him skate.

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Where'd She Go?

For one thing, she has been spending ENTIRELY too much time lurking on Facebook. And for her meager postings, she was rewarded with a cheeky teen the other day mentioning how he gets a big kick out of the things that parents post. I guess he thinks we should stick to esoteric song lyrics as our status.

Besides that, have been homeschooling mightily.

Last night, at the Last Wednesday service at Crossroads, Brian talked about how God redeems the difficult things in our lives. And for whatever reason, this year homeschooling is light years away in terms of difficulty and stress from last year. I believe this is one of the areas that God has and is redeem(ed/ing) in my life.

Hopefully, I will be back soon to tell you all more about it.

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We xoxoxo Cincinnati

Sweet morning with Greg and Kepler. We headed up to Mt. Adams to meet with other people from Crossroads to pray for our city. This is not my usual thing to do on a Saturday morning, but I have learned by now, don't miss anything that Crossroads does, cause I will miss a lot.




The overlook shows the beautiful Ohio River and our lovely city. We spent about 30 minutes praying for specific things about the city. And whatever changes the city experiences because of it, I know I am changed for having been there.


Often, we leave Kepler home with the other kids when we go somewhere, but having him along really brought home the point that he is The Great Connector of us and other people. So many people spoke to me and Greg because of Kepler. We loved making the connections with people.


As is typical Crossroads, there was a way to memorialize our experience. They had a huge version of the ILOVECincinnati bumper sticker and asked us to write prayers on it before we left, which we did.

Mt. Adams is a very chic part of Cincinnati that we don't get to very often. I think it is where all the beautiful young professional people live. What a view. When I first asked Greg if he wanted to go, he didn't jump at the chance, but after thinking about it, decided he did want to be there.

I got the directions last night the old-fashioned way, off the internet. Greg brought along the almighty GPS though. (My directions were better. He even thinks so.) And off we went.

On the way home, we marveled at the spirit that was there, and the joy we experienced at meeting and talking with people who care enough about Cincinnati to give up an hour or so and get together and pray for healing for our city.

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Realty? or Reality?

Two evenings this week we spent hours at our dining room table with capable real estate agents who came for a preliminary meeting about the possibility of listing our home for sale.

Realtor #1 was extremely professional, way prepared, gave us reams of paper and tons of information, and even homework.

Realtor #2 was extremely laidback, prepared enough, and gave us some very good info but no homework except to consider replacing the furnace. (more expensive homework than the first guy!)

Here's the thing. They both came armed with printouts of "comparable" houses that are our "competition." I got the impression from the first guy, let's call him PaperMan, that the key to selling your house is see what's out there that's comparable, then make sure you price your house a little lower than them and prepare your house to be as perfect as possible to show. Guy #2, ConverseMan, agreed but had slightly different formulas for figuring out what is actually comparable.

Our street connects to a neighborhood that has much smaller houses, all on a slab, with postage-stamp yards. Our street is NOT part of that neighborhood, but I think there is probably a perception that it is. So, PaperMan says our competition is that neighborhood. I don't get that. And I don't agree. I don't want to price our house to be competitive with the houses in that neighborhood because our house is bigger and nicer, if I do say so myself.

Also, as I have been letting this percolate, I've realized that realtors can maybe only go by what they see on paper. And if a house has three bedrooms, then it is a comparable house to another that has three, even if there are huge differences in the condition, quality, and care of the home.

So, it's just got me to wondering if PaperMan's approach is really the best one. I would imagine if you have your house priced in the bottom three of similar houses, you will be more likely to sell it. But does that mean it's a good thing to sell it for that price? I suppose the answer to that question depends on how badly you want/need to sell your house.

ConverseMan had a different idea of what might be considered comparable and I liked his ideas better. Seemed like he was being more specific about how to decide something is comparable.

In the meantime, I will continue to beautify the old place to put its best foot forward when we finally decide to start showing it to prospective buyers.

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Dog Lovers, Be Kind.

As Donna Fargo used to sing,

Shine on me sunshine
Walk with me world
It’s a skippidity do da day
I’m the happiest girl, in the whole U.S.A.

Like 8 months ago I was journaling about how it can be overwhelming to have five children and keep on top of things. And then I lost my mind completely and we got a puppy.

She lived with us for five months, and she went to a new adoptive home last night with a lovely young couple who wanted a companion for their beloved dog.

We were foster masters.

Now that she is gone, I realize that parenting 5 kids is a snap. Nothin' to it.

So, if you are feeling overwhelmed at all, you should add into your life more than you can possibly possibly take care of and then remove something when you can't see your way to take even one more step. It does wonders for making things more manageable.

I am so glad for her that she will be in a place where she will be deeply loved and cared for, and I am so glad for me that I am not going to be the one responsible for her.

This doesn't mean we will never get a dog, but I think we learned that a puppy in THIS house with THIS family is not a good fit.

Enjoy your pets today.

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