Summer is here and we've started our summer learning routines at home. Nothing too big, but enough semblance of structure to help us prevent becoming lazy couch-potatoes, I hope!
On the housing front, after much prayer, stress, and talking over everything a million times, we found peace in signing the contract for purchasing the new construction home. Even though it could be a very scary prospect, that deep unseated peace persists. It's a peace that only God can give because not much changed within our circumstances or the pros and cons, only our perspective has changed. It's been my goal to spend daily time with God and purpose to submit to His leading vs. my own inclinations...something that is easier said than done, but well worth the commitment!
We've sent in our down payment and made appointments to visit the design center, etc. I'm not sure exactly when they will break ground, but we plan to visit the site every couple weeks to see the progress being made. Tentatively, our home will be ready around the holidays.
We'll start our school year in this home, take a break to sell, take a break to move, and then pick up our school work in the new house. It will be a challenge, but we can be flexible and adapt as needed.
We're also moving forward with potty training. I hadn't done much just in case we moved this summer. Moving is almost a guaranteed regression in potty training and I didn't want to start just to have to start over again. But, now that we have several months, and our little guy is showing signs of readiness, we are moving forward.
Monday, June 25, 2018
Monday, June 18, 2018
Summer Fun
Summer has begun...or at least will officially be here in a few more days! We took two weeks off from school and projects. Now, we start getting into more of a routine for the summer months.
We are doing our own homemade reading program this summer. I've challenged the kiddos to read 10 books this summer...books that are at their reading level. They'll earn a prize after book 3, 6 and then after the 10th book! Basically, they are hoping to read a book each week. Their first goal is to earn a trip to Dairy Queen. ;-)
I'm also sneaking in some more history lessons with some fun audio books by Rush Limbaugh - his Rush Revere books are excellent and so much fun!
The girls have opted to continue doing math this summer. They want to get ahead in school, so I'm more than happy to help them!
House News: We are still in the negotiation stage with the new construction realtor. We finalized the major construction choices, but haven't agreed to everything in the contract yet. The contract is written mainly to protect the builder because he is constructing a home built to our specifications and we won't officially own it until closing. Some of it we want to tweak to also protect ourselves in case something doesn't go well during the process. We've seen it happen before where a builder took short cuts and the quality of the home suffered, although so far, this builder seems to be a reputable builder.
Health News: The illness my hubby has had for months now, has been determined as a staph infection, not MRSA, but a difficult to resolve one. After an initial misdiagnosis of an allergic ID reaction, he completed two separate rounds of antibiotics which have helped, but not removed the infection. Currently he is going through phototherapy for 12 weeks. Two or three times per week he goes in and stands in a special room to expose his body to special lights that are known to kill staph. According to the internet, staph doesn't have resistance to light. Although his doctor said that the treatment may only put it into remission...yay. Only God knows. We are praying this kills the infection so he doesn't have to live with it anymore.
Last night we were discussing healthcare and what happens when we move, whether he would switch to closer doctors or keep going to his current doctors. Then it dawned on me that for most people it is unusual to have 6+ healthcare professionals that you see on a regular basis. One of those things that just become normal when you live with chronic illness, I guess. On the positive side, his new diet seems to really be making a difference. He's having less pain and fewer flare-ups, and he hasn't needed his cane for a few weeks now!
We are doing our own homemade reading program this summer. I've challenged the kiddos to read 10 books this summer...books that are at their reading level. They'll earn a prize after book 3, 6 and then after the 10th book! Basically, they are hoping to read a book each week. Their first goal is to earn a trip to Dairy Queen. ;-)
I'm also sneaking in some more history lessons with some fun audio books by Rush Limbaugh - his Rush Revere books are excellent and so much fun!
The girls have opted to continue doing math this summer. They want to get ahead in school, so I'm more than happy to help them!
House News: We are still in the negotiation stage with the new construction realtor. We finalized the major construction choices, but haven't agreed to everything in the contract yet. The contract is written mainly to protect the builder because he is constructing a home built to our specifications and we won't officially own it until closing. Some of it we want to tweak to also protect ourselves in case something doesn't go well during the process. We've seen it happen before where a builder took short cuts and the quality of the home suffered, although so far, this builder seems to be a reputable builder.
Health News: The illness my hubby has had for months now, has been determined as a staph infection, not MRSA, but a difficult to resolve one. After an initial misdiagnosis of an allergic ID reaction, he completed two separate rounds of antibiotics which have helped, but not removed the infection. Currently he is going through phototherapy for 12 weeks. Two or three times per week he goes in and stands in a special room to expose his body to special lights that are known to kill staph. According to the internet, staph doesn't have resistance to light. Although his doctor said that the treatment may only put it into remission...yay. Only God knows. We are praying this kills the infection so he doesn't have to live with it anymore.
Last night we were discussing healthcare and what happens when we move, whether he would switch to closer doctors or keep going to his current doctors. Then it dawned on me that for most people it is unusual to have 6+ healthcare professionals that you see on a regular basis. One of those things that just become normal when you live with chronic illness, I guess. On the positive side, his new diet seems to really be making a difference. He's having less pain and fewer flare-ups, and he hasn't needed his cane for a few weeks now!
Sunday, June 10, 2018
Decisions, Decisions...
The prayers for discernment and wisdom continue. We have spent a weekend viewing existing homes, an afternoon driving up to meet the new construction builder, and another weekend traveling for our nieces' dance recital...everyone is tired of being in the car!
As common wisdom states: the perfect home does not exist. There is always a compromise. Of the existing homes we saw, none of them hit the mark. Perhaps we are too picky. However, we feel that we can be picky. Nothing is making us move, or we might have settled on one of those homes.
After talking to the builder, we learned a lot more about what our options are. The builder is in the process of selling the final plots of land and completing the community in our favorite small town. The town is land-locked by farmers who are highly unlikely to sell their land, so the town will not be expanding much more, if at all. We can afford to purchase a new build, but it will make finances tight the first year as we would have to put in landscaping (fence, grass, tree, etc.) within the first year of living there. We would get the floor plan of the home we really loved. We wouldn't have the money to finish the basement right away because the builder intentionally over-charges to finish the basement -he doesn't want to do that work...part of the perks of being a builder I suppose.
We started the process of "negotiating" what the home we would buy would be. Basically he talked to us about the features that we want construction-wise and then he sent us a formal bid of what each change or addition costs and how that effects the final price of the house. Then we can reply back any changes we want to make to that bid and he'll adjust it and send a new form back to us.
In the meantime we can keep house searching if we want, or we can decide that we don't want to go with the new build home after all. We really like the town and the neighborhood. The home we'd get would back to a small greenspace and be in biking distance from a park and a rec center for the kids. It's also 15 minutes from the big city for shopping. We've been praying for God lead us to the right choice. The compromise with this house is the price and timing. The house wouldn't be ready until the of the year. So does God want us to buy this home and trust Him with our finances, or let go of this home and trust Him bring us to another home, or not move at all? That's our current conversation with Him.
As common wisdom states: the perfect home does not exist. There is always a compromise. Of the existing homes we saw, none of them hit the mark. Perhaps we are too picky. However, we feel that we can be picky. Nothing is making us move, or we might have settled on one of those homes.
After talking to the builder, we learned a lot more about what our options are. The builder is in the process of selling the final plots of land and completing the community in our favorite small town. The town is land-locked by farmers who are highly unlikely to sell their land, so the town will not be expanding much more, if at all. We can afford to purchase a new build, but it will make finances tight the first year as we would have to put in landscaping (fence, grass, tree, etc.) within the first year of living there. We would get the floor plan of the home we really loved. We wouldn't have the money to finish the basement right away because the builder intentionally over-charges to finish the basement -he doesn't want to do that work...part of the perks of being a builder I suppose.
We started the process of "negotiating" what the home we would buy would be. Basically he talked to us about the features that we want construction-wise and then he sent us a formal bid of what each change or addition costs and how that effects the final price of the house. Then we can reply back any changes we want to make to that bid and he'll adjust it and send a new form back to us.
In the meantime we can keep house searching if we want, or we can decide that we don't want to go with the new build home after all. We really like the town and the neighborhood. The home we'd get would back to a small greenspace and be in biking distance from a park and a rec center for the kids. It's also 15 minutes from the big city for shopping. We've been praying for God lead us to the right choice. The compromise with this house is the price and timing. The house wouldn't be ready until the of the year. So does God want us to buy this home and trust Him with our finances, or let go of this home and trust Him bring us to another home, or not move at all? That's our current conversation with Him.
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