As I sit here in front of my computer, trying to put all of my thoughts into words, I am fully aware of two things. One; writing isn’t a natural born talent of mine. Two; I have so much swirling around in my head begging to be spilled out! So, what’s a girl to do? Share. Simply share what is on my heart. And hope it makes sense!

I am going to start by giving you (dear readers) a glimpse into 2016. To do that I have to back up a little with where 2015 left off. We were living in a beautiful home that we had built only a year prior. Sadly we weren’t fully enjoying it the way we had envisioned. My husbands job was extremely demanding, and although it paid well we were never together as a family. We had grand plans of inviting others into our home, getting connected in our community, working in our yard, etc. Instead of those things, Josh found himself working late evenings and most weekends leaving him desperate for a different job. So, he left that vocation for another. Unfortunately it didn’t pan out and ultimately resulted in him taking another job in Ohio (of all places!) Here we were, me 8 months pregnant (small detail) with our four children back in Texas, and Josh (a million miles away) in Ohio. How could this work? I will give you a hint, it didn’t. 😉 He did manage to travel back and forth every other week until our daughter was born on September 30th, 2015. Talk about stressful! Miraculously he made it for her birth. Which is another story for another time…

Fast forward to March 2016. We packed up as a family of 7 leaving our house full of 95% of our belongings. We didn’t know when we would be back or what Ohio had to hold for our family. Truth is we didn’t know anything besides the fact that we needed and wanted to be together. When we arrived on that dreary, rainy, cold day it was to a tiny run down apartment. Despite trying for several weeks to find a house, we had not been able to locate anything up to that point. A few weeks later God answered our prayers and provided a house and a church family that exceeded our expectations! And although we were blessed many times over in 2016, a common question we asked ourselves was, “what happened? How did we end up here?!” 2016 was confusing to say the least. In many ways it feels like it “happened” to us. We were along for the ride. Through it all God was sovereign and gave us some rich friendships to carry us through these months in a small town where we lacked roots (and good food options!).

Let’s leap again to January 2nd, 2017. Early this morning (midnight) we arrived back in Ashland, Ohio with a U-Haul trailer full of the things we carefully chose not to put in storage. This time around the rest of our home is skillfully packed and stacked into a unit for safe keeping. After spending a month back in Texas for the holidays, we spent the last week of December scrambling to pack up our life, and once again start a new chapter. Another sweet family is moving into our home today. Our home that we had (and have) so many plans for, is currently not ours. Instead I am here, surrounded by boxes and bags that are begging me to feel overwhelmed and taunting me to “get to work”. But I refuse to just “do”.  This year is different. While 2016 was a blur, 2017 is full of laser focus and purpose. My vow to myself is to be present. Intentional, focused and present! Josh and I have big goals for this year, and a plan to execute those goals! But we will not sacrifice the precious time we have with our little family. Today I am stopping here for a few minutes to share and then I am off to pop popcorn, play LEGO’s and just “be” together as a family.

If you would like to stick around and follow our family as we share our adventures and knock out our goals one-by-one, we would love to have you! A simple life is a life fully lived with intentionality, focus and purpose. Eliminating clutter and distractions that don’t serve our family. Seeking out our Heavenly Father and fully blooming where He has us planted!

Happy New Year!