The Armstrong 5

Well, I bit the bullet & took the boys to pick strawberries. I was just going to buy them, but decided last minute that it would still be worth picking (too expensive to just buy them outright)! I made lots of freezer jam - strawberry & raspberry. So I sort of crossed that off my 30 before 30 list. I'd like to get more berries for freezing, but I'll need to buy a freezer for the garage before I do that... which might be a while... I need to scour craigslist!

We're settling into the new house very well. I had my first real visitor from McMinnville today - Sarah Freeborn! She's one of my closest friends & definitely someone I'll miss seeing every Sunday & Tuesday (at least). We chat about anything & everything, & our children get along well enough for us to do it for a few hours with just some minor interruptions ;) It was a great time! I look forward to more visitors & hopefully I'll get the hang of being a good hostess. I'm not naturally gifted in that area but I am enjoying trying!

Lots of things are happening these next 2 weeks. Sarah's visit today, Rayma coming tomorrow, going to Yamhill to visit some of our Texas family (and all the local ones too) on Friday, then early next week the Lacines will be here! Plus, my little blond sister (see her blog here) will come down for the 3rd & 4th of July as well - it'll be a blast!! Then I can cross of throwing a holiday party off my 30 list too. And I added another book I read to be 30 list... I'm going to need to blog about that later... it would be WAY too long to tack onto here... it'll likely be too long by itself already!

Anyway, I'm still working on getting unpacked, putting art on the walls, finding homes for all the little odds & ends one keeps in a home... there's still a long way to go, but I'm happy with the speed I'm going at. I've been spending one day a week really hammering out a lot of work, then just another hour or two each day putting things in place. We still have a long list of "needs" for things... storage bins, freezer, couch, couch, bed... plus all the random things we haven't bought in years because we've been too strapped to do it... dressers, bed frames for all of us, etc. God has really blessed us though. I'm getting closer to being at peace with all our financial hardships - it has been a tough road, but I never want to be unwilling to take on the challenges in life... after all, they have a great capacity to bring me closer to Him!

Have a great weekend & a wonderful 4th (next week). It's unlikely you'll hear from me before then ;) Someday I'll take & post some pics... that's how I string you all along right?

Well, we did it! We moved! So glad it's over. All that packing & keeping necessary items out while cleaning & planning was definitely crazy. Much thanks to the few amazing people who helped us load up Paul's trailer & haul it to the new place late Friday night - I was close to dying from exhaustion & you all rescued me!

So, we're getting settled in nicely. We have internet as of today, we have all our essentials unpacked & many of the non-essentials, a fair amount of cardboard is strewn across the house along with lots of toys & random objects... so yeah, we're making good progress :) I have almost the entire kitchen all squared away & I broke it in with baking some amazing strawberry scones - the strawberries were from a local farm too! We're planning on BBQ'ing tonight to break that in as well.

I love the house so far. I love the location too. It's very quiet & incredibly serene. The backyard is beautiful, simple & should be easy to care for (though we might hire someone, depending on if we can get our hands on a mower soon). We feel very at home here, and surprisingly, our furniture actually works perfectly as well! We thought it might be awful & that we'd have to live with mismatched stuff for months until we could buy some more, but everything is fitting very well into place.

My brain is a little bit fried - so much planning & so many to-do's - I cannot write much else today for fear of getting way beyond what I can handle ;) We'll just say, in a few weeks when things have settled down, I'll have to really work on some of my weaknesses & I'm not sure how that will all play out. I want to, but I also don't want to. I'm just praying for a few people God will bring into my life to help me in these ways. And to be willing to let me husband help push me as well, without going all crazy on him!

Well, I best be getting to a few things - let me know if you want to visit... I'll bake something yummy & we can let the kids lose out back!