30 days of Gratitude: Day 20!

What do you get when you have a giant mound of boxes, one very large truck & a box of donuts? MOVING DAY!!! 

Yep, it's that time already. All of our painting and packing has paid off and there is light at the end of the proverbial tunnel. Whew! Tomorrow is promising to be a long, full day... and the reward at the end of it is that we will be sleeping in our own home (punctuated by a bath with Baz in the whirlpool bathtub!). It's all a blur of excitement, exhaustion & gratitude. 

SO incredibly, overwhelmingly grateful that everything has come together so smoothly and that all of our hard work has paid off.


*We will be offline until Tuesday as we get settled & wait for internet installation. This very spread out 30 days of gratitude will continue next week! 

30 days of Gratitude - Day 16: The Next Chapter...

The biggest news in some time + numerous reasons to be grateful! We signed a fat stack of papers a few days ago... 

And magically entered into the new & curious territory of home ownership! Can I scream it loud enough? WE BOUGHT A HOUSE! WE BOUGHT A HOUSE! Literally, I'm jumping up and down.  

It looks like it ought to be an easier move this time around (I can't express enough my gratitude for not having to move again in the foreseeable future... so done with moving!). Our new home is  just 7 miles from where we are now! Loving this community. Loving putting down our roots.

So, you take a drive into the country, toward the sea & hang a left at the sweetest little church.

You cross a stream and enter into the forest. 

A little over a half mile through the forest & up the hill you'll find us: 

We arrived this morning with goodies and enjoyed a celebratory first breakfast in our new living room.

...and then we went out exploring. Baz immediately made friends with "a funny little fuzzy critter". Caterpiggle! 

We walked through the forest & checked out every inch of our land (.96 acre!). 

We conspired to get the hot tub scrubbed out & ready for action in the next few days. Can't.even.wait!

We said hello to some of our trees... 

Ben looked happier than he has in a very long time. SO happy. 

We took goofy pix in our master bathroom. 

...and generally laid claim to our space. Perfection. 

It's a fixer upper with a whole lot of quirkiness & we are excited for the challenge. We never ever thought that buying a house could go so smoothly. We made an offer just about a month ago and it was accepted immediately. I didn't know until we were driving around the neighborhood scoping the place out, but the house is about 3 blocks from a house I had my eye on way back when we lived in Davis. Somehow, I guess I just knew where we were meant to be. So here we are. We're beginning the next chapter. Turning a new leaf. Savoring the newness & the beauty of Autumn and working hard to make this move as smooth as possible. We have 20 days to move and my fantastic cousin is coming from California to help out, so it is all looking incredibly doable.

Simply overflowing with gratitude. 

Catching up.

What have we been doing, you ask? Well, some of you have asked... so this is the post where I begin delivering those promised photos and catch ya'll up. Where to begin? Ahhh yes. Once upon a time, about 14 years ago, I met and fell in love with a super amazing little family: The McBrides. Here is the eldest of their 2 children, Kameron, GRADUATING from high school.

Omg. Feeling a little bit old over here. Seriously, though, I couldn't have been more proud of him. We were so honored to be a part of his day (Good luck, Kam! The world is a big one + lucky to have you and you are going to delight the hearts and minds of many!).

Oh yeah, We joined up for a CSA season with Gathering Together Farm out of Philomath, OR. SO EXCITED for green things to come! This has been one of my little, barely out-of-reach dreams for several years now... and let me just say: Ecstatic! Totally worth the wait. We received our first basket last Saturday... Green onions, spinach, mixed greens, romaine, purple potatoes, carrots, turnips, pea shoots, mint, berry jam... all local, organic & delicious. Our pick up location is at the Newport Farmers' Market, so we supplement our basket with other local goodies; usually fresh baked bread & pastries from Pacific Sourdough & local eggs (a dozen always comes with one green egg!).

Can you spot the green egg? This photo makes the subtlest of distinctions...

Subsequently, we have been devouring copious amounts of these luscious garden gifts:

Usually in stir fry or raw form...

Beyond that, we have been setting up house (and trying to keep up with the kid + dog made messes). Sebastian loves to spread his toys around the house and then crash into this chair/blanket combo for a little recharge.

Ben spends most of his time either out submitting resumes or sitting here at the computer tailoring his resume to specific jobs. He is on the job hunt. Fingers & toes crossed....

The lovely kitchen...

Mysterious red curtains (and a very strange little bathroom just off to the right of the refrigeratior):
Behind those curtains? Beautiful red machines that make laundry days so much sweeter! Dud's specifications for a washer dryer combo were that they be new, work well and be some beautiful shade of red. We definitely hit the criteria. Loving them!

BTW, for those of you who do not believe that Dud exists... here he is getting shtuff done in his home/office/bedroom. You'll just have to wait to meet him in the flesh to catch a sweet glimpse of his smiling face. :P

Back to the living room... Where we stare into the tube (+ Ben's super fun interpretation of Totoro).

Shiva is happily shedding, and refusing food... one little mouse named Lucky was set free this week as a result.

Gratuitous kid sleeping in chair photo... A second view only because I had to include some of the mess he left behind.

Where the kid should be sleeping... or usually does, I should say. This bedroom is much tinier than the one he had in Utah. Doesn't phase him, though. Like I said, he just decorates the rest of the house with his toys. Btw, those little purple and green IKEA frames harbor Sebastian's first paintings! On the right, a work in progress family and friends collage. Important people are missing... I better dig out the glue stick and get to work.

My safe haven! My fluffy Shasta Sioux spends most of her time at the foot of our bed + the door has a lock to keep the kiddo out when mama needs a tiny recharge.

Altar space...

The view from our bedroom window!

The view down below. This is our little shed. LOVE the extra space! Tomatoes have been planted. Hope hope hoping they work some magic and feed us well this summer.

I decided not to grace you with inside views of the bathrooms. Let's face it: a bathroom is a bathroom. Ummm... dining area has recently been home to all papers that need filing, so that shot will have to wait. Just trust that we are making our space cozy and loving every minute. Okay, honestly, not always loving every minute with the dog. He is so much work. Having to wrestle with the possibility that we just may not be dog people. Strange concept as I grew up with dogs. Murphy is too much a part of the family to not work it out with, but sometimes I think he is like the most challenging member in any family. Ahh well, it can't all be roses and rainbows. How boring that would be.

If you can spare some energy, please send the full-time w/benefits job love our way. We need all the sweet manifestation help we can muster. Big blessings and thanks!

Settling in.

Soooo...

the journey continues. We decided to move to Oregon!!! I visited California for a week and then made it back to Salt Lake City soon after the last post and did much in the way of packing our stuff and selling some off. Sadly, we are renting and were unable to bring the chickens with us, but will revisit that project when we manifest OUR HOUSE (I know! I am so excited to see that happen!!!) in the near future! The last couple of months have been a whirlwind of emotions, lack of personal space + movement and I needed to save all of the energy I had... but:

We made it to Newport on May 2nd after a fairly uneventful move (which was only possible with the help of my rad dad who flew to SLC and then drove the moving truck for us and flew back to California!). We are unpacking in between the usual. You know?: eating, sleeping, taking walks on the beach... I decided to take my time pulling out the camera in an effort to really just be here now. We are finally beginning to feel settled. Found a much needed playground just a few blocks away today, so the routine that Sebastian loves can and will continue. Starting to feel the urge to dig out that camera and share a bit of visual love with you all. I'm thinking I need another week to complete most of the box emptying and then the photos will flow. Can't wait!

Adventures in green & blue.

My fam spontaneously hopped in the car over a week ago and drove to Oregon in hopes of finding a place to relocate to. We didn't tell anyone we were going... heck, we didn't know we were going until the night before. It is just time. Time to be where we want to be. Time to be where our souls surge with joy simply because the air is pure. Time to move forward and live a new adventure; to journey into the present with our dreams intact. And so we were welcomed sweetly into the home of long time friends who are more like family. It has been magic. I am so humbled at being accepted into their space and given shelter and a safe space from which to manifest our new place of residence. So so so completely grateful.

Ben jumped back in the car a few days ago to get home to packing and Sebastian and I stayed behind to continue our apartment/house search. We have found the perfect rental just 2 blocks from the ocean... keep your fingers crossed for us. We should know if it's ours in the next couple of days! How will we get home? Perfectly enough, my sweet friends have a family engagement in the Sacramento area at the end of this week. We're hitching a ride with them and then spending some time with friends and family in Davis/Sacramento for about a week before hopping on a train back to Salt Lake. After that will be a feat of furious packing. We are moving to Oregon in early to mid May!!! And so, a tiny view of what is in store for us... Blue skies, blue waves, sand, sun, greeeeeeen & a healthy dose of RAIN!

McBride family forest @ Daisy Hill:

A bit of calm achieved... Trusting what is to come.

Tiny sandy footprints and a very fast boy:

Mama Ocean...

Very BIG smiles.

Collecting energy.

I know, right? What happened to the 30 days of beauty? Trouble with the laptop, too many photos in the camera that need to be loaded onto the laptop, waiting for a cable to arrive to make it all a reality, received wrong cable... still waiting for the right one to arrive. Blah.

I guess you could say that all of this trouble came at just the right moment as I have been feeling a major push to clam up and go within a bit more. There are so many possibilities for our future right now and my little family is just fraying at the weight of it all. Sounds all ominous and stuff, but it really isn't. We don't know much right now, but we do know that we will probably be moving in the next few months. We have an idea of where we would like to land, but we don't have the specifics all ironed out yet. We are left weighing a whole lot of pros and cons; mainly in relation to acquiring land with a livable (but probably needing loads of work) house vs. almost no land and a decent house (considering the price range we are working with). Ben's dream is land. I am cool with some land and possibly forest, but I tend to lean toward the nice-house-on-half-an-acre-or-more-at-the-edge-of-a-small-town side of life. Like I said: lots of pros and cons floating around right now...

So, if I am silent as of late you know why. I'm saving my energies for big decisions and manifestation of big dreams. My current mantras: Patience. Trust. All is as it should be. NOW is the time to make our dreams a reality.

Signs of settling in.

We made it to Utah & are finally feeling settled. We are loving the increase in living space, unlimited gardening opportunities, family meals at the dining table, crisp mountain air, & hour long walks around our hilly neighborhood. Aside from missing our family and friends back in California, we seriously couldn't be happier. There are still a lot of unknowns, but this change just feels so 'right'.

Sebastian is blossoming in every way; exploring his voice, signing, running, jumping, tumbling, dancing & developing a hysterical sense of humor. Needless to say, we are loving him to pieces. 

I am excited about being able to share stories & keep you all updated in this space & I look forward to any suggestions/feedback/comments you'd like to point my way. In the meantime, enjoy a peek at the last few weeks: 

Absolute pure happiness! 

Let the sprouting begin! 

Catchers of light.

Veggie starts pushing through! 

Poster girl for gettin' things done.