Kevin...our medicine of laughter at the end of the day.

It has been busy for us lately.  And crazy.  And stressful (I think).  And trying.  And tiring.  And exciting.  And adventurous.  And fun.  And I'm sure a slew of other adjectives, but due to the aforementioned adjectives, my mind cannot think of other ones.  Just know it has been a different time in our lives.

Many of you know that when we sold our beautiful 1945 Cape Cod home in Merrillville almost 7 years ago, we intended to be in the house business.  We wanted to build a house, live in it for a couple of years and then sell it to do it all over again in the hopes of working down our mortgage.  That was when we had 2 kids.  Now we have 5 kids and the same dream of working down a mortgage, but the economy and medical bills and the simple cost of kids has kind of halted our progress in that area....mostly the housing economy.  Humphf.

Still, we sit at another crossroad of sorts having just sold our home again.  We are [technically] living at the farm now and initially had no intention of looking for a house all summer.  However, we have found a house in the most unexpected area.  Actually, we didn't find the house.  A family friend told us about it a couple months ago, but the house was already marked as sold, so I wrote it off.  The other day I was looking at houses online again and accidentally did a search I didn't intend to do and this house showed up and it was active again.  We were looking at the best house (a fixer-upper) in the worst neighborhood.  Now we are looking at a fixer-upper in the best neighborhood.

We don't know if the house is going to be ours or not, but we are praying for wisdom in this area.  If we get the house, this could be our forever home.  It is also priced at well over $100,000 under the neighborhood comps, so we also have a good investment, should the housing market bounce back up.  God knows what's going on.  We don't.  We are praying!    Feel free to do the same if you think about it.

The other thing we are doing is getting a new [to us] vehicle.  Tim's grandma passed away on tax day, of all days (one thing to smile about) and she left us "a little something" that we are splitting between a house and a car.  It's quite a sucky way to get a new car, but we are thankful and wanted to use the gift as wisely as possible.  Tim may be flying out to Mannassas, VA this weekend to pick up a 2005 9 passenger Suburban with 38,000 miles.  It is a fabulous truck and I can't say as I am not excited!!!

We have never had so many decisions to make in one week, much less decisions of this importance, but again, we are praying for wisdom and plain ol' divine intervention if necessary, so feel free to pray to that end along with us.  In all of this I also lost my voice for a week and we have been waiting for our house to close.  We are now on our 3rd closing date.  Grrr.  Thankfully we have a dog who brings us something to laugh at when the kids are in bed and have already come to the bedroom door 5 times [at least] for one reason or another.  He is sound asleep and was snoring, but oh, what a site for weary, haven't laughed all month (maybe not that long) eyes!