New Year, New Focus

I have missed my blog since the house situation was resolved.  I contemplated what to do with it for quite a while before and after the foreclosure, and to be honest, after the house sale fell through I needed a break from telling that story.

Now, I've decided to tweak the focus here, and keep on bloggin'. 

If you notice, I've renamed the blog "Home." Our foreclosure journey is still a key part of the blog, since it's a key part of our story, but it is no longer the focus. I've labeled the main posts from that time-frame "The Path to Now," and you can access it through the tab at the top or by clicking on the labels on the right.

The process of losing a beloved home, reassessing priorities, and reaffirming values has made me really think long and hard about what home is to me, what kind of home I want to create for our children, and what it entails to create that home.

So, that's what this blog is now about.  HOME. 

Posts by me, and hopefully some amazing guest writers, on all things to do with HOME:  finances, family relationships, shopping, decorating, whatever! Don't worry, this will not become some perfectionist's ideal of a perfect home - because I am NOT a perfectionist's ideal of a perfect homemaker.  Far from it.

Here's proof - a photo of my living room right now. 

Christmas decorations still up after New Year's.  Kids' toys EVERYWHERE.  See those beady, glowing eyes?  That's the dog sleeping on the blankets I just pulled from the dryer. On the right is a crib mattress leaned against the wall, and just out of sight along the hallway wall is a toddler bed, and various other pieces of furniture that we removed from the girls' rooms last weekend.  I intentionally did not share a picture of the kitchen (yes, it's that bad at the moment!).  And out of sight around the corner is our little entry way, currently overflowing with shoes, coats and goodness-knows what else the kids' (and I, ahem) have dumped there recently. So, really - NOT a perfectionist's ideal.

Just one mom's perspective on what it takes to keep our family, keep our home, moving forward - good and bad.  I hope you enjoy what I share, and as always I love getting feedback, so drop me a note or leave a comment if you have something to share!

New Year Update

Nearly four months have passed since the foreclosure, and life has gone on. The bank finally sold the house, closing last month for $232,300 according to county records. That is almost $20,000 less than the last offer we had ready to close, about $40,000 less than the original sale price when the house was build in 2003, and $150,500 than our purchase price in 2006. Talk about falling prices...

Mr. Four Walls has so far weathered this late fall and early winter with relatively no down time at work, save for a few hours off here and there for the holidays. That is huge for us, since the last four years around this time, we've been faced with a temporary lay-off. Some that didn’t feel so temporary.

I have started working part-time teaching gymnastics to preschoolers and lower levels, mainly to pay for our eldest’s competitive-team coaching expenses. Jellybeans's heart is gymnastics, and she has really missed it these past couple of years as we cut way back to get our financial life back on track. We let each of the older kids choose one activity to join this fall, though, and of course she went straight back to it. Literally. We expected her to need to work back into it, to regain some skills lost, but nope. Her first day they bumped her to pre-team and within a month they had invited her to the competition team. The gym has had some help-wanted signs up for a while, so I threw my name in the hat, and "Voila!" I'm a gymnastics coach. It’s a work out, I’ll tell ya’! Nothing makes you feel middle aged faster than doing repeated forward rolls, hand-stands, and cart-wheels.

The kids are growing like weeds. This school year has been a bit better for them, as they are no longer the new kids, but I also can't say it's been ideal. Jellybean in particular has still struggled to make good friends, making her involvement in positive, outside activities like gymnastics and Girl Scouts so important. Miss Florida is become really close with one neighbor girl, and seems to be thriving. Peanut is almost unrecognizable, becoming such a little kid instead of a baby. Potty-trained, sleeping on the lower bunk of the bunk beds, the works. Sniff, sniff. Not sure I'm ready for it....

I am so thankful to be home again. Granted, they've driven me batty these past few weeks on Christmas break. But that's what they do, right? It's Christmas, after all. It's back to school tomorrow, so hopefully we'll all be back in the swing of things in a few more days. With only one real income, we're not ever really sure where the money will come from for the next month, but so far we've made it work, only by the grace of God I'm sure.

Life has  come full circle. It's not all wine and roses, to be sure, but we are blessed, healthy, and happy - just like we were this time last year, but with a bit more perspective and experience to recognize it.

Happy New Year!