Trying my hardest

In my perfect world I can do it all... Raise my three children to be sweet, loving, incredibly obedient angels. Keep my house clean and tidy at all times. Have three meals on the table on time, every day. Homeschool my three angels who would go on to become rocket scientists because of their brilliant schooling. Bake something amazing every day. And keep this blog updated and captivating, full of wonderful pictures, gaining hundreds of followers a day.

Let's face it. This is no perfect world. I strive for all of the above and the most important to me is how I raise my children and what kind of people they become. But really, my house is a mess, meal time isn't always on time, we tried homeschooling, life got in the way, and I am still wrestling with trying it again.  Baking takes me three times longer than the average person, and most days I can't wrap my head around being brilliant enough for a blog post. But I am trying to re-spin this blog. I'd love for it to involve my life happenings, my baking adventures and our quest to homeschool. But I might be setting myself up for failure. I am great at multi-tasking, but I don't know if I'm cut out to do it all. I have several friends who homeschool and keep up a daily blog. I have several friends who bake amazingness and blog about it every day. Their pictures are amazing. Their words are entertaining. And some of those people homeschool, bake AND blog. How do they do it?! I have a love for writing. I have three crazies who provide me with a great amount of inspiration. I bake as much as I can. But the trick is doing it all. Every day.

So let's start with this.  Almost a year and a half ago our lives changed drastically.  My husband lost his worship director position at the church we had attended for almost 8 years.  We, in turn, with very heavy hearts left the church.  All of the plans we had for our lives flew out the window before we could roll them up.  Our house got put on the market.  We were faced with not living next door to my mom anymore, not staying in the the only home our children had ever known. The home we never envisioned leaving.  We didn't know what God was trying to teach us, but we knew something was going to change.  After much prayer and conversation, we agreed God was calling us elsewhere.  After a whole lot of deliberation, we realized God was calling us to Iowa.  Yea, Iowa.  Almost smack dab in the middle of the country.  1,800 miles away from most of our family.  Who wouldn't jump on the first plane out of sunny, beautiful California to head to Iowa?!  ;)  We sold our house, lived in an apartment for 6 months and then moved in with my mom to await the exodus out of California.  Two months later we said goodbye to our family and friends and took a huge step of faith, knowing that God wanted to use us in a new area.  I spent the month of August with our children in Iowa getting unpacked and settled, starting school and soccer.  My husband went back to California for the month to finish up his guitar lessons.  That was a long, tiring month!

So here we are, living in Ames, IA for 2 months now.  Autumn is upon us.  I have so missed this chilly, leaves changing color weather!  The kids are in school and loving it.  The soccer season is almost over.  My husband is teaching guitar lessons and working as a graphic designer at a local company.  I am on a quest to cut out as much processed, unhealthy stuff from our diets as possible.  I make a lot of our food from scratch these days.  We are all making friends.  We look forward to traveling around the mid-west.  The kids are excited for winter.  They haven't had much experience with snow in their lives.  I am thrilled to have a white Christmas again!  We love living in the same town again as my brother, sister-in-law and nieces and nephews.  It's been too long and I cherish every moment we spend together!  We are excited for this new journey!