10 THINGS

Hey friends! How's your summer going? Can you believe we're halfway through July already? I guess I have to say that I'm glad. I'm in no way ready to rush the summer by after the epic winter we just had in upstate NY, but I am absolutely ready to get settled again here in Germany. We've been in the hotel for two weeks now, and- God willing- we have another three and half weeks to go before we move into a house. But the good news is we're making progress. We have our cell phones up and running again, we've passed our driving tests and have our German licenses, and we have a house being reserved for us in the neighborhood we like most. And oh! We even found what seems like an amazing new church! So praise God for those things. We're still working on buying new vehicles, getting the boys registered for a little pre-school style care on post, getting Finn's in-country passport, looking into German kindergartens for Asher, and a thousand other little things like that. But we're so thankful to the Lord that things are falling into place, one step at a time.

With life being all-over-the-place I feel like I'm behind on everything. Especially the blog. But there's always time to surf the internet, right? Hahaha. I've been wanting to share a few great sites I've stumbled on for a while now {plus some other stuff that's just for fun}, so here goes;

1. Ruth, at Gracelaced, has a beautiful blog, creates beautiful scripture art, and is a mom of six boys! She has such a great perspective on God's sovereignty in her life- including her all-boy family- and I love this post about it.

2. Another quick and very encouraging post for mothers from Jen, who writes one of my all time favorite blogs.

3. This purse. If I could decide which color I liked best, I might actually buy it!

4. Have you guys heard of Illustrated Faith? Beautiful! It's so inspiring to see women of God who are passionate and expressive in their love for the bible.

5. Orla Kiely has the funnest prints. It's taken every ounce of self control I have to not spend $40 on these muslin swaddle blankets.

6. Seeing the before and after of fully renovated homes is one of my favorite ways to waste time (hahaha). But seriously, I really admire people who have the vision to transform something old an and unloved into something extraordinary, like this home in upstate NY. And what do you know, it's for sale!

7. This Graco Ready2Go Click Connect double stroller has made this trip overseas so much easier. It was a life saver at the airport, and it makes getting around Germany on foot so much easier {until we get a car, we have to walk everywhere!}. We bought it two days before leaving the states and are so glad we did. 

8. She Reads Truth is still in the middle of their current "Women in the Word" series, and it's great.

9. So I don't get too many chances to "pamper" my kids, being an all-boy mom. But I do love using this Shea Moisture Raw Shea Chamomile and Argon Oil baby wash/shampoo for their baths. They smell so, so good afterwards.

10. For those of you who are local to Grafenwoehr, this church! I already linked to it above, but just wanted to mention it one more time. We've only been once so far, but our first impression was great and I honestly can't wait to go back again.

Have a great weekend, friends!

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So it turns out that juggling three kids + a move to Germany is a little bit nuts, hence me being massively behind on our 52 Week Photo project posts and just about everything else in my life. But the photos have been taken, just not posted. So here's hoping I can get things caught up! 

ASHER / 4 yrs / All smiles on the farm during our long stay with family between duty stations.

SILAS / 2 yrs / Happy birthday, Silas! Unfortunately he turned two the day we drove from New York to Virginia, so we didn't do much celebrating that day. He got a party a little later with lots of the family though, so it was worth the wait.

PHINEHAS / 1 mo. / Still spending lots of his days napping, but starting to smile a little bit here and there!

GETTING TO GRAFENWOEHR

We made it! 

It's been a crazy six weeks since we packed up and left New York in early June and there's been almost ZERO time for blogging. But if you've followed me on Instagram or Facebook you've probably seen these and a handful of other photos of some of our first adventures in Germany. And all I can say so far is OH, MY. Moving overseas is no walk in the park, and it involves so much more than just the traveling.

Speaking of the traveling- WOW. Here's how it went. We woke up the morning of June 30th and got our packing finished. We left the house in Virginia at 2:30pm to make the drive to the airport in Baltimore. We arrived in Baltimore at about 6pm and got in line to be able to check in at 8pm for our 2:45am flight. Yes- you heard that right- our 2:45am flight- with all three of our kids. After checking in at 8pm, as we were told to do, we went through security and got to the gate in order to wait until boarding time, which was at 1:15am. Except instead of boarding the plane at 1:15am, a lovely announcement informed us that our flight was delayed. By FOUR HOURS. Most of the people in the terminal let out a yell of shock while Thane and I took the quiet, already-too-beaten-down-to-do-anything-but-accept-our-fate-and-sit-silently approach as the news sunk in. So after about twelve hours of waiting in the airport, we finally boarded the plane around 5am and took off around 6am. We flew for six or so hours and landed in Ramstein around 7pm local time, where we sat at in the airport waiting on luggage and doing in-processing for three hours. Once we finally got into a hotel room around 10pm, we had just enough time to get the boys settled down and sleep for about six hours before it was time to get back up and start traveling again. We were super fortunate to get a van ride the rest of the way to Grafenwohr, which took about four hours. That was followed by a little more in-processing, and then- praise God- we made it to the hotel room we're now calling home for at least the next month.

LONGEST. TRIP. EVER. And this transition is nowhere near over.

But we made it. And boy, Bavaria is beautiful! One of the first things I noticed was the real, working shutters on homes, as well as the gorgeous flowers in lots of the windows.

An the bakeries? Yum! We've been eating good this past week, to say the least.

This chapter in our lives is obviously just getting started, so I'm sure there will be lots to share along the way. I think I could write a whole book about everything involved in an overseas move just based on these last couple of months! But that's another post, haha. In the meantime, we're so thankful for all of the wonderful family and friends {and even strangers} who've helped us, not to mention a thousand little graces along the way. God is good, and- if I can find a few spare minutes- I'll be back with more to share soon!

FINGER PAINT PHOTOBOMB

I don't think I'll ever have too many photos of the boys doing their finger painting!

PHOTO*JOURNAL | BITS & PIECES

We've had a crazy few weeks since starting the PCS/moving process in the beginning of this month, but I wanted to post some snapshots of some of the recent happenings in New York. I still have a lot of photos from our time there that I haven't had a chance to post, but hopefully it'll happen when things slow down a little. Right now we're busy busy busy soaking up time with family in Virginia, but in less than two weeks it'll be time to head over to Germany. Hard to believe!


THE PHOTOS
1. A vintage purse that ended up on the wall instead of in my closet.

2. A muddy faced Asher, from the same batch of photos as his weekly portrait from a couple of weeks ago.

3. The complete collection of Winnie the Pooh. Not quite one of our boys' favorites {Asher's into superheroes and Silas is into trains}, but Pooh definitely holds a spot in my heart!

4. Silas sporting an outfit gifted to Finn. Couldn't stand to wait long enough for Finn to fit into it!

5. Came across all the leftover favor bags from Asher's birthday party when we were getting ready to have our house packed up a couple of weeks back. Might as well have found a chest full of gold as far as the boys were concerned.

6. Cleaned out my accessories drawer. One step closer to a simpler, less cluttered life! Read more about that goal here.

7. As much as I love his new short hair, I can't help but miss those curls a little.

8. Silas' own personal moon.

9. Playing with paint.

10. One of greatest {and worst!} parts about having a house on the market- keeping things as clean as possible- including decluttered bathroom counter tops. 

11. Speaking of the moon, here Silas is pointing one out. It's his absolute favorite thing to spot in a book!

12. Fresh white bedding.

21/52

ASHER / 4 yrs / Smiling for the camera and jumping on the bed; always a good combination! We recently bought two twin sized beds, one for Asher and one for Silas, but so far Silas is more than happy to stay in the crib in the other room. So Asher has a field day having TWO beds all to himself. At least until we get to Germany.

PHINEHAS / 6 weeks / I haven't quite caught it on camera, but he's starting to smile! He's also much more wakeful most days and sleeping fairly well at night, {with a few exceptions, of course...when are kids ever totally predictable?}

SILAS / 23 mo. / Everyone deserves a chair that's just their size! This little vintage school chair is mostly used for climbing up onto Thane and I's bed, but this week it was a great prop for our photos. By the way, Silas technically has a few more days until he hits two, but he has fully arrived to his terrible two stage. Asher seemed to skip that altogether, so this is new {and scary} territory for us.

DIY ENGINEER PRINTS, ROUND TWO

Well, after being totally thrilled with my first DIY Engineer print, it only took me a year to get around to doing more, hahaha. I knew where I wanted to hang more large prints- on either side of our downstairs office window- but finding an affordable set of white frames and deciding what to put in them took considerably longer. The heat really turned on when I found out we were moving away from the states and away from Staples, where I have these done for four bucks a pop, so I figured I'd better get to it while I still could!

There's a song by the David Crowder Band on their Give Us Rest album that's a simple, folksy, and stunningly beautiful tribute to the fact that Christ wrapped Himself in humanity and came for us. That he was "faint and weary" when He sought us. That He worked hard, sacrificed much, and ultimately poured Himself out for our sakes; a reminder I need every day as I meet weariness of my own.

So, here's a big praise for our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, and for the David Crowder Band for glorifying Him with such beautiful music. Listen to the song here! You'll be blessed.