Sooo, we did a thing. We love our little home sweet hub so much! BUT we all miss the country life and the wide open spaces acreage brings. We also grossly undershot on how much room a 45 ft RV would take up in the shop. Let's just say I am tired of lifting up my butt cheeks over the chest freezer to slide over to the upright one. ;) We absolutely love travel life, and plan to continue. When we are pulling through home, we want to have some acreage to enjoy. Sounds like the kids want to come home each summer for camp and long for some longer periods of home. If our kids need ROOTS to have WINGS, I am happy to comply. These stirrings have been months in the processing, so we have been praying for a long time whether to buy a home here, or in Florida, build here, or just sell it all and only keep the RV. The Lord has been putting all the pieces together and nudging our hearts in ways I couldn't even express, including a trip to a farmhouse in Ohio with a family that travels to and from their home, wintering in Florida, but circling back between trips. This kind of travel sounded just like what we had been rolling over in our minds. God is so good! When we got back home, we started looking for land to just feel things out. We looked & we prayed..... We prayed & we looked..... And when we found our dream acerage, we made an offer. The land owners countered back and forth with us a while before we walked away......they were just a little higher on price than we were comfortable spending. I will be honest, I cried. I felt so SO sure this property was meant to be ours. It just FELT so magical, so right, when we were out there. You can feel the presence of the Lord so keenly in this space. But I trust the Lord, and His plan for us, I know He knows what I need more than I do. So I let it go and crawled to bed, disappointed, but at peace. The VERY next morning, we heard from our realtor - THE LAND WAS OURS. All 40 acres of it. They said YES! Guys, this place checks ALL THE BOXES! It is off pavement for the RV. It has a beautiful forest. It has open pasture. It has a pond and a windmill. It has a long, tucked back, dreamy, winding lane. It has a view that takes my breath away. Everything we could've dreamed up and MORE..... We couldn't WAIT to show the kids. (Destiny is working at camp) We spent HOURS out there just exploring and playing, God is SO good to hear the desires of our hearts, and move on our behalf to help make them happen. EVEN with a test of faith along the way to be sure we are willing and obedient! It's going to be a process. Picking the right shop design, finding a home plan we all like, the actual building. Doing all the finish work we can, bringing in the pros for the rest. Ooo but I LOVE me a good floor plan hunt. ;) Someday, hopefully soon, we can call this beautiful place our Home Sweet Hub. Our Shoresh Shed. Shoresh is hebrew for "Roots" and the Lord began whispering this to me months ago already. I am watching for glimpses of what He has in store, but plan to enjoy the ride as we put down some deeper roots here in this beautiful space. In the meantime, people have already been calling and asking to come tour our Home Sweet Hub! They are super intrigued by our bright and cheerful shed home and are interested in making it their own.... Orange fridge doesn't stay, and the kitchen is nicely white and grey without it, for any taste pallet! But the brand new stove stays! Wahoo! It's such a dream to cook on. It makes my heart happy to know that someone new will enjoy the beautiful forest views from large living room window. And enjoy lots of visitors through the back yard: deer, birds, squirrel and a family of turkey that pass through each day. So peaceful and zero road noise! It is such a beautiful, happy space!! We are so excited to see who the Lord calls to make this their home sweet home! :)
Hugs, T
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We left Kansas January and returned the end of May..... We loved our dreamy winter in Florida and a FUN spring run to Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee & Ohio! But alas, it was time to circle back to Kansas and our home sweet hub. As we moved back in to our space, a blog formed in my head called: 12 THINGS YOU NOTICE AFTER LIVING IN AN RV Here we go: #1 - Regular Water Pressure Regular water pressure feels like a HIGH POWDERED pressure washing MIRACLE WORKER! Especially after several low pressure rv park water systems! We all had to stare and comment on the amazing power of WATER on dirty dishes. Haha! :) Speaking of water and #2.... #2 - WATER in the Toilet In an RV, you manually add water to the toilet, before you can do your business. Sometimes things are um, urgent and people can barely get water in fast enough to do their duty. We all reach for the side of the toilet to push the button to add water when we first get home. LOL! :D Hey guys, guess what? These toilets COME WITH WATER ALREADY IN THEM!!!! #3 - While We Are STILL Discussing Water Did you know in a home not on wheels, you can run the dishwasher, washing machine, the sink AND the shower at the SAME TIME?! Shut the front door. Who invents this stuff?! #4 - Five Bar Cell Service and Wifi You mean cell phones and verizon wifi boxes can have FIVE bars of service? WHAT is this phenomenon? RV parks are notorious for horrible cell service in park and spotty Wifi you share with all the neighbors. NO BUENO! We can hardly believe how strong our signal gets when we get home. Not always in our metal shed home, but most of the time outside it!!! #5 - Anybody Home? I swear, I spend half my time in our home sweet hub, trying to FIND MY FAMILY!!!! After living in 400 sq feet most of the year, 1600 sq ft feels ENORMOUS. Guys? Guuuyyyyyssss????? DALE?! WHERE IS EVERYONE? #6 - Warp Speed Laundry It's not until I get home to my full sized washer and dryer that I realize just how HUGE they really are compared to my cute little RV washer dryer set. We do 2 loads a day in the RV, to stay on top of things. At our home sweet hub I can do FIVE GIANT loads of laundry, in the time it takes the RV washer/dryer to do ONE. No kidding! What is this time and speed conundrum? #7 - Toilet Paper LUXURY Regular toilet paper is SO SOFT and luxurious!!!!! Rv toilet paper has to be single ply so it doesn't clog the fancy imancerator system. I JUST WANT SOFT PAPER FOR MY TOOSHIE, OKAY!? It's the little things people. #8 - I Want My Bed First world problems, when you like your RV mattress better than your home sweet hub one. I WANT MY SOFT BED BACK! #9 - Pooper Duty You take your dog out to do her business and by habit, reach for a pooper duty bag! OH YEAH......NO more pooper scooping when you are home, HALLELUJAH! #10 - Bake ALL THE THINGS RV convection oven doesn't bake in the center, and it heats up the whole home, so you learn quickly to grill, OR, do skillet or instant pot meals. That means when you get home, YOU BAKE ALL THE THINGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Casseroles, egg bakes, comfort foods, brownies, cupcakes.... ALL. THE. BAKED. THINGS. NOW. #11 - A SHOPPING SPREE When you are gone so many months from what you dub your "Kansas Closet", you find clothes you like again, and get to switch for items you are tired of in your RV closet! FREE SHOPPING SPREE ANYONE?! Yes, we all share the RV closet x 6. We just have to be choosy what comes with us! We also all share the "Kansas Closet" upstairs, full of winter clothes we only need when we are here in cold weather. Downstairs in the laundry room is our "Family Closet". Super handy on laundry day AND when it's time to move in and out of the RV closet, seasonly. And #12 in our list of things you notice we you live in an RV for a while...... How quickly your heart misses it............... .......and how BADLY you want to get back in it and go for another ADVENTURE!!!!!! We are in Kansas for the rest of the summer, barring a few quick trips here and there.
So long until next time..... Hugs, T Frostine says HI from COLD Kansas! :) Our life sure isn't as exciting when we aren't on the road, but I will say, it's been so so nice to just be cozy at home. I think my heart is hurting as we approach the one year anniversary of my daddy's passing, (weekend before Christmas) and it's just good to BE STILL. Be near his final resting place. Try again, to have a "first" Christmas in our new apartment. We've been keeping VERY busy with classes and business events at our place. I don't think we EVER expected to host out here this much!!!! AND we are hosting all 3 Christmas gatherings this year! I feel so grown up! ;) We loved finishing this apartment, and it has been such a joy to our hearts to have this place to come home to. In fact, Dale enjoyed the process so much, he talks about selling and doing it all again. Oh dear. Haha, know of anyone wanting a darling apartment with RV stall? ;) Super handy! Or RV stall could become finished space or woodworking shop! We have had so many people interested in this unique space. After several late nights of classes, we woke up to sweet Avery making everyone eggs and pancakes for breakfast! That girl sure knows her way around a kitchen for 10 years old. She even made french press coffee for daddy! In other FUN news, we sold our black and grey RV to our dear friends and doTERRA business partners, the Lawrences! We handed over the keys officially. Hope they love it as much as we did! Speaking of doTERRA, we decided to host a Christmas open house while we were home for Team Dorothy! Everyone pitched in to help make gifts and preparations for our guests. We even went up to Grandma's restaurant to get the tree set up for her AND for our party! Her place is only open during the day, so it makes for a LOVELY twinkly magical place to rent for evening events. It took us two carloads to move up there and get set up, but it was magical and I think everyone had a really nice time. I tell you what, we have been getting the BEST mail lately! Our team and doTERRA family is just amazing! Speaking of mail, I want to tell you about these canvases before I close. It's called Canvas On Demand, and I used to use them at our farm house for all my 4 seasons pics I took and swapped out seasonally. OH MY GOODNESS!!!!! It is a massive 24x36 and is gorgeous and well done! I only paid $33!!!! ($276 list price) Woah baby. Link here SERIOUSLY, snag one. I had Pax stand beside it so you could see how big this is.... :) The 2nd one just showed up for our bedroom. It's not hung yet, but I think it will look nice here! It's a big enough wall that it doesn't look so massive, but it is HUGE! And for only $33 instead of nearly $300?! Total win! More blogs to come soon, I am downloading pics now.
Much love, T Did you all have an amazing Thanksgiving weekend? We had a full and fun weekend of family, friends and even a girls sleepover with Nana. Wednesday we spent the day prepping food. When you have 60 people at Thanksgiving, everyone brings triple batches of everything!!!! We prepped several batches of this Bacon Swiss Salad, but won't assemble until right before lunch on Thanksgiving day. Several batches of these Oreo Pumpkin Cheesecakes. And for our family dinner Wed night, because I grew up eating this, Double Sensation Pumpkin Pie. We entertained a special guest from Tuesday night to Monday night. Meet Benson the Hedge Hog. The kids were in "Hog Heaven!" ;) I spent a lot of time asking people to wash hands and vacuum cedar chips off the floor! But he sure is adorable!!!! Thursday we headed over to Dale's home he grew up in, which now belongs to Aunt Lucy! There were people and tables EVERYWHERE, but here is what stole the show. Haha, the whole hog that was smoked to go along with the 2 turkey's. Aunt Lucy and Uncle Phil run a local butcher shop and have the best, hormone free meat. After our HUGE lunch, we visited and played games until it was time to get out all the food again for supper before heading home. The next day, the boys loaded up in the RV and headed to the Sand Dunes for Friday and Saturday, in Wanoka. No photos, because well...Dale. ;) We headed over to Nana's for the afternoon and then a sushi dinner at our favorite place, Mr. Cao's. With no boys around to interrupt, we headed to our house for an ice cream sundae party while we watched a girlie movie..... DoTERRA has the BEST Mud Mask, especially when you add a drop of the oh so luxurious Blue Tansy to it and make it a SMURF mask! Bentonite clay is very drawing and very warming, so the girls didn't last as long as Nana and I did. Nana slept over and the next morning we headed an hour and a half to meet up with some our Fercho friends and talk some oils with her family. We celebrated friendsgiving with a walk around the cemetary where the family was buried as well as ate at the BEST Mexican place for lunch. This is Grandma Dory, she is 98 and the CUTEST little spit fire you ever did meet. She was a hoot! We gave the adults some peace and quiet, and took the girls to the park for a few hours before heading back. We stopped in the large metro area we passed through on the way home, and made a couple returns and got some groceries at Sam's before heading home. I should've known our "quick stop" wouldn't be quick, but I forgot Black Friday lines spill into Saturday lines too. MY GOODNESS! We got home at dark and the boys got home closer to midnight. They were sandy and exhausted but SMILING from ear to ear. We discussed home church instead of early service, and decided to see how everyone felt in the am...... But our decision was made FOR us when we woke up to Blizzard conditions and a winter weather advisory. Church services started cancelling left and right! Nothing says Sunday at home, more than a big brunch, and a jammie day! The wind was HOWLING at over 30 mph. Towns nearby had 19 car piles ups and it was a mess! So glad for a home day by the fire. I walked over to check on my kiddos and got some pics of our place all covered in snow... Sophie decided it was time for us to head to FLORIDA! I told her, not yet. My snow-o-meter is not filled up yet! I ADORE how cozy it makes the house feel. If its going to be cold, it might was well be pretty and white too, right?! The kids LOVE when I make them homemade Cocoa after hours outside trapsing around in the snow. I have a recipe we make at Christmas with canned sweetened condensed milk and cream, but for times like these, just a quick batch of the easy stuff tastes great! INGREDIENTS per 1 cup of whole milk 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder 1 to 2 tablespoons sugar (depending on how sweet you like it) Pinch of salt 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract We are gearing up for a class a day this week, then next week is our team Christmas party. SO MUCH TO DO, so little time. Off I go!
Have a great week! Hugs, T We have always firmly believed we needed to involve our kids in the daily chores and runnings of the household. And from a very young age, they loved to be a helper and pitch in. Set the table. Unload the dishwasher. Make their beds. Fold laundry. Kids are CAPABLE! I wrote a whole blog post about this on the 4 little Fergusons blog years ago if this topic interests you. Cleaning House (With LOTS Of Help) Recently, as everyone in our family reached the age of 8 and above, we have started including meal planning, shopping and preparing of one meal a week, per each child. This is one of the perks of homeschool! T-I-M-E to do just that. With home ec being skipped and more kids than ever leaving the nest without a clue about basic budgets, grocery trips and meal prep, we are more determined than ever, to include those things in our daily teachings. Here is what we are making this go around, plus a couple momma threw in on the back. Avery wanted to go first with her homemade Tomato soup and grilled cheese. It was super cold and I didn't blame her a bit! Dale and I had a class that night, so no photo of her making it. You will LOVE this recipe from my momma! Paxton was next with some AWESOME stir fry! He gets daddy's help, but really does so well staying on task and helping out. I was home that day, so lots of photos to share! ;) You can find the recipe for this Asian Honey Sesame Chicken and Quick Lo Mein here. Cold days call for COOKIES......Avery and Pax and I made a triple batch of gooey chocolate chip. UH OH, we have no milk. NO worries, we just used EGG -NOG in the recipe instead. HOLY AMAZING! Ty read our school chapter book to us while we baked.....we called it HOME EC! :) After Destiny's potato and starchy noodle dry casserole, I always give her a hard time about the weird dishes she picks. She can handle my teasing, but I really had to eat crow this time....... AND a bowl of delicious dinner she made! LOL! :) Looking at the recipe, I thought it would be absolutely dry and flavorless. NOPE! AMAZING. Check it out: Tex Mex Pasta (We don't do much with cream of soups anymore, but we did find a nice organic one in the natural section. ) I require a veggie too, so we picked a Mexican salad to go with the Mexican pasta. SO YUMMY! I don't usually buy bagged salad, but this chopped one? DIVINE! One night we got home super late from a function but still needed to throw dinner together, thank goodness for this family favorite and staple at our house!!!! It is a must try on your next menu! :) Ty and Daddy had it put together in 20 minutes! Creamy Hamburger Casserole We usually serve it with regular mixed veggies, but this time my shopper grabbed the kind with LIMA BEANS IN IT. Now you know I am a good eater, and I love to eat anything, but I draw the line at LIMA BEANS. I was flashing back to my elementary school days when I used to hide them in the milk carton so I could go back for seconds! Shh, don't tell! Last 2 are from this Momma, so no cooking pics, except from the blog. Go check these out! You will love BOTH! The BEST Italian Beef Sandwiches, served with Lawry's season salt dusted tator tots and carrot sticks on the side. Peppered Beef Snow Peas over Turmeric Rice - such a flavorful stir fry. Corn starch helps the flavor REALLY coat the steak like chinese take out does. Recipe calls for a brown rice bake, have at it. I just did it on the stove this go around, and added turmeric, garlic and turmeric, lemongrass and ginger doTERRA essential oil to the chicken broth before I boiled it. SUPER flavorful! That's a wrap folks, on another addition of My 4 Chefs: Kids in the Kitchen!
Did you find something you want to make? Inspired to try something new this menu? Leave us a comment, I will read them to the kids! Hugs, T and the 4 Fergusons :) We hurried home from Missouri to try to beat a wintery weather advisory. And thank the Lord, we DID! In fact, look what we woke up to our first morning home. MAGICAL. Big, fat, lazy flakes falling all day, made us want to cozy up near the fireplace and decorate for Christmas early. The kids were GLUED to the window after shrieking with joy, that IT SNOWED! It takes us about 4 or 5 hours to move back in, and get the apartment back up and running. Water on. Fridge plugged in. Stripping and washing bedding in the RV. Cleaning both houses. PHEW, it's a lot but it's great and we are thankful for this place and our home sweet rolling home in its warm shed stall next to it. One of the first things I wanted to do once I got all my 'chores' done, was to get out the antiques we had bought on our fall run. I have been watching for some fun retro pieces. They are harder to find than you would think! So much of it is farm and barn, and our new apartment is all 50's and retro, so it is tricky. I think these fit nicely, don't you?! Miss Avery was SO sure it was time to decorate for Christmas now that we were moved in and cozy by the fire. I will be honest, I wanted to too! Sooo, I broke all my own rules about no Christmas until after Thanksgiving, but anymore....I just want to enjoy life in all it's moments. Live them to the fullest. Throw rules to the wind and just ENJOY Christmas early if I want to. Besides, if we leave right after Christmas, it will be torn down early too. ;) So decorate we did! Deck the Hub with boughs of holly, fa la la la la, la la la LA! We saran wrap our tree every year, so it's super easy to just fluff and dust it and focus on the mantel and other details. Take a walk through. I have little bottle trees here and there that make me smile. I just think they are SO CUTE! Slideshow: Remember our old farm house we lived in before the road? Well, I had that green, gold and red tree in saran wrap in the shed storage area ever since! So it was time to unearth the old gal, dust her off well and get her upstairs where our red and black movie theatre room was in need of some Christmas cheer. I am SO excited I didn't sell it as planned. It makes the upstairs feel as festive as the downstairs. We even found a little rainbow light up tree for our colorful orange bathroom..... It may be early, but it sure makes my heart happy! I am going to enjoy every minute of it. :)
When do you put up your tree? Hugs, T I realized the other day, when someone asked to see pics of our home sweet hub, aka our shed house, that I had never blogged the finished, or almost finished, product. I got to thinking of the timeline and then it hit me, we finished it up, got ready to settle in for our first fall and Christmas there, and then got the call about my dad not doing well. We loaded up to go live in Florida until further notice, came back for his funeral the week before Christmas, and then well, healing and life. Better late than never.... Come on in! Now that you've seen the main room, come check out the laundry room and main floor bath. This is the back door that leads right out to the RV stall for easy loading and unloading! At the top of the stairs, we find the family room, aka the tv room. And the game loft! Rainbow bathroom and bedrooms: We also are still working on an outdoor entertainment space: Hope you enjoyed your visit! :)
Hugs, T As we holed up in our Kansas apartment during snowy cold, NEGATIVE 20 degree days, we realized quickly our living room needed some additional seating. (And that we needed to go to Florida sooner than later!) We, in particular, needed some spots that were in front of the fireplace. Its tiny in that living room, and we had to be super careful not to overfill the space, as you have to be able to walk from front door through the living and kitchen bar stool areas to access the staircase. I ordered some petite blue chairs, site unseen, and hoped for the best. I also found a rainbow rug that made me SWOON! It was like happy rainbows and skittles! Thank goodness, everything fit just as we hoped. I LOVE IT! The kids hunkered down right away in front of the fireplace with their books on the soft new rug.... Here it is in the daytime: It's not done yet, I still want to put a little table between the two chairs....and I can't remember if I showed you yet or not, but the banister is done! I love how light it is, I was scared it would close it in, but it didn't. :) We also moved our travel window wall, and by "WE" I mean Dale. :) He helped me move it up to the fireplace because it fit the space so nicely up there between the two high windows. I'll show you the dining room wall where it used to be in a sec. The mantel got a little makeover too! I found this DARLING vintage fabric pennant banner on Etsy. The shop is called "Greenbug Marketplace" and you will LOVE to work with Heather! My goal this summer, as we travel the east coast, is to go antiquing and fill the gaps and empty walls with AMAZING treasures. Road signs, old games, anything that would be cool in our space. So the blue church window used to fit here in the dining room, but now that its on the mantel, I was on the hunt for something "FOOD" themed to go there. Literally, the next week, I found a GEM at our local treasure store. Can you believe how perfect the colors are? I even found a little menu to prop above my stove! Eeek, so cute. 45 cent burgers, anyone? If you want to see more of the Retro Apartment, simply use the side catagories (they are at the bottom on a cell phone) to select "Home Sweet Shed" and have at it! :)
Happy Valentines Day! Hope its a great one... <3 Hugs, T We so enjoyed our time in Kansas over Christmas and through the first of the year. Our little apartment feels so safe and quiet, cozy and happy. The perfect place to mourn daddy before facing Florida again..... This time without him. Ugh. I can't even.... My heart just aches when I think about. I am taking this time to just be still, reflective and allow the Lord to bring healing. As the kids and Dale started feeling ready to join in outings and family events again, sweet Dale whispered to me to just stay home, read a book, or take a soak in the tub and just BE STILL. He knows what I need when I am hurting, and I love him for that. I got the BEST stack of books read, while we were home! Guilty pleasure! :) After living in an RV for 2 years with only a shower, the deep soaking tub we put in the apartment is SUCH a great! Even better, I tuck all my empty oil bottles into a cute jar of epsom salt and when I get a scoop, it makes the best smelling bath! I may have even allowed myself an extra indulgence or 5.... ;) Have you ever put cocoa pebbles in your ice cream? MMmm Mmm amazing! So is homemade cocoa with heavy whipping cream and high quality cocoa powder! Mmm The Father knows my heart and He knows how much I have missed seeing snow, all cozied up in the house by the fire with a blanket and a good book. It hasn't snowed in our small Kansas town for several years now, and it DID, like THREE TIMES when we were there. Praise Jesus for my Winter Wonderland! It was BITTER cold, like -20 with windchill some days, so we cuddled inside, stayed in our jammies, and played games and family wii. (kids Christmas gift for the apartment this year) My photography friend texted and asked if she could get some shots of Destiny in the snow. She had been waiting 3 years for a nice snow to shoot in, and it finally came! We of course, said yes! Here are the images. Heavinly Blessings Photography, by Heather Schlatter if you are in the area. I worked with Heather a ton before we moved, she does such a good job! I just have to say, that I am so thankful that the Lord gave us the urgency to finish our apartment this summer, even when we didn't understand why we wanted to finish it so badly. After all, it had sat unfinished, and empty, except for our stored items, for 2 whole years! Just sitting there waiting for us to have the gumption and finances to finish it. Now it all makes sense..... We needed a safe place to come home to, a place to host our Florida family that flew in for a Christmas funeral. A place to be still and heal. A place to call home in that community. I am so in awe of my Heavenly Father, and how He cares for even the smallest (biggest) details of my life! As we were in the apartment more, we realized quickly, that our living room needed some additional seating. Spots that were in front of the fireplace, not beside it, like the couch. Its tiny in there, and we had to be super careful not to overfill the space. I found THE blue chairs to fit the bill....and a couch I wanted super bad, but alas, no room. And it'd be silly to have a backless couch to curl up on, we'd fall out! ;) But that's another post for another day! :) We made sure we saw all the family, as we prepared to leave again. Kids had friends over, made sushi with our new Sushi Bazooka and just had some fun before closing up shop to head out. Mom came over one day and we went through a box of old photos.....memory lane! We went up to Dale's moms restaurant a ton, she is so sweet to feed us lunch. Amazing amazing yummy lunch!!! :) On our way home, we found my first car in a tiny used car lot downtown!!!! THE '88 Mustang I got from my daddy for Christmas when I was 13. Eeek! I wanted to buy it but its now super duper duper rough and would take like $10k to restore, so we walked away. Darn it! Wouldn't that have been a cool first car for Destiny? I got to enjoy a girls night with my BFF, before we loaded up the RV again.....I don't have any photos except the one I sent when she asked how casual I was going. Haha! We literally were talking a mile a minute and didn't take a single picture. OOPS! We went to our favorite sushi place and had a long fun dinner and then, we saw the BEST movie! The Greatest Showman. Oh it was so good! We went to the new theater in town with cool reclining seats and ate popcorn and candy and all the bad things you shouldn't. ;) As the days went on, we started feeling the PULL towards Florida. A dread, anticipation and a desire, all at once. Dale watched the weather closely so we could move out and hit the road between cold fronts. Buses and ice DO NOT mix! Now it was time to face the hardest part, the new reality awaiting us in Florida. It almost didn't seem real, from so far away, that daddy was actually gone. You *almost* could forget from 1500 miles away in snowy Kansas, because he wasn't part of THAT life if that makes sense?
But it was time, and we knew the Lord would provide the help we needed in this transition.... Hugs, T We are getting antsy to get back on the road again, but have decided to have our first Christmas here in the apartment! YAY! What can I say, the fire is SO cozy and there is just something so exciting to think about Christmas in our new place! Sophie thinks its TOO COLD. Hahahah! I just have to show you this because it made me laugh and laugh... We have a no shoes in the house rule. I am so happy to see that Avery's baby, Alivia, is also obeying those rules . Cutest. Thing. Ever. While we are here, we decided to go ahead and lay concrete out back while it was nice and cool. The kids could hardly stand to do school, they kept migrating back to that big window to watch. If you can't beat them, join 'em. We did a study on concrete and how its made instead! ;) And then on to regular school once they were done pouring...... They begged and begged to make hand prints. Seemed like a good idea to me! They decided Sophie was part of the family too and needed her print: So I have been thinking and thinking about how I am going to pull off Christmas in the midst of a very colorful retro apartment. I think green, brown, red and my normal tree colors will look awful! I started searching for orange, blue and white decor instead, and because we are planning to leave for a few weeks to go to Georgia for Thanksgiving with my family, I thought I'd cheat this year and put up the tree BEFORE Thanksgiving to we can enjoy it a week now, and 2 weeks before Christmas. There is nothing I love more than designing new Christmas tree themes!!!! After that I get bored of them, and that is why I saran wrap them all decorated, and store in the barn, so I just fluff and dust after this first year. BAHAHAHA!!!!!! I had great helpers shopping at Hobby Lobby and decorating back at home: I am SUPER happy with how fun it turned out!!!! And its so cozy at night when the lights are off. I think that's my FAVORITE part of Christmas decorations. Cozy nights and mornings without other lights one...... I still feel a little guilty for decorating before Thanksgiving, but I am thankful for a new apartment to get to decorate, so that counts RIGHT!? ;)
Hugs, T You all, listen to me. I am between a rock and a hard place. I ADORE Fall, its my favorite time of year. I love everything about it! The smells, the crisp air, fire in the fireplace, scarves, boots, sweaters, the fall favorite foods to make without sweating to death in the kitchen. And this year, I AM LOVING FALL in our new apartment! The views are amazing! This place is such a joy to live in.....we are living it up! But.... CAN WE GO TRAVEL NOW? Pleeeeeeease?! We are getting SO SO antsy! We are calling this "The Year of Kansas" because in the almost 3 years we have been on the road, we have yet to be at our home base SO MUCH! Our family is loving it, and we are too, but once you get used to travel, well, being in one place for so long - its tricky. I miss the sounds of the RV starting up, the feeling I get in my heart, and the excited chatter of the kids as they set up their hang out spots for a travel day. I miss flipping open the Trip Advisor app to study up on local things to see, eat and do. I miss getting to shop at funky cool farmers markets weekly, and unique grocery stores. I miss the simplicity of a 400 square foot space to live in. I miss my family! When we are home, we are way busier and see less of each other, unless we MAKE it happen. I am telling you, we love being here, this space is such a JOY to live in. It is simple, but beautiful and we love how it turned out. We love being close to our family and church family, to local favorite shops and fall festivities. We love being gone. We love being in our tiny home on wheels. We love seeing new sites and countryside each day..... OH MY GOODNESS, HOW CONFUSING! ;) So while I have you here, let me show you what we have been doing on the apartment..... We have made the decision to pause the porch until next Spring. We really want to do this smart and not go in debt over it. So daydream it with me for now! There is a roof on here now, I just don't seem to have an updated pic of the whole thing, sorry! We will do cement at that time, and build a screened in area on the far side over there and make it into an outdoor living and dining room...... There will be a sidewalk here leading from the front to back, and we'll add landscaping etc. See how pretty it looks when it's all lit up at night? I think its going to look nice. We will make sure bushes hide those pipe thingies. Then we want to add a little gravel path through the trees here and making a circle around our fire pit. I'd like to find some cool wooden chairs that can just always sit out here in a circle. Inside, we are enjoying our new hearth and new to us pellet stove. It's in and cranking!!!!! Man it puts out good heat and its actually currently the only heat source we use. House is 74 upstairs and totally cozy!!! IMPRESSIVE. I haven't been up to running into Hobby Lobby, but hope to get a tall FALL sign or something with some height variety this week to finish our mantel. I just used what I had kept from the old house for now. (Mostly I am just excited to decorate it for Christmas) Do you all have fun Thanksgiving plans? We are going to meet my dad, step mom and Florida family in Georgia at a really cool RV park with horses, hiking and beautiful views. I am so so excited! Then we think we'll be back here for our first Christmas in the apartment...... It may all depend on when the guy building our staircase can fit us in. We still need to get that project started! I am thinking finding orange, white and blue decor for a tree and mantel could be REALLY fun and REALLY challenging. I am up for it! :) If you follow us on Instagram you know I FINALLY found a retro clock for the main floor. No more searching for phones to see what time it is!!!! Finding a retro clock is harder than you think, they all seem to be "barn" and antique in the rustic sense right now. But then, I found KitCat! Eeeeek! It's tail and eyes move back and forth with every single tick tock!!!!! Last night was the Trunk or Treat at our church, my throat has been bothering me, so I stayed home, but sweet Nana took the kids. I should've made her jump in the photo, but Destiny the sassy teenager went as "HERSELF". Haha! :) That's all from here for now! Praying you have such a good week......
Hugs, T I am so so sorry its been so quiet on the personal part of this blog. We lost Dale's grandma, and in a whirlwind of emotions, celebrated her life and spent a lot of time with the family in her weeks on earth. Alot of the family managed to share a bug in the process. Thank goodness for oils! We are on our feet and back to normal life again. Check out these amazing photos that were part of the memorial service slideshow: We are teaching oil classes every weekend, next ones coming up in Kansas city and Dallas. Even Dale taught a real men love oils mens panel class, they had so much fun! :) I can never get photos once class starts, cause I am the teacher, haha, but here are some pics of our set up! We had a massive moving/garage sale and got rid of 150 boxes worth of house hold items that had been in storage for 2 1/2 years, feels good to officially get it GONE! The rest got donated to charity yesterday! :) The girls worked super hard for several days, preparing a bake sale. They made Brown Sugar Pumpkin cookies and Dark Chocolate Orange Brownies. Mmmmm!!!! We have 3 major projects to work on yet, and so many tiny annoying detail projects, before we leave for the winter. We want to get further on the porch, get stair railing put in, and put the pellet stove in our living room, with back splash and mantel. Right now, all those bigger things require a professional to come in and help, so we are playing the waiting game for parts and our turn. Take a look around! :) The big photo travel wall by the blue USA will have to wait, it sure adds up when you want to order 50 canvas prints at a time! ;) Waiting for railing: Light are up in bathroom, outlet in the phone box, this is where the cell phones park at night, and cannot be checked out by a certain 14 year old, until all her school is DONE! Future spot for pellet stove. After MONTHS of looking, we found WHITE! And at a wonderful price. Yay! I thought black would be too "cabin" for our retro theme. And we love that there is no big pipe going out the ceiling or having to put the stove practically in the middle of the room to get enough clearance, like the wood burning stoves we looked at. We love the wood heat so much, but are willing to give pellet a go for the space saving and for the little we plan to winter here. We plan to heat the whole home this way! I am anxious for Dale to get these silver backsplash tiles up, and build me a mantel! White of course. In the meantime, we are baking up a storm and enjoying our new place! I spend a lot of time hunting my family down in this GIANT (to us) space! Hahaha :) We really love this place, and our forest around us has been a joy to relax in, in the evenings. That's it from here! Hope you all are doing well....tomorrow I have an invite going out for you that I hope you'll consider! :)
Hugs, T We finished moving in RIGHT before we left for Convention. I knew the kids and Papa needed a fully functioning home to live in while we were gone. We had lots of late nights working, but we got it done. Did you know out of 150 boxes, I brought in 15 or so, and 5 went back out? I kept books, games, and my kitchen. Otherwise it didn't come in the apartment. Now granted, I'll have keepsakes up in the attic, but I thought that was pretty good! Living SIMPLE is too amazing to clog it all up again! So we still have photos to hang, dressers to paint, night stands to buy, again with the bazillion remaining details. This fall, the electrician comes back out to do lights in downstairs bathroom and other jobs. The guy for the railing comes out then too. Still, progress is progress, and living, bathing, doing school, laundry and cooking in our new apartment has been FUN! So much to be thankful for in our BIG SPACE! Oven bakes like a dream! Nice and even. Couch and our headboard got delivered, eeek! All just in time to leave for Convention, but it will be a nice break and change of pace from all the moving and working! A month and 3 weeks later, its like a whole new place!!!!! PROGRESS! Thankful for this awesome Papa, who is staying with our kids while we are gone. They are having fun ALREADY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are SO excited to go to Salt Lake City and see our doTERRA Dorothy team again. A TON of team members are going. WOW!!! Year one, we had 13 go, year two 48, year three 78....God is SO GOOD! I can't wait to share all I've learned with you. Hugs, T
So, it's not done, but want to take a PEEK at what we are working on?!?!?! :) Lots of little details coming together like brown travel sign painted orange, pale blue farm window turned robins egg blue to match the rest of the house, blue screen door to go on coat closet...... We eat dinner inside the apartment now, still paper plates, but yes, progress! New beds are UP! Unpacking antique treasures from the past year on the road.... Our room still needs to be decorated, but need to find white dresser and night stands first. Kids think the space under their loft beds is so cool! Onyx shower going in....Dale works so hard and has saved us tons doing these things himself. I am so grateful! To do list: finish the "Betty" countertop into a desk/folding station. Build a linen closet in bathroom next to shower. Finish kitchen grout and bring in rest of appliances. We've come a long way, but all these details to go........plus, SO MANY BOXES to dig through! 150 to be exact. I promise to update you soon, and when its done, we can do a GRAND TOUR POST!!! Or video or something fun so you can really see it. What do you think?
Yawn. Off I go to open more boxes...... Hugs, T ONE month ago, we came home to start working on our apartment. It was sheet rocked only. WOW. What a difference a month can make! We worked on more tiny details then I can list, day and night, night and day. The important part is, it's getting done and we even got to SLEEP in the upstairs before we left town for our Wisconsin trip! It's going to be SO fun to have a place to come back to and spread out and chillax for a few weeks between adventures. Everyone can appreciate each other more when we get back in the RV for our next trip! We plan to still travel full time, but this gives us a stopping point to swing through, and a mailing address for taxes, homeschool laws etc. Everyone wins! Papa and Grammy stopped in to help for a few days on their way to Colorado, and they brought the OH SO important, orange 1952 restored fridge I bought, along with the matching stove and a dishwasher painted to match them both! EEEK! :) They parked right in the driveway! It was perfect since we have dual full hook ups! Eventually, our RV will be pulled inside, and they can back up and use the outside spot! They did a ton of painting and it was so nice to have an extra couple sets of ADULT hands to help! Haha :) Now that ceiling is in, its looking SO nice and all the hard work of painting it feels worth it! :) I have also been painting some extras like black lamps turned silver, and cream phone box from our old place, into a blue on ready for our new....orange end table etc. Once the upstairs carpet went in, it started to feel like a home. So awesome, its really happening! Someone pinch me, am I dreaming? We brought in all the mattresses and dressers we saved. And Dale got the upstairs bathroom functioning for the kids to use. They spent the night inside about 2 nights before we got to join them. I have yet to find our comforter, but I know its in there somewhere! ;) 2 years of living out of boxes and shuffling them around has taken its toll.... Kids mattresses are on the floor until we can get them some loft beds.....but they still thought it was SO SUPER COOL to be in their new rooms. :) Last but not least, we installed the backsplash, floors, the island and started trimming out the main floor.....by WE, I mean DALE. Haha, but I try to find jobs to do the whole time to help though! :) Goodness, we had such a time finding floors that didn't turn BEIGE, green or PURPLE in our grey space. Grey is tricky you all! I had NO idea! Check out this GREY floor we brought home..... Beige anyone?! So back to the flooring stores we went! SEVEN more times...... We finally, on the 7th try, found Mannington vinyl floating floors, and I have to tell you, it is by FAR, the best quality, nicest floor we have ever ever had. Wow. Cleans like a dream!!!!! No fog, no smudges or streaks, no scratches. Easy on the feet, kind of soft. Despite Dale's thumbs down in this image, after a long afternoon on his knees installing, he did admit it went in easily and is super high quality. Since the floor was done, we got to start moving in some fun stuff....like the table and chair set I got at an Amish auction 2 years ago. And the kitchen island! LOVE it! Lots of baseboards, doors, and building projects left, but we got WAY further than we thought we would in our ONE month and ONE week stop in! Lots more to come, we hope to be back, finished and moved in in the fall and spend our first Christmas here. BUT, we have to beet the first freeze or bail to Florida! Hugs, T P.S. Are you in the Medford, Wisconsin area? I am teaching classes there this weekend if you'd like to join! :) Message me for details!
We went to see Gigi at the hospital today, she was having trouble breathing and they found a clot in her lung. Praise the Lord she is fine and home safe now! The kids set to work right away to make her a poster for her room. And we delivered a succulent from the Oregon wedding we all attended. Destiny is at a missions trip in Colorado Springs! Funny Paxton drew a picture of Gigi eating a big black jelly bean on his part of the poster. See her above the word soon? Her hand is coming up to eat a jelly bean. She has a jar of GIANT black jelly beans that Great Grandpa used to love. Now she stocks them for the kids. Paxton must find it very important to include it. CRACK ME UP! We said good bye to a few succulents we got as favors at the Oregon wedding, (black thumbs) but found some more at Home Depot when we were buying paint.... Meet Cassie, Patrick, Ellie and Sir Pokes A Lot! 🌱 R.I.P. Sucky and Spikes you were good little plants, sorry we killed you with our big black thumbs. In the midst of doing our place, cooking is the last thing on our minds, but I DO make a nice lunch each day. Pork Chipoltle Chopped Salad, Stir fry and whatever I can whip up with what we have on hand. I don't like to do hotdogs, but couldn't resist the kids when they found these HUGE foot long hot dogs and matching bun sizes. Avery wanted you to see a regular dog (case free nitrate free, organic....hey I am trying here) hotdog to compare. We pick different places to go as a reward for our hard work in the evening. We heard about a new place called The Barn in Burrton, KS. They had a magazine article written about their Chicken Fried Steak. Homestyle food is always a hit, so we scraped ourselves out of our paint clothes and headed to eat. I wish I had a way to show you how HUGE this thing is! WOW! Dale and I should've shared..... YUMMO! Can't wait to go back. I have never in my life had this kind of crisp and flavorful batter. We eat chicken fried steak all over the USA< this one WINS! :) For those just tuning in, we are building an apartment inside the RV shed we put up. Yes, we are still traveling. This will just be a hub, a stopping point. Along the way, I decided that RV is my home, I don't need another one. I decided to make this apartment "party barn style" with lots of funky colors and fun details. I love the 1950's, so naturally was drawn to pieces from that era, starting with an orange leather square chair, and a silver table with 4 sparkly grommet chairs. The rest, is history! So, we have a bath and a half. Upstairs is orange with retro white metal vanity. The downstairs, goes more with the shiplap, old wood look. We are currently painting this solid wood old dresser, to use in our shiplap bathroom of our new hub we are finishing. I'll show you it in a bit. The blue I selected, Behr Sky Watch, exactly matches the "Papa Wall" in the laundry room perfectly. This wall is pieces of fence from the one that ran along his driveway when he lived next door to us. He passed away 3 years ago, and we have been looking forward to finding a way to incorporate it into our apartment. We are using the blue fence posts, as legs for the laundry folding station. That silver is a hang down light that goes above. We aren't done, just resting the counter on them for now. The counter top is called Betty, and was one of the first items I found as the retro idea bounced around in my head! So the reason you clicked on this post in the first place, the DRESSER for the shiplap bathroom!!! :) (we had lots to catch up on first, RIGHT!?!?) My friend Elaine gave me some awesome ideas for the sides of the drawers. We are hoping to keep them as functioning as possible, despite the pipes that will run in the midst of them. First, I painted the sides white. I like Behr paint the best! Covers like a dream. I let it dry and then we used painters tape to create stripes.....Elaine headed home but before she left, she gave me some really really good advice! She told me to be sure to cover it with WHITE AGAIN, before moving on to the blue. This is KEY to creating crispy stripes. SERIOUS! It worked! I could HARDLY wait for it to dry so I could do blue already! Let it dry again, SO MUCH WAITING! Pulled the tape and viola, stripes! I am loving this little secret fun detail!!!! :) Put it all back together, with the newly painted SILVER drawer pulls, instead of gold, and here she is! Do you not LOVE those little retro handles!? I am so glad we kept them, instead of buying new like we briefly talked about. Ready to see a little sneaky peek inside to see the stripey drawers? EEEK! Can't wait to get some flooring in the house so we can move this vanity IN! Here is the flooring we picked, it is a floating laminate, lifetime guaranteed and has awesome different sized planks, textures and colors: Dale is working on getting the kitchen in, but then the flooring comes next! We worked all day Tuesday, it was a hot 101* but in the shade and shed it wasn't too awful. We are getting used to working in heat all day, I guess! Kids did AWESOME entertaining themselves! They built a town of cardboard houses, thanks to all the cabinet boxes. Elaine gave Paxton a great idea for a sky light, an old washer door! Avery started a pizzeria, using the scraps of wood from the ceiling, she and Pax made pizzas to sell. Too cute! They also swung in the hammocks, read and relaxed too. Tomorrow, we'll have more painting and things they can help with, although Pax did a great job paining the pulls silver, on the dresser today. I am giving you a break from house posts for a bit. Oh, but do I have some great things planned for you in the coming weeks!
I am SO excited to share something I am so passionate about..... :) Stay tuned! Hugs, T We had a great quick trip to Texas for classes..... Destiny's best friend and 2nd cousin, Brooklyn, got to come with us. They have been scheming for a year now, how to get her on a trip with us. This Dallas trip was perfect, because it was just 4 days, then back home. They had a ball! Class went great and we had almost a 100% sign up! YAY! More families whose lives have been changed in amazing ways..... We returned home and hit the ground RUNNING. We have 3 weeks to get the shed AS DONE AS POSSIBLE. So are you as tired of hearing about me painting, as I AM OF THE ACTUAL PAINTING?! SIGH. It's going to be worth it, it's going to be worth it. Haha, I would love to give you a super exciting update, but a lot of our day is still spent painting the house...the ceiling actually. Our sweet kiddos, get up in the am and come help us paint for hours. They get a water fight break in the afternoon, and then back to work in the evenings. Each ceiling piece takes 4 steps, and it involves lots of rinsing paint brushes, since we can only do small batches. They are such troopers! Go team Ferguson! In ONE WEEKS time, we went from this to THIS: Sweet Dale works the longest and the hardest. He is installing the ceiling for us and says the WORST part is cutting out the ceiling can lights. And installing all by himself! Poor guy! Love my mister fix it! It's looking SO NICE! I am painting trim, tons and tons of ceiling trim pieces. And, my favorite part... After months of looking, I found the PERFECT solid wood dresser to paint for our downstairs shiplap bathroom at a cool little store downtown called Renu. The price was right, and Dale had the truck. EEEK! It's finally happening! :) Here is a photo of a similar sink to what we are getting, except ours is a one holer. I even found a similar mirror!!! And, I just so happen to have an extra gallon of blue paint for the project. (we decided to do white banister instead of blue) AND, it the same shade as our Papa laundry room wall, so it totally matches that whole area. Thanks, Lord! :) While Dale worked on hanging ceilings and trim, I got to work sanding the dresser down. Look at this darling tag I found inside the drawers......it's so vintage and adorable! I am keeping it!!!!! :) Power tools and I do not mix, but I went for it, and it was surprisingly FUN and easy! And I didn't even sand through the top... We had already removed all the cool funky gold handles, those will be painted silver soon. I wiped off all the dust and got to work! I had barely gotten started, when I saw that I had dribbled a bunch of blue paint on our driveway while I stirred. Oops, in the dog house with Dale over this one. SORRY HONEY! This time I put plastic down and it was back to work! This dresser has these great little gold details that I will tape off and hand paint silver as soon as it dries well. Same as handles, and dome lights we have picked out for bathroom. It's looking nice I think! I am LOVING this color! I'll take the painters tape off tomorrow and get to work on the silver details and drawer sides. We are working on it TODAY! :) Guess it's a good thing I put down that plastic?! I'll update you on this project soon! My friend, Elaine gave me some FUN ideas for the sides of the drawers I cannot wait to try.
Hugs, T My friend Jenny messaged me last night, and asked if we were writing verse on our walls before we painted. We had planned to pray over the home before me moved in, walking from room to room, but hadn't thought of writing verses!!!! I did a little research, and apparently it's a "THING". Cool! So I was thinking about it, and I remembered the verse in the Bible that talked about doorways, and writing on them, so I looked it up. Deuteronomy 6:6-9 says, "These commands that I give you today, are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates." So today, in the midst of painting, that's exactly what we did..... We picked a verse for the front door, and a verse for the back door..... Front door: Joshua 24:15 "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." Back door: Deuteronomy 28:6 as pictured below. Dale added 1 John 4:16. Each child got to pick a special verse for their bedroom door frames as well. They thought it was SUPER cool to write with permanent markers on the boards of the doorways!!!! Dale picked several verses, 2 for our closet doors and one for the main doorway from Song of Solomon. I even got a love note out of the deal! ;) I also had picked out one from Song of Solomon and wrote a little love note too. The verse I chose, was about my beloved. One of my favorite things about my "new" marriage is Dale treats me so much like his cherished one, his beloved. It brings tears to my eyes, and I know the Lord works all things for good, for those who trust Him with their messes. Praise God for beauty from the ashes, right?! Amen. The upstairs orange half bathroom got it's own special verse about patience, haha! Moving back downstairs, I chose a 2 verses for the Laundry room and 1 for the bathroom. We prayed over each room as we went, inviting the Holy Spirit to dwell here in this place, for the Father to grant us peace and joy in the walls of this home sweet hub whenever we stop through, angels of protection in Jesus name. You know? When we were all done, the whole place felt different. There are no words! We worked the rest of the day on the ceiling planks, we primed, then painted each one. Its very TEDIOUS with all those cracks between slats that take lots of time and attention, we do about 5 at a time on the main floor, and have another 6 going upstairs we rotate through as they dry. Dale rented a tool to help him start to get them up to the ceiling and in position. The hardest part of his day, is cutting around the ceiling lights. Poor guy! He is doing a great job though! The biggest trick is figuring out where to move them to as they are dry and waiting to go UP. We are figuring it out, but there is just not much room to move around these days! Stay tuned for more pics as we work the next couple weeks before our trip up north...
Hugs, T We got SO MUCH DONE while we were home!!! The apartment is coming along nicely, we had a family wedding to attend, and lots of team events and classes, meetings and such. Our work rarely feels like work because we adore connecting with our team so much. We were so thankful to be home for Dale's cousins wedding. Guess what? He was a junior attendant in our wedding 15 years ago. WHAT?! How are we this old? He got married out at the BEAUTIFUL farm we renewed our vows at. We used the all brick gorgeous horse barn, he used the gorgeous lawn for ceremony and the brick airplane hanger for the reception. Yes, this place is AMAZING! :) I was excited to get to wear my second Stitch Fix wedding dress. One more to go in Oregon! Imagine my surprise when I find out that my NANNY kids were there! If you followed my old blog, you know I nannied for a family of 5 and a family of 2 right up through the time Dale and I got married. Anyhow, the Wiens family, they are super close friends of the bride. I was SO happy to get to hang out! So get this, Abby (in red) is pictured up in my wedding photo, holding hands with yup, you guessed it...the groom, Dale's cousin Matt. I had so much fun introducing them again after all this time. :) Can you believe those little guys laying in a circle above, are the same as in the pic below? They have grown into amazing adults!! The kids danced the night away, it was a gorgeous wedding! The rest of our time at home was spent taking bike rides, seeing family and friends, and working on the apartment..... Mother's Day started off with a yogurt parfait in bed. My sweet family knows that breakfast is NOT my favorite! :) They brought me sweet cards and kept me company while I ate. After church and a lovely late lunch at Dale's mom's restaurant, we headed to the lake. Dale wanted to fish and I had plans to read a book or two in the sun. My sweetie girls came up and asked if they could "do my nails" and give me hand and foot massages. Haha, SURE! :) I got some AWESOME chairs for Mother's Day. I call them my porch candy, they are so colorful and beautiful! And totally retro like our apartment theme.... We ran to pick them up from Orscheln's. And I found a present I wanted WAY WORSE... OH MY GOODNESS. I want this sweet little BUNNY for my RV pet! Sophie would surely love some company. I wasn't alone, all the kids were smitten. In fact, we visited this little bunny several times. But alas, Dale would not budge. Something about not wanting a litter box in the RV and knowing, that in the end, I really wouldn't either. ;) Too bad, she sure is cute. We named her Cassia, after the cinnamon essential oil. Sigh. I miss her. One quick lunch date with my BFF, and a 45 minute run to go pick up my broken wedding ring from AGES ago it seems, and it was time to leave for our west coast trip..... Kasey had some boring errands to run in a town about 45 minutes away, so she called to see if I could go and we could make it a quick girls lunch and shopping trip. We had a leisurely lunch at our favorite high class joint, and then ran to the stores she needed. SUPER fun! So thankful we got some time together before we hit the road. I don't know if you saw this on Instagram, but months and months ago, I went into a kitchen cupboard and caught my beautiful band on a mean ol' bolt in the hardware. Something had to give, and thank goodness, the ring did, right where we had it sized. Apparently, people strip all their skin off, break their knuckle or break the ring where it was sized. PHEW! Feels good to have it back on my finger before we go! We had to run to Kansas City before we left town to go pick up our new trailer, aka garage. I'll share about that soon! It's time to hit the road again.....
Hugs, T We are having a ball at our Home Sweet Shed apartment, watching it start to come together has been so amazing! We have a LONG way to go, but I wanted to show you what's happening as of now...... Here is what you see when you first walk in the door. I am SO excited that my funky orange retro chair that started the entire "theme" of this apartment house, fits right where I imagined it would....by the future under the stairs library shelves! The kitchen is to your right, and the living room to your left of here. Our builder, Dan Miller, was out here less than a week working half days, and still got ALL THIS DONE! He is AMAZING! He will be back out in a few weeks with the windows that are on order. Paxton loved watching him work each day! And yes, it was chilly enough here for heavy coats. Sigh. Good thing I am excited to build this, or I'd be bemoaning the fact that we left sunny Florida for this! ;) Here is from upstairs looking down into the open living, dining and kitchen area. That loft you see, is one step up from the upstairs, and will be our "Game loft". Like air hockey etc. I'd also like to set up a chair by the window looking into the forest. That rectangle window on the left will move over to the stud, and we are stacking a second window that opens above it. Floor to ceiling windows in the loft? Yes please! I am a BIG natural light gal! :) This next photo is taken, standing in the game loft area, and looking into bedroom area....half bath to the left, then bedrooms. The open area Dale is in, will be a small TV area that I want to decorate with the movie theater decor I have had forever! I cannot WAIT for the FUN PARTS of this build, like PAINTING and DECORATING!!!!! :) A family friend of ours from New York came out to help Dale put up a garden shed that matched the big shed. They got that thing whipped out in like 3 days! Thank you, Ray! :) Hee Hee! I told Paxton not to get any paint on his clothes. So Undies it is! I am so thrilled how it turned out and matches our "Big" shed perfectly!!!! :) Stay tuned, hopefully more progress to come SOON! There's no place like home! :) Hope you are having a wonderful week!
Hugs, T The photos in the following post come from news sources, friends and family that took photos, as we were not here for any of this part. March 5th we got word that the area right by where we built our home sweet hub, was on fire. All our neighbors were being asked to evacuate..... We started praying and continued the rest of the day, the kind where you breathe in, and breathe out a prayer. They were able to get it out, and watched hot spots for a while, but a few days (a day?) later, it all flared up again, WORSE this time by horrific winds. March 6th - The wildfire is 0% contained as of this morning. Firefighters are weary they have been fighting fires for 4 days straight. At this point we had no word on how many structures were destroyed. 10,000 people have been evacuated out of homes at this point, and schools are cancelled. Our area was evacuated again, and this time people were reporting seeing flames from their deck before pulling out. Things were getting bad bad bad! We had heard nothing about our property, but continue to remain hopeful that all was well. We were praying without ceasing for the firefighters and families effected by this tragedy! These are the last photos we saw of the area close to our home for days and days until they started letting people back in..... We had no idea if our property was fine, or if there was damage from flying debris, or the fire itself. Because our streets grasses burned up to the property line that first fire, we were hopeful that helped to prevent new blazes. We felt so helpless! But if we were home there is nothing we could've done anyhow. Crazy feeling...so we lived it all through news outlets and facebook posts of friends. March 6 evening Facebook post on my wall.... Fire crews are forming a line on north edge of Hutchinson along the road. Standing in the gap between the city and fire. They just told the firefighters to only fight the fires you can reach from the road!!! THIS JUST GOT REAL. A HUGE area of the rural properties is being evacuated, literally from our old house north east of town, to our new property north west. WOW. Oh Father, we cry out to you for rain, for protection, for your power and presence. Wake the people that need to get OUT, grant safety for those traveling away from the fires now. Give the firefighters energy and stamina that only comes from you, protect them, Father. Protect the people, the animals, and the homes in the path of this blaze. Calm the winds with your hand, Jesus. We need you now, to surround Hutchinson, Ks with your protection, mercy and grace. We ask all this in your mighty name.....Amen. (so be it!) I am far far away from Oz, but my hometown is near my heart tonight! I will pray long and hard for you all! I am praying over our home there as well, that was already spared once today, praise you Father! xoxoxo ~T From fb news outlet "At 7 a.m. the fire was 0% contained and estimated to be 1/2-1 mile wide, 25 square mile area was evacuated and most are still unable to go home." There were other fires too, all at the same time, in Oklahoma and Texas! We are so thankful for the fire fighters and the days and days they were out there risking their lives to save peoples homes! There are some heart wrenching stories about total loss of lives, animals and livelihoods in those ranching areas. Our town lost 7 houses total and we were told that only one life was lost, from smoke inhalation. It could've been so much worse! We saw SO many houses with burned marks up to green grass where sprinklers and fire fighters kept homes safe. It was within 15 feet of many homes!!!! Including our neighbors house..... We found out the fire had burned down our road, literally straight for us. The winds switched and the blaze turned left, went around our precious neighbors home, and kept burning the entire prairie behind her place. WOW. Wow wow wow. Sometimes, there are just no words. March 23 As we walked our property today for the first time since the wildfires, I had complete chills and utter disbelief, at how close the fire was to our place.... I was even more shocked to see 3 distinct burn spots out back, that clearly never spread. As in, we can see where the log burned but nothing to the left or right is touched. I can only assume the fire fighters were near by (Thank you to those hard working heros!) or the hand of the Father is miraculously shown here! And GLORY to my Father in Heaven for sparing our home so clearly......the closest tree that burned, is 20 feet from our shed. I am also so blown away and blessed by the nudging of a spirit filled friend, who called to encourage us to plead the Blood of the Lamb around our belongings, WEEKS before this occurred. I have no doubt this is the answer to that prayer and testimony of the POWER of the blood fo the Lamb! Thank you, Jesus! Lots happening around here this week, the builder came. I will show you photos soon! :) Hugs, T Here is a slideshow of the trees from our backyard: Meet Uncle Daniel and the future Aunt Torrey.....these 2 sweethearts got engaged recently! We had all been praying and hoping for a LONG time it would come to pass. The girls kept asking, NOW can she be Aunt Torrey? YES! :) We were so honored when they decided to do the wedding while we were still living in Florida. That meant like 3 weeks to plan! They were so chill, no problemo! The wedding was to be held at Dad and Drea's country property we live on, with food in the barn and a dance floor under the open shed roof. It was to be an "I Do BBQ" and super laid back and fun! They asked the kids to bake and decorate the cake they would cut. Boy were they excited! (Mommy was nervous, but okay, we can do it!) The days leading up to the wedding, also happened to be our final week in Florida, so we had a business training dinner, a community class, lots of wedding prep to get done AND pack up to leave! (its amazing how spread out we get after 4 months of parking) I bought some white and gold sugar crystals to help hide all of our decorating problems, and read some articles about a crumb layer of frosting, so little red flecks of cake didn't get in our pretty creamy icing the next day. Once it was frosted, we went outside and threw sugar ALL OVER IT! Super fun! Probably the boys' favorite part ;) Finishing touches. Now, to keep it safe until wedding time! The open shed was decorated SO beautifully!!!! People would sit here for both the wedding and reception after..... Showtime! The beautiful bride (and Flokie) ready for the FIRST LOOK: I was busy running around trying to keep everyone on schedule, so I didn't get many photos. SHAME ON ME!!! I am thankful Drea shared hers to facebook while we wait for the photographer to share hers! Ty got to drive the bride up to the barn! :) And Destiny sang her down the aisle.... After a brief ceremony, we ate southern BBQ, which was tucked away in that cute barn we celebrate Christmas in, listened to some amazing toasts, and then danced the night away. There was even a s'mores station out back on the patio. Everyone had a great time! The bride and group left surrounded by sparklers..... Here is a slideshow of my remaining cell pics: The red velvet cake was a bit dry, shhh don't tell my precious cake bakers, but the frosting was divine and the cake was BEAUTIFUL! So proud of them! Eating a big slice of it was the perfect ending to a perfect night.....Congratulations Daniel and Torrey! We are SO excited for you all and the amazing life together to come. One last service at our AMAZING Florida church, a quick breakfast with Uncle Chad and his crew, and then it was back on the road again. We needed to move some things and get ready for the builder at our home sweet hub before April 1st! I'll be honest, we are missing Florida ALREADY! It just kept getting colder and colder and colder as we drove further north and west. A highlight of the trip home, was that our Nana got to ride home with us! 2 - 12 hour days later, she still loves us (haha) and we all had a great time reading, playing games, watching movies and hanging out on the LONG drive back. She was also a FANTASTIC school helper! 'Bout broke my finger off, thankfully the ring gave before my bone did. OUCH! Who knew the hardware on a kitchen cupboard could do so much damage?! One more thing on the "TO DO" list when we get home, fix my band! Waaaah! My finger is black and blue! OUCH. We were so glad to get home and see for ourselves that our shed was still standing, despite the fires! More to come on that later......
Hugs, T
We are home in Oz, working with our team, seeing family and trying to get our shed insulated before winter. Brrr! Whose bright idea was this? Its FREEZING here!
Kansas will always be home, and the perfect "hub" for us to stop back through between our journeys across the USA. Afterall, Ks is 1500 miles from anywhere! :) But the RV is our actual home, and it feels like it! We love coming back from a long day of adventuring to its cozy space, where everything has a place, and our family can be free to enjoy our time together. We want to eventually have a small apartment here, so we can pull the RV in the shed and defrag in an apartment setting while we see family, church family and friends and our doTERRA team. We want to be able to cook up some grass fed beef for the RV freezer, switch out seasonal clothes and see everyone while enjoying a change of scenery. We also have double full hook ups, in and out of the shed, so we can just live in the RV too, which feels like our home now. It's all about OPTIONS! :) I wanted to show you around our future "home sweet shed": Hub Sweet Hub from Tonya Ferguson on Vimeo.
Last fall we put up the structure with some of the money from the sale of our home and acerage. We decided on a metal outbuilding, but I told Dale, it has to be PRETTY!
One half is for the RV, the other half a garage, and someday, a small 2 story apartment! We love the land we found, nice and foresty and private. Right now, its not very green, but in the summer its beautiful and lush!
It hard to visualize without someone in the photo to help with scale, but this second door is a 14 foot garage door. Nice and BIG so the RV fits!
We hope one day to put a roof over the porch, and create a fun outdoor living space and eating area, facing the forrest.
I have had lots of ideas bouning around in my head since last year, and I can't wait to see it come together.
I usually go with warm, rich, darker tones. For those that followed the other blog, lots of warm taupe, burnt orange, deep red and a pop of apple green. Here are some pics of our old place: 4 Seasons of HOME. https://4littlefergusons.wordpress.com/2014/12/03/the-4-seasons-of-home/
This time around, we are doing grey and white as our base colors, so we can create a nice light and airy space. Then accent colors were inspired by two things:
Papa Don's blue fence we asked to take with us when we moved. If you remember, Dale's father was our next door neighbor before he passed away from cancer. I want Dale to turn his blue fence into a barn door for the laundry room. You can see the blue wood on the far left of this pic from last summer....the grey block in the center is the wood floor we will do throughout the main room. In laundry room and bathroom, I want to do that with black and white checkered tile, since its a totally different area of the house. Time will tell!
The second inspiration was this awesome ORANGE retro leather chair I found on facebook, at a little antique store, and bought over the phone.
Third inspiration came from a retro 1950's silver table with the funky formica top and silver sparkled grommet chairs with square backs that I found at a farm sale.
{not pictured, still in storage} This made me decide to go super fun, retro and vintage throughout our home, as opposed to the cozy farm antiques of the old house. I also want to take old road signs and mix them on the wall with canvases of all the places we have traveled. FUN right!? :) I about SQUEALED out loud in the store, when I found our countertop.... Ok ok, Dale says to tell you I DID squeal, loudly in fact. What? It was SUPER exciting and literally the perfect colors. What are the odds? So here is the official color pallet, not much different from the original set over a year ago, just with some kitchen options this time! So I am hoping to do the kitchen white cabinets with slate grey countertops and the island grey with these FUNKY awesome retro counterops in blue, grey and orange. MY COLORS! Eeek! The orange paint chip is the exact orange of the chair, and the blue is the exact blue of the fence turned barn door, so we are set. I will decide later which paint goes where.
Here are some more ideas we are loving.....
We want to do this as debt free as possible, so for now, we save up, spend it on boring stuff like sewer, electric and driveway.
Next, studs, plumbing, heating, and air. THEN, the fun stuff!!!! Hopefully soon, but post likely, next summer or fall. It's hard being so dang sensible. {SIGH} Until next time, hugs! T |
Tonya Ferguson
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