6 Months

Today marks 6 months for us living in the State of Tennessee!  It doesn’t feel like its been that long at all.  It feels like we just got here yesterday, yet it feels a bit like home.

We thank you all who have been praying with us and for us as we transitioned down here.  Thank you to all those who have come and visited us. Thank you all who are still planning on visiting us (You know who you are....)  Thank the Lord that He brought us here.  Each day we are here we know that this is exactly where He has placed us.  It is a nice knowing that, yet it is super weird for me to know that my boys will grow up in Tennessee and not in Pennsylvania like both Pete and I did.  God is just so cool how He reminds me every so often that this is right and He knows exactly what my heart needs and takes care of the small things and the big things.  It’s sweet salve to my soul on days when I’m a hot mess crying my eyes out because I just miss all my Pennsylvania friends and family.  I’m an extrovert but have days of introvertness and I do love people.

My Top 5 Things we like about where we are in Tennessee (not exactly in order of importance)

1.     1.   Weather.  Gosh darnit – It’s so nice.  So much more sunshine (I think that’s why Joel turned out to be such a blondie!)  Yes it’s hot when it’s supposed to be hot… very hot, but I’ll take that over dreary wet soggy days.

2.       2. Splash pads – So nice.  The boys have so much fun in them and they’re free!  So refreshing for the kiddos on hot summer days.

3.       3. Nearness to everything!  Compared to where we used to live… it’s just so nice to do “quick runs”  and be so close to so much

4.    4.  .The Zoo and Muse – Again, more kid related but it is very nice to be close to educational fun things for them.

5.      5.  Chick-fil-A.   Yes.  There are 3 of them near me

a.       ** Hobby Lobby gets an honorable mention too**

Top 5 things that we miss about Pennsylvania (NOT including the fact that we super duper miss our families, and our friends and our First Baptist Dubois Family, CCHS Family, etc……)

1.      1.  Shoulders on the side of the road.  Crazy people made these roads so close to hillsides or cliffs and there is NO SHOULDER on some of them!  And… sometimes there is no way you can fit 2 cars + there’s no shoulder…

2.       2. No Branches/trees over the road.  PennDot did keep a good upkeep of keeping branches/trees from overhanging over the roads so that any rainstorm didn’t close down roads due to trees/debris.

3.       3. Raw Milk.  (although this will be changing shortly for us)  We do miss easy access to the best milk ever.

4.      4.  Lovely fall colors. Folks around here say that they should be nicer, but we miss the vibrant PA fall colors
5.5. The Springhouse Chocolate Milk...... it’s the small things but we do miss hat place! 

We praise the Lord for the opportunity to get to do what we love in this new setting.  It has taken some adjustments to get used to and we’re still working through lots of different things, but we have this constant knowing that God has placed us here for such a time as this.  We are so thankful that our new assistant manager/Horticulture Manager and is family arrived.  I am thankful that my school year is off to a phenomenal start.  I’m thankful that I have the technology to still talk to all my friends and family that I am physically far from.  I am so thankful that God has filled my home with friends and family I haven’t seen in YEARS.  I praise the Lord that I have started a ladies Bible Study and can hopefully build some more friendships.  All this and more. Thank you Lord.

Don’t get me wrong - Somedays are hard. I have to find a new rhythm.  Offense and hurt happen.  Kids drive me batty.   Animals die.  Things break.  I have a tough time being away from ‘my tribe’.  But thankfully those things are mostly quickly forgotten, we adjust and move on. 

Remember the good my friends.

Enjoy a sampling of pictures from my last update till now!