Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Blue Apron.  As always, all words and opinions shared here are honest and my own. Would you believe that I made a dinner like this… …when this kind of thing was going on in my house? Well, I did! I had an ambitious to-do wish list while my parents and brother were here to help get us settled in our new house and, as a grazer, I would’ve been content to plow through and pick at cherries and cheese and crackers, but I needed to make sure I had at least one proper meal each day for everyone!  I am not new to meal kit services, like Blue Apron, and one of the things I love most about the concept is that I don’t have to think about what to make for dinner.  It’s already decided and I have the exact ingredients gathered together

I received an e-mail from my great uncle a few days ago.  He was letting me know that he couldn’t wait for part four of our moving story.  I laughed when I read it, because there isn’t a part four!  That’s it.  Jeff got the job, we got the house, and we’re moving to Minnesota. But really, he knew there was a part four before I did.  The story wasn’t quite resolved.  We were still in Pennsylvania and there were still pieces of the puzzle that hadn’t fallen into place…like, where would we stay while we were waiting to close on our house?  Beyond a trip to Jeff’s parent’s house, we hadn’t traveled with a dog before and that definitely factored into where we could hang our hats temporarily. I looked into hotels, but they required that pets be kept in a kennel if the owners leave the room.  It’s

This is a continuation of a story, so you’ll want to check out PART ONE and PART TWO before you read this post.  Or else you’ll feel like you just walked in on a conversation. I was surprisingly relaxed, waiting for the realtor to share her “you’re never going to believe this” news.  I really and truly, cross-my-heart, wanted what was God’s best for us and if this was a closed door, that was okay.  God had something better. Well, despite our offer being contingent upon a job offer that wouldn’t come until July 14, if at all, the sellers accepted our offer.  Not only did they accept our offer, but they accepted it without any stipulations that their home would still be open to other offers.   It would be officially under contract.  We were completely shocked! The one kicker was that Jeff (or one of us) needed to be

If you missed part one of the story of how we ended up moving to Rochester, MN, you can check it out HERE. Where that post just left off, Jeff and I were in the waiting place. We did Lucketts, we prepared the studio to move, we packed the house, we had a yard sale, and we prayed that everything would fall into place – the temporary housing we would need, the boys starting school, making sure we don’t have a lapse in medical coverage, where mail could be sent while we were “homeless”…all of that important stuff. We also decided to be proactive and start looking at houses. Now, this is kind of funny, because I started looking at houses the second Jeff submitted his application, so I already had an idea of the market and what kind of houses were available.  I mean, I am ME, after all! We wanted

…Rochester, Minnesota! I know!  What?!  Minnesota?  Yes, Minnesota!! Let me back up and tell you the entire story, because it’s a good one. First off, if you’re wondering why we’re moving, check out THIS POST and then come back here and continue reading. Back in the fall of last year, we started counting Jeff’s credits to completion.  He is working on a Master’s Degree with the hopes of getting a full time job as an associate pastor in a church.  (He had been working at our current church as a youth pastor and then part-time associate pastor for the past 11 years.)  As we were looking at the timing of his degree, the boy’s school year, and my work schedule, we decided it would be best to get ahead of things and start applying for jobs in the beginning of 2017. We poured over job listings, church websites, and prayed for God’s

We started saying it a few years ago…  “We will definitely hire a moving company the next time we move!” Having gone through about 7 DIY moves in our married life, we were done with gathering volunteers to load a truck.  We were ready to relish in the experience of having it all done by professionals. Or so we thought. (You can tell which boxes I packed later in the process, because my descriptions get a little nutty.) We started getting quotes for our move a few weeks ago and the DIY instinct that kicks in when you get professional quotes could not be ignored.  Since it’s not a door-to-door move, it was outrageously expensive.  Like, we-could-buy-a-decent-used-car kind of expensive and we just weren’t willing to spend that kind of money for something that didn’t have value beyond saving us the headache (and backache) of doing it ourselves. It was a bummer