Sixteen.

Gosh, these days are good. This has been our best summer yet in this parenting journey. Our kids are at such fun, carefree, outgoing, (dare I say easy?!) ages. It has made this summer so special. Most of our days are spent at home playing, swimming, and doing yard work in the warm sunshine. From the outside, our days seem simple. We aren’t traveling to exotic places. We aren’t hurrying from one activity to the next. Instead, we are harvesting zucchini, pulling weeds, raking leaves, and driving the tractor. We are playing freeze tag until the heat gets the best of us and we have to jump in the pool. We are eating lunch outside and having a little too much ice cream. These days are pure sweetness.

These days are the beauty from the ashes we’ve experienced over the last year. This is what I always wanted our days to look like. Being out here has given us uninterrupted time together spent working and playing hard. It's not perfect. The kids fight, Preston cries...a lot, Kraig and I have moments of annoyance with each other, unexpected expenses arise, and the projects never end. But, amongst all that, our hearts are full. Living here has been peace. It has been contentment. It has been joy.

We are surrounded by the beauty of this land- enormous oak trees, a full garden, hawks soaring, and wildflowers sprouting. This beauty fills me with gratitude for these sweet, incredible days spent with this family of mine. Since the time I was little, I thought most about the home and family I would one day have. I was never passionate about having a career, but from a very young age, I dreamed about having a welcoming, comfortable home in the country. And now, here I am, doing just that. It's entirely surreal for me to be actually living the days I always envisioned!

Over the last year, we've gone through the difficulties of feeling the sadness of desires unfulfilled. But, through that heartache, we cling to the truth that He is the same God who gives abundantly. And he has done just that with these sweet, sweet summer days!