do we sell the house?

post by casey.

jacob and I have always thought this house would be our Forever Home. And it might still be. Maybe moving a couple times while I was growing up...a few times in my youth and a few times even before I remember...maybe that has enabled me to look at a house as just a safe place to 'call' home. I think I could call home any where I was with my family. Unfortunately, when I say Family...I mean that IF we were to ever more beyond the City limits, my mom and dad and Courts and her 10 kids and Pigg and Mal and her 4 kids/ETC. would have to move right along with us;).

i've looked into selling the house before. Our ultimate goal is to build a very small, energy efficient home on the land near his parents. Outside of town feels but very much the convenience and in town location. Ultimately, we can't afford to do that any time soon. Which is frustrating because I'd love to build a 1800sqft house and throw a few kids in shared rooms and have a tiny master with the space saved for a roomy closet and luxurious bathroom and walls of windows and solar panels on the roof...I haven't given it much thought at all;).

we shelved that idea a year or more ago when we realized it would take some pretty creative planning to make happen on our budget and that in the end...we'd be house poor. I wasn't willing to compromise travel. I'd rather stay where we're at, 'fixer-upper' + small mortgage and be able to travel, than to live in a finished home but not be able to DO anything.

Who are you...BIG house or LITTLE house?! Do you want all.the.space? Or like us, do you find that since moving UP and to a bigger home, you still find that you're ALL in the same place at the same time anyways?! 

when Jacob came home the other night and suggested that we look again at selling it all and starting over...we got to talking and realized that where we're at right now is...exactly where we should be:). We may not have cabinets in our kitchen. We may not have a floor in our bathroom. There may be wet spots on our ceilings where the old roof leaked. 

It's no where near 'done' but it really is perfect for us right now and we do, very much, love this house:). 

okay...babies and toddlers don't give me the luxury of being much more wordy on this blog posts and you KNOW I have so much more to say;). But what I will say is that we're staying put...for now. After a long talk, we kinda figured out that our impatience in being here and wanting to go somewhere else was less about the new place and more about starting over and starting fresh and being able to minimize and all the reasons we were listing for wanting to leave this house were things that we could change and do. Right now. And so we went to bed having stayed up way too late, talking about our plans and making lists - literally, my favorite nights with my husband:). 

over the last week I've sold more stuff and we've cleaned out rooms and started a bunch of projects and thrown things and hauled things out and downsized and organized and it feels so good!

had we had this conversation a year ago, I don't think much would have changed. For whatever reason, the other night, we were ready to take some action. Timing is always everything:). And so going forward, we are trying to motivate ourselves to do the things that we CAN do. Stop looking at what we 'want' 10 years from now or even tomorrow and concentrate on what we can do TODAY! And hell, there's A LOT that can be done today:).

now, here are some photos from earlier this summer when we went to Mead Wildlife Area and ran the trails and the misquotes had there way with us on the way through the woods and the kids got to pet some turtles and I got to run from a snake;).

i haven't forgotten the difficulty of the summer and adjusting to all the kids being home and the fighting and boredom and the missed naps and having to feed my kids - holy shit, that actually might be the worst..having to feed them all the times in a day;)...but even with all that, we really are having the best time and I think our summers together (and late night plan-making) and last minute adventures, will always be my favorite:).

remember me? didn't think so;).

post by casey.



well, if there ever was a way to fail at blogging...Courts and I would be winning at that!!;)

did you know that Courts is pregnant?!;) - see announcement HERE. Did you know that I am not?;( 

family photos over Mother's Day - Papa took a permanent marker to my kids face prior...;)

I may share more of these at some point!:)

wine night with the ladies:)

rocky still can't talk worth shit. He IS peeing in the yard...so we're making some potty-training progress!;) He does a pretty realistic dinosaur impression and he really can't do much wrong, in my book...even though he's, basically, doing wrong things constantly!!!;)

claire and rocky in that pool that took me no less than 27 trips to the bath tub with 2 ice cream pails...and they played in there for approximately 13minutes:/

homer is wrapping up his 1st full year of school! Kindergarten is over next week and man...I'm having feelings about that! He's SIX you guys and I've always had a terrible memory but having to dig deep to remember that every time someone asks...it hurts;'(.
Kindergarten has been amazing for him! Mrs. Guyer, his teacher, is just...EVERYTHING. Homer loves her. I love her. I'm almost a tinyyyyyyy bit sad that he's done so well - thanks so much to her - but I wouldn't be mad if he had to be in her classroom one more year;).

jacob has been putting in a lot of hours at work, which has been great for our savings but we already miss him. It will be a long summer without him but we're used to that by now:).
Did I mention that we paid off all our debt?! We're DEBT-FREE!?!?!? We drive a 2001 Dodge Caravan...it has dual (manual;) sliding doors....would you rate your envy at a 10 out of 10 yet?;)
And by Debt-Free, I mean that we haven't had credit cards for years...we haven't accumulated debt for years...we've just been trying to clean up a mess for...YEARS. And now we just have a mortgage and no air conditioning and it's been 110thousand degrees BUT we're so so sweaty happy!!!:)

i've still been watching kids (my sisters - and no, I will not watch your kids;) here and there. Just about enough to pay for the occasional facial but not enough to really want to rip out my ovaries. #balance
I've also clocked another year of...sobriety!? That feels heavy but I believe that is what I have been/am. It's been just over 2 years now. Phew!

theo is still holding down the fort. She's keeping things weird...which we love:). She starts PreK this fall!!! Why do I fear that she'll actually have a harder time being pulled off my leg than Homer???;/ - see how Homer did HERE.

i've been doing the Spring/Summer things! Freshening up the landscaping. Buying all.the.things at the Greenhouses. Filling the pool manually because the hose situation is broke and that's just been awful! Push mowing the lawn every 17hrs;).

ike is growing by the second. He's adorable and fun and great and quite the talker! Smiles nonstop! He's soft. Oh, man...he's so.gosh.darn.SOFT!!!!!!! We love cuddles. He rolls and is pushing himself around on the floor but no where near sitting yet. 
He's still exclusively nursing. He's going through a bit of a sleep regression - is that what the people who keep track of such things call it??!?. Currently, he's up until about 1AM...except for last night/this morning...we prepared mentally for 1AM and so you know...he was up till after 3AM. Good one. Great. Awesome. How though. Whyyyyyy.;).

we're hanging in there;). 

we're just so happy for the warm weather! I'd take 80's over the cold ANY day! Give me sweat over goosebumps!

we're trying not to do too much planning for the next few months. We're just hoping to save, save, save...I mean...people have savings and we want to be those people!!!!;). We'd love to do some traveling and get away a bit but we're just going to be annoying noncommittal and the goal this summer is Spur of the Moment/Last Minute/Why Not/Maybe/We'll See/Sure/No/Let's Do It/Yes/ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE;).

so we're good and we're trying to stare at the kids more and take it all in and really appreciate this time. Gosh, we've really lucked out and we're just so so aware of that.

have a great day, friends.

skittle fetch: where children fetch the skittles you throw.

post by casey.



my sister and I were sitting around bitching speaking of our husbands and laughing about how they probably think we just sit home all day, online shopping at the Loft, throwing Skittles into the living room to distract the kids from bothering us. And then our laughter kinda trailed off causeeeee waitttttt...do you think they might actually think that's really what we do all day?! 
That actually sounds like an ideal day;).

i've got a pretty stand-up husband and so I shouldn't/can't/try not to complain too often but just when I think he 'gets it'...he'll say those 6 words that could put me in prison: "what do you do all day?". He's not lived a life where I 'don't do anything all day'. I wouldn't wish that on him;). 

even when I'm NOT doing anything...shit's gettin' done. Lists and worries and the future and plans and dreams and dollar amounts are being made in my head. Maybe our inability to 'shut it off' is our super-hero strength and yet our biggest downfall. 

anyways. Mostly, just wanted to share cause I feel like I just came up with an epic game and it's called: Skittle Fetch:). Guaranteed to give you hours of leisurely time away from your kiddos that you can use to make a photo-book or take advantage of an online sale or just space-out. :) Get to work ladies;).


here we are yesterday. I had a husband's hand to hold and the kiddos had a dad to jump on:) It was one of those really, really good days:).
Anyone else gotta grab a paper bag to breath into just thinkingggggg about cold weather!? Summer can never be over...I won't allow it!!!!:)

Thorp Aquatic Facility

these kiddos had.a.blast!!!!! Some days shit just seems hard...or they make all.the.things SEEM hard. But yesterday was not one of those days. The stars aligned and they just...had fun:) My cheeks hurt from smiling!

we bought Homer a pair of goggles and it was the best thing I've ever invested in! He came out of his water shell!!!! Jumping in, going under, trying to do headstands...he was jacked andddddd it was adorable! So proud of this guy!

harper lake is a pretty name for a pretty lake.

my aunt and uncle have THE best property on Harper Lake in Rib Lake, WI. It's gorgeous and they've built - completely on their own - this amazing little cabin! It's funny that we spend a lifetime 'collecting things' and then the other 1/2 of our lifetime trying to live as minimally as possible. I feel fortunate, that at the ripe-ol'-age of 34, I already know that we have so much more than we'll ever need/want/deserve and so I've already started trying to minimize and look towards the future and make decisions that will reflect what I see for us in 5/10/30YRS.

anyhoo...have I mentioned that I lose a lot of sleep andddddd cry a lotttttt during pregnancy?! Kinda my thang';).

my aunt and uncle are so generous in letting us spend time here and we just love and appreciate it SO much! And much appreciated that no one judges me squeezing into a 1-piece bodysuit...that, so obviously, wasn't meant or prepared to take on what I've dealt it;) Mostly thankful that it's a private and quiet lake;).

looking through these photos makes me so happy:) Seeing the kids all just having so much fun - so much in part to all the work that my uncle does in setting things up and letting us just take over!!!;) - and the great weather and the beautiful views and it's just so damn peaceful.

also, these photos are from a few weeks ago...so that bodysuit has been retired for the remainder of this pregnancy;). We've been back to the cabin since and so I'll have more photos to share soon!

hope you've had a great holiday weekend!!!! Happy 4th of July, Friends:) 

in case you're into bodysuits, I found mine at Forever21 and, for me, they were a GREAT alternative to a 1-piece swimsuit. I bought a few, for less than $10, for our vacation to Mexico - see that vacation HERE. 

Similar options HERE HERE and HERE.