2020 Family Update
I think it’s high time for a new family update! So the last time I updated, it was short and sweet and I didn’t share much about the kids or our plans. Well, as always, our plans have changed so I thought this would be a good time to update on the kids and our life!
Let’s start with our plans. We have been planning for months to finish some updates on our home, list it for sale and move back to our hometown. We could make enough on the sale to pay off our debt and still have money leftover for a down payment, new home repairs ,etc. So we started on home repairs last Fall, we met with our realtor (who is amazing and is more than just a realtor – she really is a great friend) and she helped us make some decisions on what things would be best to accomplish before listing. We got excited, we browsed houses everyday on realtor.com, we made plans for our lives in our hometown and we were ready. Then God lit a fire in my heart.
It’s funny how that happens sometimes, how He just gives you a sign, or nudges your heart… one day I just woke up and I knew we needed to stay put. I also have been following The Budget Mom and on her Facebook group had seen where people had been refinancing their homes to the lower interest rates going on right now. I mentioned it to J and he said he had been thinking about the same thing. And to make a long story short… that’s where we are. In the process of refinancing and slowly working on projects to make this home our maybe forever home? We aren’t 100% decided on that, but we do know we will be here for at least the next 5 years. Our hope is that we can refinance at a specific amount we have in mind and pay off our debt and have enough leftover to work on some updates. That’s that! We hope to save up for a camper and add a hitch to my van so we can travel and adventure with our littles as well!
As for Boogie, she is thriving in her school work and 90% of the time she has her nose buried in a book. She loves crafts right now and she is pretty good at making huge messes with them, ha! She no longer likes pink, she is now a purple girl and she is becoming a young lady right before my eyes. Nine years old now, finishing up third grade and completely blows me away with how smart she is. I think the beautiful thing about homeschooling is watching your children learn when they aren’t even being taught by you. She reads all these books, both fiction and nonfiction, and devours all the facts and information she can fit in that growing brain of hers. And her heart for Jesus, it’s precious. She wants to know everything about Him and she looks forward to every Sunday morning. She’s going to be an amazing woman someday.
Bubby has grown a lot this past year, he turned seven in November and he is finally reading and although he’s a hesitant reader, he is doing so well! He’s doing better than he thinks, he is a lot like his daddy, a little unsure of himself but so smart. He’s become an amazing little artist, one day I turned on Art for Kids Hub, and he just started drawing picture after picture after picture. He loves drawing cartoon style pictures and I’m hoping to find some classes for him to learn more techniques and styles. He loves video games, especially Minecraft, and while he doesn’t love it… he does a great job with all of his school work.
My Bird is as sassy and feisty as ever. I think turning five brought it out even more in her! She is all about pink everything, she always wants to wear dresses and put bows in her hair. She wants to do school with her siblings everyday and asks me constantly when she’ll get to start kindergarten. She’s still working on her alphabet and letter sounds, and she’s seeing a speech therapist to help with her pronunciations of a few sounds she doesn’t say quite right. She loves to pretend to read books, she follows Boogie everywhere she goes and she will steal the attention of anyone paying attention to a sibling! That sassy girl is a handful, but we adore her.
Bear… oh sweet Bear. This little red-headed tiny boy is my heart. Who am I kidding? All of these kids have my heart. Bear just has this naughty smile that lights up his entire face and absolutely melts you. It’s the toddler terror in him, right?! Ha! He has loved Jeeps for the longest time, and now he also loves trains and motorcycles. Basically if it’s loud and goes fast, he likes it! He runs after the big kids no matter what they are doing, he wants to be right in the mix. His most recent obsession is playing drums, his godfather, or “Uncle Nay-Nay” is a drummer for our praise team and he wants to be just like him. He got a little real drum set for Christmas and he loves playing them. He’s just precious.
J is thriving at work, I am doing the stay at home mom thing and homeschooling this brood… working on this blog and I’ve been working for Appen Connect on the side (great little side gig if you’re looking to make some extra money. Click the link to find more about it.) We are excited to see what 2020 is going to hold for us and our family, I have a feeling it’s going to be a great adventure!
