Move to Iowa

Yes, we moved to Iowa! In case anyone has missed this story, here's how it goes:

After getting married in April 2010, we moved to Louisville, Kentucky. Since Dave works at home and my work is quite flexible, we decided to start fresh in a new city. We loved it....we had great resources around us, a wonderful church and quickly met and made good friends.

It was early August when Dave started asking me to look at house. We knew we wanted to buy after our first year, but I thought August was a little early! Our lease wasn't up until March 31, 2011, and I really wanted to simply "be" for as long as possible without thinking about "life details" for a while.

Shifting gears for me after getting married was hard. Not because of being married, but because I was so overly exhausted. Full time school and work and planning a wedding and relocating to a new city was just about more than I could carry. I was thrilled to have the opportunity to take as much time as I needed to "unwind" from it all. I knew there was much of my heart and soul that I had put up on a shelf, so-to-speak, due to getting through school, and it was fun to just sit and ponder the things in life I had put on hold and get them back out. One of the things to really ponder was "where do I want to live"? Where does it make most sense for me to live, based on who I am? Also, it was heavy on my heart to seek out what it means to live below our means. In everything. What can we live without? What can be re-purposed for something needed, etc? What does this look like in every area possible? It was fascinating to think about all this stuff. I'm not quite ready to move to a shack and go without electricity or a car, but we did sell one of our vehicles and I have continued to purge things....though it's still shocking how much stuff I have! :)~

I finally got around to looking at some houses....looking in Louisville first. But, as I started to see myself for who I really am, I'm not so much of a city girl. I want to cook all my own food (not utilize the wonderfully cute cafes that surrounded me in Louisville), I want to make my own decor and clothes (not go to the fun boutiques around the corner), and I love to ride my bike (which isn't impossible in a city, but there's nothing like riding in the country!) So, I started looking further and further out of the city, getting to some small towns an hour away from Louisville.

Well, then that little voice said, "might as well look ANYWHERE if I'm willing to look at small towns in KY." So, I literally looked around the states at housing. That was a lot of options!!!

Then came the thought that I might as well think about living in small town Iowa. I never thought I would consider it, but then the thought of being a home owner and living close to my ever-so-handy-dad did sound like bliss. But, I really wrestled with it for a couple of weeks.

Meanwhile, God had Dave on a different journey. He was open to moving close to my family as soon as we got married, but he knew it was nothing I would want. He was now sensing it was indeed what God had for our lives....for several reasons. But, he was afraid to bring up moving to IA to me...for fear I would object so fully. Well, he did bring it up first....I didn't want to admit to him that I was thinking about it too. He was shocked that I didn't "argue" about it. :) It simply just make sense at this point.

Over Labor Day weekend, 2010, we looked at several homes in Morning Sun. We liked one of them and put a bid in....and got it! We stayed in Kentucky through March 2011 and this gave me time to go to Iowa to paint a couple of times before moving things in....as well as time to figure out what I was going to do (in terms of colors and other home decisions). At this point, I have mostly spent my time in Iowa focusing on getting the house how I want it and creating other fun things with my hands. I absolutely love it here.....who knew??!!

In case you want it, our new address is:
PO Box 42
Morning Sun, IA 52640

(yes, the town is so small, we have to go pick up our mail....it doesn't come to our door, but we're lucky so far....several small town Post Offices are closing altogether these days!)